What Is the Root of Today's Problems in the Islamic World?

The Noble Qur'an reports the distortion and alteration of past religions. Although change and alteration in those religions remove their authority and validity, and distortion strips religion of its essence and reality, the outward form of religion remains: only a name of religion. Such a distorted religion is not the religion pleasing to God and does not guide human beings.

The important question is: by what methods was religion distorted among previous communities? The Qur'an shows several methods by which religion was changed and altered among the Children of Israel, and in general it points to three methods for distorting religion:

1. Clothing truth with falsehood: “O People of the Book, why do you clothe truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you know?” (1).

2. Concealing truths and realities: “Do not clothe truth with falsehood, nor conceal the truth while you know” (2).

3. Distortion, meaning adding to and subtracting from religious texts among previous communities: “Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, then say: this is from God, in order to sell it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn” (3).

In clothing truth with falsehood, falsehood is dressed in the garment of truth and offered in the marketplace in place of truth. At the same time, truth and reality are concealed. In a social atmosphere where truth is hidden and falsehood has been colored as truth, misguidance is obvious. But the distorters and alterers were not satisfied with these two acts; they also engaged in verbal distortion of religious texts, and with the help of gold and ornament distorted the legal texts and scriptures. Truth and the essence of religion went into eclipse and passed out of people's reach. In this way, religions in previous communities were distorted.

In this community, the same events occurred, and Mu'awiya performed these three acts in imitation of his predecessors. Of course, we should not regard Mu'awiya as the first person in Islam to pursue this policy, because the three rulers after the Prophet (s) were precisely committed to this policy and acted upon it.

This event occurred in Saqifa and in the developments surrounding Saqifa, and these three elements of religious distortion can be observed there. Therefore, the essence of Saqifa is the distortion of religion. In Saqifa, they paid no attention to the virtues of the Commander of the Faithful, to the pledge of allegiance that the Messenger of God had taken for Ali (a), or to the verses revealed in the Noble Qur'an about the guardianship and high station of the Commander of the Faithful (a). It was as if no pledge had ever been taken before. After concealing truth in Saqifa, they displayed their falsehood in the form of truth.

The usurpers of the Commander of the Faithful's caliphate relied on an argument and proof for acquiring the caliphate according to which, by the same proof raised in Saqifa, they should have pledged allegiance to Ali (a). Yet they presented themselves as the Prophet's relatives (4), and in the Saqifa affair, in order to establish their falsehood, they fabricated hadiths. Then the people of Saqifa refused to accept the Qur'an written by the Commander of the Faithful, a Qur'an in which the interpretation of the verses from the Prophet's tongue had been written. Instead, they wrote a Qur'an without interpretation, centered on the slogan “The Book of God is enough for us” (5).

This was the most important beginning of the spiritual distortion of the Qur'an, because later the interpretations that pleased the people of Saqifa would be presented to the people. Based on what has passed, Saqifa was the beginning of a great deviation for distorting religion, and one after another they became bound to carry out these policies. In the end, the banner of the Samiris of the community fell into the hands of Mu'awiya and Amr ibn al-As, and they continued the path of the previous Samiris and calves with greater military and economic power.

Mu'awiya, the caliph and successor of the people of Saqifa, not only continued their policies but completed the deficiencies of his predecessors' work, and in this way was able to divert religion from its original path. In Siffin, Mu'awiya raised the banner of avenging Uthman's blood, made Uthman's shirt into a flag, and deceived the people of Syria with the slogan of avenging Uthman.

Through this act, he hid the heat of his desire for caliphate and power behind the false slogan of supporting the oppressed. He placed the Qur'an on spears, hid his falsehood behind the noble codices of the Qur'an, and clothed it in the legitimacy of the Qur'an. He presented himself as a follower of the Qur'an, and a very considerable number of people were deceived by his enticing appearance.

Mu'awiya was not satisfied with having a Qur'anic appearance. He engaged in distortion, changing the Prophet's narrations or the circumstances of revelation of Qur'anic verses with fabricated narrations. In a very short time, fabricated hadiths about merits and virtues he and the third caliph did not possess became widespread, until in scholarly circles these fabrications became central. This increased the complexity of this devil's deception, because simple-minded and uninformed people imagined him to be endorsed by the Messenger of God (s) and regarded his command as the command of the Messenger of God. Thus, he advanced his work through distortion and deception.

Alongside fabricating hadith, Mu'awiya also pursued the policy of concealing truth. For this purpose he ordered the prohibition of transmitting hadith, especially about the virtues and merits of the Commander of the Faithful (a). In this way he was able to conceal truth, reveal falsehood, and distort religion. All the innovations Mu'awiya introduced into religion, from usury to establishing lineage through adultery, banning the talbiya, and hundreds of other innovations, must be viewed within the broader policy of distorting religion alongside concealing truth and clothing truth with falsehood.

The three caliphs before Mu'awiya also acted upon these policies. But in addition to pursuing the three policies of deception, concealment, and distortion, Mu'awiya did things that the three caliphs before him were never able to commit. This continuation of Saqifa carried out several important acts. Although these policies had been applied in the past, carrying them out on such a vast scale was unique to Mu'awiya. These policies were:

1. The social boycott of the Shi'a
2. Economic pressure
3. Genocide of the Shi'a
4. Ordering the cursing and reviling of Ali (a) from pulpits and in gatherings, to such an extent that this cursing and reviling flowed on people's tongues in alleys and marketplaces.

For example, one can point to Mu'awiya's orders and circulars that pursued the policy of exterminating the Shi'a. Mu'awiya wrote to all his agents in all lands that they should not accept the testimony of any of the Shi'a of Ali (a) and his Household.

In another example, Ziyad ibn Abih wrote a letter to Mu'awiya about the Hadramis, saying that they believed in Ali's religion and view. Mu'awiya wrote: kill all supporters and adherents of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Ziyad put them to the sword and mutilated them. Mu'awiya wrote in a letter to the whole country: anyone proven to be among the lovers of Ali should have his name erased from the register of stipends.

In another letter he also said: kill every person accused of Shi'ism without witness. At that point the Shi'a were killed merely on the basis of accusation, suspicion, and doubt wherever they were, to the extent that if a mistaken word came out of a man's mouth, his neck would be struck (6). In addition to the above, one may mention the burying alive of one of Hujr's companions who refused to curse Ali (a) (7).

Mu'awiya ibn Tha'laba says: when the rule of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan became firm and stable, he sent Busr ibn Arta'a toward Hijaz to pursue and arrest the Shi'a of Ali ibn Abi Talib (a). At that time Ubaydullah ibn Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib was governor of Mecca. Busr searched for him but did not find him. He learned, however, that Ubaydullah had two young sons, named Qutham and Abd al-Rahman, or Sulayman and Dawud.

He searched for the two until he found those innocent children, took them from where they were, and brought them out. They were two children with curled locks at the front of their heads like two pearls. He ordered that they be slaughtered. These two innocent children were slaughtered like birds for the crime of loving Ali. When this news reached their mother, her soul nearly left her body (8).

Busr ibn Arta'a, the killer of these two children, was one of Mu'awiya's brave commanders! He was such a fierce lion that when Ali (a) attacked him, in order to save himself from death he began uncovering his private parts and fled in that state toward Mu'awiya. When Busr's cousin saw this, he attacked Ali (a), but Malik al-Ashtar attacked him and recited this rajaz:

“Must every day an old man raise his garment, and a nakedness appear in the middle of the dust?...”

That is, must an old man's loincloth be lifted every day, and in the battlefield a nakedness appear, using this shameful display to prevent the strike of a powerful spear? Just as Amr and Busr fell into such disgrace and back-breaking shame that they would never stand upright again or raise their heads from embarrassment (9).

These are examples of Mu'awiya's crimes against the Shi'a. Criminals who lacked the courage and grit to fight in real battlefields made their work entirely deceit and trickery, or displayed their bravery and warriorhood by drawing swords against women and slaughtering small children. All these calamities and pressures were for the destruction of the Shi'a, because the tip of Mu'awiya's harsh policies was aimed at the Shi'a.

Mu'awiya pressured the Shi'a from several directions. As mentioned, he issued a circular that the testimony of the lovers of Ali (a) should not be accepted. This means that socially the Shi'a were placed on the same level as, or lower than, Christians and Jews who were minorities in society. This issue shows Mu'awiya's effort to humiliate and degrade the Shi'a of Ali (a). Through this policy he wanted to make the Shi'a a worthless minority.

Alongside this policy, one must also pay attention to the policy of killing the Shi'a, because Mu'awiya explicitly wrote that anyone who was Shi'a or accused of Shi'ism should be killed without that serious crime being proven and without anyone testifying. Through this method and with any excuse, he massacred the Shi'a. In Iraq, which had once been the center of Shi'ism and the center of Ali's government, almost no well-known Shi'a remained except those who had been martyred by Mu'awiya or his agents.

Beside this killing and genocide, one must keep in mind the very important point that Mu'awiya's killings and massacres were not normal or ordinary. In reality, he and his agents carried them out very savagely. Mutilation, burying alive, crucifixion, killing small children, burning the homes of opponents even if they were Helpers or Companions, placing the head of a Companion of the Messenger of God on a spear, taking free women captive, and selling the honor of Muslims in the market are among Mu'awiya's savage crimes.

If we add to this the actions of the Umayyad ruler after Mu'awiya, we must also add the plundering of the people of Medina, the violation of Medina's sanctity, assaults against the women of Medina, and the birth of many children whose fathers were unknown to Mu'awiya's dark record. This manner of killing and dealing with enemies and opponents, which had passed even beyond animal savagery, created terror among people and destroyed every motive for protest, movement, or seeking rights. For this reason, no one dared to declare Shi'ism or utter a word about a religion opposed to Mu'awiya's view.

Mu'awiya's wicked policies against his opponents, especially the Shi'a, did not end there. Rather, he wrote in a letter to the whole country: erase from the stipend register the name of anyone proven to be among the lovers of Ali. Erasing someone's name from the stipend register meant cutting off his rights from the public treasury and imposing severe economic pressure. Therefore, Mu'awiya's next weapon was the policy of starvation.

In wars, when an enemy is besieged, someone may put the enemy under pressure with respect to water and food. But in peacetime, when there is no military war, such an act is inhuman. Yet Mu'awiya adopted this policy toward his opponents, especially the Shi'a (10). Therefore, the Shi'a were trapped in a triangle of siege. One side of the triangle was violation of honor and loss of social standing. Another side was killing, imprisonment, and mass murder for the crime of loving the Commander of the Faithful. The third side was economic pressure and the policy of starvation and keeping the Shi'a hungry.

It is as clear as day that under these circumstances the Shi'a could hardly continue their lives, and ordinarily no trace of Shi'ism should have remained. Mu'awiya also added to this ominous triangle the banning of hadith transmission and the cursing and reviling of the Commander of the Faithful; this disaster meant the cultural and doctrinal destruction of the Shi'a.

In truth, Mu'awiya's ultimate goal through all these acts was the complete removal of Ali (a) and erasing the religion of Ali (a) from the face of time, so that not even a name or mention of Ali (a) would remain, or if a name remained it would be accompanied by cursing and reviling. If he and Banu Umayya had succeeded in this final goal, then certainly erasing the Prophet's name from the minarets and even destroying the Qur'an would have become easy and simple for them.

Although Banu Umayya, and at their head Uthman and Mu'awiya, never managed to achieve this ultimate goal, their policies left a deep effect on Muslim culture, and that effect remains among Muslims to this day. A correct understanding of the social atmosphere in the time of Uthman and Mu'awiya gives us a clear and doubt-free picture in which we can easily analyze the reason for Imam Hasan's peace and Imam Husayn's uprising, peace be upon them.

The roots of many events that today are considered great problems in the Islamic world must be sought in the rule of Mu'awiya and Banu Umayya. Today, some people who consider themselves Muslims regard the blood of many other Muslims as lawful, and it is clearly evident that their ideas are rooted in Umayyad Islam: an Islam whose aim and end was removing the name of the Messenger of God from among Muslims and causing the Great Prophet to be forgotten. Through the efforts and martyrdom of the Household in preserving religion, this evil policy did not reach its result, although its evil effects still afflict Muslims.

1. Surat Al Imran, verse 71.
2. Surat al-Baqara, verse 42.
3. Surat al-Baqara, verse 79.
4. See Saqifa by Allama Askari.
5. al-Ihtijaj.
6. al-Ihtijaj, Ja'fari translation, vol. 2, p. 83.
7. al-Kamil, part 3, p. 242; Adwar-e Fiqh (Persian), Mahmud al-Shihabi al-Khurasani, vol. 3, p. 205.
8. al-Amali by al-Mufid, translation by Ustad Vali, text 348, thirty-sixth session, Saturday, 10 Ramadan 410.
9. Pikar-e Siffin, translation of Waq'at Siffin: Ali's duel with Busr and his flight, p. 632.
10. al-Kamil, part 3, p. 242; Adwar-e Fiqh (Persian), Mahmud al-Shihabi al-Khurasani, vol. 3, p. 205.