Preface
By: Kashif al-Ghita’
The Hashemites and the Umayyads,
Al-Hasan and Mu’awiya
Enmities and grudges between individuals, tribes, and folks are instincts inside man since the beginning of his creation and existence on the earth, since the time of Abel and Cain, and they continued in all generations until this one. The cause and motives of enmity most of times come out of selfishness, the love of power and authority, seizing wealth, a position, or rule. And the worst of enmities is that which leads to revenge. But, the worst enmity in effect and extent and that which cannot be changed or removed is the enmity of “the spontaneous opposition” and “the essential difference”, like the enmity of darkness to light, virtue to vice, ugliness to beauty, evil to good, and the like. This enmity and difference are impossible to disappear except by the disappearance of one of the opposites and this cannot be. These opposites neither agree with each other nor can each of them disappear. Bad entities in their essence opposite the good ones, and each of these opposites tries the best to remove the other from existence like light and darkness which cannot exist together in one place at all. Each of them, in its natures, opposes and antagonizes the other such as virtue and vice in man, and so on.
The enmity of the Umayyads towards the Hashemites was from this kind. It was impossible to disappear because it was like the enmity of darkness to light, evil to good, and malice to kindness. Each of these opposites can be known by its fruits and effects. It has been said, ‘From their fruits you can know them’. A tree is known due to its good or bad fruit, and man’s good or evil is known due to his deeds and characteristics.
Abd Manaf begot Hashim and Abd Shams. The enmity between these two brothers began since the first of their growth for nothing except the difference between their two essences. Then, this enmity grew wider between the two tribes because of heredity. Each one of these tribes had an opposite from the other tribe in lineage; Hashim and Abd shams, Abdul Mutallib and Umayya, Abu Talib and Harb, Muhammad (a.s) and Abu Sufyan. Since the first moment when the first ray of Islam shone and the Prophet (a.s) announced monotheism, the feud of polytheism and idolatry revolted to efface the lights of monotheism. The trinity of idolatry and tyranny; Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab, and Abu Sufyan held their picks and began tearing down what the savior of humanity built. The third of the trinity and the leader of the Umayyad party, Abu Sufyan, was the bitterest of the all in his enmity and fighting against Islam. They followed every means and trick to strangle the voice of Islam and put out its light. They spared no effort at all to resist that mission until a group of the believers in this mission were forced to emigrate to Abyssinia, while the Prophet (a.s) and his other companions suffered all kinds of persecution and pains for more than ten years until he was forced to leave his and his fathers’ homeland and emigrate to Yathrib. And there, too, Abu Sufyan chased him even in his emigration. There was no banner of war raised against Islam, unless the Umayyads and their leader Abu Sufyan raised it and flamed its (war) fires. They lurked to put out the light of this mission, and provoked the feuds of the tribes against it until Allah granted His prophet the great victory and made him subject the tyrants of Quraysh and make them slaves according to the rules of war. However, the Prophet (a.s) pardoned and set them free saying to them, ‘Go! You are free.’ He was satisfied with their apparent belief and the saying of the shahada by their tongues whereas their hearts were full of disbelief and grudge against Islam. They still lurked to efface Islam and pluck out its roots. “They did not become Muslims but they submitted unwillingly, and when they found supporters against Islam, they leapt on”. Nothing of Abu Sufyan and the Umayyds’ inners changed at all after their being Muslims, but the way of fight and struggle changed. Abu Sufyan and Mu’awiya entered Islam just to do away with and plot against it, for an internal enemy is more able to plot and act than an external one.
This enmity was spontaneous and eternal; and what is spontaneous and eternal cannot be removed. It was not a competition for wealth or authority, but it was the enmity of principles and natural opposition and dissention. It was the enmity of darkness to light, deviation to guidance, falseness to the truth, and injustice to justice. Therefore, the Umayyads remained on their inner disbelief and deceit though they were considered as Muslims and they received the blessings of Islam, but Islam had never touched even one hair of theirs nor had it wetted a feather from their wings. They were like a duck that spends all its life in water but water does not wet its feathers-as it is said. Yes! They acknowledged Islam jus to spare their bloods and to wait for a suitable opportunity in order to tear down the pillars and bases of Islam. And it was so. When the men of power handed the caliphate over to the first one of them (Uthaman), they flew up with joy and declared some of what their hearts hid. Abu Sufyan gathered the Umayyads and said, ‘O bani Umayyah, snatch it (the caliphate) like snatching a ball. By that which Abu Sufyan swears by, there is neither Paradise nor Fire.’
Then, they took the rein of the Umayyad caliph (Uthman) with their hands and began leading him (like a submissive camel) to wherever they wished. They seized the wealth of Muslims for themselves, and took people as their slaves. Muslims in all lands revolted against him (Uthman) and them (the Umayyads), until they blockaded him in his house and forced him to depose himself from the caliphate and make it (the caliphate) be decided in consultation among Muslims. In the beginning, he hesitated and refused, but when the rebels firmed the blockade and prevented him from even water and food, he submitted and gave up, and he tried to put out the fire of the sedition by deposing himself as a response to the revolters. Then, the Umayyads, whose leadership in Medina was in the hand of Marwan and in Sham was in the hand of Mu’awiya, felt that if their friend (Uthman) deposed himself, the rope would slip from their hands…Muslims had committed a mistake and they would never come to like it again…for what virtue or nobility the Umayyads had or for what jihad they had in Islam so that one of them might assume the caliphate of Muslims?! They were the enemies and opponents of Islam in all its situations and on every day from its days. Marwan and his party understood that well, and so they colluded with their leader in Sham (Mu’awiya) to kill their friend (Uthaman) before he would depose himself and before the rope of trick would slip from their hands. Yes, they would kill him and take his murder as an excuse to accuse some group of Muslims of his blood, and then they would pretend before all Muslims that he was killed unjustly and they must revenge him on the killers, and thus this would be the best means to take back the caliphate for themselves. Without the murder of Uthman and the shirt of Uthman the caliphate would not come to Mu’awiya, Marwan, and the offspring of Marwan. It would be impossible for them to dream of it whether in sleep or wakefulness. However, it came to their first friend (Uthman) with no cost. It was given to him by the one who was before him (Umar) who wanted to turn it away from the Hashemites to their bitterest enemies; the Umayyads. Therefore, he (Umar) twisted the rope of the Shura (consultation) where he was certain that the caliphate would come to Uthman. He was not satisfied with that until he inspired ambition into the evil soul of Mu’awiya who and his father were the bitterest enemies of Islam. Every year, Umar punished his governors, confiscated their properties, and treated them severely except Mu’awiya. News often came to him that Mu’awiya spent lavishly the wealth of Muslims and put on silk and too expensive clothes, but he overlooked and rather he justified his deeds saying, ‘He is the Khosrau of the Arabs’, though Mu’awiya was too mean and poor before. He was low before people. Once, a notable man from the Arabs came to the Prophet (a.s), and when he wanted to leave, the Prophet (a.s) ordered Mu’awiya to escort
him until the outskirts of Medina. It was too hot. Mu’awiya was barefooted and the ground was boiling with its sands. Mu’awiya said to the nobleman, ‘Let me ride behind you!’
The man said, ‘You do not fit to ride behind notables and kings.’
Mu’awiya said, ‘Would you give me your shoes to guard against the heat of the sun?’
The man said, ‘You are meaner than to wear my shoes.’
Mu’awiya said, ‘My feet are being burnt. What shall I do?’
The man said, ‘Walk in the shadow of my camel! You are not fit for more than this.’
Woe unto you O time! This low one had become or had been made “the Khosrau of the Arabs”!
Yes! It was Mu’awiya and Marwan who had managed the trick of killing Uthman and paved the way for the revolters to kill him. The case of the army that Mu’awiya had sent from Sham to Medina and ordered them not to enter Medina except after the killing of Uthman is a clear proof on that.
Yes! One of the Prophet’s wives as well helped on killing Uthman. She often cried out in the meetings: “Kill Na’thal! May Allah kill Na’thal!”
When they obeyed her and killed Uthman, she rose or was made to rise to revenge him. And as a result of that, the battle of al-Jamal took place where twenty thousand Muslims were killed, and it was the key to other wars between the Muslims themselves. Some poet of that age recited addressing her:
“You are the disaster and you are the misfortune,
and you are the clouds and you are the rain.
You have ordered to kill the imam (Uthman),
and said to us that he had disbelieved.”
Another poet said:
“She came with the two scoundrels,
driving to Basra her armies.
As if she, in her deed, was a cat
Eating, because of hunger, its children.”
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Author: Baqir Sharif al-Qarashi
