Seerah

It should have become clear by now that all the rulers from the Bani Umayya took over rulership by force. The first ruler of the Bani Umayya was Muawiya. He became Caliph only by force. So did his son Yezid. The house of Merwan, too, became rulers by force. For the same reason that Abu Sufyan hated the Prophet (S.A.W W), and Muawiya and Yezid hated Imam Ali (A.S) and his children, Merwan and his children hated our other Imams. These rulers knew that the Rightful persons to lead the Muslim were the Imams from the house of the Prophet. They always feared that people might one day open their eyes and put these Imams to power. These rulers therefore killed the Imams one after the other thinking that by so doing they would succeed in killing Islam and then rule in any way they liked.

Having looked at the way things were, we cannot but say that it Was only through miracle that Imam Zainul Abidin could live 35 years after the events of Kerbala. He was surrounded on all sides by his enemies. Yet he succeeded in teaching true Islam every moment of his life.

Several things enabled the Imam to esc-ape the immediate death from the hands of his enemies these are.

1. The Martyrdom of Imam Husain (A.S) and the im prisonment of Imam Zainul Abidin (A.S) turned the whole public against Yezid. Any harm done to the Imam could cause trouble for Yezid. So Yezid not only set the Imam free from the prison but gave special instructions against giving any trouble to the Imam.

2. The Imam's method of preaching Islam was such that it did not upset the Government. Who could worry from a person who either wept for his killed relatives or prayed to his Creator? The Government did not realise how effective these methods w ere until when it was too late.

3. The Imam's pure character and his great knowledge earned him so much respect even to those important people in Government like Zuhri that to cause any harm to him would be to invite opposition from the public.

4. The Government was all the time busy dealing with those people like the Tawwabun, Mukhtar and other who wanted to overthrow them by force. There was no time left to turn to Imam Zainul Abidin (A.S)

When the Government of Walid had made itself strong from all threats, it now turned to the Imam. Walid now regarded Imam as a danger to his Kingdom for two reasons. First, the Imam's reputation as a man of pure manners was rising day by day. This made the corruption and bad living of the ruler look worste. Secondly, the ruler began to fear that Imam's growing popularity could result in people turning to him and help him overthrow the corrupt ruler.

Walid's fears must have become stronger when he heard of how the Imam was given a better treatment than Hasham at Kaaba. He therefore gave strict instructions to his Governor to end the life of Imam (A.S).

Adopted from the book : "A Brief Biography of Ali bin Husain (a.s.)" by : "Muhammad Reza Dungersi Ph.D"