Why Did Mu'awiya Predict Imam Husayn's Departure from Medina and the Kufans' Invitation?
Author: Hamed Sarem
Recognizing the enemies of God is among the necessities of traversing the path of guidance. Recognizing harms and deviations, and dissociating oneself from and opposing those who lead astray, is so valuable that God says of the enemies of His enemies: “Those are the ones in whose hearts He has inscribed faith.” Truly, faith takes root and is inscribed in the heart when enmity toward God's enemies finds a place in a person's heart.
Mu'awiya was among the greatest enemies of God in the Prophet's community. Beyond the innovations he introduced into the community of the Messenger of God, his hands were stained with the blood of divine successors and prophetic legatees. The Samaritan of the Children of Israel would appear innocent beside him; for the Samaritan promoted calf-worship, whereas Mu'awiya, in addition to calf-worship, brought the Aarons of the Prophet's community to martyrdom.
He played a fundamental role in the martyrdom of Imam Ali, and Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba was martyred through his deceit and intrigue; for Mu'awiya wished to remove anyone standing in the way of Yazid's caliphate, even if he were the Prophet's grandson and one of the Five Pure Ones. Thus Imam Hasan was martyred مظلومانه.
Mu'awiya's Share in Imam Husayn's Martyrdom
Beyond the killing of two Imams, his hands were also stained with the blood of Imam Husayn. Contrary to the common view that considers Mu'awiya innocent of Imam Husayn's blood, the truth is that, just as he brought about Imam Hasan's martyrdom, he also craftily devised the plot for the martyrdom of Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn.
Examining this matter is important for two reasons: first, to recognize one of God's greatest enemies; second, to refute a doubt that pupils of Mu'awiya's school raise in the media today. They say: the Shi'a invited Husayn ibn Ali to Iraq, broke their covenant and invitation, and killed Husayn themselves; Yazid merely wrote to Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, ordering him to prevent Husayn ibn Ali from entering Iraq and Kufa and establishing a government there. Therefore, Yazid had no role in Husayn ibn Ali's martyrdom, and it was the Shi'a themselves who killed him.
To prove this claim, they have written a book entitled “Man hum qatalat al-Husayn?” (Who killed Husayn?), address the Shi'a, and say: “You Shi'a, who killed Husayn yourselves, why do you mourn for him?” We therefore briefly examine the important and very hidden role of Mu'awiya, the Umayyads, and the people of Syria in the martyrdom of the Master of the Martyrs.
Ibn Abbas's Letter: A Clue
When Ibn al-Zubayr became secure in Mecca, declared his caliphate, and began taking pledges from the people, Ibn Abbas and other prominent figures did not pledge allegiance to him. Yazid wrote to Ibn Abbas, thanked him, and wrote: “We will not forget this favor of yours.” Ibn Abbas replied: “O Yazid!... By God, my not pledging allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr was not out of affection for you. Hold back and do not do me favors, for you will see no good from me... I will never forget that you pursued Husayn until that great man went from the sanctuary of the Messenger of God to Mecca. You drove him away so that he would leave Hijaz and enter the land of Iraq.”
These words point to precise and unspoken aspects of Ashura—things that arise from such subtle historical facts and points. Ibn Abbas continues: “You drove Imam Husayn from the sanctuary of the Messenger of God through fear, intimidation, and anxiety... The blood of my family drips from your sword, and I must take vengeance.”(1)
A very important point—the clue to what lay behind the Ashura affair—is that Yazid caused Imam Husayn to leave Medina, because government soldiers pursued and pressured him. Imam Husayn found himself amid Umayyad intrigue and deceit; he was therefore compelled to leave Medina.
The Master of the Martyrs lacked safety even in Mecca, God's secure sanctuary, and was thus forced to leave Mecca as well. An important point, to which we shall return, is that Mu'awiya craftily devised a plan that forced Imam Husayn to flee toward Iraq. Imam Husayn did not leave Medina through his own free choice; rather, Umayyad policies left him no option but to depart.
These policies had been arranged beforehand by Mu'awiya. He did not want Imam Husayn killed in Hijaz, so he devised a plan for Abu Abd Allah to leave Medina and go toward Iraq. Ibn Abbas points to this in his letter to Yazid. We must therefore ask: what was Mu'awiya's plan for driving the Ahl al-Bayt toward Kufa?
Mu'awiya's Plan in Medina
Mu'awiya could not obtain allegiance to Yazid from the Master of the Martyrs through threats and intimidation. So, from the pulpit in Medina, he resorted to a lie: while a thousand sword-bearing Syrian soldiers stood beside him, he said, “Imam Husayn and three others have willingly pledged allegiance to Yazid, and I am pleased with these four.” After the gathering, the Master of the Martyrs was asked whether he had pledged allegiance. He said: “No, by God, we did not pledge allegiance to him; rather, Mu'awiya deceived and plotted against us.”
- Mu'awiya could not obtain the Master of the Martyrs' allegiance, whether by force or consent, for three reasons:
The high social standing and position of Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn.
Mu'awiya had poisoned Imam Hasan, and his plot was known to everyone.
In one clause of the peace treaty, he had pledged not to harm Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn.
He therefore began another plan to smooth Yazid's caliphate and rule. Mu'awiya arranged the plot to kill Imam Husayn so that anyone except the Umayyads and Yazid would be accused in this event.
Mu'awiya's Conspiracy Began with Marwan's Removal
This plan began with Marwan's dismissal from the governorship of Medina. When Mu'awiya returned to Syria, he carried out the first step of the conspiracy: he removed Marwan from Medina and installed Walid ibn Utba in his place. What was the secret of this political change in Mu'awiya's final days? Mu'awiya, an old fox, should not have removed Marwan from Medina at the end of his life—especially since Marwan was fully aligned with Umayyad policies, eager to kill the Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Husayn, and harsh and abusive toward the Ahl al-Bayt and the Shi'a. Given Marwan's character, the question becomes still more serious: for what purpose did this political replacement occur?
Without doubt, this replacement concerned those in Medina who had not pledged allegiance to Yazid and whom Mu'awiya had failed to compel to do so. This was the first phase of Mu'awiya's conspiracy to kill Imam Husayn. To discover the secret of this political replacement, we must study the events that followed.
Mu'awiya's Will
Mu'awiya went to the lowest depths with a heavy burden of killings, crimes, and betrayals, and Yazid became an ongoing charity for him, so that his record of deeds would not be closed and his punishment would increase through Yazid's crimes. In the final moments of his disgraceful life, Mu'awiya showed Yazid the path of devilry and gave him instructions. This testament is reported with variations in different sources.
Mu'awiya gave Yazid important instructions concerning Imam Husayn and said: “The people of Iraq will invite Husayn ibn Ali to rise with them... I have no doubt that he will not pledge allegiance to you, and those very people who killed his father and wounded his brother—an allusion to the people of Iraq—will suffice to eliminate him.”(2)
Al-Khwarizmi says that Mu'awiya told his son Yazid: “Treat Husayn ibn Ali calmly and with dignity, and give him time... but frighten him and show him thunder and lightning; beware of confronting him!”(3)
Mu'awiya's testament is also reported in Shi'a sources. Shaykh al-Saduq says that a man asked Imam al-Sadiq about the martyrdom of the Master of the Martyrs. The Imam said: “My father narrated from his father as follows: ... Abdullah ibn Umar will go along with you, but do not leave him. Wherever you find Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, cut him to pieces. His case with you is like a lion and a flock, and the example of his confrontation with you is like a wolf and a dog. But Husayn, as you know, has received favor from the Messenger of God, and he will inevitably go with the people of Iraq, leave Medina for them, and those same people of Iraq will abandon and destroy him.”(4) How did Mu'awiya know, in the last moments of his life, that the people of Iraq would abandon him? How did he know that the Kufans would invite Husayn to Kufa? How was he so certain of the Kufans' betrayal and Imam Husayn's martyrdom that he advised Yazid not to confront him directly?
- Mu'awiya's instructions to Yazid may be summarized as follows:
Do not interfere with Husayn.
The people of Iraq will invite him, and they themselves will kill him.
Cut Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr to pieces, and accommodate Abdullah ibn Umar with money and titles.
The people of Iraq will kill Husayn.
Mu'awiya's testament continued his policy toward Imam Husayn. Seeing his life declining, Mu'awiya entrusted the continuation of this conspiracy to Yazid; thus the testament specified Yazid's duties in carrying out Mu'awiya's plot. It clearly shows that Mu'awiya did not want Imam Husayn killed in Medina or Hijaz. In this conspiracy, he assigned Iraq as the place of Imam Husayn's martyrdom and the people of Iraq as his killers so that the Umayyads' filthy garments would not be accused of this blood. We may now suppose that Marwan was removed from Medina so that he would not act too harshly and Imam Husayn would not be martyred there.
This political replacement in Medina can be analyzed as follows: by putting Walid ibn Utba in Medina in place of Marwan, Mu'awiya gave him an important mission—to make Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn leave Medina and go toward Iraq, so that Mu'awiya's conspiracy could be executed as planned in Iraq and Kufa and Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn could be martyred by the people of Iraq, without Yazid being the principal accused in this great historical crime.
Mu'awiya Sought Revenge for Badr
No one should suppose that Mu'awiya's instruction to treat Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn gently came from affection for Imam Husayn, or that he did not want his hands stained with Husayn's blood. Never. In truth, through this instruction Mu'awiya taught Yazid how to kill Imam Husayn by deception and guile. The reality is that Yazid, following his father, sought revenge for Badr and Hunayn—revenge for his polytheist forefathers whom Ali ibn Abi Talib sent to damnation for the exaltation of Islam. Thus, at Karbala, they explicitly told Imam Husayn: “We kill you because of hatred for your father.”
Ibn A'tham al-Kufi (d. 341 AH) writes in his history that Yazid wrote to Walid ibn Utba: “Wa qad kana ahida ilayya ahdan wa ja'alani lahu khalifatan min ba'dihi, wa awsani an akhudha Ala Abi Turab bi-Ali Abi Sufyan”;(5) “My father appointed me his caliph and heir apparent and instructed me to take revenge for the family of Abu Sufyan upon the family of Abu Turab.”
In truth, Mu'awiya's pre-Islamic resentments had not been calmed by killing the Commander of the Faithful and Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba and massacring the Shi'a. He raised Yazid to exact the revenge of the family of Abu Sufyan from the family of Ali and paved the way for the caliphate and the crime of Karbala.
But Mu'awiya could never understand that Abu Abd Allah was God's blood and that God Himself would avenge him. The divine will decreed that his martyrdom would create a heat in the hearts of his lovers that would never grow cold. The martyrdom of the Master of the Martyrs remains a stain of shame upon the Umayyads. Thus their followers today strive either to absolve Mu'awiya and Yazid of Imam Husayn's blood or to portray Yazid as innocent and the Master of the Martyrs as guilty in the Karbala affair. Further evidence of Mu'awiya's conspiratorial plan will be presented later, so that examination of historical documents may make his plot in Karbala ever clearer.
Notes
Adapted from: Unspoken Truths of Ashura, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Milani.
1. Tarikh al-Ya'qubi, vol. 2, pp. 247–249; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol. 4, pp. 127–128.
2. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', vol. 3, p. 295; Tarikh Madinat Dimashq, vol. 14, p. 206.
3. Tahdhib al-Kamal, vol. 6, p. 414; Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, p. 55.
4. al-Amali, Shaykh al-Saduq, p. 216.
5. Tarikh al-Ya'qubi, vol. 2, p. 241.
1. Tarikh al-Ya'qubi, vol. 2, pp. 247–249; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol. 4, pp. 127–128.
2. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', vol. 3, p. 295; Tarikh Madinat Dimashq, vol. 14, p. 206.
3. Tahdhib al-Kamal, vol. 6, p. 414; Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, p. 55.
4. al-Amali, Shaykh al-Saduq, p. 216.
5. Tarikh al-Ya'qubi, vol. 2, p. 241.
Author: Hamed Sarem
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