The Battle Of Siffin
THE
Eventually the arbitration of matters between the two sides came to depend on the swords. Ali and Muawia met at Siffin (halfway between Kufa and
Clearly Amr who was Muawia’s chief vizier was privy to all intelligence Muawia’s apparatus collected and was aware of the fundamentalist and theoretical bent of mind among Ali’s followers the original core of whom were the anti-Uthman revolutionaries who were blind to the decisive importance actual forces and human limitations of representatives of Islam and taking a magical and mystical view of the Qur’an as well as of exceptionally pious persons like Ali expected the abstract principles they elicited from the Qur’an and miracles they expected from Ali win them all battles and causes.
So when they were faced with the dangling pages of the Holy Qur’an supposedly calling them to holy arbitration from their papery tongues they were shocked to find Ali unimpressed and instead calling it a dirty and desperate trick on the part of an unscrupulous enemy out to save his skin. “How disappointing to see you so impious and unreasonable o Ali” they protested. “We should accept the arbitration of Allah’s Book and Allah is more entitled to be obeyed than you” they meant to say. I strongly urge all wise readers to see this peculiar way of mad thinking on the part of all religious and ideological (e.g. Marxist, nationalist, feminist etc.) believers who confuse the arbitrary and prejudiced concepts inhabiting only their minds with material realities inhabiting and inhering the objective world which produces its own regular inexorable results according to its own laws. Muawia was a realist, Ali was also but either a bit less or realist enough but not fortunate enough. He couldn’t prevail on his supposedly worshipping admirers who thought from hypothetical causes of events and did not hesitate to turn against their hero if challenged on them. Amr saw this weakness, exploited it and averted and eventually reversed the doom threatening his camp. Ali tried to prod his men on to attack and finish the opposition once and for all but in vain. Shattered and disillusioned with disgust he resigned to the inevitable and since the proposed mechanism was each party appointing a referee who then would come together to discuss and decide on the dispute between the two rival leaders on the basis of the Qur’an’s provisions he let it go.
The complementary part of the truce was that sides would stop all fighting and withdraw to their respective capitals and would only meet six months later at the same place with token strengths to listen to the decision of the two pious referees. In fact this was a ploy in ploy Muawia who thereby could withdraw his embattled side from the volatile war zone while sending away Ali empty handed despite his near victory. Despite Ali’s protests his men swallowed also that and chose Abu Musa al Ash’ari, a pious but not wise enough sahaba while Muawia’s camp nominated the extremely skilful and wily Amr. Ali’s heart sank but what could he do?
He could only pray and hope for the best. When the appointed meeting came to be Amr persuaded old and infirm and naïve Abu Musa to depose his client Ali on the firm promise by Allah that he would depose his, namely Muawia, for he said the two were all the source of the mischief between muslims. But when Abu Musa kept his promise Amr broke his and declared Muawia as the Khalifa! Muawia’s camp were jubilant, hastily packed up and departed and Ali was left to pick up the pieces of his shattered career and cheated fortunes. But even worse was in store for him. A party of his followers was now too angry with him for accepting the arbitration in the first place and entrusting his fate to Abu Musa, as if they themselves weren’t part of the problem. They HAD forced Ali to bow to the Qur’an pages from whence all misfortune had began. Like all fanatics seeing themselves always in the right and others in the wrong they accused Ali with a hundred impieties and angrily deserted (kharaja) Ali’s camp to set up their own ‘true’ Islamic rule, hence the epithet ‘Khariji’ or its Anglicized form ‘Kharijite’ for them.
ELIMINATION OF ALI AND THE RISE OF MUAWIA
So while Muawia was recognized as the legitimate caliphal ruler of all Islam in his vast domains west of Iraq Ali had to return to his shabby town of
Ali fought several bloody battles against his home-grown rebels, invariably defeating but never finally suppressing them. Based in desert, mobile and clandestine they fought by guerrilla tactics and re-grouped and re-attacked after every defeat, robbing for livelihood and funds. For his part Muawia, free from all opposition and enjoying increasing prosperity in his rich domains went from strength to strength. Both he and his friend Amr were well aware of the Kharijite plots on their lives and kept their persons surrounded by armed guards they could trust while Ali went about as casually as at any time before, wearing beggar’s clothes and eating beggar’s fare out of his immovable humility.
So when three assassins were chosen and each sent out to strike down one of the three victims, namely Ali, Muawia and Amr, only Ali’s assassin, a certain desperado named Ibn Muljam, was successful. Muawia escaped with a shallow cut on the thigh while Amr’s attacker was stopped in his tracks a few yards away from him. Both Muawia and Amr had their ill-wishers executed with undisguised pleasure there and then. Ali was ambushed at the mosque entrance one dawn towards the end of Ramadan when ibn Muljam hit and pierced him on the skull with a poisonous sword. The attacker was immediately caught while Ali was carried to his home and bed bleeding with part of his brain exposed from the crack made. He questioned the hapless culprit as to what was his reason for such a heinous act but the latter couldn’t come up with a coherent answer, apparently realizing the enormity of his crime against such a great and Godly man (Another example how politically madly ambitious religious fanatics brainwash their recruits into seeing even the likes of Ali as devils worthy of summary execution). Ali advised that if he survived he was forgiving the man but if he eventually died then he had to be killed in retaliation so that the legal deterrent remained in place. After making a lot of glorifications and istighfar and advising his sons and companions variously and appointing his older son Hasan as his nominee for the khilafa he passed away saying the kalima to the thunderous wailing and unstoppable weeping of all with the Throne of Allah shaking in Loving Mercy and Angels filing in all heavens and the Prophet sws awake and awaiting Ali’s joining the Companions of the Lord in heaven.
Hasan was then duly installed but knowing full well that not all shows of love and obedience were genuine and that he was inheriting the same handicaps as his tragic father. So when after a couple of years Muawia appeared on the horizon with a vast and fabulously equipped army asking for his submission or else he was not deceived by his companions’ promises to fight for him to death or victory but instead pleaded for peace. Muawia gladly granted this and the two came to an agreement that while Hassan was ceding the khilafa all to Muawia the latter accepted to forgive and forget all past and present claims and strifes and pay off Hasans considerable debts made in the course of his great charitable and legitimate administrative acts. Both sides kept their bargain, Muawia did not bother to persecute anybody- he was cleverer than that- but variously kept everybody happy by handsome handouts and compliments and at worst by some mild rebuke. However Hasan, who withdrew to
With Hasan also out of the way the Age of the Umayyads dawned for good.
THE EXCELLENCES OF ALI
Ali RA was of middle height, swarthy with a big head, big black eyes, curly hair and beard, strong built like a lion, extremely intelligent and eloquent, superbly knowledgeable and impeccably pious. His intellectual superiority and idealist bend of mind naturally antagonized some companions who could not however put a finger on what made them dislike Ali if only slightly. Beyond this slight discomfort however all agreed that he was an exceptional soul on the heavenly side with not any single mean trait or act to criticize him with. He was honoured by marrying the Prophet’s favorite and youngest daughter Fatima when he was about 25 and Fatima 20 and from them came all the surviving offspring of the Messenger of Allah sws to this day. He also fought most successfully and heroically in all battles that the Messenger of Allah sws did. His knowledge of Islam was next to the Prophet’s sws himself and about him the Prophet said “I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate. All khalifas who preceded him sought Ali’s advice and fatwas frequently and thanked him for it. His holiness is so perceived that he is credited with the sourceship of 40 major sufi tariqats except the Naqshibandi whose however among the masters are mentioned Qasim and Ja’far, the grandsons of the Prophet sws through Ali RA.
His life as khalif was that of a greatest possible saint- humble, honest, frugal, ascetic, compassionate, just, charitable and totally accessible and endearing. He was a supreme orator, mufti and unbeatable general but a victim of his very flawed following which was not his fault but was foisted upon him. In other words he was not so much a man of this world but of the next and the eternal. People as they existed then was not so much worthy of Ali but needed Muawia and then Yazid and other Umayyads more both for their own good and expiating punishment. And Ali had said that.
Karramallahu wajhahu wa radiyallahu anhu aw ardahu (May Allah ennoble his aspect, may Allah be pleased with him. I am pleased with him). Amen.
5. THE UMAYYAD AGE (661-750)
MUAWIA
Despite his serious spiritual shortcomings when compared with Ali and in fact most other senior sahaba it is again equally true that Muwaia b. Abu Sufyan RA was still much better than most who followed him, thanks to his being at least one of the lesser and later sahaba, for he could not fail to be impressed by the Prophet sws and his many illustrious sahaba (R anhum). As already said he suffered from several inherited habits difficult to grow out, like seeing Ali basically just as another cousin a bit devalued by belonging to a rival clan, perhaps a somewhat sincere belief that Ali had not done enough for Uthman and certainly and as Muawia as well as his chief lieutenant Amr occasionally cared to admit, a raw political ambition too difficult to resist. In many so-called human defects we must see the Will and Hand of Allah Who, in His Wisdom, He plants the seeds of later desirable effects given the needs of His servants at that later time.
Although Muawia looked like or threatened to become a king to sahaba like Umar compared with his successors he looked like just another Arab chieftain- very jovial and hospitable, generous, accessible in principle and democratically tolerant of almost any criticism except when intended to challenge his all-important position. So many sahaba are known to visit and criticize him and praise Ali to his face to their heart’s content yet Muawia keep his composure and even grant Ali’s greatness. When asked as to why he suffered with such calm so heavy criticisms he explained that as long as the critic did not mean or could not challenge his rulership he wouldn’t mind his pouring out of heart as he liked. On top of the tolerance he would also pay gifts to the critic as if nothing happened. Of course all these may have been and in fact were part and parcel of his political skills but the fact remains that Muawia, unlike his many successors in caliphate never intended nor committed any wanton brutality but got his way by soft intrique and political maneuverings hardly equalled by other political operators in history. He achieved all his aims by minimum bloodshed. “I apply not my sword” he is reported to say “where my whip is enough, not my whip where my tongue is enough”. And of course also when lubricating a few palms is enough.
Like his cousin Uthman his rule also evidenced an increase in prosperity, civil amenities and continued military victories but unlike Uthman’s his underlings were kept strictly where they belonged. Without being harsh and threatening he could impose his rule and order- a great blessing at a time when the rapid expansion of Islam and absorption of diverse and unharmonious populations so used to anarchy, corruption and sedition could bring the whole edifce down under a saintlier ruler with less poorer skills.
His last act was nominating his unfortunately corrupt son Yazid as his successor and making all his dignitaries submit to him as their next ruler. Soon afterwards Muawia died (680) and one of the most tragic and ignominious reigns of Islam’s history began. Amr had died a several years earlier admitting on his deathbed with bitter tears that he and Muawia had wronged Ali badly out of their wordly ambitions. His pious but not too wise son Abdullah RA was with him.
Muawia was a white-complexioned and awe inspiring man despite his generally genial, generous and buoyant mood. Under his graceful manners showed an iron-willed ambition to rule and rule effectively. Like most Umayyads he was cut from the cloth of royalty- politically skilful and ambitious as well as unscrupulous when it came to that. This type of character is one of Allah’s gifts which help its owners to accumulate wealth and power to make the rest employable towards common good and snip in the bud anarchic and disruptive tendencies. The trouble is that not every royal type has enough counterbalancing sense of decency to exercise his character traits reasonably. Many suffer from wanton and sadistic tendencies as well which drive them to do as much if not more harm than good to their subjects. Muawia on the whole was on the side of good kings (for kings cannot be or afford being too good if they want to keep their throne) while his son Yazid was far too bad.
Yazid was a drunkard and sometimes openly uttered blasphemies. If during his time the political and military successes continued they were due to the ministers, governors and commanders he had inherited from his father. His worst excess was his massacre of our master Hussein RA and his followers at
THE SHIA AND THE TRAGEDY OF KERBALA
Shia in Arabic means a party and in Islamic terminology it means that party of political and religious dogmatic believers that both the spiritual and political leadership of Islam should go by unalienable right firstly to Ali the Prophet’s son-in-law and after him to his male offspring. In other words Ali’s was to be a spiritual and political dynasty for all time to come. Before we talk about anything else we must evaluate this thesis. By all standards it does not seem to hold much water simply because there was no dynastic tradition among central Arabians to whom the Prophet belonged but instead a quasi democratic tradition of one elder among equals being raised to mostly ceremonial leadership. So Abu Bakr had been elected to succeed the Prophet sws as the ruler of the community of muslims on the basis of merit and not dynastic precedence. There are reports that the near relations of the Prophet sws like his uncle Abbas and Ali had considered the legitimacy of one of their of number and more specifically Ali to succeed the Prophet sws but that they never dared to raise the issue with the Prophet sws let alone the general public.
So, they might have desired a dynastic succession but were afraid that the Messenger of Allah sws could reject it. And it is impossible that such a thought could not have crossed the Prophet’s mind or he couldn’t read Ali’s and Abbas’s minds given his extraordinary perceptiveness. What is true is that he simply did not address the issue of succession and clearly left it to the community after him. He must have known that argument and competition, within pious limits, could result in a voluntary consensus bringing on a popularly admired and approved leader which it did in both Abu Bakr and Umar. Neither Ali nor Abbas or any other kinsman of the Prophet sws could find reason to complain about these two luminous and most effective rulers whom all quickly learned to obey whole-heartedly and mourn greatly after their respective deaths. So the Shia dynastic claim look far more like inspired by the habituated Byzantine cum Persian dynastic prejudice which Iraqi arabs had as Byzantine and Persian subjects. Hejazi arabs which the
Ali and all other kinsmen of the Prophet recognized and served under all three first khalifas and only then both Ali and Muawia adopted the dynastic succession to pass on their mantles to their sons, Ali responding to his Persian-thinking Iraqi companions and Muawia to the Byzantine thinking Syrian companions. Not that dynastic succession did not have its merits. But it is totally spurious to claim that the Prophet sws really favored let alone commanded a dynastic succession as Shia would have us to believe. Be it as it may, as soon as news of Muawia’s demise and Yazid’s succession arrived the Iraqis decided to challenge it by inviting Hussein the younger brother Hasan to emigrate from
At the same time he fitted and equipped a legion of Umayyad troops under Umar b. Sa’d (b. Abi Waqqas) to go out and cut the path of Hussein and capture the same and kill if he resisted too much. These tropps moved against Hussein with not a single Shia finger daring or being able to lift against them and surrounding him and cutting him from the all sources of water called on him to give himself up. Hussein offered to submit (for he had expected and now had seen the unreliability of the Kufan supporters as both his father and Hassan had seen before) but his small band of armed companions chose to fight. The result was a massacre and a bloodbath. All males persished except on baby son Zain al Abidin, Hussein’s head was cut of as the great trophy and his corpse trampled to mincemeat under the hooves of hundreds of horses. Women and non-Husseini children were taken prisoner and lead to Ubaidullah’s presence. After contemptuously lecturing the captives on the wrongs of Hussein and probing his cut-off head with his stick he sent the same and all prisoners to Yazid in
The same Shia who had brought this calamity for the third time in row on Ali’s and ‘Alisons’ head must have been tormented with unbearable pangs of conscience which mortification was sublimated into a cult of Ali and his off-spring on exactly Persian and Babylonian lines- which Iraq had been part for centuries- tragically victimized demigods being mourned at each anniversary of their worst passion, the Kerbala massacre, with commemorative passion plays featuring theatrical re-enactment of the tragedy with paraders and spectators bloodily flagellating and mutilating themselves in a trance and collective hysteria of repentance. In other words the Shia were the victims of their own misguided zeal, poor judgment and last minute desertion of their idols and to do something about their shame had to resort the same old trick of theirs from Persian nad Babylonian pagan times- expiation of their sins by intense self-punishment at the anniversary of the central tragedy to the end of time.
After Hussein they did the same to other Alid sons time and again with the same tragic results- challenge to established government, fighting and defeat for reasons of unrealistic attitudes and supernatural assumptive hopes and the sacrifice of the idolized hero. After twelve such sacrifices the Shia felt that their policies didn’t and wouldn’t work and inventing a consolatory myth of a hidden last imam only to appear at the end of the time busied themselves with the more mundane politics of establishing a Shia state under persons of lesser stature pending the return of the last imam whom some of them also called al Mahdi. The term was first used by a deviant Alid, namely Mukhtar as Thaqafi who had identified as Mahdi not a Fatimid descendant of Ali but a non-Fatimid son of Ali, namely Muhammad Hanafi who also was lost in battle. This man was supposed to go into occulation and come back at the end of the time when he would be called al Mahdi. But the Mahdi for the mainstream Shia could only be a Fatimid etc. etc. This also was a legacy of Babylonian eschatological and apocalyptic tradition in which betrayed and martyred gods featured who were then were supposed to come back and triumph at the end of the time- which myth was also applied to Jesus Christ.
Still today’s mainstream Shiism is from a legalistic angle is quite close to the Sunni Islam, the difference being more in the politics of Islam than in its day to day application in the believer’s practical life. But that myth and passion element in the Shia survives and intense hatred of the three khalifas preceding Ali and contempt for Sunnis obsesses the Shia mind as intensely as ever. Shia make es no limit to their departure from Islamic dogmas in which many reflect pre-Islamic beliefs from reincarnation to championing the Devil as the supreme victim.
And such extremists used to exult in their causes and conspire and resort to any means including the most violent to exact revenge from mainstream Islam or impose themselves on it. The most successful in this respect, albeit temporarily had been the Fatimids whom we shall see in the next lesson.
After Ali, both the Shia and the Kharijis gave a lot of trouble to the Ummayyads but the latter were no less firm and bloody-eyed on top of being far more powerful. Consequently such rebels could only marginally disrupt them.