It must be said in truth that if Imam Hasan or Imam Husayn had
foughtMu’āwiyahtheywouldhavebeenkilledwithouttherebeingthe
leastbenefitforIslam.Theirdeathswouldhavehadnoeffectbeforethe
righteous-appearing policy of Mu’āwiyah, a competent politician who
emphasizedhis beinga companionofthe Holy Prophet,the “scribeof
the revelation,” and “uncle of the faithful” and who used every
stratagem possibleto preserve areligious guiseforhisrule. Moreover,
withhisabilitytoset thestagetoaccomplishhisdesireshecouldhave
hadthemkilledbytheirownpeopleandthenassumedastateofmourn-
ingandsoughttorevengetheirblood,justashesoughttogivetheim-
pression that he was avenging the killing of the third caliph.
* * *This lesson has been adopted with changes from ‘Allamah Sayyid
MuhammadHusaynat-Tabataba’i,Shi’aIslam,Qum.Forreferences,see
the original source.