One Hundred Years of Turpitude

rd liggted building — Photo by أخٌ‌في‌الله on Unsplash

The reign of Banu Umayya is rarely talked about in the Muslim gatherings. Sunni lecturers can give a passing reference to this era that spanned almost a hundred years. Shia talk about this, although only in the context of what they did to the Ahl-e-Bait, the progeny of Prophet Muhammad PBUH and Hazrat Ali bin Abi Taalib. The machinations and nefarious deeds of the Umayyads were much greater than that and spanned almost all of Asia. Today I am going to write about that.

Sunnis do hold Yazid bin Muawiya in a bad light. As in, they consider him a villain. And a villain he was. But they consider Muawiyya a companion of the Holy Prophet PBUH and revere him as a scribe of the divine revelation that is the Holy Quran. If you read Sunni literature such as Taareekh ibne Kaseer, or Khillafat aur Malookiyat, Muaawiyya’s bad deeds are mentioned, but the salutation Hazrat is prefixed to his name. One wonders how such a Machiavellian person earns so much respect in Islam. Sunnis normally don’t discuss the many acts of this person in which he opposed Hazrat Ali RA. The latter even sacked him from the governorship of Syria, and he (the former) refused to obey his command. Nahj-ul-Balaagha, a compilation of sermons, letters, and other essays by Hazrat Ali RA is full of incidents in which he addressed Muaawiya in a way that will make you think that he was not a good person at all. Besides, there are so many other incidents that are listed in historical accounts that will make anybody think that he was not a noble person at all. For instance, consider the assassination of Maalik-e-Ashtar. He was poisoned on his way to Egypt, when he was sent there as a governor by Hazrat Ali. The way he was poisoned is a masterpiece in crime stories of any human era. If you want to learn how crime works, read this person’s life.

My purpose today is not to discuss Muaawiya, although books can be written about him. I want to talk about the rest of the almost dozen Umayyad caliphs, too. And I want to argue why criticizing them is extremely necessary in today’s day and age. Shias do talk about Umayyads. But they consider them bad only because of what they did to the Ahl-e-Bait. Yes, they literally killed generations of Imam Ali RA. But their crimes were more than that. And this is something the whole world, including Muslims and non-Muslims should know.

We are still in the month of Muharram. This is a month of mourning in Islam. This month, Hazrat Imam Hussain RA was martyred in Karbala. The battle of Karbala is the genocide of the family of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. If you spare precious time out of your life and listen to the events that led to the battle, the geopolitical situation of its time, and the account of this battle itself, you will realize that this is the biggest genocide in the history of mankind. It will make you so sombre and so sad that you will literally need a lot of time to come out of the grief. How a person upon a person in the camp of Imam Hussain RA was brutally murdered. How the arms of Hazrat Abbas RA were cut off. How Hazrat Ali Asghar RA, the youngest son of Hazrat Imam Hussain RA, was martyred by an arrow while he was in his arms. How Hazrat Ali Akbar RA was killed. How Shimar used to slap Bibi Sakeena RA on her cheeks. How she said farewell to Imam Hussain RA while he mounted his horse to go to the battlefield alone. How Imam Hussain RA asked Jawn (or John) bin Huwai, a Christian Freedman, on the night before the day of the battle to go home, and how he refused to do so, and how he embraced martyrdom on that day. How Imam Hussain fought like a lion. How he gathered corpses of his loved ones one by one. And how he was eventually martyred by the notorious cronies of Yazid. It is said that a group of Hussaini Brahmins of India witnessed the battle. When they saw the decapitation of the Imam, they slit their own throats open too. What is reported to happen after that is a miracle.

Yazid did not last for long and after a couple of Caliphs after him, Abdul Maalik bin Marwan became the so-called Caliph of the Muslims. In an earlier post, I wrote that Marwaan had tried to assassinate the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. The latter expelled him from Madina too. I also wrote in the past that Walid bin Abdul Maalik became the Caliph after him. I also wrote about the five events that happened in the year 712 that shaped the world in a way that influences us all in bad ways even today. I wrote about how he conquered Spain, India, and Central Asia this year. I also wrote that he martyred Hazrat Imam Zain ul Abideen RA, and that he built the Dome of the Rock over the second temple of Solomon. I argue that he shouldn’t have done that.

Walid was followed by Suleiman, and he was followed by Umar II. All Ummayads here except Umar II are largely considered corrupt, treacherous, and amoral by Muslim historians. Hisham is considered to have martyred both Hazrat Imam Baaqir and Hazrat Zaid. Both were sons of Hazrat Imam Zain ul Abideen. Hazrat Imam Jaffar As Saadiq RA is considered to have lived a difficult life under whatever remained of the Umayyad rule.

So all in all, this nefarious reign of Umayyads lasted more or less a hundred years, starting with the governorship of Syria of Muawiyya in the 640s and ending with the overtake of Abbasids in 750 AD. The huge landmasses they confiscated in the name of Islam would provide them ample free wealth to build palaces in Damascus. Islam as a religion is not about this.

Do you know that Umayyads even tried to conquer China? Prophet Muhammad PBUH never recommended that. Instead, there is a Hadith in which he says that seek knowledge even if you have to go as far as China. So China is taken in high esteem here. But its conquest was never foretold or recommended.

Similarly, Prophet Muhammad PBUH never talked about the conquest of Spain. Nor does the Holy Quran mention Spain even once. On the contrary, there are Hadith of Prophet Muhammad PBUH is which he says to leave the Ethiopians on their own. Or to leave the Turks on their own, meaning not to invade them. Muslims never invaded Ethiopia in respect for hosting the first batch of immigrants of Islam.

I urge everyone to read the Ashtiname of Prophet Muhammad PBUH which is a covenant of him to the Muslims for Christians. According to this, it is a sin to hurt a Christian or to confiscate their property or Churches. Modern scholarship has also extended this to Jews and Hindus, and I like this. I posted it in a comment on social media the other day, and a person commented that this is not an authentic document. I argue that it may as well not be authentic, but how is it authentic to inavde other countries? There is no mention of invasion in the Quran or the Hadith altogether.

Imam Hussian’s sister-in-law Mehrbaanu was married to an Indian King Chandragupta. The Imam was happy to migrate to India and the Indians were happy to assimilate him. However, Yazid’s cronies did not let him go. Later they invaded India only for the crime that she had given sanctuary to Bibi Ruqayya Bin-e-Ali. How tragic this is.

A large number of Muslims miss the Islamic rule in Spain. An argument is that Muslims were ruthlessly removed from Spain, and something to an extent of a genocide was done to them. My argument is that what were Muslims doing there for 780 years in the first place? Spain was a Christian country, and its inhabitants, the Spanish people, eventually took it back from them. What is bad about that? Similarly, in my previous post, I wrote that India has been a host to numerous invasions by warriors in the name of Islam for so many centuries.

Why do I write all of this, and why do I emphasize that Muslims should learn to disown and condemn the acts of the Umayyads? Muslims take pride in the glorious past of Islam as an enterprise that spanned large land masses. However, there is a number of problems with this. First of all, this is not nice to conquer other peoples countries unless there are gross human rights violations there. Secondly, even if there was evidence of human rights violations in Spain or India, a major problem is that the Umayyads did not have the legal or divine mandate to fix these issues. They were themselves guilty of human rights violations and murder against the family of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.

Muslims argue that past Muslims brought civilization and cultural development to these countries. The argument here is that these places were not deserted. Spain was privy of civilization before that, and it was a thriving country. If Muslims meant any good to them, they could help these countries by donating them grain, just like what the Ottomans did during the famine in Ireland. Even if a country has to be occupied, wouldn’t it be nice to return the country to its inhabitants when the internal threat has been removed?

Today, Spain is one of the few countries that stands at the forefront of diplomacy to condemn the genocide in Gaza. Wouldn’t it be a great idea to thank Spain for this and apologize to them for having occupied their country for so long? Same for Indians, we could extend some respect to them for being an immigrant-friendly country for so long.

Why is it important to criticize these aspects of the Umayyads in our day and age? I believe that it is extremely important for a number of reasons. Firstly, Prophet Muhammad PBUH was a guide for all humanity. By martyring his whole family generation after generation, the Umayyads highjacked the religion of Islam. Moreover, they institutionalized Islam just like the Roman Empire did with Christianity to control human beings. They did things apart from debauchery that are extremely opposed to the teachings of Islam. For instance, Islam would be against building huge palaces as much of the teachings of Islam, just like Christianity, are focused on the afterlife, and not on this worldly life on planet earth.

It is also very important to criticize the Umayyads because what is mostly being practiced today in the Muslim world is a shadow of that image. Much of the political practices in Pakistan and Arab countries are a reflection of that. Bribery is rampant in our countries. Prophet Muhammad PUBH said that both the taker and the giver of bribery belong to hell. Muawiya, however, used to bribe people to gain their favors. Nepotism is rampant in our culture. Arabs have huge piles of money. But their indulgence in debauchery just reminds us of the Umayyads. Moreover, the Indians just hate the ordinary Muslims as undesirable intruders.

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