Mu'awiyah and the Engineering of Deviation: the Historical Roots of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah in the Umayyad Cultural Project

After the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him, Mu'awiyah began a project that went beyond daily politics: a cultural project to alter the religious identity of society. Through the official cursing of Ali, peace be upon him, the distortion of history, and the fabrication of the term 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah,' he inverted the criterion of truth and falsehood. This article shows how an apparently religious term was, in reality, a cover for consolidating Umayyad power and diverting the Islamic community from the path of Imamate.

This article examines the role of Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan in shaping cultural and doctrinal beliefs after the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him. The findings show that Mu'awiyah, by using tools such as the official cursing of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, rewriting history, building networks of narration, and fabricating terms such as 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah,' was not merely seeking to consolidate political power; he was the architect of a long-term project for the intellectual deviation of the Islamic community. According to historical and narrative sources, this term has no root in the Prophetic Sunnah and no authentic precedent in early Islam; rather, it was born from Umayyad domination. The article reaches its conclusion in two dimensions: historically and theologically, Mu'awiyah is introduced as the founder of an organized distortion; and doctrinally and behaviorally, the criterion of truth is love and obedience toward the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, which clarifies the Muslim's duty in practical separation from Umayyad culture.

Human society, like the individual, has the capacity to become accustomed and to deviate. Just as the repetition of a behavior forms an individual's character, the repetition of a belief in society eventually shapes its historical and religious identity. These habits, whether imposed by political coercion or through repeated media and educational messaging, quickly penetrate the fabric of the community's culture and sometimes determine its direction for generations.

On this basis, the present article dissects the policies of Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan after the imposed peace treaty upon Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him: policies that were not aimed at short-term management of power, but at the long-term engineering of public beliefs and the creation of deviant intellectual habits. Institutionalized hostility toward the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, rewriting history in favor of the Umayyads, and fabricating terms such as 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah' as a shield for legitimizing domination were all parts of this organized project; a project that appeared religious, but in reality was a religious garment placed on the body of a corrupt political-cultural plan.

According to many historical and narrative sources, Mu'awiyah was not merely a political ruler; he was the architect of an intellectual deviation. With tools such as the official cursing of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, networks of paid narrators, and the promotion of the sanctity of the group even when it stood upon falsehood, he raised generations that, in Karbala, without any direct command, easily stained their hands with the blood of the Prophet's son, peace and blessings be upon him and his family; as though hostility toward the household of revelation had become their habit and nature.

For this reason, the main question of this study is: to what extent did Mu'awiyah's cultural and religious policy play a role in shaping the historical identity of the term Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah and in diverting Islamic society from the path of Imamate? The research hypothesis is that the concept of 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah,' despite its apparently religious face, is the direct product of the Umayyad political-cultural project after the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him; a project whose final aim was to contain the discourse of the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, and consolidate the foundations of a caliphate established only on fabrication, coercion, and inversion of truth.

The necessity of this study lies in the fact that a considerable portion of the common concepts in Islamic history are presented with sanctity and consensus while they are rooted in relations of power. Without doubt, without historical and epistemological examination, truth cannot be distinguished from falsehood. The term 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah' is a prominent example of these distorted concepts; knowing its roots, transformations, and functions is a key to understanding foundational deviations in Islamic history.

This article first examines the political and cultural contexts after the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him, and Mu'awiyah's gradual measures in instilling deviant beliefs. Then, by examining historical and hadith sources, it shows that the term 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah' is not a religious truth but the product of a political deception. Finally, it reconstructs the authentic meaning of this term based on the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them.

The trace of Mu'awiyah's cultural policies did not remain only in the political arena; it penetrated minds, narrations, and even some scholarly texts. A clear witness to this is the statement of Ibn al-Madini, who writes:

This shocking admission shows that the criterion of reliability and credibility for some Sunni narrators was not truthfulness and scholarly trustworthiness, but hostility toward Ali, peace be upon him. Even if they did not necessarily express hatred with the explicitness of Mu'awiyah, they harvested in the garb of religion and knowledge the very seed that he planted.

Shaykh al-Saduq also lifts another veil from this deviation. He narrates that Ahmad ibn Hanbal said in his gathering:

This statement shows the depth of the Umayyad cultural catastrophe: a place where being Sunni, which should mean following the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, is defined by hatred toward his wasi.

The greater catastrophe lies in the very criterion of truth. In Umayyad logic, truth and falsehood are not known by conformity to revelation or reason; rather, they are tied to the 'assembly of the group,' even if the group gathers upon falsehood. According to this logic, the caliphate of the Prophet belongs to whoever people gather around, even through force and deception, whether that person is Mu'awiyah or the corrupt and wine-drinking Yazid.

The result of this destructive idea was that rebellion against such a ruler was treated as rebellion against God, and the blood of every protester, even the son of the Prophet and the master of the youth of Paradise, was considered lawful. From here, the short period of Amir al-Mu'minin's caliphate, peace be upon him, was called a 'time of sedition and division' because of internal conflicts, and his legitimacy was questioned. But when Mu'awiyah usurped the caliphate through deception and bribery and forced his opponents into compromise, that very year was called the 'year of jama'ah,' as though truth lay not in the rightfulness of the chosen Imam but in compromise with the usurper of power.

Umayyad culture went so far that Sunnah was presented not as following the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, but as harboring hatred toward Ali, peace be upon him, as it is reported: 'La yakunu al-rajulu sunniyyan hatta yubghida Aliyyan qalilan.' On this basis, they called themselves 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah,' and Ibn Battal explicitly states in his commentary:

He says: Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him, handed governance to Mu'awiyah and pledged allegiance to him on the basis of the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Messenger of God. Then the people also pledged allegiance to Mu'awiyah, and that year was named the 'year of jama'ah' because people gathered around him and wars ended. Everyone who had until then stayed away from the battles, such as Ibn Umar, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, and Muhammad ibn Maslamah, also pledged allegiance to Mu'awiyah.

According to this report, the year in which Mu'awiyah took power was called 'Sunnat al-Jama'ah.' Its meaning was that during the outward caliphate of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, no jama'ah had formed and therefore obedience to him had not been obligatory. In other words, the period of Ali's rule, peace be upon him, became 'Sunnat al-Firqah,' because disagreement existed, and consequently his caliphate had no religious legitimacy in their view. This naming was clearly an attempt to discredit the Imam's rightfulness and portray Mu'awiyah's usurpation as legitimate.

The root of this thought goes back to Abdullah ibn Umar. According to this logic, if it is accepted that Ali, peace be upon him, was the rightful caliph, then Mu'awiyah and the leaders of Jamal, who rebelled against him, must be considered rebels and even unbelievers. But this intellectual dead end was solved through distortion: rebellion against Ali, peace be upon him, was not counted as a crime or unbelief, while Imam al-Husayn's uprising against the corrupt and wine-drinking Yazid was declared forbidden.

For this reason, books defending Yazid continue to be published to this day, while Mu'awiyah and the leaders of Jamal are considered free from every accusation; as though rebellion against Ali, peace be upon him, is not only not a sin, but does not harm their justice or even their sanctity. This inverted logic has reached the point where speaking the truth is treated as a heavy crime, and in some texts, critical mention of them leads to the death penalty.

The examination of historical and narrative sources showed that the title 'Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah' has neither roots in the Prophetic Sunnah nor an authentic precedent in early Islam. This term is the direct product of Mu'awiyah's political-cultural project after the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan, peace be upon him: a project whose aim was not only the acquisition of power, but the recreation of the intellectual identity of Islamic society within an Umayyad framework. By institutionalizing hatred of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, distorting the criterion of truth and falsehood through the 'assembly of the group,' and fabricating concepts such as 'Sunnat al-Jama'ah,' Mu'awiyah wrote a new history for the Islamic community: a history in which rebellion against the rightful Imam was not a crime, but rising against a corrupt and wine-drinking ruler was forbidden and unforgivable. This distortion is one of the greatest semantic displacements in Islamic history and has cast its shadow over the theological thought of part of the community until today.

From the perspective of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, true Sunnah and jama'ah are nothing but love of the family of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and obedience to the divine and prophetic command. In the words of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, the true jama'ah is the minority that gathers around truth, even if it is small; and the real Sunnah is what God and His Messenger founded, including the Sunnah of dissociation from the Umayyads. In this view, truth prevails over quantity, and the criterion of faith is love and obedience toward the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them. Therefore, the behavioral consequence of this analysis is that the committed Muslim is responsible, in the face of historical and cultural Umayyad innovations, to distinguish pure from impure by the criterion of love for the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, and to display obedience to them in thought, action, and social conduct. In other words, historical criticism of Umayyad deviation will remain incomplete if it does not lead to our conduct today.