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Originally posted by ahmadjee:
** Dear Brother a1shah,
Please explain to me as per your understanding why then Hazrat Imam Hussain (ra) felt the need to fight the 'so called' elected leader?! Did he not wish to go by his father's way and endure restraint & not devide the Ummah?
I see a solid contradiction between the behaviour of Hazrat Ali (ra) and Hazrat Imam Hussain (ra) ... which can not be the case. **
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Dear sister,
This is a very good question and for this, you must understand the time in which Imam Hussain (as) was living in.
Briefly, it may be said that Imam Husayn's revolt, staged against the tyranny, injustice, and repression of the regime and torture and execution of pious Muslims, which violated the Islamic concept of a just Islamic polity and society, was to uphold the ideals and values of Islam propounded in the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet (S), to rescue the higher human values, moral, social, political and spiritual, and to preserve the true spirit of Islam.
It was basically aimed by the martyred Imam ('a) to rescue Islam as the message of the last Prophet, a message that had to endure, not only in the hearts and spirits of saints but on the plane of society, and he achieved his purpose most completely.
In a will he made to Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyah while departing from Makkah, Imam Hussain (as) declares:
Indeed, I have not risen up to do mischief, neither as an adventurer, nor to cause corruption and tyranny. I have risen up solely to seek the reform of the Ummah of my grandfather (S). I want to command what is good and stop what is wrong, and (in this) I follow the conduct of my grandfather and my father, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib.
In a letter that he wrote to the people of Kufah, in a short sentence he outlines the Islamic concept of a worthy ruler:
By my life, the leader is one who acts in accordance with the Scripture, upholds justice in society, conducts its affairs according to what is righteous, and dedicates his self to God. Was-salam.
Addressing Hurr ibn Yazid Riyahi and his troops, who had been dispatched by 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, the infamous governor of Kufah, to intercept the Imam's caravan on the way and to stop him from entering Kufah, Imam Husayn ('a) quotes this tradition of the Prophet (s), which states the duty of Muslims vis-a-vis corrupt and un-lslamic rulers:
O people! Verily the Messenger of Allah (s) said: "Whoever observes a sovereign legalizing what God has made unlawful, violating the covenant of God, opposing the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, and treating the creatures of God sinfully and oppressively, and does not oppose him with his speech and action, God has a right to bring him to the same fate as that of the tyrant." Indeed, these people (i.e. Yazid and the ruling Umayyads) have committed themselves to the following of Satan, and abandoned obedience to God. They have given currency to corruption and abolished the Islamic laws, plundering the public treasury, making lawful what God has forbidden and forbidding what God has permitted. And I, of all people, have a greater right to act [in accordance with the Prophet's exhortation].
On reaching Karbala', a point where they had been forced to discontinue their journey and to disembark on the orders of Ibn Ziyad, the Imam stood up to address his companions. In that sermon he declares that life under tyranny is not worthy of man, unless the people rise in an attempt to restore the higher values:
"Don't you see that what is true and right is not acted upon and what is false and wrong is not forbidden? In such a situation, the man of faith yearns for the meeting wit', his Lord. Indeed, (in such conditions) to me death is happiness, and life under the yoke of tyrants is disgrace."
Yazid chose to embark on a mission to wipe out the message of Islam. Such was never the case during the time of the first 3 caliphate.
As representatives of Allah (swt), the imams (as) act in accordance with the situation at hand.
In the case of Imam Ali (as), being patient and strengthening Islam through his teachings and guidance was the correct thing to do.
In the case of Imam Hussain (as), jihad against kufr and tyranny was the need, as a compromise with Yazid meant the destruction of Islam.
We, Ahlul Bayt (chosen descendants of the Holy Prophet), hold such central and balancing position in religion that those who are deficient in understanding and acting upon its principles, will have to come to us for reformation, and those who are overdoing it have got to learn moderation from us.
[This message has been edited by a1shah (edited January 20, 2002).]