Why Can Mu'awiyah's Remnants Still Not Tolerate the Shrine of Hujr ibn Adi?

Hujr ibn Adi was one of the loyal companions of the noble Messenger of Islam and one of the eminent Companions of the Prophet. One of the prominent features of his life was his adherence to truth. After the martyrdom of the Messenger of God, he did not let go of the Prophet's progeny, and he was among the foremost in love and affection for that household.

Hujr ibn Adi, one of the ascetics and worshippers of his time, was known among the Arabs as 'Hujr al-Khayr.' He was among the companions of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, and in the army of Ali, peace be upon him, he was counted among the brave men and military commanders. In the war against Mu'awiyah he did not hesitate for a moment, and none of Mu'awiyah's seditions, deceits, or schemes could weaken Hujr from the path of Ali's wilayah. In the wars during the outward caliphate of Ali, peace be upon him, he fought alongside him, and in the sedition of Jamal, the Battle of Siffin, and Nahrawan he was one of the supports of the army of Amir al-Mu'minin Ali, peace be upon him.

Hujr ibn Adi obeyed his master, Amir al-Mu'minin Ali, peace be upon him. At a time when most people were caught in tribulation and would not submit to Ali, peace be upon him, he was humble before the commands and admonitions of Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him. After the Imam's admonition, he addressed Ali, peace be upon him, saying: 'O Amir al-Mu'minin, we accept your admonition and discipline ourselves with your discipline' (2).

He truly lived with Alawi discipline and courage. Even opponents of the Shi'ah remembered him well and praised him in their biographical works. Al-Dhahabi writes about him:

Although Hujr has been praised with many qualities, including courage and enjoining good and forbidding evil, Hujr was someone who never yielded to oppression and falsehood and always lived free and noble. But the most important and singular personal quality of Hujr that caused him to remain alive in memory centuries after his martyrdom was his love for Amir al-Mu'minin Ali, peace be upon him.

In the dark rule of the Umayyads, when evil had overtaken the whole Islamic society, he did not surrender for even a moment to Mu'awiyah's sinister policies. When they forced him to curse and abuse Ali, peace be upon him, he courageously refused to do that wicked act.

Hujr's final covenant with his master Ali, peace be upon him, was to be cut to pieces on the path of love for Ali. When Ali, peace be upon him, was struck by the sword in the mihrab of the mosque of Kufa, Hujr went with him to his house. In the final moments of his noble life, Amir al-Mu'minin was saying: 'O people, ask me before you lose me.' The people began to weep; Hujr stood and recited a poem he had composed in elegy for Amir al-Mu'minin.

Amir al-Mu'minin opened his eyes and said to him: 'How will you be when they ask you to disavow me? What will you say then?' Hujr courageously replied: 'By God, O Amir al-Mu'minin, if I were cut by the sword limb by limb, and fire were kindled for me and I were thrown into it, I would prefer that to disavowing you.'

At that moment Amir al-Mu'minin, peace be upon him, said: 'May you be granted success in every good deed, O Hujr, and may God reward you on behalf of the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet with the best reward' (4).

Hujr ibn Adi, who had sworn that even if he were cut to pieces he would not submit to the unbelievers or disavow Ali, peace be upon him, fulfilled his word. When Mu'awiyah's agent in Kufa summoned Hujr and asked him to ascend the pulpit and publicly curse Ali, peace be upon him, Hujr agreed and went up to the pulpit. But from the pulpit he courageously said: 'O people of Kufa, this governor of yours has ordered me to curse Ali from the pulpit. O people, curse him yourselves.' Because of Hujr's words, the crowd cursed Mu'awiyah's agent, Ziyad, in Kufa.

It is clear that Hujr was an accepted and respected personality among the people of his time. Therefore, if he had obeyed Mu'awiyah's command, this great innovation would have entered among the people with greater strength and the truth would have remained hidden from many. But Hujr not only refused this humiliation; he courageously identified the one who demanded that Ali, peace be upon him, be cursed as the truly cursed one.

Hujr was imprisoned for the crime of loving Amir al-Mu'minin Ali, peace be upon him, and was exiled to Syria before Mu'awiyah. Mu'awiyah demanded that he abuse Ali, peace be upon him, but Hujr refused, and Mu'awiyah ordered that they be taken to the village of Adhra and killed.

When they reached Adhra, Hujr asked: 'What is this village?' They said: 'Adhra.' He said: 'Praise be to God, for I am the first Muslim brought in chains to a village whose dogs have barked in the path of God.' Then each of those men of God, Hujr and twelve of his companions, was handed over to one of the people of Syria to be martyred.

Hujr was handed to Humayr, who prepared him for execution. Hujr said: 'Allow me to pray two rak'ahs.' He performed ablution and prayed two rak'ahs. His prayer became lengthy. He was asked: 'Did you prolong your prayer out of fear of death?' When he finished the prayer, he said: 'I never performed ablution without praying, and I have never prayed a prayer shorter than this one. If I wanted to fear, I would have feared when I saw the drawn sword, the prepared shrouds, and the dug grave...'

When they were about to behead Hujr, he said: 'O God, we bring complaint against our community: the people of Iraq testified against us, and the people of Syria killed us' (5).

Through his martyrdom, Hujr showed that he and his companions, who embraced martyrdom on the path of love for Ali, peace be upon him, are examples of this noble narration of the Prophet: 'This is Gabriel informing me: the truly blessed, all blessing and the reality of blessing, is the one who loves Ali in his lifetime and after his death.'

Mu'awiyah and his companions, who martyred Hujr, are also examples of this part of the narration: 'The truly wretched, all wretchedness and the reality of wretchedness, is the one who hates Ali in his lifetime and after his death' (6).

Today, centuries after Hujr's martyrdom, the voice of his demand for truth is loud, and those whose thought drinks from Mu'awiyah's innovations cannot tolerate even a shrine for Hujr ibn Adi, because Hujr reminds people of love for Amir al-Mu'minin. Hujr is the manifestation of opposition to the innovations of the Umayyads and a symbol of martyrdom on the path of the Ahl al-Bayt. Thus the destruction of Hujr's noble shrine is Mu'awiyah's unfinished work and the final efforts of devils to destroy truth.

Although the destruction of the blessed grave of Hujr ibn Adi, from whose shrine the scent of love for Amir al-Mu'minin is perceived, is a great calamity, from the destruction of this noble grave we hear, in the ear of the soul, the final gasps of Satan and the glad tidings of the emergence of light. Although the violation of Hujr's pure body is a heart-rending calamity, it recalls Hujr's will: do not wash my body and do not shroud me, because I want to meet Mu'awiyah in this very state on the Day of Resurrection and complain against him before my Lord.

He who swore to be cut to pieces on the path of his master still stands by his covenant after hundreds of years. Even his lifeless body is proud to be sacrificed on the path of love for Amir al-Mu'minin. If Hujr's martyrdom that day showed truth-seekers the ugly face of Mu'awiyah, the destruction of his pure grave and the violation of his pure body will show all truth-seekers the real face of today's Umayyad states.

What can be said in response to this great violation except the same words that Abu Abdillah al-Husayn, the martyr, said to Mu'awiyah after the martyrdom of Hujr? Mu'awiyah mockingly said to the Imam: 'O Abu Abdillah, has the news of what I did to Hujr ibn Adi, his companions, and the Shi'ah of your father reached you?' He said: 'What did you do to them?' Mu'awiyah said: 'I killed them all, shrouded them, and prayed over all of them!'

Imam al-Husayn, peace be upon him, smiled and said: 'That group has overcome you, O Mu'awiyah, for if we killed your Shi'ah, we would neither shroud them, nor pray over them, nor bury them' (7).

We too, in response to this violation against Hujr, will smile at the foolishness and rigidity of this group and say: on the morning of the day when the cry 'I am Baqiyyat Allah' is heard from the Ka'bah, we will realize this saying of Imam al-Husayn, peace be upon him; therefore we will neither pray over the bodies of you destroyers, nor shroud you, nor bury you.

God Almighty has said in the Noble Qur'an: 'Indeed their appointed time is the morning. Is not the morning near?' (8). Our appointment with you, enemies of Amir al-Mu'minin, is the 'morning.' Is the morning not near?

1. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 7, p. 221, chapter 8: The states of the Godwary and the sinners.
2. Jawahir al-Tarikh, Shaykh Ali al-Kurani al-'Amili, vol. 2, pp. 377-378.
3. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', vol. 3, pp. 462-463, no. 95.
4. Ali fi al-Kitab wa al-Sunnah wa al-Adab, al-Hajj Husayn al-Shakiri, vol. 5, pp. 420-421.
5. Mazlumtarin Payambar, Sayyid Alireza Husayni, pp. 77-81.
6. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 27, p. 74, chapter 4: The reward of loving them, supporting them, and accepting their wilayah.
7. Al-Ihtijaj, Ja'fari translation, vol. 2, p. 87.
8. Hud, 81.