In previous posts we proved that during the twenty-year long reign of Muawiya, three groups resided in Kufa:
1) Shia of Uthman – mainly comprised of the Banu Ummayah, who openly cursed and abused Ahlulbayt and used to aid Yazid. They believed in the caliphate of the first three caliphs but did not believed in the caliphate of Maula Ali bin Abi Talib [as].
Ibn Taimiyah stated in Minhaj al-Sunnah, Volume 1 page 174:
“The Shias of Uthman used to openly curse Ali from the pulpits”
2) Common dwellers of Kufa who to distinguish or oppose from the Shias of Uthman were called as Shias of Ali. Contrary to the first group [Shias of Uthman], this group affirmed belief in the four caliphs. This group was in majority in Kufa.
3) Those Shias that believed Imam Ali (as) was the divinely appointed legitimate Caliph after the Prophet (s). This group was the Kufan minority.
The disliking and frustration of the majority Kufans from the oppressions of Bani Umayah
The common people of Kufa were incensed at the oppression committed by the rulers of Bani Umayyah right from the reign of Uthman and used to complain about the same to Uthman but in vain due to the apathetic attitude of Uthman. For example Uthman removed Saad bin Abi Waqas a well-known companion from the governorship of Kufa and appointed Walid bin Uqbah who was from Bani Umayyad. This Walid was a major transgressor whose alcoholism was such that on one occasion he led Fajr prayers with four rakats. In summary, the people of Kufa were tired of Umayyad oppression that started with Uthman bin Affan through to when Muawiya became ruler, who orchestrated the mass slaughter of Kufan Shia through his bastard brother Ziyad bin Sumaya. Whilst this silenced the Kufans the flame of hatred against the Bani Ummayah was never extinguished. When Muawiya appointed his notorious son Yazid as a ruler and hence converted caliphate into kingship, the Kufans felt that the boundary of tolerance had finally been crossed, for them enough was enough.
The minority Shia of Ahlulbayt [as] tried to make the most of the situation
Right after the death of Muawiya, the minority Kufan Shia that believed Imamate was the divine right of the Ahl’ul bayt (as) became active;
When the minority Shia learned that Imam Hussain [as] had refused to give bayya to Yazid and had migrated to Makkah from Madina, the people who had hitherto faced oppression saw Imam Hussain [as] as a light at the end of the tunnel and their conscience was telling them that this was the turning point, silence at that time would mean suicide.
Hence the people gathered at the house of Suleman bin Surd, an elderly companion of Prophet [s] who had also participated in war alongside Ali bin Abi Talib [as], who said to the people:
“Muawiya has died and Hussain has refused to pay to Yazid and has gone to Makkah from Madina. You people are his and his father’s Shia. If you people believe that there would be no negligence in his obedience and in fighting his enemies, then in the name of Allah, let us write letter to him but if there exists apprehension or weakness on your part then for God’s sake, do not endanger the life of a person by abandoning him”
These words of Suleman demonstrates that he did not want to achieve his goals by creating temporary enthusiasm, rather he wanted people to recognize the harsh realties that would be linked to this decision. This is a natural phenomenon that whilst running high in sentiments, one fails to truly assess his actual strength and in consequence makes a major error. The people were encouraged by his words evidenced their willingness to fight the enemies of Imam Hussain [as].
The question which arises here is: how many minority Shia were there?
One can estimate the figure through the fact that the people had not gathered in an open field or a lavish palace but in the home of Suleman, a traditional Arab house that was small in size, a size similar to that found today. The above cited conversation between Suleman bin Surd and the people of Kufa shows that they were made aware of the consequences that were inevitable for siding with the blessed Imam [as] ?
Suleman had completed his duty, thus a letter was then written to Imam Hussain [as] as follows:
This letter made it clear that there were groups were situate in Kufa and this letter was penned not by the common Kufan folk but by the minority Shia residing in Kufa. These individuals then cited their pleasure at the death of Muawiya by stating:
“We do not have any leader [who could lead us in war] therefore please come to us so that through you, we can gather to aid the truth [Haq]. And Nauman bin Bashir is in Dar ul-Amara, we neither attend Friday prayers nor the Eid prayers with him. When we get the news that you are coming, we will make him expel him and send him to Syria”.
This letter was sent through Abdulah bin Hamdani and Abdullah bin Daal and this was the first letter to be written by the minority Shia to Imam Hussain [as] which he received in Makka on the 10th of Ramadhan.
The letters written to Hussain [as] by the Aama of Kufa followed by the activities of the minority Shia
The minority Kufan Shia began to spread their movement among the Aama of Kufa. The people of Kufa who were already boring resentment against the Bani Umayah, this scenario took the resentment to the maximum level and hence, a number of letters began to be written to Imam Hussain [as] by the majority and minority Shia Kufans and within the short span of two days, fifty three petitions were prepared. There were up to three or four names of the people mentioned as the senders of those letters and all of them were delivered through Qays bin Masher, Abdulrehman bin Abdullah and Ammara bin Ubayd Saloli. When the Shia al-Kahsa observed such a enthusiasm from amongst the Aama of Kufa, the former began to believe that public opinion was against Yazid and success in this regard was inevitable, but that was actually a totally wrong assessment as the level of interest by the general public in that campaign was similar to the interest of birds flying in the direction of wind during a storm. The end result of such shortsightedness was that the initial letters written contained wordings like ‘’ which were showing the tantalization and consensus in the form of expectation while in the subsequent letters; the approach was changed to show firm commitment and absolute faith:
“Come quickly because people are awaiting you and are not ready to deem anyone as their leader but you,. Therefore, make it fast, hasty.”
This letters was sent through Hani bin Urwah and Saeed bin Hanafi.
Letters written to Imam Hussain [as] by the opportunists
Like we stated above, on the campaign initiated by the Shia al-Khasa of Kufa, the Aama of Kufa also became active and wrote letters to Imam Hussain [as] for the purpose of help, amidst, there were some opportunists whose religion was to get benefits different kinds of worldly gains. When this segment of people saw the general public getting ready to support Imam Hussain [as], they also thought to swim with the water and hence wrote a letter to Imam Hussain [as] the content of which shows nothing but worldly benefits:
“Fields are flourishing again and trees are bearing fruits and ponds are flowing. Thus, you can come whenever you want towards an army, that is prepared for you”
This letter had seven signatories namely Shabath bin Rib’I, Hajar bin al-Jabar, Yazid bin Haritth, Yazid bin Raweem, Azrah bin Qays, Umro bin al-Hajaj al-Zubaydi, Muhamad bin Umari Tamimi.
See Tarikh Tabari, Volume 6 page 197.
Just compare the content of these letters written initially with the above one. The earlier letters contained the beliefs of the senders, cited the injustice of Muawiya and his descendant, the admission of Hussain’s right of Imamate, whilst the above cited letter made reference to nothing save material acquisition. In every society, there exist a segment of opportunists who always fly with the direction of wind. This opportunism and sifing with popular opinion was not just limited to this letter the same opportunists showed their devious traits during the battle of Karbala, and we shall cite the example of Shabath a firm believer in the caliphate of Shaykhayn and a narrator of Hadith in the Sunni canonical works.
The martyrdom of those Shia al-Khasa that had written letters to Imam Hussain [as]
To suggest that none of the Shia al-Khasa that wrote letters to Imam Hussain [as] participated in the battle against the enemies of Imam Hussain [as], is a lie for we have:
1) Habib Ibn Mazahir [as] gave away his life for Imam Hussain [as] and left his name to be counted amongst the blessed ones.
2) Saeed bin Abdullah Hanfi who was the messenger whose martyrdom was unprecedented. After Zuhr when battle got fierce, he stood infront of Imam Hussain [as] and received on his chest all the arrows that were about to his Imam Hussain [as].
See Tarikh Tabari, page 227.
3) Abdulrehman bin Abdullah who sought Imam Hussain [as] ’ permission and entered the battlefield reciting couplets and fought until he lost his life.
See Absar al-Ayn, page 78.
4) Qays bin Masher who laid down his life for Imam Hussain [as] in a manner that will always be remembered by the lovers of Ahlulhbayt [as]. Imam Hussain [as] had sent a latter to the people of Kufa through Qays bin Masher but he was intercepted at Qadsiya. Qays bin Masher was then brought before Ibn Ziyad who instructed him to abuse Hussain bin Ali [as] whilst standing on a roof top. Qays deemed it an opportunity to spread the truth hence he went on the directed place and said:
‘O people! Without any doubt this man Hussain bin Ali is the best of among all creations of Allah and he is the son of Fatima the daughter of Holy Prophet and I am his messenger towards you and I have been separated from you from the valley of Zulramt, respond to him, be obedient and pay heed to him’.
Then he cursed Ubaidullah Ibn Ziyad and his father and supplicated for the salvation of Ali and Hussain [as]. He was then hurled from the top of the palace on the orders of Ibn Ziyad.
These were the Shia al-Khasa of Kufa who laid down their lives for Imam Hussain [as].
It was in fact the letter penned by the opportunist signatories that included, Shabath bin Rab’i, Hajaj bin al-Jabar, Yazid bin Haritth, Azrah bin Qays and Umro bin al-Hajaj al-Zubaydi that switched allegiance and aided and abetted in the murder of the Imam [as] . Whilst the name of the other two cannot be found in the annals of history, one can deduce that they would have joined their five friends in the murder of Imam Hussain [as]. These people were amongst the Aama of Kufa who had initially written letters by observing the trend of general populous but later when switched allegiance when the sword of Ibn Ziyad seemed to be triumphant, they hence raised their swords against Imam Hussain [as].
The disassociation of the Shia al-Khasa from the murder of Imam Hussain [as]
While returning from Makka, Imam Hussain [as] received letters from the people of Kufa. Upon receipt Imam Hussain [as] dispatched Muslim bin Aqeel to Kufa to assess the situation ion the ground and report back. When Muslim bin Aqeel arrived in Kufa, the fire of hatred against Yazid was burning within the hearts of the Kufan and the Shia al-Khasa and Aama of Kufa welcomed him and pledged their support in their scores. At that time, Nauman bin Bashir was the ruler of Kufa who was a shrewd diplomat, he did not offer much resistance or obstacles to Muslim bin Aqeel apart from one sermon in which he warned the public of sedition and asked them to remain loyal in their bayya to Yazid.
See Al-Bidayah wal-Nihayah, Volume 8 page 1002.
It was at that time, that a letter was received by Yazid which stated:
“Muslim bin Aqeel has come to Kufa and the Shia have given the oath of allegiance to him on behalf of al Hussain bin Ali. If you have any need of Kufah then send a strong man there who will carry out your orders and act in the same way as you would against your enemy. Al Nauman bin Bashir is a weak man or he is acting like a weak man”
History of al Tabari, Volume 19 page 30
Those who wrote this letter were:
Abdullah bin Muslim bin Saeed Hadharmi
Ammarah bin Uqbah
Umar bin Saad bin Abi Waqas
Dear readers, you must have recognized Umar bin Saad. This was same cursed individual who was sent as an army chief for the murder of Imam Hussain [as] and he was the one who fired the first arrow at Imam al Hussain [as].
See History of al Tabari, Volume 19 page 129.
On the top of it he is a Thiqa narrator of Sunni Hadith works.
His words i.e “Shia have given the oath of allegiance to him on behalf of al Hussain bin Ali” clearly shows that he did not have any connection with the the Shia al-Khasa. Moreover, Yazid’s words i.e “My Shia among the people of Kufa have written to me” strengthen our stance that Umar bin Saad was the Shia of Yazid [la] and from the group/sect that deemed him [la] to be their Imam. Moreover the belief that Hussain rebelled against Yazid accurately tallies with that of the later generation Nawasib like Ibn Arabi etc.
Are the Nawasib still going to show their stubbornness and remain shouting that the “killers of al Hussain were his own Shias [i.e. al-Khasa]” while we have already made the sect of His [as] killers known to everyone?
Yazid on receiving this letter wrote to Ibn Ziyad, the son of Ziyad bin Sumaya who during the reign of Muawiya had committed slaughter of Shia al-Khasa in Kufa and hence the government’s army had arrvied and settlled in Kufa from Syria :
“My followers [Shia] among the people of Kufa have written to me to inform me that Ibn al Aqeel is in Kufa gathering units in order to spread rebellion among the Muslims. Therefore when you read this letter of mine go to Kufa and search for Ibn Aqeel as if you were looking for a bead until you find him. Then bind him in chains, kill him or expel him”
History of al Tabari, Volume 19 page 31
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