86. SAEED IBNE AAS
Saeed was the son of Ass ibne Saeed.who was killed by Hazrat Ali (a.s.) in the Battle of Badr. Saeed spent his childhood, after being orphaned, under the care of Hazrat Othman. After the conquest of Syria he moved there to live with Muawiya. Later on he moved from Syria to Madina. In 30 H when Walid was dismissed from the governorate of Koofa, he was appointed in his place. Saeed was a self-centred, conceited and aggressive person. Ibne Abd al Barr writes:
“Saeed was cruel, vitriolic and aggressive.”
Ref: Isteaab, Vol 2, Page 9
His conceit and cruelty is evident from one incident. Once he gathered some persons for the sighting of the Idd Crescent. He asked if some of them had sighted the moon? Hashim ibne Otba said that he had seen the moon.and others said that they hadn’t. Then Saeed said that the one eyed person has sighted the moon and you haven’t been able to see it.! Hashim had lost one of his eyes in the Battle of Yarmouk. He was angry at this style of speaking and asked why he was making a remark about his eye that he lost fighting in the Way of Allah! Saying this Hashim went home and people kept coming to him to confirm about the sighting of the Crescent. On the other hand Saeed was angry and upset the way Hashim retorted. He sent some men to his house and got him beaten up and burned down his house. When this information reached Madina, Saad bin abi Waqas told to Hazrat Othman that this tyranny must be stopped forthwith. When no satisfactory reply was forthcoming, he wanted to burn down Saeed’s house that was in Madina. But on the intervention of Hazrat Ayesha he desisted from doing it.
The period during which Saeed was the governor, he used harsh, tyrannical methods with the people. He treated the Bayt-al Maal as his personal treasury.and gave whatever he wanted to anyone. He neither had Allah’s fear nor was there any accountability required by the center. If anyone raised a voice against him, he crushed it. His impunity became so much that , once, when Koofa was full of important visitors, he said:
“The land in Iraq is only for Qureish (Bani Omayya)”
Ref: Tareeq e Kaamil, Vol 3, Page 70
Malik Ibne Harit Ashtar couldn’t keep quiet listening to this. He said that the lands that were conquered with their swords cannot become the fiefs of your tribe. On this one senior officer of the police, Abd ar Rehman ibne JaishAsadi got entangled with Malik e Ashtar saying that what the emir said was right. When the dispute increased, at the instance of Malik e Ashtar, the important persons of Koofa, roughed him up and rendered him incapable of walking back home. After this event the suppressed flames of hatred rose. Wherever some people gathered they started talking ill of Saeed and also blamed Hazrat Othman who had appointed him. Saeed couldn’t do anything more than stopping those people from visiting him and wrote to Hazrat Othman that certain persons were trying to create mischief against the state. Hazrat Othman wrote in his reply that those persons must be exiled to Syria and also wrote to Muawiya that some mischief mongers were being sent to Syria who have to be kept in check that they don’t conspire against the State. As a result some persons were forcibly sent to Syria.
The persons who were termed mischievous were the important persons of Koofa , amongst whom were the Huffaz of Quran, Companions of the Prophet (s.a.) and some others who were known for their piety. Main persons amonst them were Malik ibne Harit Ashtar, Malik ibne Kaab Arhabi, Aswad ibne Yazid Naqyi, Alqama ibne Sauhan Abdi, Zaid ibne Sauhan, Harit ibne Abd Allah Aiwar, Tabit ibne Qais Hamdani, Kumail ibne Ziyad Naqyi, Jandab ibne Zohair Ghamidi, Jandab ibne Kaab Azdi, Arwa ibne Jaad and Omro ibne Hamaq Khazai. The crime for which they were being exiled from their homes was that they had asserted their rights and had raised their voices against the tyranny of the ruling class. If , in a state that had claims of democracy, they protested against the tyranny and encroachment of a particular tribe on the lands jointly owned by the people, what wrong did they commit? If the same persons had adopted the policy of nodding their heads in assent to the deeds of the governor, they would have remained in his good books. But these were the true practitioners of Amr bil maroof nahi an il munkar. If they had adopted an aggressive attitude, it was because of their moral duty to express the truth.
When they reached Damascus, they were accommodated at Kunya e Mariam, and instead of being harsh with them, Muawiya adopted a soft political attitude with them. He told them that Islam had elevated their status that they had ascendance over other people. If Qureish were not there they would have remained in the darkness and backwardness.He said that he was told they were critical of the Qureish functionaries of Koofa and publicly criticized them. The state was tolerating their activities so far. If they didn’t mend their ways, they might come to great hardship. Sasa-aa told to Muawiya that he talked of the superiority of the Qureish, but at no time they were ever more than us in numbers nor in strength. And his saying that the rulers are like shield for them, let the shield break and they would make their own shield..
The talks proceeded in this manner. Once Muawiya said that everyone knew that his father, Abu Sufian, was the most respected person of the Qureish but Mohammed (s.a.) got the Prophethood. If they were the progeny of Abu Sufian they would all be clever and intelligent. Sasa-aa said that he was wrong. Hazrat Adam (a.s.) who was certainly better than Abu Sufian was made by Allah and put His spirit in him and ordered the angels to prostrate to him. In his progeny there are clever ones, and there are foolish persons as well. There are good persons as well as bad. Muawiya couldn’t reply to this and kept quiet. In another meeting he said that they should keep their own welfare in view and they should adopt an attitude that should be beneficial for their tribe and their people. Sasa-aa asked him since when he had started giving sermons about good behaviour? Was there any welfare for them that they disobey Allah and follow his advice. Muawiya replied that he was asking them to fear Allah and follow the Prophet (s.a.) and hold the rope of Allah fast and don’t create dissent. Sasa-aa asked why, Muawiya, had acted against the commands of the Prophet (s.a.)? Muawiya said that if such a thing has happened, he would express his repentance over what happened in the past. And now he ordered them to adopt piety, obedience and cooperation with the rulers of the day. He asked them to respect the rulers and give them advice in an atmosphere of friendship. Sasa-aa said that, in that event, they advise him to forsake the emirate of Syria and clear the way for those who truly deserve the position.Could he deny that in Arabia there were persons whose services to Islam have been far superior than his? He agreed, but said that , at the moment, none was more capable than him to carry the burden of the state on his shoulder. If he had any shortcomings, Omer. wouldn’t have supported him and allowed him to hold the position. Thus, there was no question of his forsaking the position. He added that their suggestion wass a Satanic suggestion and following Satan would bring shame and dishonor! At this Sasa-aa and others were upset and advanced angrily towards Muawiya. He warned them that they were in Syria and not in Koofa and that they must behave! If people there learned of their behaviour with the emir, they would lynch them. He stood up at this, went home and wrote to Hazrat Othman that the people who were visiting him have no wisdom and intelligence nor any attachment with the Faith. Their purpose was only to create mischief.He feared that if they remained there, they might create mischief and encourage the Syrians to rebel. Therefore, it would be better to send them away somewhere else. Hazrat Othman replied to him that they may be sent back to Saeed ibne Aas. Therefore, they were sent to Koofa. They already had a rift with Saeed. On returning there, the matters worsened. When Hazrat Othman was informed of the situation, he wrote to Malik e Ashtar to leave Koofa and go to Hamas. On reading the edict Malik said:
“O Allah! Amongst us the one who is the enemy of the people, send fast Your Retribution to him!”
Ref: Tareeq e Tabari, Vol 3, Page 367
Those people went to Hamas from Koofa. The emir of Hamas, Abd ar Rehman ibne Khalid ibne Walid, exceeded all limits of decency in heaping insults on them. When one month passed bearing the torture and hardships, they were again sent back to Koofa. Now the people were running out of patience. They were angry on the functionaries of Hazrat Othman and his own attitude toward those respected persons. Hazrat Othman couldn’t have closed his eyes to the unsavory circumstances. To crush the rebellion he called a meeting of all the functionaries in Madina. Saeed ibne Aas too went to Madina. While returning from the meetings, he was stopped at a place called Jaraa near Qadisia. Malik e Ashtar and his companions told him that they wouldn’t allow him to enter Koofa. They asked him to return from where he had come.Saeed made some excuses, but they didn’t relent. They asked him to return back because it would be beyond him to stop the onslaught of the people. Therefore he returned back to Madina from there. Hazrat Othman appointed Abu Moosa Ashari as the governor of Koofa in his place. About this person more when we discuss about jamal and Tahkeem later on.