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Abbas (a.s.) during the Government of Imam Ali (a.s.)

Al-Abbas was in the vigor of his youth watching all these events and waiting for the future. After the assassination of Othman, it was the first time that people could express their opinions freely and select the fittest-Ali ibn Abi-Talib; the selected by the Heavens for the leadership of Muslims. The armed forces and all the classes of people all over the provinces of the Islamic State selected Imam Ali for the leadership of the state, except people of Damascus and a few individuals of Medina who understood that Imam Ali would refuse their monopoly and would extend the very required social justice all over the state.

As expected, Imam Ali adopted and applied policies of constructive and comprehensive justice to everybody. He preferred the general interests to the private and dedicated all efforts to the achievement of an ideal social justice and to the eradication of poverty. He also adopted the course of extending principles of freedoms so as to create public developments and wipe out all feelings of humility and subservience. Thus, the Imam worked on extending the religious and political policies.

He also paid a good deal of attention to the propagation of religious senses and Islamic idealities among the publics. Through his unparalleled behavior and successful sermons, Imam Ali could found, at the least, a class of virtuous individuals who, later on during the reign of the Umayyads, resisted the moral collapses and promulgated the true Islamic course.

Imam Ali, also, taught the society how to fulfill their responsibilities before God, watch the general situations of the Islamic State, save the society from deviation, revolt against the unjust rulers, and work purely for sake of God.

These were the principles that made al-Abbas ibn Ali stop with his brother Imam al-Hussein who revolted against the unjust rulers who violated the sanctities of the Islamic society and enslaved Muslims. In fact, al-Abbas, being the son of Imam Ali, was the worthiest of learning and applying the instructions of his father to himself and working on propagating them among people.

Imam Ali (a) also used all weapons for fighting poverty and removing its ghost away from the Islamic society. He therefore supplied the needy people with residential places, eliminated unemployment, monopoly, and usury.

He finally stopped all sorts of favoritism; the distinctive feature of the reign of Othman ibn Affan who favored his relatives at the expense of the others. Thus, equality took its purest form during the reign of Imam Ali (a).

All these reforms canceled out the private interests of the Koreishites, especially the Umayyads, who did their best to do away with Imam Ali and his policies. They therefore formed different opposite powers who waged wars against him.

First of all, there was Aisha (the Prophet's widow and the first caliph's daughter) whose limitless malice against Imam Ali controlled her completely to the degree that she rode on that red camel against which the Prophet (s) warned her 114 and led an army against the legal authority of the Islamic State; namely, Imam Ali.

One can feel the big irony when he recognizes, through authentic reports, that this very Aisha was a direct reason for the assassination of Othman ibn Affan against whom she rallied people and whom she described as non-Muslim. 115 When she was informed of his death, she prostrated herself to God as a sign of thanks, but when she was informed that Ali held the position of leadership, her situation was converted and she cried: "Othman was killed wrongfully. I must take revenge upon his killers."

She then gathered troops and directed to Basra where she faced the army of Imam Ali who overcame and could capture her. Out of his remarkable and unmatched moral standards, Imam Ali honored the mutinous lady, released her, and sent her home.

In the midst of all these events, al-Abbas was watching, with heedful heart, the opposite powers and watching his father's wise treatments of the situation. In fact, his father's behaviors were the best lessons that lead him to occupy the first place in the field of heroism, sacrifice, and perseverance on principles.

Continuing the series of their enmity against the right party in general and the Hashemites in particular, the Umayyads formed an opposite power that faced and waged war against Imam Ali.
Muawiya, being the governor of Damascus since the reign of Omar ibn al-Khattab, declared armed mutiny against the legal authority of the Islamic State and could gather the ignorant ones, the hypocrites, the opportunists, and the former officials of Othman's government whose ill-gotten properties were confiscated by Imam Ali to be distributed fairly among all people, to form an army of mutineers.

Muawiya's troops directed towards Iraq and camped in Siffeen on the Syrian-Iraqi borders. First, they occupied the two banks of the River Euphrates so as to prevent Imam Ali's army from water. Out of their extreme inhumanity and brutality, the Umayyads used the blockade of water as a weapon against their rivalries. They did the same thing with Imam al-Hussein, his household, and his companions when they occupied the two banks of the River Euphrates and prevented Imam al-Hussein's army from having water.

As Imam Ali noticed that Muawiya's troops would not permit his army to have water after they had refused his calls to peace, he allowed his army to attack. They could defeat Muawiya's army and occupy the two banks of the river. Some of the commanders asked Imam Ali to prevent Muawiya's troops from having water, but he, out of his incomparable mercy and feelings of responsibility towards human beings in general and Muslims in particular, refused that request and permitted the other party to have water which is allowable to all creatures.

Unfortunately, Muawiya, his family, and his group did not thank for Imam Ali this unique situation. On the contrary, they rewarded Imam Ali's son and household evil when they prevented them, even their newborns and women, from having water.

When all efforts of peace failed, Imam Ali had to fight the other party. In the last stage of that war which lasted for two years causing ten thousands of casualties, Imam Ali was about to achieve victory and put an end to that war, but Muawiya turned to a trickery. He asked his defeated soldiers to impale copies of the holy Quran on their lances and call that the judge of the Quran should be sought.

Deluded by such false cries, some divisions in Imam Ali's army responded to these calls and asked Imam Ali to submit. The Imam tried his best to convince the deluded ones, the hypocrites, and the agents, but uselessly. He therefore had to submit to their demand of the arbitration of the holy Quran. Muawiya suggested that he would choose a man as his representative and Imam Ali should choose one as his representative. Under the pressure of the mutinous groups in Imam Ali's army, the Imam had to accept Abu-Musa al-Ash'ari as representative. Muawiya chose Amr ibn al-Aas the disreputable swindler. Before holding the session of arbitration, Amr ibn Al-Aas fooled al-Ash'ari by claiming that they both should judge of denouncing both Ali andMuawiya so as to save Muslims from such fitnah-Civil war. Moreover, Amr could convince al-Ash'ari to ascend the mimbar first and denounce his leader-Imam Ali.

Before the two parties, al-Ash'ari ascended the mimbar and denounced Imam Ali. When he came down, Amr ascended and called people to follow the 'legal' leadership of his leader-Muawiya!

This farce of arbitration, which ended with deposing Imam Ali as caliph and appointing Muawiya as the new leader, folded the last page in the holiest Islamic government that aimed at achieving ideal social justice. However, the hypocrites and the Koreishite clans, especially the Umayyads, succeeded in overthrowing this government and replacing it with the reign of the Umayyad dynasty that brought about the most appalling tragedy-the massacre of the Prophet's household.

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114. All historians, referring to the Battle of the Camel, have recorded the Prophet's prediction addressed to his wives in general and Aisha in particular: "Which one of you will ride the red camel and will be barked by the dogs of 'al-Haw'ab' (a place taking to Basra where the battle of the Camel occurred)? Aisha: Do not be the one intended."

115. It is well known that Aisha used to name Othman as 'Naathal- a non-Muslim person' and say: "Kill Naathal for he has converted to atheism."

Adopted from the book : "Al-Abbas"

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