176 No god but God
As mentioned, the Shi‘atu Ali first looked to Hasan, the eldest son
of Ali and Fatima, to represent them as their new leader. But when
Hasan died in 669—poisoned, his companions contended—their aspi-
rations fell upon Ali’s second son, Husayn. Unlike his older brother,
who had a great distaste for politics and its machinations, Husayn was
a natural leader who elicited fierce loyalty from his followers. After
Hasan’s death, the Shi‘atu Ali pressured Husayn to rise up immedi-
ately against Mu‘awiyah, pledging him their lives if necessary. But
Husayn refused to violate his brother’s treaty with the Caliph.
For eleven years, he bided his time in Medina, teaching, preach-
ing, and preserving the legacy of his family while waiting for the
Caliph to die. For eleven years he suffered the humiliation of having
to sit through public cursings of his father, Ali, something Mu‘awiyah
had made obligatory from every pulpit in the Empire. Finally, in 680,
Mu‘awiyah passed away, and soon afterward, a message arrived from
the Kufans begging Husayn to come to their city and take charge of
their rebellion against the tyrant’s son.
Although he had been awaiting this message for years, Husayn
hesitated, knowing all too well the fickle and discordant nature of the
Kufans and being unwilling to put his fate into their hands. He also
recognized the futility of raising an army of Iraqi malcontents against
the massive Syrian forces of the Caliph. At the same time, he could
not ignore his duty as the Prophet’s grandson to stand up against what
he considered to be the oppression of his community at the hands of
an illegitimate ruler.
Husayn’s decision was made for him when Yazid, recognizing the
threat he posed to his authority, summoned Husayn to appear before
his amir, Walid, in Medina to pledge his allegiance to Damascus.
However, when Husayn appeared before Walid and his aide, Marwan—
the same Marwan who had so disastrously advised Uthman and who
eventually seized the Umayyad Caliphate for himself—he managed to
put off his pledge by claiming that, as the representative of the ahl al-
bayt, he could better serve the Caliph if his allegiance were given in
public. Walid agreed and let him go. But Marwan was not fooled.
“If Husayn is allowed to leave, you shall never recapture him,” he
told Walid. “Either ask him to swear allegiance now or have him killed.”