Husain Intercedes For Shimar

Husain intercedes for Shimar

IT IS REPORTED that once, in Kufa, Shimar was convicted and imprisoned during the rule of Ali. Through the window of the prison, Shimar saw Husain passing by, and cried aloud:-

Husain went straight to his Father Ali and appealed for mercy for Shimar.

Thus Shimar was granted mercy and the same Shimar was the one who severed the head of Husain in Karbala and raised it on his lance, and tortured his family and children.

Hasan receives the Imamat

WHEN FATEN1A HAD left this world suffering the treachery of the followers of her father, and Ali had shed the blood of his head, in prayer in the niche of the Mosque in Kufa and had departed from this world, Hasan and Husain were left alone amidst an atmosphere totally hostile and murderous to the Ahlul-Bait.

After Ali, Hasan his eldest son became the Second Imam and along with the Imamat, he received also the Kalifate or the Rule of the Muslim Empire. But Ma'aviah the son of Abu Sofyan the Governor of Syria, appointed by Omar and strengthened by

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Othman, had by this time been adding strength to his strength and had firmly established himself as an independent monarch at Damascus, making the place a powerful stronghold to execute his rebellious plans against the central authority, and had assumed for himself the sole indefiable paramount power of a despot.

The Ahlul-Bait and the Temporal power

THERE IS THE famous saying of Ali which gives out the actual attitude of the holy ones of the Ahlul-Bait towards this world and its enjoyments :-

Neither the Holy Prophet, nor Ali nor any one of the other holy Imams were ever inclined towards the least enjoyment of this world. They were the rays of one and the same Divine Light destined to enlighten the world during their own respective times, in their respectively assigned ways to guide humanity on the right path to raise itself from the abyss of the material degradation to the glorious heights of the heavenly bliss. None of these holy ones ever thought of any secular power or any worldly kingdom. The God's given kingdom to them, was ever with every one of them. Their throne was the hearts of the believers and they had come to exercise the godly authority over the sincere believers in God. They had nothing to do with any enjoyment on earth. The one and the only object of their life-mission on earth, was service to the Lord in total submission to Him towards the fulfilment of His will.

Hasan as an Imam received the reins of the godly kingdom of the faith and only as a convention had received the Kalifate after his father. As Ali, his father, Hasan had accepted to be a Kalif only in the interest of the people and his being the Kalif was an honour to the Kalifate and not any additional distinction or honour to his holy self. The real Whilafise or the Vicegerency of God, succeeding the Holy Prophet, was now with Hasan and what else could be greater and grander than, the godly office which he now held.

The Age of Political intrigues and murderous plots

WITH THE OMAYYID Kalifate, started the age of political intrigues and murderous plots against the House of the Holy Prophet.

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History has made known to us, of what loins Ma'aviah had come into this world. His father Abu Sofyan had made a mark and earned a special distinction in the enmity against Islam and the Holy Prophet, and Ma'aviah's mother Hind was the woman who tore open the corpse of Hamza the uncle of the Holy Prophet, martyred in the battle of Ohod, and she was the woman who minced under her teeth the liver of Hamza and taking out the other internal parts of the corpse, she put them on, around her neck. The factor of heredity both from his father and mother, had its full play in the issue of Abu Sofyan and Hind, and Ma'aviah, now after the departure of Ali from this world, had become an open enemy of the Ahlul-Bait.

We are not here to go into the dirty details of the political history of the age, and all the intrigues and the crafty moves of the ruling authorities, employed to strengthen their hold on the state and the people. Only a few events directly connected with the miseries of the Ahlul-Bait, are referred to, to indicate the treachery of the people against the House of the Apostle of God and the attitude of the Holy Ones during the calamitous age, towards the guidance of the people at the cost of their own lives.

Hasan was the eldest son of Ali and Fatema, and the First grandson of the Holy Prophet. The muslim world in Madina had seen Hasan and Husain on the shoulders of the Apostle of God on the morn of the festival day, and in the lap of the Holy Prophet on the occasion of the historic 'Mobahila', had declared "Hasan and Husain are the Chiefs of the youth of Paradise and these were the two for whom had been sent festive robes from heaven. In-spite of all that the Holy Prophet had declared about these two holy souls, the world had turned totally hostile to them, and was bent on putting an end to their godly lives on earth.

Not only did Ma'aviah aim at owning the paramount power of the Kalifate or the rule of the muslim empire as a whole, exclusively for himself, but wanted also to have his way cleared off the holy ones of the Ahlul-Bait to perpetuate the kingdom in his family, passing the throne of the Kalifate to his son Yazeed, for which he employed several kinds of crafty means and men.

Ma'aviah, now being openly hostile to the House of the Apostle of God, hired mercenaries to cause mischief in the different parts

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of the empire. T he intelligentsia among the subjects including the jurists had been purchased by the state, hence the question of winning over the general masses was not a problem. Corruption began to rule the destiny of man.

People opposing the corruption were c,lundered and mercilessly massacred. There was no safety or security of life or property particularly of those who were loyal to the House of the Holy Prophet, who called themselves the Shias or the devotees of the Ahlul-Bait. Preachers were ordered to curse Ali openly in their sermons from the pulpits. The mischievous move from Ma'aviah, became more and more intolerable. The people employed to create mischief, acted as devils in human frames. There was regular bloodshed caused by the agents employed for the purpose. The Holy Imam Hasan knew full well that all the troubles were for the seat of the Kalifate which he then most reluctantly occupied. The public which had begged his father Ameerul-Momineen Ali to accept the Kalifate and rule the state, by the crafty campaign of Ma'aviah, had turned disloyal, deceitful, hostile and treacherous.

Hasan the Holy Imam, the Vicegerent of God on earth, the Successor to the Holy Prophet, whose first concern was the peace and safety of the people, did not need any contested throne to excercise his divine rights. Ultimately in the interest of the welfare of the people, the safety of the public life and property, and the security of the chastity of the gentle womanhood Hasan relinquished the Kalifate to Ma'av iah under a written and a signed treaty with the following terms:

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Hasan Martyred

WITH THE ABOVE terms of the treaty agreed to and signed by Ma'aviah, Hasan relinquished the rule of the state to Ma'aviah and retired into complete seclusion, having no concern whatsoever with politics or any affairs of the state and yet he was not left to live in peace even to spend his life in devotion to God and guiding the people to a godly life on earth. Ma'aviah's main object was to make the way for his son Yazeed to succeed him to the throne of his monarchical Kalifate and hence he was devising plans to see that Hasan is once for all done with by putting an end to his life.

Justice Amir Ali in his famous work the Spirit of Islam, quotes Osborn in depicting the personality of Ma'aviah:

"Astute, unscrupulous and pitiless, says Osborn the first Kalif of the Omayyids (Ma'aviah) shrank from no crime necessary to secure his position. Murder was his accustomed mode of removing a formidable opponent. The grandson of the Prophet he caused to be poisoned. Malek-al-Ashlar, the heroic lieutenant of Ali, was destroyed in the like way. To secure the succession of Yazeed, Ma'aviah hesitated not to break the word he had pledged."

Though the Holy Imam had retired into complete seclusion and did not at all interfere in any matters of the people in general, totally unconcerned with the matters of the state, the Omayyid enmity would not allow him to live even in seclusion. Several attempts on the godly life of the Holy Imam was made through poison and somehow the attempts did not prove successful. Ultimately, Ma'aviah succeeded in hiring a wicked woman who was a wife of Hasan, tempting her with the promise to get her remarried to his son Yazeed the heir to the throne and with rich presents in cash, to poison Hasan fatally.

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Hasan's advice to Husain

THE POISON WAS administered through the drinking water and it was so strong that no sooner did Hasan drink the water, than he began vomiting blood and the bits of his liver and knowing the ultimate result of the drink he had, Hasan called his brother Husain and advised him saying:

It is said that the departing Holy Imam even prophesied as to who will object to his burial beside his Grandfather.

Hasan's Body shot at

As THE FUNERAL proceeded towards the grave of the Holy Prophet, some Omayyids mounted on horses obstructed and Ayesha appeared, mounting a mule, shouting that the grave of the Holy Prophet was in her house and she would not allow the grandson of Khadija to he buried beside the Holy Prophet. With the shouts from Ayesha a shower of arrows fell on the coffin. Husain in the ful- filment of the last wish of his departed brother, turned the procession of the funeral towards 'Baqi' and when the body was taken out of the coffin to be laid to rest in the grave, Husain finding some of the arrows which were showered at the coffin, had struck holy body of his martyred brother, cried addressing the body saying:

Oakley, the well-known historian Scholar in his famous work, the History of the Saracens, reports:

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The fate of the devotees of the House of the Holy Prophet

MA'AVIAH Die) NOT, in the least honour the treaty he had signed. The Shias or the faithful devotees of the House of the Holy Prophet were vigorously persecuted and mercilessly put to death. Those who professed faith and loyalty to the House of the Holy Prophet, particularly to Ali, or any one found reciting any traditions of the Holy Prophet in the praise of Ali, were caught and mercilessly killed. Meesam-e-Tammar, for refusing to curse Ali, met a brutal death; his limbs were severed, and his body was put on the trunk of a tree; nailed to it, and when found still praising Ali, his tongue was cut off. When the man came to cut his tongue, Messarn himself offered his tongue extending it out of his mouth saying that the prophecy about his meeting the calamity and the end of it, had been given to him by Ali, and he was glad that the prophecy of Ameerul-Momineen was being fulfilled. Hajar-e-Kandi met a similar fate for his faithfulness to Ali. The fate of poor Muhammad, son of Abu Bakr, the faithful devotee of Ali and the Ahlul-Bait was most horrible, for after his murder, his body was packed into the belly of an ass killed for the purpose and the corpse of the poor animal with the body of Muhammad ibne Abu Bakr in its belly was thrown into a flaming fire prepared for the purpose.

The reign of Ma'aviah, particularly after the Martyrdom of Hasan, had become the age of plunder, pilage, pitiless killings and heartless murders and inhuman acts or ruthless persecution of the true muslims and particularly those who were attached to the House of the Holy Prophet. Thousands of those who professed devotion to the House of the Holy Prophet, were mercilessly butchered, and thousands of families migrated to various places outside the jurisdiction of the Omayyid rule.

Not only was the praise of Ali and the Ahlul-Bait, totally banned but at the same time a free and uncontrolled manufacture of counterfeit traditions were in full swing praising the enemies of the House of the Holy Prophet.

The Fate of the Faith

UNDER THE OMAYYID desire of establishing an independent Omayyid dynasty with the paramount power over the muslim empire, not only the deceitful intriguers and crafty agents were hired but also the

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muslim jurists were purchased to adulterate the doctrines of the faith in favour of the ruling authority and its supporters.

Thus the Islam-Original was left only with the Ahlul-Bait with whom the Holy Prophet had left the Holy Qur'an and according to his saying if any one wanted the faith Islam, in its Original form and the Holy Qur'an with its true interpretation, could have only from his Ahlul-Bait-About the attachment to his Holy House, the Holy Prophet had said :-

It is the same Islam-Original which is called Shiasm, distinguished from the Islam-general corrupted at the hands of the Omayyid fortune hunters. Shiasm is nothing but the Original Islam as preached by the Holy Prophet and preserved by his Ahlul-Bait without any unwarranted additions to it or substractions from it, and nothing else besides the pure, strict and the original Qur'anic faith.

Hasan's Services and Sufferings

HASAN THE SECOND Holy Imam was the Fourth of the Martyrs among the Holy ones of the House of the Holy Prophet, who are popularly called by the muslim world as the Tanjetane-Pak' or 'the Holy Five.' (Muhammad, Fatema, Hasan and Husain.)

The sufferings of this Holy Imam, were of special intensity and the calamitous and the murderous situation he had to face, was peculiar in its gravity and the patience and the fortitude the holy one, displayed w as divinely superb and exemplary.

Immediately as the Omayyids gained the paramount power over the muslim empire, their first effort was to endeavour as much as they could, to find fault with some aspect or the other of the practical lives of the holy members of the Ahlul-Bait and when they could not all succeed in their wicked venture, they hired corrupt scholars of the age, to fabricate traditions in favour of their enemies.