Imam Hussain - Shia and Sunni version

[Muhsin]

From :
http://www.newtrendmag.org/

Husain (r.a.) son of Ali (r.a.), Grandson of the Prophet (pbuh) gave his Life Rather than Accept Tyranny, Hereditary Rule, Regime based on Corruption and Nepotism.
Let's Disentangle Husain (r.a.) from Layers of Sectarianism & Counter-Sectarianism
by Kaukab Siddique

The facts cannot be doubted. Husain, the beloved grandson of the Prophet Muhammad [p], the son of his beloved daughter Fatima [a.s] and Ali [r.a.],
along with his family and friends, was surrounded by a tribal army on the sands of Kerbala [now in Iraq]. All 72 of the pious innocents were ruthlessly slaughtered by a force which outnumbered them almost 50 to one.

The immediate cause of this horrific tragedy was that Husain [a.s.] refused to accept the legitimacy of the hereditary monarchy established by Yazeed ibn Muawiya. Husain [a.s] was proceeding from Madinah towards Kufa , from where he had received numerous letters of support urging him to accept leadership of the Muslim community, when the forces of Yazeed's governor in Kufa, ibn Ziyad, surrounded the little group of the pious at Kerbala.

The armies of Ibn Ziyad and Yazeed were aware that Husain's cause was just. They knew that he was the beloved grandson of the Prophet (pbuh). For the sake of power and tribal loyalty they slew the man of Allah and all male members of his family [with the exception of a minor son.]

Husain and those with him fought to the last, though they saw no chance of victory, and went down fighting, martyrs of Islam, ever alive in the Presence of Allah.

Where Muhammad (pbuh) had forgiven the tribal chieftains when he captured Makka, the descendants of those chiefs had no mercy on his grandson. Even the women of the family of Husain were humiliated and sent to the court of Yazeed as prisoners of war [where, the tyrant, fearful of an Islamic backlash, tried to make amends to the family and sent them back to Madina].

The horror of Karbala is especially etched in the collective consciousness of the Islamic community because the oppressors [Muslims in name], terrorized the people by chopping off Husain's [a.s] head as well of those of his companions. The 72 heads were paraded in Kufa and then sent to the "caliph" Yazeed in Damascus.

Thus the basic message of Husain ibn Ali [Allah be pleased with both] is:

Kingship and despotism have no place in Islam and must not be accepted.
Corrupt, self-imposed, hereditary rulers are not legitimate, however much power they might have.
There is great evil among many who call themselves "Muslims." There are many hypocrites who claim to be Muslims.
Oppression is worse than death. The Islamic leader accepts martyrdom rather than bow down before oppressive power.
The reward of the Hereafter is much greater than any amount of glory in this world.
THE PROBLEMS OF SECTARIANISM:

Shi'ite Sectarianism:

About 15 to 20% of the Muslim world today claims that they are "Shias," a self-righteous sect which keeps itself strictly apart from the mainstream of Islam. This sect claims Husain [a.s] as its central hero, second only to Ali [r.a.] the 4th Caliph.
Shi'aism seems to have emerged as a historic sense of sorrow at the suffering of the good and the pious, and frustration at the power and success of those of who defy Allah's laws.
Shi'iasm made the error of connecting Karbala with the issue of Imamat, the idea that Ali [r.a.] should have been the FIRST and not the 4th Caliph.
The Shi'as seem to have internalized their sorrow after the first uprisings of the people against the kings failed. Hence they started blaming not only Yazeed but also Ameer Muawiya, who had prepared the grounds for Yazeed's rule. However, Muawiya, a companion of the Prophet , though one of the latecomers to Islam, was definitely not the same kind of person as Yazeed. In fact Husain's elder brother, Hasan, r.a., had made peace with Ameer Muawiya.
From attacking Ameer Muawiya, the Shi'as moved in deeper into the roots of Islam and started attacking the legitimacy of the first three rightly guided Caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr, 'Umar and Uthman [Allah be pleased with them], on the assumption that they had "usurped" the right of Ali, r.a., to the Caliphate. The Shi'as carried on these attacks in spite of remonstrance from their own early imams like al-Baqir (died 113 Hijri) and Jafar as-Sadiq [may Allah bless them].
Finally the Shi'as started saying that ALL the sahaba [companions of the Prophet, pbuh], who are considered the best of humanity by all other Muslims, had GONE ASTRAY and only 4 [or some say 6] of them are to be respected. Many Shi'as make insulting remarks about 'Ayesha, r.a., the beloved wife of the Prophet, and about Abu Huraira, r.a., one of the top narrators of Hadith.
Though most of the majority Shi'a sect, the Ithna Asha'ari, or those who follow 12 Imams, are very close to most other Muslims in their basic beliefs, there are a few heterodox Shi'a sects which went to the extent of raising doubts about the Qur'an and outraged the Muslim world by claiming that the Angel should have gone to Ali, r.a., rather than Muhammad, pbuh.
SUNNITE SECTARIANISM

Many Sunnis do not know that Husain, r.a., was not the only one among the early greats of Islam who rejected Yazeed. The major stream of Islam, led by 'Ayesha, r.a., also rejected Yazeed, and Abdullah ibn Zubair, r.a., nephew of 'Ayesha, r.a., rose against Yazeed and defeated his forces. The Ummayad kings used gold to buy people, and Yazeed's successor finally isolated Ibn Zubair, r.a. Like Husain, ibn Zubair fought to the last and gave his life on land holier than Kerbala, that is the Ka'aba itself.

Many sunnis started viewing the Ummayad, Abbasid and other kings as "legitimate," both in response to Shi'aism and owing to the power and wealth of the kings.
Almost all authentic Sunni scholars condemn Yazeed and curse him [as he deserves to be cursed]. However, in our own times, a Sunni scholarship has developed, in reaction to Shi'ism's excesses, and supported by the narrow-minded rulers of "Saudi" Arabia, which supports Yazeed!
This Sunni revisionism of history took hold in Pakistan when a man named Mahmoud Abbasi started publishing lengthy polemical material, very cunningly documented, praising Muawiya and Yazeed as authentic Islamic rulers and Husain, a.s, as a minor irritant in history. [See his khilafate Muawiya-o-Yazeed, r.a., published from Pakistan in 1959, 1961 and 1962. It is the handbook of Sunni revisionism, fully justifiying all the atrocities of the kings.]
Abbasi also brought up the idea that Tabari's history of the tragedy of Karbala cannot be trusted because Tabari was a Shi'te and his source for Karbala was also a Shi'ite named Abu Mikhnaf. Many Sunnis, tired of Shi'a polemics, started accepting Abbasi's criticism of Abu Mikhnaf and with it the psychological denial that perhaps Karbala never happened.
Abbasi was not being honest. Although Abu Mikhnaf had Shi'ite sympathies, that was not a sectarian thing in his times. He died in 157 Hijri while Ashura and formalized mourning ceremonies attached to it were started by the Buwayhid ruler Muizz ad-Dawla in 351 Hijri.
Secondly, Abbasi did not realize that the historian Tabari (died 310 hijri) whose Tarikh al-Umam wa-al-Muluk is the most authentic history of early Islam, was not a Shi'ite and he accepted Abu Mikhnaf's narrations because these narrations had authentic chains of narration coming from ACTUAL EYE WITNESSES. [Perhaps Abbasi confused Tabari the historian with another Tabari, a minor figure who was a Shi'ite.]
Abu Mikhnaf's narrations on Karbala are also accepted by another classical historian, Ibn Kathir, who is actually opposed to Shi'ism. [Ibn Kathir died in 774 Hijri. He is famous for his history of Islam, al-Bidaya wa un-Nihaya]
The best Shi'ite narration of Karbala is that of Al-Mufid (died 413 Hijri) titled Kitab al-Irshad which shows that there are narratives of the tragedy other than those of Abu Mikhnaf which are quite authentic.
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[Muslim First]

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Cheek Striking in Mourning Al-Hussein… Shiite Fatwa ]

http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/englis ... waID=97141

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