Condolences to you on the 12th of Moharram, which according to a narration is supposed to be the martyrdom anniversary of the Survivor of the Karbala Tragedy, Imam Zain al-Abedin (A.S), 34 years after the epic of Ashura. Now we have a feature in this regard as follows:
The 34-year period of Imamate or divinely-decreed leadership of Imam Zain al-Abedin (A.S), the son and successor of Imam Husain (A.S) witnessed the despotic rule of a series of Omayyad despots. However, because of the great impact of the tragedy of Karbala on people’s conscience, the self-styled caliphs did not dare to openly insult Islam. Moreover, for a period of ten years following the death of the tyrant Yazid in 63 AH, the Omayyads were almost on the verge of collapse while in Mecca, Abdullah Ibn Zubair had declared himself as caliph. These ten years were indeed torturing for the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H&H.P), since Abdullah Ibn Zubair was an avowed enemy of the Ahl al-Bayt (A.S). After the death of Ibn Zubair, who had made the fatal mistake of crushing the anti-Omayyad revolution in Iraq of Mokhtar Ibn Abu Obaidah, the Marwanid branch of the Omayyad regained power and established their authority over the Islamic realm, under Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan. Like the rest of the caliphs, Abdul-Malik was also tyrant, and once on entering Medina after performing the Hajj, he said: I will treat the people with the sword and I swear to kill whoever from now on advises me to be pious. Even the governors of Abdul-Malik were cruel, and the most bloodthirsty of them was the governor of Iraq and Iran Hajaj Ibn Yusuf. The famous historian of the 3rd century AH, Masoudi writes that Hajaj ruled for 20 years and the number of those killed by him was more than 120,000. On Hajaj's death, 50 thousand men and 30 thousand women were found imprisoned in his notorious dungeons.
In such adverse circumstances Imam Zain al-Abedin (A.S) ably guided the Muslim Ummah. The Islamic community was passing through an intellectual and ideological crisis. The people had become ignorant of the school of the Prophet’s Household because of state propaganda. The Omayyad promoted corruption, while the rich people hoarded wealth and oppressed the masses. All sorts of vices became widespread in the society including wine-drinking, dancing, and singing. Even the holy cities of Mecca and Medina were not immune from such corruption. The 4th Imam dauntlessly embarked on training a group of scholars in order to pave the ground for revival of Islam. He used to buy and release thousands of slaves, after teaching them the principles of Islam. Whenever a slave was released, actually a learned, aware and true follower of the holy Prophet's household was graduated from the School of the Ahl al-Bayt (A.S). Because of the suffocating atmosphere Imam Zain al-Abedin (A.S) could not openly express his ideas and thoughts, and adopted a novel to propagate Islam. He familiarized people with the lofty ideals of Islam through supplications to God Almighty. Here is a piece of advice from the Imam to the people through his disciple Abu Hamza Thomali:
Avoid association with the sinful and wrongdoers; avoid cooperation with the oppressive and contact with the corrupt people. Keep distance from them and beware that whoever opposes the divine leaders and follows a religion other than that of God he or she will go to hell.
The 4th Imam kept the memory of the tragedy of Karbala alive. Whenever he would drink water, he would burst into tears in recalling the thirst of his father and the martyrs of Karbala. One day when someone asked him how his grief would come to its end, he replied: Prophet Jacob, who had 12 sons, on losing only one son, wept so bitterly that he became blind; but I have witnessed the killing of my father, my brothers, my uncles and 17 of my kinsmen, whose dismembered bodies were spread on the ground; so how can my sorry end. The personality of Imam Zain al-Abedin (A.S) unmasked Omayyad hypocrisy, as he revealed their crimes against humanity by saying: We were treated like the Israelites in the time of the Pharaohs; they killed our men and let our women alive. The Arabs despite acknowledging the superiority of the Quraish subjected us to utmost atrocities, despite the fact that we were the children of the noblest of them, Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H&H.P). The 4th Imam was martyred through a fatal dose of poison given by Waleed ibn Abdul-Malik, and was laid to rest in the Baqie Cemetery of Medina beside his uncle, Imam Hassan Mojtaba (A.S).
Source: iran English Radio
source : sibtayn
