Umayyad Attempts in Distorting the Image of Imam Hussein( peace be upon him) critical review

Abstract

Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan dominated the Muslim nation with deception and cunning, permitting their blood, following abhorrent methods (the end justifies the means), and establishing a new Islamic era that lasted for nearly a century. During this period, history documented the Umayyads’ and their rulers’ violations of religious and human values and their injustice. Their injustice and arrogance reached a point where they forced the Muslim nation to pledge allegiance to Yazid bin Muawiyah and acknowledge that they are slaves and serfs.

At a time when fear spread among all Muslims, and the religion of the noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was about to be transformed, Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) started a revolt and sacrificed everything for the sake of reform.

It was expected for the Umayyad media to strive hard to undermine such a personality, who asserted that preserving the religion and guaranteeing human freedom is above all considerations and everything should be licensed before it. The Umayyad activity represented several attempts to distort the Husseini image. In this research, we have come across – with the available time and effort - a couple of wicked examples that reveal an aspect of the reality of Umayyad politics.

Among these attempts were portraying personal envy between Imam Hussein (a.s) and Yazid and employing a policy of disruptive propaganda to control their opposition in Kufa who wanted to rally under his banner, by falsely attributing the Imam with weakness. Also, from those evil attempts was the promotion of the idea that Al-Hussein bin Ali (peace be upon him) - with his revolution - strayed from religion and was a tyrant who split the Islamic nation, as well as titling the Imam and his companions as Kharijites. This was so they could claim that he must be killed according to the true Sharia.

These attempts and others are studied and rebuked in this article.