They disliked the idea of Ali assuming power. There were 3 reasons for their resentment:
1) Envy and rivalry. They had hoped to take power after Othman and allow affairs to continue as they were before.
2) Enemity. They had not forgotten the blows dealt on them by the sword of Ali and Hamza in the early days of Islam. These dark, angry thoughts still rankled in their breasts since their ancestors were killed by Ali’s sword a thing that caused them a great deal of agony and pain of mind. Hamza, they had already killed at the Battle of Badr and his body was torn to pieces. Now Ali was within range of their evil hands and so he became the target of their revenge.
3) Betrayal. They did not wish to see Islam making progress. But here was a man in the person of Ah very serious, very strong very straightforward and one very eagerly bent on doing everything he possibly could to invigorate Islam.
What they hoped for and what actually was happening ran counter to all they the desired. Hope? To them there could have been no hope as long as Ali adhered to the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet. They knew and dreaded Ali’s qualities since he was honest humble a servant of the poor and pious, contented brave a warrior and an adept at Qur’anic science. What they had spoiled this man could restore afresh.
Under the rule of such a man none that broke the law would escape, or go unaccounted.
They foresaw that Islam would regain its original effulgence and assert its authority. A return of this sort they hardly desired. The rule of Ali was a source of constant dread to the hypocrites at Damascus - - the pagans who took on the guise of Islam so that they could take shelter under it. They concocted plot after plot and finally contrived a very deep one. If it was not possible to stop the progress of Islam it was possible to stop Ali by creating hindrances in his way, causing setbacks and obstacles for him and such like. They created battles and battles draped Ali on to plain plateaus and deserts. Time which was precious to him, he had to spend in conflict. A conflict is one of the best means for consuming a person 5 time, the time of a man they wanted out of their way.
This is exactly what happened to men like Abuzar, Ammar Yaser, Hujaz bin Addi, Malik Ashtar, Mohammed bin Abi Bakr, who were all killed.
And finally they plotted and planned a plan that went all too well. They assassinated Ali as he was offering his prayers to God at the mosque. Even as they succeeded in this wicked scheme of theirs, they stored it up as part of their experience which they later used in the identical way to get rid of the Second Imam, Imam Hasan. They went step by step - - from betrayal to battle and continuous conflict alongside a propaganda campaign in order to darken the facts and obfuscate the reality and make nebulous the truth. Muawiya used every wicked stratagem available to him.
He was the man who fought Ali and now he could not bear to see Hasan occupying his seat.
He resorted to every trick every cunning he used to act out his treachery.
Things became very difficult for Imam Hasan.
Finally, the outcome was a peace. Imam Hasan saw himself deserted by his army generals and the other commanders had no way left to them but to stop Muawiya by coming to terms in a peace accord with him, which terms he was obliged to be bound by.
Imam Hasan took the view that such a peace would be in the interests of his people.
Peace appeared to him as the only way in which to prevent the blood of Muslims from being shed and best to preserve the newly established order from being shattered.
He, therefore, suggested and wrote down the conditions for a peace, which could have ensured the safety of the religion, and of the Muslims and of the future itself. All he foresaw and embodied in this peace treaty. Muawiya accepted its condition.
But after he signed the treaty Muawiya picked and reneged on what he had agreed too earlier.
Muawiya did not honour a single condition of the peace treaty. He transformed Islamic society into almost a farcical and evil one and spread a reign of terror everywhere.
A great need of the time became the need to set things in order again.
But the worst happened.
Yazid became the Caliph; he now sat on the seat of the Prophet. It was Muawiyas intention that his son, Yazid, should come to power. Yazid was s villain of the worst dye and a drunkard. He came to power through the use of force, terror, bribes and every wicked means at his command.
All and any obstacles on his way he cleared with the sword or using poison.
Imam Hasan was poisoned because had he lived he would never have allowed Yazid to come to power.
Yazid was a mere youth, easygoing and a debauchee, born to a Christian mother and brought up by her. He was from his young days addicted to drink and the rearing of dogs. It was such a youth who took control of the government in an Islamic domain where the Qur’an and the mosques were predominant and where from the minarets was sounded the call of ‘Allaho-akbar’ and witness was borne in the recital which said: “I gave evidence that God is One and that Muhammad (S) is His servant and messenger.” It was in this milieu that the youth Yazid reigned supreme as the Caliph of the Muslims.
However little by little he is seen being entangled in the knot of great problem - - that knot which he had to unravel at any cost was none other than Imam Husayn.
When a ruler happens to be a loose character, wanton, villain, cunning, nefarious and unprincipled it obvious that the entire country would be suffused and imbued with the very qualities of such a ruler. Sin became common. Wrong ceased to be wrong because it was so widely prevalent.
Crime was no more wicked since it was the order of the day.
Every conceivable practice that was prohibited in Islam took hold of nearly all the youth.
All sense of values was in confusion and the distinction between what was good and bad became blurred. In short all Islamic lands were engulfed in all forms of sin and crime.
A fetid smell emanating from sin pervaded the air everywhere and the people were so immured to such repellent odours that anything fragrant came to be abhorred.
In such an environment as this Truth was hidden and suppressed, the Qur’an was abandoned as no one appeared to have anything to do with it. Religion was in recession. Christians and Jews gained the upper hand over Muslims.
A great shadow of gloom spread over all things. Society came to be covered over by a thick, murky mist, which was nothing if dreadful. A saviour was the need and sacrifice and flame of faith was the call that rent the air in such an atmosphere.
A leader of a nation was required to revolt against and uproot what was rotten in society and put to right the things that had gone wrong. Real and true Islam was the hidden call.
One was needed who could rescue mankind. One who would be prepared to give of his own blood to wash clean the land of all the murk and foul filth, which encrusted it. Blood, only blood could do that.
And it was none other than Husayn task.
And that one was Husayn the grandson of the Prophet.
It was for him to come to the rescue. Qualities that distinguished the members of the Prophet’s house were patience, fortitude, tolerance and endurance.
They refrained from bloodshed and held back from violence directing their efforts to the guidance of the people.
This was very evident during the rule of Ali bin Abi Talib.
Three battles known by the names Jamal, Siffin and Nehrawan took place during his time but he did not initiate any of them. He always tried to solve the problems by talking to his enemies. Like Imam Hasan, he preferred peace to war.
But then, after the martyrdom of Imam Hasan the people of Mecca and Medina, the companions of the Prophet who were still alive and above them all Imam Husayn became seriously concerned and apprehensive at the unchecked influence of the Bani Ummayds who were becoming a fearful threat to Islam and to the healthy society that the Prophet had laboured so hard to establish.
After giving the most serious thought to this state of affairs they concluded that there was no and no solution to take up the sword.
A bloody uprising was the key to the problem.
Yazid on the other hand was intent on cornering Imam Husayn in order to have him acknowledge his authority.
Imam Husayn was in Medina at the time.
Yazid wrote to the governor of Medina, Walid bin Otaba, asking him to obtain Imam Husayn’s acceptance of his authority.
This, if done, was tantamount toLegitimizing Yazid’s.
To confer such legitimacy on a person such as Yazid was impossible to the Imam.
