Iraqi Reactions to the Death of Muawiya The news of Muawiya’s death spread throughout Iraq, and people learned that Husayn ibn Ali (peace be upon him) and Abdullah ibn Zubair had refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid and had gone to Mecca. The prominent Shia figures gathered at the house of Suleiman ibn Sard al-Khuza’i […]
The news of Muawiya’s death spread throughout Iraq, and people learned that Husayn ibn Ali (peace be upon him) and Abdullah ibn Zubair had refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid and had gone to Mecca.
The prominent Shia figures gathered at the house of Suleiman ibn Sard al-Khuza’i and thanked God for Muawiya’s death. Suleiman ibn Sard said: “Muawiya has died, and Husayn ibn Ali (peace be upon him) has refused allegiance to Yazid and has headed to Mecca. You, who are his Shia and followers of his father Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him), if you know that you are ready to support him and fight his enemies and are willing to sacrifice your lives for him, declare your readiness to him through a letter. If you fear that you will waver and withdraw your support, then do not deceive him and do not speak of sacrifice and devotion falsely.”
Suleiman ibn Sard was aware that people, as long as they were not faced with personal sacrifice and selflessness, could clearly distinguish between right and wrong, recognizing who is truthful and who is deceitful, who is knowledgeable and who is ignorant, and who is a leader and who is a bandit. However, this clarity of judgment only holds until personal gain or loss is at stake. When the conditions of testing arise and right and wrong confront each other, and the majority follow the path of falsehood, abandoning true support and only selflessness remains, people’s judgments often shift, and they turn away from truth to support falsehood.
Changeable Emotions:
Suleiman ibn Sard knew well that the emotions of people today could not be relied upon as a stable criterion. Many of these people might, when Husayn ibn Ali (peace be upon him) rises and all the power of the Umayyad dynasty is mobilized to kill him, and supporting him becomes difficult and dangerous, turn away from him, forget their letters, close their doors, and even appear among his opponents and enemies, considering it their religious duty to kill him. They would, in the name of pleasing God and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), slay his supporters and then stand toward the qibla as if they had committed no sin, proclaiming: “Allahu Akbar, Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Ashhadu anna Muhammadur Rasool Allah.” Based on this, Suleiman admonished the Shia leaders, saying: “Assess the final outcome now and test yourselves against the situation that will certainly arise. See if you can confidently and decisively support him and invite him to Iraq, or if today, with your stirred emotions, you write letters, make pledges, and swear oaths, only to later pull him from the sanctuary of God to the land of Iraq, and when the enemy surrounds him and pressures him to either pledge allegiance or face death and martyrdom, you will withdraw your support and forget your oaths and promises.”
The prominent Shia leaders responded in unison to Suleiman al-Khuza’i: “We are all prepared for jihad and sacrifice and are willing to give our lives for our Imam.”
Suleiman replied: “If that is the case, then write a letter of invitation to the Imam.”
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