Do Iranians Owe Their Islam to the Second Caliph?

The highest personality in the Muslim world is Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him and his family. On this matter, none of the sects and schools that arose after the Prophet disagree with the Shi'a. The Prophet is the bearer of revelation, and the teacher and explainer of revelation. Therefore, causing the name of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, to be forgotten is equal to destroying Islam.

From one direction, the Umayyads sought the destruction of Islam, and from another direction they wanted Islam to remain. They sought the destruction of Islam because they truly did not believe in it, and the words transmitted from the leaders of Banu Umayya prove this claim, such as Mu'awiya's wish to bury the name of the Prophet, or the poem Yazid recited in Syria after the event of Karbala:
Hashim played with kingship, so
No report came and no revelation descended.
Banu Hashim played with kingship and rule; no news came from heaven and no revelation descended.

These statements, and similar statements that history has transmitted for people today, clearly indicate the irreligion of the Umayyads, especially Mu'awiya and Yazid. But the Umayyads, who truly had no belief in Islam, did not pursue the destruction of Islam from its foundation. Rather, they wanted the shell of Islam. A superficial religion without content was what the Umayyads desired. It was enough for the Umayyads that a skin of religion remain, that they put that skin over themselves, and that they claim love for Islam. Unfortunately, they were able to wear this deceptive cloak. From this perspective, the uprising of Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, is valuable because one of the aspects of the uprising of the Master of Martyrs was tearing this cloak of hypocrisy.

Although one must regard Mu'awiya as one of the main killers of Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, because the Uthmani current and deviation that Mu'awiya launched and strengthened were the real killers of Imam Husayn, and these Uthmanis made by Mu'awiya were the stage-managers of Karbala, and Imam Husayn was martyred by them, we nevertheless say that Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, was the true victor of the field. The red blood of the martyrs of Karbala and the suffering of the Ahl al-Bayt of the Master of Martyrs in Syria revealed the ugliness and hideous inner reality of the Umayyads to everyone who reflects. In truth, Karbala pulled the sheep's clothing off the wolf and illuminated the path of guidance forever.

Mu'awiya sought to make his role in the Muslim world equal to that of the Prophet and to draw a sacred status for himself and then for Banu Umayya, a rank and station parallel to the station the Prophet had in the community. How is revelation sent down to the Prophet, and therefore his words and actions are proof? If such a station, or something resembling it, is established for Mu'awiya, ruling over the people will not be difficult.

This was Mu'awiya's final goal in promoting the slogan 'scribe of revelation' (1). For the people of Syria, he had introduced himself as a scribe of revelation who shared in revelation with the Prophet. In the eyes of those deceived by Mu'awiya, God had chosen Mu'awiya to write revelation. Mu'awiya was portrayed to the people of Syria as the trustee of revelation. Scribe of revelation was an office God had given to Mu'awiya and for which He had chosen him. A person who writes revelation must be trustworthy in writing, because he must not write contrary to revelation; otherwise, his writing has no value.

In the most favorable interpretation, Mu'awiya holds the station of writing revelation, but this is not the reality. The reality is that according to this belief, God sent one Messenger to convey revelation; revelation descends upon him and he does not err in conveying revelation because he is chosen by God. God also chose a second person to write this revelation, and this second person too must be protected from error because God chose him for this task. Therefore, Mu'awiya is not merely a scribe of revelation; he presents himself as a partner in revelation. But the disaster and calamity Mu'awiya brought upon the Muslim world is even more painful than this.

Did the Prophet's revelation reach us through the Prophet's oral recitation, or through the writing of the scribes of revelation? Certainly the second option is the correct answer; if the revelation had not been written, the Qur'an would not have reached us today. Therefore, Mu'awiya's role in revelation is not only equal to partnership in revelation, but the more fundamental role in revelation belongs to Mu'awiya. If the Prophet's foremost enemy presents himself as the essential partner of revelation, and people like the people of Syria accept it, and even today some fanatically insist on this nonexistent and fabricated virtue of Mu'awiya, will anything remain of the original Islam of the Messenger of God? But Mu'awiya did not stop there; he was more ambitious. In order to raise his own rootless personality, he diminished the lofty personality of the Prophet, by whose life God swears in the Qur'an (2), so that he could show himself superior to the Prophet.

Pay attention to this historical report. This report is among the bitterest reports in early Islamic history.

Al-Waqidi says: 'When Mu'awiya returned from Iraq to Syria after the pledge of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, and after the people had gathered around Mu'awiya, he delivered a sermon to the people of Syria and said in that sermon: O people, the Messenger of God, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, said to me: You will attain the caliphate after me, so choose the holy land, for in it are the abdal, the special friends of God, and I have chosen you, so curse Abu Turab, meaning Ali, peace be upon him.' So the people cursed Ali, peace be upon him. The next day he wrote a letter; then the people of Syria were gathered and Mu'awiya's letter was read to them. In that letter was: 'This is the letter of the Commander of the Faithful! Mu'awiya, companion of God's revelation; the God who sent Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, as a prophet while the Prophet was ummi (3), not knowing how to read and write, then chose a person from his family to be his minister, scribe, and trustee. Revelation would descend upon the Prophet and I would write while he did not know what I was writing! We ask pardon from the sacred presence of the Messenger of God for transmitting these words. And there was no creature between me and God!' All those present said: You have spoken the truth, O Commander of the Faithful!'

Although this virtue that Mu'awiya fabricates for himself is false, and the attribution he makes to the Prophet is an unforgivable insult to the Prophet to whom God says, 'He taught you what you did not know' (4), it contains very important points. This historical report reveals many hidden angles of Banu Umayya. Since this article is based on brevity, we will reflect only briefly on the part under discussion.

In this letter full of lies, Mu'awiya used a strange trick and deception. He is not satisfied with being a Companion of the Prophet; rather, he considers himself the companion of God's revelation. He explicitly states that he is the companion of God's revelation. Thus, if the Prophet is the conveyor of revelation, Mu'awiya is the possessor of revelation. In the next stage, he presents himself as one of the household of the Messenger of God and considers his being chosen to be from God, not from the Prophet. According to this section, Mu'awiya is a chosen one from the Prophet's family, whom God made minister, scribe, and trustee of revelation.

This statement of Mu'awiya reminds us of Moses' supplication: 'Appoint for me a minister, Aaron my brother.' It is not unlikely that Mu'awiya wants to present himself as the Aaron of the Prophet of Islam. In simpler terms, he claims for himself the very virtue that belongs to the Commander of the Faithful, and at the same time issues the order to curse and revile Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him.

His shamelessness is even greater than this. He presents himself as more knowledgeable than the Prophet, because Mu'awiya has knowledge that the Messenger of God, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, does not have, and the Prophet's knowledge, which is revelation, is in Mu'awiya's possession. Therefore, Mu'awiya's superiority over the Messenger of God is clear in these statements.

The natural result of Mu'awiya's claim is the very thing he himself said: 'There was no creature between me and God.' Mu'awiya has no mediator for connection with the Creator; he is the scribe of revelation and the trustee of revelation. Therefore, all people must move through Mu'awiya in order to reach God's pleasure.

Mu'awiya, who became the mediator between Creator and creation, orders that Ali, peace be upon him, be cursed from the pulpits. In order to establish these falsehoods and steal the station of the greatest Prophet, he pursued other policies as well.

At the same time that Mu'awiya was trying to bury the mention of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, by diminishing the Prophet, creating doubt about him, and cursing the Prophet's family, he was spreading from the pulpits his claims of being partner in revelation, under the false assumption that Mu'awiya and his father were both mines of truth.

If Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, is the Messenger of God, at the same time Mu'awiya is God's successor on earth, the scribe of revelation, and the mediator between revelation and the people.

After the martyrdom of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, Mu'awiya intended to transfer the Prophet's pulpit from Medina to Syria. The Prophet's pulpit was the place from which the Prophet explained revelatory sciences to the people and was a sign of the relationship between heaven and earth. The Prophet's staff was a sign of rule and power, and Mu'awiya wanted both of these to belong to him. Mu'awiya would say to the people: 'I am the heir of your Prophet; I am the scribe of his revelation and the conveyor of revelation to the people; I am the heir of the Prophet's pulpit.' Inheritance of the Prophet's pulpit should not be viewed merely from the angle of ownership of the pulpit. His claim to inherit the pulpit was a claim to possess the functions of prophethood, because the Prophet's pulpit in the eyes of Muslims was not merely property left by the Prophet; it was a sign of the Prophet's lofty station (5).

In some reports it is stated that Mu'awiya ordered the pulpit of the Messenger of God to be transferred to Syria. When they moved the pulpit from its place, an eclipse occurred, to the point that stars could be seen in the sky. According to the report of the noble book Al-Kafi, he ordered a carpenter to raise the Prophet's pulpit to the height of the pulpit of Syria. When they pulled the pulpit from the ground, the sun was eclipsed, an earthquake seized the city, and the people stopped the work. They wrote the matter to Mu'awiya, but Mu'awiya insisted on his order, and in the end they altered the pulpit from its original form (6).

Considering this dangerous policy of Mu'awiya, after several years of rule over Syria, after martyring thousands of Shi'a and lovers of Ali, peace be upon him, and after plotting the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Hasan, and Imam Husayn, peace be upon them, one can claim that this policy of Mu'awiya was about to reach its ultimate goal, namely burying the name of the Prophet. It was reaching the point where the vile and cursed Mu'awiya, who had no lineage and whose real father no one knows, would be accepted in the Muslim community as partner in revelation. Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba, by drinking the cup of many calamities sip by sip, and Aba Abdillah, by sacrificing his heart's blood (7), disabled this vile policy of Satan.

Considering Mu'awiya's innovations and policies, we say with certainty that if the peace of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, and the uprising of Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, had not occurred, Muslims today would consider a rootless idol-worshipper to be the mediator between revelation and creation. He would become the mediator between God and the people and, as he himself had said, would bury the name of the Prophet, a burial that would leave no trace of the Prophet's name. But one of the victories of Imam Husayn's uprising in Karbala was that the Prophet's name is mentioned in every call to prayer, and the true, pure Islam conveyed by the Messenger of God remains until today. Therefore, every Muslim today who believes in the prophethood of the Messenger of God, and in whose doctrinal system a name of the Messenger of God remains, is indebted to the blood of the Master of Martyrs.

Therefore, the Islam that flows today in the vast land of Iran has taken life from the blood of Imam Husayn and his martyred companions. Thus the true Islam that exists in Iran is not indebted to the attack of the Arab army on Iran. Iranians did not receive their Islam from Umar, because if they had received their Islam from Umar, their religion would have had to be the religion of Mu'awiya, since it was Umar who appointed Mu'awiya as governor of Syria and thereby provided the ground and power for all these crimes. Therefore, true Islam is Husayni Islam.

Some people, because of the blindness of their hearts, throw the Arab attack in the face of the Iranian nation and say: 'Iranians owe their Islam to Umar, because through his attack on Iran, Iranians became acquainted with Islam.' With this short writing, it has become clear that this statement is nothing but nonsense. Iranians owe their Islam and faith to a patience that was like a thorn in the eye and a bone in the throat of the Commander of the Faithful. Iranians owe their faith to the martyrdom of a lady who stood behind the door and remained standing so that today there would be no honor for the people of Saqifa. We owe our Shi'ism to the peace and uprising of the two masters of the youth of Paradise, and after that to the correct thought and reflection of Iranians, who did not accept every superstition as Islam.

Throughout Islamic history, Husayn, peace be upon him, has been and remains a thorn in the eye of the Umayyads. For this reason, yesterday's Umayyads, who today have appeared in the clothing of Wahhabism, have attacked the sanctuary of Husayn again and again and destroyed that sacred place. They have repeatedly destroyed the blessed shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt of the Messenger, because the Umayyads know well that as long as the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet exist, Mu'awiya and Banu Umayya will have no room to show themselves.

They have understood well that the cry of Ya Husayn is an exposure of the lies that Mu'awiya fed sip by sip to the generations after him, poisoning their thoughts and hearts. Today's Umayyads know that mourning for Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, means the cry and roar of seeking truth, and Umayyad falsehood has never tolerated truth and reality throughout history.

Thus the name of Shi'a is bound to truth-seeking and seeking reality. The name of Shi'a is intertwined with correct thought and living with insight. For this reason, takfiri Wahhabism, which is the continuation of the chain of Banu Umayya, cannot bear truth and reality. Therefore, it is very natural that they show no mercy to Shi'i children, women, and elders, and wherever in the world they can, they massacre Shi'a. From Pakistan to Bahrain, and from Bahrain to Iraq and Lebanon, the Umayyads seek to extinguish truth and reality by killing Shi'a.

1- In previous writings, the falsity of this virtue for Mu'awiya has been proven; therefore this claim is false from its foundation.
2- Surat al-Hijr, verse 72.
3- Ummi means that his knowledge was not acquired. It is not correct to take it to mean that the Prophet had no knowledge.
4- Surat al-Nisa, verse 113.
5- See Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 4, p. 177.
6- Mir'at al-Uqul, vol. 18, p. 266.
7- Muhja: the blood of the heart, blood whose departure from the body makes life impossible. Kitab al-Ayn.