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Imam's
Imamat |
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The
demise of the Holy Prophet was followed by an eventful era when the
Islamic |
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world
(under the false ruling bodies) came in the grip of the fever of
expansionism and conquest. But even under such a revolutionary
phase, Imam Hasan kept devoting himself to the sacred mission of
peacefully propagating Islam and the teachings of the Holy Prophet
along with his great father Imam 'Ali. The martyrdom of Imam 'All on
the 21st Ramadan marked the inception of Imam Hasan's Imamate. The
majority of Muslims pledged their allegiance to him and finalized
the formality of bay'ah (oath of allegiance). No sooner had he taken
the reins of leadership into his hands than he had to meet the
challenge of Mu'awiyah, the Governor of Syria, who declared a war
against him. In compliance with the Will of Allah and with a view to
refrain from causing the massacre of Muslims however, he entered
into a piece treaty with Mu'awiyah on terms (though not totally
respected and carried out by Mu'awiyah), yet saved Islam and stopped
a civil war. But this peace treaty was never meant as a surrender by
him of the permanent leadership to Mu'awiyah. It was meant only as
an interim transfer of the administration of the Islamic kingdom,
subject to the condition that the ad- ministration would be
surrendered back to Imam Hasan after Mu'awiyah's death and then it
would in turn be inherited by Imam Husayn. Having relieved himself
of the administrative responsibilities, Imam Hasan kept the
religious leadership with himself and devoted his life to the
propagation of Islam and the teachings of the Holy Prophet in
Medina.
Martyrdom
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Mu'awiyah's malice against Imam Hasan led him to conspire with the
Imam's wife Ja'dah, the daughter of Ash'ath. She was made to give
the Imam some poison which affected his liver. Imam Hasan thus
succumbed to Mu'awiyah's fatal mischief and attained his martyrdom
on 28th Safar 50 AH. His funeral was attended by Imam Husayn and the
members of the Hashimite family. His bier while being taken for
burial to the Holy Prophet's tomb was shot at with arrows by his
enemies, (under direct supervision and consent of 'A'ishah), and it
had to be diverted for burial to the Jannatu I-Baq;' at Medina. His
tomb was demolished along with others on 8th Shawwal 1344 (21st
April 1926) by the Saudi rulers when they came to power in .Hijaz. '
The terms of the peace treaty were soon violated, but earned only a
short-lived glory for Mu'awiyah. Its aftermath proved disastrous and
doomed the fate of his son Yzid and dealt a fatal blow to the entire
family of Umayyads. After the death of Mu'awiyah, Imam Husayn
emerged
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as
the insurmountable mountain of truth and determination. In the
gruesome tragedy of Karbala', by sheer force of |
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numbers, and by isolating the seventy-two members of Imam Husayn'
s party and stopping them from even getting water to drink for
three days, Yazid succeeded in annihilating the seventy-two
persons including members of the Imam's family who were with
him. This dastardly success of Yazid was, however, short-lived.
The Muslims turned against him on learning of the heinous act he
had committed and this resulted in the downfall of Yazid and the
extinction of the Umayyad power from the face of the earth. |
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