Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) was martyred with the members of his household besides the waters of Euphrates which, hundreds of years down the line, continued echoing the shrieks of the elegies in the agony of the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A)
AREEF JAMAEI
The rivers perform almost the same function for the life on earth which the veins perform for the life of a human being. Rivers have indeed been called the life lines of human civilization(s). World’s multiple civilizations, about a dozen as per Dr. Ali Shai‘ati, have sprung from migrations of people from one region to another. These migrations were made possible by water routes or rivers, simply. As such, prior to the globalization which we are familiar with in the modern age, humans evolved to trans-cultural beings by the exchange of values and manners by dint of trade and commercial activities carried out through water bodies.
The Tigris-Euphrates river system in West Asia has been a hub or spring board of different civilizations. This is very important to note here that the word Mesopotamia means “between rivers” (Tigris and Euphrates, indeed) in Greek. The emergence of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia from this river system greatly influenced mathematics and astronomy. It is worth mentioning that this river system not only influenced but also reshaped the socio-religious ethos of the world. This is because the patriarch or more correctly the Great Prophet of three religious systems, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Prophet Ibrahim (‘AS) was raised from this soil. Babylonia also housed the whole race of the Jewish people during their wilderness when they were enslaved and taken into captivity (for 48 years) by Nebuchadnezzar in 579 B.C. after Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by this emperor in 586 B.C. The Jews were redeemed by the Achaemenian emperor, Cyrus the Great.
The Euphrates Valley is also witness to the valiant resistance put forth by Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A), the son of Sayyiduna ‘Ali (R‘A), the Fourth Caliph of Islam and the grandson of the Prophet Muhmammad (SA‘AS), the Last Prophet of God to the coercive rule of Yazid. Among the sons of the great Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (SA‘AS), it was ‘Abdullah ibn Zubayr and Husayn ibn ‘Ali (RA) who opposed the rule of the Umayyads tooth and nail. The threat posed by the latter (‘Abdullah ibn Zubayr) to the Umayyads later on by establishing a parallel Caliphate is enough to explain why did the Umayyads exhibit desperateness to take extreme steps against Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A). Belonging to the household of the Prophet Muhammad (SA‘AS), Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) naturally commanded love, honour and respect from all the Muslims and, as such, he would have succeeded in establishing a just rule had he been allowed to reach Kufa which had remained the Capital of the Muslim Caliphate during the rule of Sayyiduna ‘Ali (R‘A).
It was next to impossible for Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) to offer oath of allegiance (bay‘ah) to Yazid who, to use the modern political terminology, had “suspended the constitution” of the Islamic State! First of all, the norm of “free and fair election” of the ruler, which had been the case throughout the Pious Caliphate was not only put into abeyance but it was almost cancelled. That is why the oath of allegiance was now achieved through compulsion and coercion instead by the goodwill of the people. Consequently, the Consultative nature of state machinery and the structure of governance was now the tale of the past and partisan spirit ruled the roost now and the ruler now would consult only his nears and dears on every important issue. As a direct result of this state of affairs, “freedom of expression” (although quite different from the modern day concept of freedom) was now suspended.
It is pertinent to note here that it was under this principle that a common Muslim considered it his right as well as duty to “command the good and forbid the evil” (amr bi al-ma‘ruf and nahi ‘an al-munkar). Now, everyone found himself handicapped in this regard. This principle being cancelled, the ruler now found his conduct (personal as well as political) questionable neither before the people nor before God. As such, people, by and large, had now become real “subjects” of the rulers that be. As the sense of responsibility was now gone, the state exchequer (bayt al-māl) now became the personal property of the ruler to be disbursed according to his whims and wishes. Thus the ruler’s acquaintances now became the automatic beneficiaries of the state treasury. Thus ended the “rule of law” as well as the people’s rights and their equality before law, which had been the hallmark of the Muslim political system during the period of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.
The vigilance and insight of Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) could hardly miss the changes which were taking place in the constitutional set up of the Muslim State. He, therefore, came out of Madinah and started consulting people at Makkah. As he was being continuously assured of help and assistance by the people of Kufa through hundreds of their letters, Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) started making preparations for Kufa. However, the nature and temperament of the Kufan people has always been mercurial. Therefore, some experienced Companions of the Prophet (SA‘AS), such as ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (R‘A) tried to dissuade Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) from taking the Kufan trip. Although he received the news of the martyrdom of Muslim ibn ‘Aqil on his way to Kufa, but he continued his journey.
According to historians, Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) was informed by Farzdaq, a great poet and one of his sympathizers, that “although the sympathies of the people of Kufa were with him, but their swords were with the Umayyads!” This simply meant that the coercion of the Umayyads was touching extremes now. Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A), therefore, announced that whosoever wanted to return was free to do the same because the real enmity of the Umayyads was with him. Nobody, however, deserted him. As all efforts of reconciliation didn’t bear fruit, Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A), therefore, put three reasonable conditions before the Umayyad forces: 1) He may be allowed to return back wherefrom he had come. 2) He may be allowed to meet Yazid personally to decide the matter with him. 3) He may be allowed to go to some frontier region so as to face the same challenges/difficulties as were faced by any common Muslim.
In spite of all the reasonability of these conditions and the reconciliatory approach of Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A), the Umayyad forces wanted him to lay down his arms which could have been against the Arab principles of chivalry and a man of the stature and dignity of Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) would only fight to the finish amid such circumstances. Thus was Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A) martyred with the members of his household besides the waters of Euphrates which, hundreds of years down the line, continued echoing the shrieks of the elegies in the agony of the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Husayn (R‘A).
Long after the rule of the Umayyads was gone, the Abbasids built the circular city of Baghdad on the Tigris-Euphrates system which became the trans-cultural metropolitan of the then civilized world and its grandeur continued for more than half a millennium when in 1258 C.E. the Mongols blackened the waters of Tigris with the intellectual-cum-cultural grandeur (books, artifacts, etc.) of the Muslim civilization. It seems that the Elegy of Euphrates continued haunting the Muslim political system thenceforward!
(The author is Assistant Professor at Higher Education Department, J&K. Feedback at: [email protected])
Box: The Tigris-Euphrates system which became the trans-cultural metropolitan of the then civilized world and its grandeur continued for more than half a millennium when in 1258 C.E. the Mongols blackened the waters of Tigris with the intellectual-cum-cultural grandeur (books, artifacts, etc.) of the Muslim civilization. It seems that the Elegy of Euphrates continued haunting the Muslim political system thenceforward!
