Karbala’: Islamic Community Lessons
Imam Al-revolution Hussein’s was not against a legal ruler.
Instead, it was against a cruel dictator named
Yazid Ibn Mu’awiyah, took away the Ummah’s
right to choose its own leaders
(by succeeding his father to the caliphate).
Also, he was known for being dishonest and a bad person.
Ibn Hajar wrote in his book As-Sawa’iq Al-Muhreqah
that most Sunni scholars and other people agreed with this.
Why did Imam Al- Hussein do what he did?
Imam Al-goal Hussein’s in starting his revolution was not
at all to help the Shi’ites. However, the tragedy of Karbala’,
where Imam Al-Hussein was killed,
was a turning point in the history of the Shi’ites.
After that, they were no longer just a
a political group supporting the People of the
House (the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad),
but rather an independent sect with its own beliefs,
jurists, social organizations,
and way of running things. Karbala
“To reform the nation of my grandpa
(Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him)”
was Imam Al-stated Hussein’s goal behind such a revolution.
Corruption and diversion from the proper path would
have to be eliminated in order for the nation to be reunited.
According to the words of the Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him),
“My Ummah would not unify (in support of doing)
a wrong (deed).” In the words of [Abu Dawud], “
Two brothers, and two ways to change
Al-Hassan, who was Al-brother, Hussein’s wanted to bring the
Muslim Ummah back together, so he made peace
with Mu’awiyah and gave him the caliphate.
Al-Hussein did want the same thing,
but he did it in a different way because
the circumstances were different
when he started his revolution.
Here, I’d like to talk about the fact that Muslims back then
were not split into Sunnis and Shi’ites the way they are now.
All Muslims at the time thought it was wrong
for Mu’awiyah to pass the caliphate on to his son Yazid
through inheritance and that Al-Hussein,
who was religious, honest, and brave,
was a better choice for the caliph. Karbala
But they didn’t go with him to fight with Yazid’s army.
Also, the people who sent for Al-Hussein and urged him to
fight Yazid let him down by not joining him in battle.
Senior companions of the Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon him)
told Al-Hussein not to go to war,
but Allah’s Will was that he would go,
and the tragedy of his death will remain a
disgraceful stain on our glorious history.Karbala
We need to look at the real reasons why
Al-government Hussein fell (may Allah be pleased with him).
These reasons can be summed up in two:
First, he told Yazid that he couldn’t take over as caliph
without consulting the people.
Second, he said no to Yazid’s
corruption and absolute rule. Karbala
The Sunnis and Shi’ites are in a stalemate.
Both reasons are related to the Imamate (the caliphate or leadership).
This was the first and most important thing that
caused a fight between Muslims.Karbala
Muslims fought over this subject,
which led to the fighting.
Two ideas have been at the center of disagreements
about this subject throughout history.
The Shi’ites believe the first one, which says that the Imam
should be chosen by the All-Powerful Allah.Karbala
The Sunnis and most Muslims agree with the second theory
. It says that Imams or leaders should be chosen
after asking Muslims what they think about the matter.
I can see that neither theory has a clear way to work.
Even among Shi’ites, there has been disagreement about the first idea.
The Twelvers are a Shi’ite sect that believes twelve people
from the People of the House were Imams.
But a lot of other Shi’ites think that the Imamate is not just for those people.
Also, only two of those twelve people became Imams: ‘
Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) and
his son Al-Hassan, who was caliph for a few months
before making peace with Mu’awiyah.
The rest of the twelve people have been thought of as
Imams because they were very smart and learned
scholars and lawyers. The Sunnis agree with the
Shi’ites in this way, except for two things: Karbala
that these twelve people are perfect and that
the things they are said to have said are true.
The Muslims
As for the idea that Muslims should be consulted before
rulers are chosen, it was used in a certain way
when Abu Bakr was chosen (may Allah be pleased with him).
“Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said about this:
“Swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr was a first-of-its-kind
the step that saved the Ummah from a civil war.”
‘Umar became the second Rightly-Guided
Caliph in a different way. Then, before he died,
‘Umar came up with a new way to choose
who would be the next caliph.
So, the person who would take over for
‘Umar would be chosen from
a group of six people who
had been told they
would go to paradise. So, ‘Uthman
(may Allah be happy with him)
was chosen to be the third Caliph
of the Right Path.
After ‘Uthman was killed, the
Muhajirun and the Ansar chose
‘Ali (may God be pleased with him)
to be the fourth Rightly-Guided Caliph.
After that, the caliphs were no longer chosen through
a democratic process. Since then, the Muslim Ummah
has been ruled by dynasties,
which lasted until the fall of the Ottoman
Empire in the early 20th century.
People who believe that the Muslim Ummah has
had twelve Imams think that Al-Mahdi will be the twelfth Imam.
People have been waiting for him to show up for
more than 1200 years.
We have no idea when Al-Mahdi might come.
Should Muslims, if he doesn’t come to power,
do anything about the absolute power and dictatorship
that is used against them?!
The most respected Shi’ite scholars have talked about
the Imamate, and most of them agree
that it is up to the Muslim Ummah to decide
who can rule it according to Allah’s Law.
The Need for ways to choose leaders( imam)
This, along with the Sunni belief that Muslims should
choose their own leaders, means that all Muslims,
even though they have different schools of thought,
have come to agree on one thing about this.
So, we need a good way to help us all setup
Allah’s Law frees the Muslim Ummah from its cruel leaders.
Allah won’t punish us for the mistakes that other people
have made in the past. Instead, we will be punished
if we keep making the same mistakes and
make it worse for our Ummah to fall apart at a
time when it is facing the most dangerous
enemy that tries hard to take over.
Al-Hussein was an Imam for all Muslims,
whether they were Sunni or Shi’ite.
It is true that only a small number of Muslims
stood up for him. The majority of Muslims,
including the Shi’ites who had told him
to fight Yazid, did not join him in battle.
But if you look at what happened after that, you can
see that Muslims came together.
They did this by helping Ibn Az-Zubayr fight Yazid in his revolution.
The Companions and their true followers stayed
in their homes in Madinah because they didn’t want to
swear allegiance to Yazid. Muslims also didn’t like
how Yazid was disrespecting Madinah and its people.
Muslims also stood together to help Imam Abu Hanifah
and Imam Malik through their hard times.
They did this because they loved the People of the House
and helped those who rebelled against the cruel rulers.
The Muslims told the Prophet’s Household that they
supported them (Aal Al-Bayt). Imam Ash-Shafi’i,
for example, said, “Let people and jinn testify that
I am a rebel if loving the People of the House of
the Prophet Muhammad is a sign of rebellion.”
The Muslim Unity
Today’s call for Muslim unity is not just a slogan;
it is a duty that Allah has given us and a must
if we want to fight our enemy,
whose only goal is to destroy Islam and Muslims.
Our enemy does everything he can to do that.Karbala
So, we need all movements and scholars to take the
lead in uniting our Muslim Ummah and establishing
Allah’s Law so we can face our enemy.
We are one Ummah who says that Allah is the only god
worth worshipping and that Muhammad is His messenger.
So, let our actions and efforts show how united
we are in this way. Let this verse be our guide:
“And hold fast, all of you together, to the bond
of Allah and do not separate.” (Aal-‘Imran 3: 103)
Karbala