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Ahl al-Sunna on Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya

Ahl al-Sunna on Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya
by GF Haddad - Qasyoun@ziplip.com - Safar 1424



Ibn al-Jawzī in al-Radd `alā al-Muta`assib al-`Anīd al-Māni` min Dhammi Yazīd ("Refutation of the Obdurate Sectarian Who Forbids the Blame of Yazīd") asserts that the Ulema deemed it permissible to curse Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya - together with al-Hajjāj - as did the Hanafīs Hāfiz al-Dīn al-Kurdī (who said it was preferable not to as cited by al-Munāwī in Fayd. al-Qadīr §281) and Imām Sa`d al-Dīn al-Taftazānī in Sharh al-`Aqā'id al-Nasafiyya (p. 117=p. 102).


Imām Ibn H.ajar al-Haytamī in al-Sawā`iq al-Muhriqa cited Ibn al-Jawzī's attribution of this position to Imām Ahmad via Abū Ya`lā in his Mu`tamad fīl-Usūl, the latter narrating it from Sālih ibn Ahmad, from the Imām. However, Abū Muhammad al-Tamīmī in his `Aqīdat al-Imām Ahmad relates a contrary position from Imām Ahmad, as narrated by Abū Ya`lā's son in Tabaqāt al-Hanābila and Ibn Muflih in al-Maqsad al-Arshad:


He [Imām Ahmad] withheld saying anything about Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya but rather committed his matter to Allāh. He would refrain from speaking against anyone from the first century. But our [Hanbalī] colleagues differ concerning him [Yazīd]. Some declared it permissible to blame him because he terrified al-Madīna and the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - cursed whoever terrifies al-Madīna. Others withheld from taking any position. Imām Ahmad was asked about it and he said: 'People prayed behind him and took his alms.' Others considered him among the Muslims that sinned and it is better to refrain from taking any position in what is not obligatory. It was impermissible to curse any Muslim unless the Law provided a proof-text to that effect. For it is narrated and transmitted that to curse a Muslim is like killing him and that the Believer is not one given to cursing.i

From the above it can be seen that the claim that "Imām Ahmad ibn Hanbal permits that curses be pronounced against Yazīd" made by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Rasūl al-Barzanjī in al-Ishā`a fī Ashrāt al-Sā`a (Shukrī ed. p. 77 and p. 144) is not correct even though Ahmad did forbid narrating from him cf. Tabaqāt al-Hanābila (1:347) from Muhannā ibn Yahyā al-Shāmī.


Nor is the claim of Mullā `Alī al-Qārī correct in Sharh al-Shifā' (2:556) that "Imām Ahmad ibn Hanbal's view is that Yazīd committed kufr" although he correctly goes on to state that "the majority of Ahl al-Sunna do not condone cursing Yazīd as his kufr has not been definitely established."


Imām al-Ghazzālī, also, forbade the cursing of Yazīd cf. Ihyā' `Ulūm al-Dīn (3:108) as did many early and late Ulema:


  • - Al-Damīrī, Hayāt al-Hayawān, section on the Caliphs (2:186)

  • - Al-Haytamī's Fatāwā Hadīthiyya (p. 270);

  • - Al-Zabīdī, Ithāf al-Sādat al-Muttaqīn (7:488);

  • - Ibn `Abidīn, Hāshiya (2:587);

  • - `Abd al-Hay al-Lacknawī, Fatāwā (1:36);

  • - Gangohī, Fatāwā Rashīdiyya (1:3/26); etc.


The rightly-guided Caliph `Umar ibn `Abd al-`Azīz - Allāh be well-pleased with him - reportedly would say "rahimahullāh" after the name of Yazīd but when he heard a man call him "Amīr al-Mu'minīn" he had him lashed twenty times as narrated by Ibn Hajar in Lisān al-Mīzān (6:294).


The refusal of Imām al-Husayn ibn `Alī - Allāh be well-pleased with both of them - to declare allegiance to Yazīd is that of the generality of the Companions in Madīna and Makka including `Abd Allah ibn `Amr ibn al-`As and the totality of the veterans of Badr. It was predicted by Abū

Hurayra - Allāh be well-pleased with him - in many narrations pertaining to the Banū Umayya and to Yazīd specifically. Abū Hurayra decried the governor of Madīna Marwān ibn al-Hakam, warned of a terrible disaster about to befall the Arabs, and prayed for death before the year 60, the year Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya came to power, under whose rule three scandals took place: al-Husayn ibn `Alī was killed; Madīna was ransacked for three days (al-Harra) during which the Companions were massacred, after which no survivor of the battle of Badr was left on earth and a thousand unmarried women gave birth to fatherless children; finally, the Ka`ba was destroyed and burnt, at which time Yazīd died.


  • Abū Hurayra said: "Woe to the Arabs for a disaster that is fast approaching! The rule of young boys: if you obey them they shall enter you into the Fire, and if you disobey them they shall strike your necks with the sword."ii

  • Another version also from him states: "Woe to the Arabs for a disaster that is fast approaching at the turn of the year 60! The public trust will become spoils of war, almsgiving will be considered a fine, people will only bear witness for their friends, and lusts will govern."iii

  • `Umayr ibn Hāni' al-`Anasī narrated that Abū Hurayra used to walk in the marketplaces and say: "Hold on to the two temples [sides of the head] of Mu`āwiya! O Allāh, do not let me reach the year 60!"iv

  • "Seek refuge in Allāh from the turn of the year 60 and from the rule of young boys" (imārat al-s.ibyān). And he said: "The world will not pass before it first belongs to a mean fool son of a mean fool (luka` ibn luka`)."v Some versions have "and the rule of fools" (imārat al-sufahā').vi

  • The above reports show Abū Hurayra's familiarity with the report of Abū Sa`īd: "I heard the Messenger of Allāh - Allah bless and greet him - say: `There will be, after sixty years, {a later generation who have ruined worship and have followed lusts. But they will meet deception} (19:59). Then there will be a later generation who recite Qur'ān but it will not reach beyond their throats. Three types will be reciting the Qur'ān [at that time]: the Believer, the hypocrite, and the open rebel."vii

    Confirming the above is the famous saying of `Alī at Siffīn: "People! Do not loathe Mu`āwiya's leadership. If you were to lose him, you would see heads parting with their necks like colocynths (kal-hanzal)!"viii Al-Bayhaqī said: "`Alī and Abū Hurayra spoke such things only because they heard them from the Messenger of Allāh - Allah bless and greet him."ix

  • Ibn `Ajlān narrated that Abū Hurayra used to say: "Verily, I am reporting narrations today which, if I had said a word of them in the time of `Umar, my head would have rolled."x

  • "If I told you everything I knew, people would charge me with violating the law and they would say: Abū Hurayra is mad!" Another narration states: "You would have pelted me with dung."xi

  • `Abd Allāh ibn `Amr ibn al-`As stood weeping before the Ka`ba which had been destroyed and burnt by the army of Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakūnīxii in the year 63 and said: "People! By Allāh, if Abū Hurayra had informed you that you would be fighting the grandson of your Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - and burn the House of your Lord, you would have said there is no worse liar than Abū Hurayra! And now you know, therefore, expect Divine revenge."xiii

  • Abū Hurayra said: "I preserved from the Messenger of Allāh- Allah bless and greet him - two large vessels of knowledge. I disseminated the first one among the people. Were I to disseminate the second, my gullet would be cut."xiv Another version states: "I preserved three vessels, of which I disseminated two." Ibn H.ajar said the gist of this is that Abū Hurayra disseminated more than what he kept secret. Thus the first vessel in the hadīth of al-Bukhārī is larger than the second.

  • Abū Hurayra also said, "I heard the Messenger of Allāh - Allah bless and greet him - say: 'The destruction of my Community will take place at the hands of boys (ghilma) from the Quraysh.' I can name them if you wish. They are the Banū Fulān and the Banū Fulān."xv Another sound version has "boylings" (ughaylima).

  • Abū Hurayra also narrated that the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - said: "Those who will destroy the people are this particular clan (hādhā al-h.ayyu) of the Quraysh." They said, "What do you order us to do, Messenger of Allāh?" He replied: "If only the people stayed away from them (law anna al-nāsa i`tazalūhum)!"xvi This is precisely what Abū Dharr did. Ibn `Umar similarly said: "I heard the Messenger of Allāh - Allah bless and greet him - say: 'This particular clan (hayy) of the Quraysh shall remain safe until they turn away from their Religion into apostates.' A man stood up saying: 'Messenger of Allāh! Will I be in Paradise or in Hellfire?' The Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - answered, `In Paradise.' Another stood asking the same, whereupon the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - answered, 'In Hellfire.' Then [he said], `Say nothing to me as long as I say nothing to you. Were it not for fear that you would stop burying one another (lawlā an lā tadāfanū) I could certainly tell you about a great number of those who will be in the Fire and you would know who they are. If I am ordered to do it I shall certainly do it!'"xvii

  • Humayd ibn Mālik ibn Khuthaym was sitting with Abū Hurayra in his land of al-`Aqīq when a group of the people of Madīna came to him. They dismounted and came to him. Humayd said: "Abū Hurayra said [to me]: 'Go to my mother and say to her, Your son sends his salām and asks you to send us a little food.' I went and she gave me three loaves of bread and some olive oil and salt. I carried it to them. When I put it in front of them Abū Hurayra said: 'Allāhu akbar. Praise be to Allāh Who has sated us with bread after the time when our only food was the two black ones: water and dates!' The people did not leave anything except they ate it. When they went away, he said: 'Son of my brother, be kind to your sheep, wipe their mucus from them, improve their pastures, and pray in their vicinity, for they are from the animals of Paradise. By the One in Whose hand is my soul, there will soon come a time upon people when the flock of sheep will be dearer to its owner than the sons of Marwān!'"xviii


As for those who mouth an accusation of baghī (rebellion) against al-Husayn ibn 'Ali ibn Abī Tālib: Such should be identified and denounced by every Muslim as Nāsibīs, that sect which considers it part of its religion to attack the members of the Prophetic House. Al-Dhahabī said of Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya in Siyar A`lām al-Nubalā' (4:37-38):


He was strong, brave, deliberative, full of resolve, acumen, and eloquence. He composed good poetry. He was a stern, harsh, and coarse Nāsibī. He drank and was a reprobate. He inaugurated his Dawla with the killing of the Shahīd al-Husayn and closed it with the catastrophe of al-Harra. Hence the people despised him, he was not blessed in his life, and many took up arms against him after al-Husayn such as the people of Madīna - they rose for the sake of Allāh - and Mirdās ibn Udayya al-Hanzalī al-Basrī, Nāfi` ibn al-Azraq, Tawwāf ibn Mu`allā al-Sadūsī [three Khārijīs], and Ibn al-Zubayr in Makka.

And Allah knows best.

Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, and all his Companions.

Hajj Gibril

--

GF Haddad

Qasyoun@ziplip.com



i Ibn Abī Ya`lā, Tabaqāt (1:246, 2:273), al-Haytamī, al-Sawā`iq (2:635), Ibn Muflih., al-Maqsad al-Arshad (2:283).

ii Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba.

iii Narrated from Abū Hurayra by Ma`mar ibn Rāshid in his Jāmi` (Musannaf 11:373), al-Hākim (1990 ed. 4:530), and Nu`aym ibn Hammād in al-Fitan (2:703 §1981). Al-Tabarānī narrates something similar in al-Awsat. (2:106) with a weak chain cf. al-Haythamī (4:199).

iv Narrated from `Umayr ibn Hāni' al-`Anasī by Ibn `Asākir in Mukhtasar Tārīkh Dimashq (29:206) and by Ibn Sa`d (4:340-341) as well as al-Bayhaqī in the Dalā'il, al-Dhahabī in the Siyar, Ibn H.ajar in al-Isāba (7:443), and Ibn Kathīr in al-Bidāya (6:228-229). "Hold on to the two temples of his head" i.e. love him while you still can, as his epigones will not be so lovable.

v Narrated from Abū Sālih. the mu'adhdhin, from Abū Hurayra by Ahmad and Ibn Abī Shayba (7:461 §37235) with the number 70 cf. al-Haythamī (7:220) but cited by al-Suyūtī in Ziyādat al-Jāmi` al-Saghīr (§2040) and the Kanz (§30854) with the number 60. Also - second sentence only - from Abū Hurayra, Hāni` ibn Nyār, and Hudhayfa ibn al-Yamān by al-Tirmidhī (hasan) and Ahmad with sound chains cf. Fath. (1:129-131).

vi cf. Ibn `Abd al-Barr, al-Tamhīd (2:303) and al-Shawkānī, Nayl al-Awtār (9:167).

vii Narrated from Abū Sa`īd by Ahmad, al-Bukhārī in Khalq Af`āl al-`Ibād (p. 117), al-Tabarānī in al-Awsat (9:131), Ibn Hibbān (3:32 §755), and al-Hākim (1990 ed. 2:406 sahīh. and 4:590 isnād sahīh), all "with a good strong chain meeting the Sunan criteria": Ibn Kathīr, Bidāya (6:228) cf. al-Haythamī (6:231).

viii Narrated from al-Sha`bī from al-Hārith al-A`war by Ibn Abī Shayba (7:548 §37854).

ix Cited by Ibn Kathīr in al-Bidāya (6:228).

x Narrated by Ibn `Asākir in Mukhtasar Tārīkh Dimashq (29:192) and cited by al-Dhahabī.

xi Narrated by Ibn Sa`d (4:57, 2:119).

xii Yazīd ibn Mu`āwiya's general.

xiii Narrated from `Ubayd Allāh ibn Sa`īd by Ibn `Asākir in Tārīkh Dimashq (13:206) and cited by al-Dhahabī in the chapter on `Abd Allāh ibn `Amr in the Siyar (4:266).

xiv Narrated by al-Bukhārī.

xv Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Ahmad.

xvi Narrated by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and Ahmad.

xvii Narrated from Ibn `Umar by Abū Ya`lā (10:66 §5702) and, as part of a longer narration, by Ibn Abī Hātim in his `Ilal (2:256 §2262).

xviii Narrated by Mālik in his Muwatta'.