{"id":16124,"date":"2019-01-26T21:17:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T17:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roshd.com\/embraced-by-swords\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T09:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:10:24","slug":"embraced-by-swords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roshd.com\/en\/embraced-by-swords\/","title":{"rendered":"Embraced by Swords"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Five decades after Prophet Muhammad\u2019s\u00a0(PBUH&HP)\u00a0demise, Muslims living in birthplaces of Islam, Mecca and Medina, or those who lived in the capitals of government such as Damascus or Kufa[1]<\/a>, considered sole obedience to the caliph -regardless of his characteristics or values \u2013 in all aspects of their religion an obligatory command and a\u00a0principle of religion<\/strong>. People believed uprising against a ruler only weakens the unity of the Islamic nation, and results in exiting the circle of religion.<\/p>\n

The majority of Muslims believed in absolute submission to authority, regardless of the ruler.\u00a0\u00a0Their Islamic view resembled that of the rule and Caliph of the time.\u00a0\u00a0In the case of Yazid for example, they saw him as the legitimate Islamic leader.\u00a0\u00a0But let us ponder a moment about Yazid.\u00a0\u00a0What kind of a Caliph are we talking about? The one who did not believe in the religion and was overruled by his desires; the one who drank, disregarding all Islamic practices; the one who ordered to kill the Prophet\u2019s grandson; the one who massacred the people of Medina; the one who, ignited the Ka\u2019ba with catapults; and these were only part of what he did. This is the kind of Caliph which people thought submission to his will is a must!<\/p>\n

This was the face of Islam which the people witnessed from the Caliph of Muslims and the successor of the Great Prophet\u00a0(PBUH&HP)[2]<\/a>. As an example, Muslim Ibn Uqbah\u2019s (Yazid\u2019s Army Commander) final words in his deathbed, after having massacred the people of Medina and looting their properties with his army, showed his viewpoint about the Caliph as such: \u201cO Allah! There was nothing more pleasant and dear to me than\u00a0killing the people of Medina<\/strong>\u00a0for my Hereafter. If I fall into the hell fire after performing these acts, then I have lost it all\u00a0[3]<\/a><\/sup>! O My Lord! If you punish me after being obedient to your Caliph\u2019s order, Yazid Ibn Mu\u2019awiyah, in killing the people of Medina, then I am indefinitely a loser[4]<\/a>!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence, one can observe that the problem of Muslims during that time was not just a tyrant ruler who should have been thrown off the government and be replaced with one who did justice. Rather it was a matter much deeper. The issue at stake was\u00a0loss of true Islamic practices<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0people\u2019s blind and unconditional obedience of the Caliph<\/strong>\u00a0(whatever command it might be).\u00a0\u00a0In such time, the only solution was to\u00a0change the belief and understanding<\/strong>\u00a0of Muslims about Caliphate and the Caliph.\u00a0\u00a0This would allow for Islam to represent itself in its origin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In such chaos, the one person who could revolt for the sole purpose of reviving the teachings of Prophet Mohammad\u00a0(PBUH&HP)\u00a0was Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH). Imam Hussain was the last grandson of Prophet Mohammad\u00a0(PBUH&HP). Muslims were aware of the numerous verses revealed about Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0and the narrations of Prophet Mohammad\u00a0(PBUH&HP)\u00a0about his virtues and role.\u00a0\u00a0And Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0was well aware of his responsibility to create awareness in such a time.\u00a0\u00a0Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0saw that he had two choices; they were to either:<\/p>\n

1-Pledge allegiance to Yazid as the Caliph, and take the financial benefits and political power.<\/p>\n

2- To rise against Yazid and his acts, and to awaken an Islamic nation from blindly obeying and accepting the acts of such a ruler. This way, the world would not mistake Yazid\u2019s words and actions with Islam.\u00a0\u00a0It would be known that Yazid does not represent Islam, and therefore, the wrong path would be distinguished from Islam.\u00a0\u00a0As a result, Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0and the later Imams would have the opportunity to reconstruct the true traditions of Prophet Muhammad\u00a0(PBUH).<\/p>\n

Hussain ibn Ali\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0chose the second path.\u00a0\u00a0He stood firmly by his value and moved in the way of this goal until he reached it. As a result, he declared the governorship of Yazid as void due to its danger for Islam. In a response to those who criticized Hussain\u2019s\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0actions and recommended that Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0pledge allegiance to Yazid to benefit his two worlds, and to him who suggested that Hussain\u2019s\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0actions would create disunity amongst the Muslim community, Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0responded: \u201cAs of now that Yazid has taken hold of the Muslim Ummah (nation), one must bid farewell to Islam!\u201d<\/p>\n

And when Abdullah ibn Umar (son of the second Caliph) said to him: \u201cFear Allah, and don\u2019t create disunity among the Muslims!,\u201d Imam Hussain\u00a0(PBUH)\u00a0said: \u201cBy Allah! If I do not find any haven in this world, I will not pledge allegiance to Yazid, son of Mu\u2019awiyah.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0What he meant by this statement was his intention to reform\u00a0the Muslim nation<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0to portray\u00a0the falsity of Yazid\u2019s rule<\/strong>; this was Imam Hussain\u2019s slogan and goal, and to achieve it he chose the path of martyrdom.\u00a0\u00a0This slogan is beautifully restated in the words of a poet: \u201cIf the religion of Muhammad will not strengthen in any other way but by my death, then O swords embrace me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

(The above is a selection from \u201cThe Two Schools in Islam, vol.3: The Effect of the Hussain\u2019s Rising in Reviving the Prophet\u2019s Sunnah\u201d, by Late Allamah Sayyed Murtaza Askari)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Footnotes:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Kufa: Near current\u00a0Baghdad; Shaam: current\u00a0Damascus<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> The government used to call the Caliph the \u201cCaliph of Allah\u201d.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Tarikh Ibn Kathir, Vol 8., pg. 225<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Tarikh Yaqubi, Vol. 2, pg. 251<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years after the Prophet\u2019s demise, blind obedience to corrupt rulers like Yazid plagued Muslims. Imam Hussain (PBUH) refused to legitimize Yazid\u2019s un-Islamic rule. His uprising aimed to awaken the Muslim conscience, distinguish true Islam from tyranny, and preserve the Prophet\u2019s path, even at the cost of martyrdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64157],"tags":[20455,22],"class_list":["post-16124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imam-hussain-pbuh","tag-embraced-by-swords","tag-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbraced by Swords - Roshd<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/roshd.com\/en\/embraced-by-swords\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embraced by Swords - Roshd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fifty years after the Prophet\u2019s demise, blind obedience to corrupt rulers like Yazid plagued Muslims. 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