Imam Hussain (peace be upon him) says: “… I did not rise out of joy, drunkenness, corruption, or oppression, but I stood up for the reform of the Ummah of my grandfather”[1].
After the passing of the noble Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), deviations began to appear in the religion from the very beginning. However, many Muslims still vividly remembered the behavior and sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and it was difficult to make sweeping changes to the religion or to oppose his instructions directly. Some rulers of the Islamic community, however, were contributing to these deviations. About half a century after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him), Muslims gradually began to regard the rulers as role models of religiosity, and the teachings of the religion from its original sources—the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (as manifested in the behavior and sayings of the Ahl al-Bayt)—were slowly forgotten.
Gradually, it reached a point where Muslims living in the centers of Islam, namely Mecca and Medina, or the centers of the Caliphate, such as Damascus and Kufa, considered obedience to the Caliph as an obligation, regardless of who he was or what his qualities and characteristics were. Whatever the Caliph commanded was regarded as part of the religion. They believed that rising against the ruler (even if he were an oppressor and there was no alternative but to rise in reform) would lead to division in the unity of the Muslim Ummah and would be seen as departing from the faith. This was the mentality and way of thinking of the Muslims of that era. However, among them were still those who had seen the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) and listened to his words and Hadith, and there were also the followers (those who had not seen the Prophet but had seen his companions), as well as scholars and thinkers.
If the situation of the Muslims in the centers of Islam was such, how would the condition be for those living in distant Muslim lands, such as the farthest regions of Africa, Iran, and other Arab lands, who had neither seen the Prophet of God (peace be upon him) nor sat with him and his family? Muslims who saw Islam only from the perspective of the Islamic capital and the faction of the Caliphate, especially those who perceived it through the actions and words of the Caliph—what sort of Islam did they witness?
A Caliph who had no religion to restrain his carnal desires; a Caliph who drank wine, performed the prayers, played the lute, and whose singers performed for him; a Caliph who commanded the killing of the Prophet’s grandson (peace be upon him) and wrote the following:
“Banu Hashim played with the kingdom, neither news came nor revelation descended.”
This was the Islam that people of that time saw in the Caliph of God and the Prophet’s successor! And they had told all Muslims across the Islamic world that holding fast to the religion meant obeying this Caliph.
With this in mind, it becomes clear that the problem of the Muslims of that time was not simply about the oppression and rule of an unjust ruler that could be solved by replacing him with a just and fair ruler. Rather, the main problem was the loss of Islamic principles and the unquestioning obedience of Muslims to the orders of the Caliph—whatever they may be—and the misconception they had of the position of the Caliph and the concept of the Caliphate. In such circumstances, the only solution lay in changing the beliefs and perceptions of the Muslims regarding the Caliph and the Caliphate so that, through this change, the long-abandoned Islamic principles could be reinstated. The only person capable of rising to eradicate this problem in such a situation was Imam Hussain (peace be upon him), considering the status and position he held with the Prophet of God (peace be upon him), and the many Hadiths and verses that had been revealed regarding him.
Such a personality, with these characteristics and in such an era, was faced with one of two options: either pledge allegiance to Yazid, the son of Muawiya and grandson of Abu Sufyan, and live a life of pleasure and success while enjoying the love and respect of all Muslims, or rise up against Yazid and his actions, and also challenge those Muslims who, without any reservation, supported Yazid’s wrongful deeds and submitted to his orders. In doing so, Imam Hussain (peace be upon him) sought to change the corrupt path they had taken so that, after him, the Imams (peace be upon them) could revive the parts of the Prophet’s traditions that had been lost.
Imam Hussain (peace be upon him) chose this path and made it his mission to bring it to fruition, making it his slogan and marching toward it with firm determination until he achieved his goal.
(Excerpt from the book Ma‘alim al-Madrasatayn by the late Allama Sayyid Murtadha Askari[2])
Footnotes:
[1] (Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 44, page 329)
[2] The above text is taken from the Persian translation of the book titled “Two Schools in Islam; Volume 3: The Effect of the Hussaini Movement in Reviving the Traditions of the Prophet.”