The Battle of Karbala is one of the most significant events in Shia history. Imam Hussain’s (A.S) refusal to accept the tyrant Yazid’s allegiance triggered the Battle of Karbala on the Day of Ashura. Imam Hussain (A.S), along with his family members and companions, were martyred on the plains of Karbala, and this marks a turning point for Shia Muslims. Let us see what aims and objectives the Imam Hussain (A.S) intended to achieve by this tragic sacrifice that he ventured into with full knowledge and awareness.
Stripping the ruling system of legitimacy
Despite the enormity of what the Muslims lost and the deviation and regression that was their lot during the period of Umayyad rule, there was still a greater danger which would affect Islam directly, and not only the Muslims. It was possible for that perversion to be applied to Islam itself so that it would be exposed to the corruption that the Muslims became exposed to.
This was probable because the perversion was issuing from the position of the Islamic Caliphate, an office that enjoyed considerable legitimacy and sanctity in Muslim minds. The Umayyads used to rely very much, for their political and social position, on the issue of legitimacy. One way or the other, they were giving the impression that the office of caliphate was more powerful than that of the Messenger (PBUH).
One of them said: “The caliph is superior to the Apostle.” They considered this position as the shortest and easiest way by which to fulfill their aspirations and this is why Muawiyah often tried to consolidate this legitimacy for himself, and his son Yazid and those who would come after him. This position of legitimacy which the Umayyads coveted was the greatest danger their dynasty caused to Islam, because deviant tendencies started from the palaces of the caliphs and reached the general public in the garb of legality. In those palaces there were religious scholars of the court who justified this deviation and gave it a touch of legality and, as a result, it apparently reflected and became applicable to Islam. In this way, Islam lost its originality and purity on the widest plane, i.e., among the general public.
In his movement, the Imam Hussain (A.S) was intent on tearing away that garb under which the Umayyad rulers took cover. He tried to strip their rule of the legitimacy and sanctity which they strove to keep at all costs. In this way the Imam sought to prevent the Umayyad rulers from corrupting Islam. He used to state this position clearly.
He announced his view about Yazid and his ineligibility for the office of the caliphate, and discredited him whenever he got the chance. The Imam openly declared this view of his concerning Yazid when Walid ibn Utbah summoned him to give his pledge of allegiance in the presence of Marwan. After a long speech and with the intention of making known to Marwan his view on Yazid and his stand concerning the allegiance, the Imam said:
“O Governor! We are the people of the House of Prophethood, the source of the message, the place which angels frequented and the descending place of mercy. Through us, God started [Divine Religion] and through us will God seal [it]. Yazid is a sinner, who drinks wine, kills people unlawfully and commits sin openly, so my type cannot pledge allegiance to his type.”
Indeed the Imam’s (AS) uprising against Yazid, his war with the army of Ibn Ziyad after refusing to pledge allegiance to Yazid and his calamitous martyrdom along with his family and companions at the hands of the army of the caliphate struck a final blow to the legitimacy of that rule. Imam Hussain (A.S)’s martyrdom in this tragic way in Karbala aroused the feelings of all Muslims; the generation of the killers and the generations that followed. They felt the enormity and repugnance of the crime right inside their consciences and they became resentful of Yazid and the other Umayyad caliphs who succeeded him. The standing of the caliphate with respect to the law fell in the eyes of the people and it no longer had that position of legitimacy and sanctity in the minds of the Muslims.
It cannot be doubted that this crime which was perpetrated in Iraq by the apparatus of Umayyad rule left a deep mark on the collective Muslim conscience, if not in that generation but surely in the one that immediately followed. This heinous deed brought down the position of Umayyad rule, which was henceforth viewed as any other secular regime whose reigns are held by the mightiest, not the righteous. People’s relationship with the new leadership was no longer a purely religious relationship that stemmed from the people’s belief in the legitimacy of the leadership. As a result, the perversions that took place through Umayyad state apparatus did not exert a pronounced corrupting effect on Islam any longer. To a large extent, the religion became immune to the distortions the rulers introduced, and from that date, the Muslims took, as religious authority, another class, different from the ruling class, which the people referred to for their worldly affairs, as necessity dictated.
From that date a line of thought, apart from that of the rulers, began to emerge in Muslim society. This was the line of the scholars and jurists in whom the people put their trust. And the more the scholars and jurists distanced themselves from the kings and rulers, the stronger was the people’s confidence in them.
A perusal of Islamic history will reveal a stark disparity between the respect the caliphate commanded before the Battle of the Bank [the battle that Imam Husain (A.S) fought took near the Euphrates] and after it. The essential feature of this disparity is that the caliphate after the battle of Karbala lost its legitimacy and the garb of religion it once wore.
The purpose of the Imam’s bloody and pathetic sacrifice was to arouse the Muslims against the power of the Umayyads and to discredit and strip them of the well-guarded legitimacy of the Umayyad machinery of government as a whole. It was also to cause their political and social isolation within the Islamic world especially in the provinces of Hijaz and Iraq which were considered the heart of the Muslim world at that time. The Imam’s success in achieving all these goals was undoubtedly resounding.
This is the victory which Imam Zayn Al-Abidin (A.S) hinted at in his answer to a questioner in Syria who was overwhelmed by the horror of Hussain (A.S)’s death in Karbala. The man said: ‘Who is victorious, O’ Ali ibn Al- Hussain (A.S)?’ ‘When it is time for prayer and the Mu’ezzin (caller to prayer) makes the call you will know who is victorious!’ he replied. This is the political outcome of Imam Hussain (A.S)’s uprising. From these two results of Imam Hussain (A.S)’s revolt we can comprehend the great historical role played by the Imam’s (AS) uprising in Islamic history.
Sources:
Ashura, Muhammad Mahdi Al-Asifi
Heroic Manifestations of Ashura, Abdullah Jawadi Amuli
Source: Shafaqna English
