Islam Guidance

5. The Consequences of Karbala

5. The Consequences of Karbala

 The event of Karbala, the capture of the women and children of the Ahlu ‘l-bayt of the Prophet, their being taken as prisoners from town to town and the speeches made by the daughter of ‘AlÄ«, Zaynab, and the fourth Imam who were among the prisoners, disgraced the Umayyads. Such abuse of the family of the Prophet annulled the propaganda which Mu’āwiyah had carried out for years. The matter reached such proportions that Yazid was compelled to publicly disown and condemn the actions of his agents. The event of Karbala was a major factor in the overthrow of Ummayad rule although its effect was delayed. It also strengthened the roots of Shi’ism. Among its immediate results were the revolts and rebellions combined with bloody wars which continued for twelve years. Among those who were instrumental in the death of the Imam not one was able to escape revenge and punishment.

 Anyone who studies closely the history of the life of Imam Husayn and Yazid and the conditions that prevailed at that time, and analyzes this chapter of Islamic history, will have no doubt that in those circumstances there was no choice before Imam Husayn but to be killed. Swearing allegiance to Yazid would have meant publicly showing contempt for Islam, something which was not possible for the Imam, for Yazid not only showed no respect for Islam and its injunctions but also made a public demonstration of impudently. treading under foot its basis and its laws. Those before him, even if they opposed religious injunctions, always did so in the guise of religion, and at least formally respected religion. They took pride in being companions of the Holy Prophet and the other religious figures in whom people believed. From this it can be concluded that the claim of some interpreters of these events is false when they say that the two brothers, Hasan and Husayn, had two different tastes and that one chose the way of peace and the other the way of war, so that one brother made peace with Mu’āwiyah although he had an army of forty thousand while the other went to war against Yazid with an army of less than a hundred persons. For we see that this same Imam Husayn, who refused to pay allegiance to Yazid for one day, lived for ten years under the rule of Mu’āwiyah, in the same manner as his brother who also had endured for ten years under Mu’āwiyah, without opposing him.

 It must be said in truth that if Imam Hasan or Imam Husayn had fought Mu’āwiyah they would have been killed without there being the least benefit for Islam. Their deaths would have had no effect before the righteous-appearing policy of Mu’āwiyah, a competent politician who emphasized his being a companion of the Holy Prophet, the “scribe of the revelation,” and “uncle of the faithful” and who used every stratagem possible to preserve a religious guise for his rule. Moreover, with his ability to set the stage to accomplish his desires he could have had them killed by their own people and then assumed a state of mourning and sought to revenge their blood, just as he sought to give the impression that he was avenging the killing of the third caliph.

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 This lesson has been adopted with changes from ‘Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba’i, Shi’a Islam, Qum. For references, see the original source.

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