The Dark Age

The age of the caliphate elapsed and it was full of the virtues of ABUTALIB (ASWS); the great man of Islam. The age recorded the exploits of this man and the benevolent hands of him to give him some of his due.

 

Then the age of monarchy and tyranny came. This illegal authority wouldn’t last except by defaming the gem of Islam, HAZRAT ALI (ASWS), because the tyrants had extorted the legal rights of HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) and his sons and so the biography of his father was one side among others the authority tried the best to destroy thinking that it might destroy the personality of HAZRT ALI (ASWS) attempting to turn the people's attention away from the mater of extorting his right to the caliphate.

The rulers began to hire those of the filthy consciences and the opportunist hearts, who didn’t know a meaning of a virtue nor an end of vice. Such people wouldn’t be able to live except  under the darkness because the bat wouldn’t fly during the brightness of the daylight.

 

This black market was based upon three things, hiding the virtues of HAZRAT ALI (ASWS), fabricating traditions against him and turning the Quranic verses concerning him to others and those concerning others to him, and thirdly ascribing fabricated virtues to the other companions.

 

The merchant Mo’awiya (LA) encouraged this market to work for his benefit.  It was the cornerstone of his rule. Those of the black aims and bad fancies followed his way because they found it satisfied their greed. He wrote to his governors “ We will never forgive anyone, who narrates something about the virtues of ABU TURAB (ASWAS) or any of his family". (Ref: Sharh Nahjol Balagah, Vol 3 Page 15)

 

As the proverb goes ‘ Money makes the mare go’ ,the orators hurried to respond, They began to curse HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) on every mimber throughout the state. They declared their quittance from him and began to defame him and is family The mimbers upon which HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) was cursed  , were more than seventy thousand ones.

 

You may estimate how many men sitting before each mimber of those seventy thousand and how many women and children were behind each one of those men, who certainly would listen to his words as he had listened to the orator’s sayings. Their flesh would grown with those fabrications and their blood would flow in the veins with them.

 

Then Mo’awiya (la) wrote to his governors “ Don’t accept any witness of the followers of HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) or his family”, to tighten the grip around the Shias, to disgrace them and to let them be liable to the oppression of their enemies and to be a target for their arrows.

Money from Mo’awiya’s (LA) treasury was the driving force behind this marked which never faced any decline or recession.  Fabricated traditions were lectured from the mimbers and given to the teachers to be learned by the children, who memorized them as they memorized the verses of the Holy Quran. Their flesh would grow with those fabrications and their blood would flow in the veins with them. Mo’awiya (la) gave open orders to his governors to torture whomever they found of supporting HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) and his family and to burn and demolish their houses.

 

Mo’wiya (LA) not only issued unjust orders but also chose those people who implement them. He appointed his illegitimate brothe Ziyad bin Abeeh  (LA) as the governor of Iraq to increase  the pressure against the Shias,  because Ziyad (LA)  knew them well  for he had been near them before grudge reigned in his heart.

 

He wouldn’t refrain from announcing among the people of Sham that HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) didn’t offer prayer and that it was he who shed Usman’s (LA) blood and that they had to revenge Usman (LA) and fight against HAZRAT ALI (ASWS).

 

Mo’awiya (LA) thought of hiring some people to fabricate traditions defaming HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) so he chose some of the PROPHET'S (SAWW)  companions and some of their successors, who were respected by the public and had sanctity because of their companionship with the PROPHET (SAWW) in order to be believed when fabricating traditions.

 

Among those, with whom he concluded a bargain, were Abu Hurayra (LA), Amr bin abubakar (LA),  Aass (LA) , the adulterer Abubakar (LA, Mugheera bin Shu’ba (LA)  and Orwa bin az Aubay (LA) . They created odious news to defame HAZRAT ALI (ASWS).(Ref: Sharh Nahjol Balagah, Vol 1 Page 358)

 

Besides this war there was another war, It was the pursuit of everyone, whose heart had a bit of love for HAZRAT ALI (ASWS), or whose tongue murmured in praising him or mentioning him favorably. Whoever was found to be of those would be given the option to choose between the sword and the acquaintance from HAZRAT ALI (ASWS).

 

Hujr bin Adiy (AS) and his companions had showed that great example of sacrifice for the sake of the deep-rooted belief, the true faith and the love for HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) which would never be bent before the wind or be frightened by the assaulting sword.

 

The dark age passed to be replaced with a darker one. An age came and cursing HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) became a rubrid, which the fancies tried the best to make firm in the hearts. If one public speaker forgot to curse HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) he would be taken from every side by shouting and crying of the people. The Sunna ! The Sunna ! He would know then what a mistake he did and what a Sunna he left !. Mo’wiya (LA) had made cursing HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) a compulsory part of every Friday sermon.(Ref: Sharh Nahjol Balagah, Vol 1 Page 356)

 

The age of the perfidious tyrant, al Hajjaj  (LA) the student of Mo’awiya (LA) would never be forgotten at all, It was full of incredible crimes and calamities. He supported the oppressive construction of Mo’awiya (LA) and added to it many bricks that raised it high.

Al-Hajjaj (LA) let his sword exceed with the necks of the Shia.  He killed thousands of people. He killed people without any guilt but just for suspicion and accusation. He committed crimes that were like legends.

 

Al Hajjaj (LA) was full of grudge against HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) and he satisfied his filthy conscience, fury grudge and serious spite by cursing HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) and ordering people to curse him as his teacher Mo’awiya  (LA) did before.

 

Mo’awiya (LA) reached what he had hoped. Abusing and cursing HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) continued as a heresy, with which the child grew up and the adult become old, but he couldn’t distort the  essence of the truth as he wished for.

 

History is full of such shameful deeds and if one wants to track them, he will be tired. But it is painful when you find that the leaders of the Umma, who were called Amirul mo’mineen or the caliphs of the PROPHET (SAWW) sometimes were either freed captives, hypocrites, robbers, adulterers, drunkards, deviators or dissolute to the end of this empty circle of corruption of those mean walis.

 

Mo’awiya (LA) the freed captive was amirul momineen, yazeed  (LA) the drunkard was the caliph of the Prophet, Marwan (LA) the deviant and the son of the deviant was the caliph of the Muslims. Until the turn of the tyrant Abdul Malik, (LA)  Yazeed (LA) , the deficient and Marwan (LA)  the donkey.

 

Between this and that there were shed bloods, extorted rights, violated dignities, spread injustice, open sins and extreme poverty, All that was an inevitable result of that unjust dark age.

They passed away after they had foisted into the religion what they liked and ravaged and corrupted according to their mean fancies, obscene desires, and beastly greed.

 

They passed away but the people, who came after them, accepted what was left and considered it as the truth but if they pondered a little and used their minds to search for the truth, they would discover the defects and the disadvantages of those ones. Which might not trouble the clearness of the sphere and might not blacken the bright faces of the religion.

 

This was a subject we had to review as we were about to talk about  HAZRAT ABUTALIB (ASWS). We had to know the matter of fabricating traditions since HAZRAT ABUTALIB (ASWS) was one of their victims.

 

After we knew what Mo’awiya (LA) had done against HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) and how he had fought him with the sword and the tongue, so it was definitely that some of that flood of accusations would have reached HAZRAT ABUTALIB (ASWS). If HAZRAT ABUTALIB (ASWS) hadn't been the father of HAZRAT ALI (ASWS) he wouldn’t have been defamed nor been accused of anything.

 

But whenever the clouds cumulate, the sun must shine and send its rays through the clouds and the darkness never stays as long as the sun is in the sky.

 

So you find, in spite of the shameful situation of the history towards this wronged man, what clears his life on a pure page in a bright line or in a shining letter.

As ALLAH (SWT) says in the Holy Quran:

  يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِؤُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ:

They aim to extinguish God's light with their utterances: but God has willed to spread His light in all its fullness, however hateful this may be to all who deny the truth - 61:8