It is obvious that one of the fundamental goals of the divine messengers was to fight corrupt and oppressive ruling systems of their time. They tried to take measures to reform corruption and create a new system. The divine messengers had no other choice but to struggle against those elements of corruption and oppression as they were the source of evil on earth.

God, quoting from Prophet Saleh (AS) when he was advising his people, says in ayahs 151 and 152 of surah Shu’ara of the noble Qur’an, “So, be Godwary and obey me. And do not obey the bidding of the extravagant.”

Imam Hussein (AS) exactly followed the footsteps of his grandfather, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) as he introduced his uprising a reform, saying, “Surely, I have not risen up as an ambitious, greedy, rebellious and oppressive person; rather I seek reform in the Ummah of my grandfather.”

Imam Hussein, with these words, was trying to rule out all accusations and psychological war of the Umayyad regime which had portrayed the Imam’s uprising as a war of power. Thus, the Imam did his best to expose the real nature of Yazid and his hangers-on. The Imam made it clear that he sought to reform the society through eradication of corruption and reforming it. This was another mystery for perpetuity of Ashura and its creator, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam, Imam Hussein (AS). In fact, the Prophet once said, “The most righteous people are those who make more reforms.”

Now the question is: What is the first phase of reform in a society? The answer is that reform should begin in views and opinions. This is the very measure that the divine messengers took. God says in ayah 36 of surah Nahl: “And definitely, We raised in every nation a messenger, saying, ‘Worship Allah and shun the Satan.”

The monotheistic view for reform means to negate polytheistic powers which do not recognize any limits and boundaries. The noble Qur’an calls them as Tāghūt. They are not qualified at all to take the helms of power and rule a society, especially the Islamic Ummah. Imam Hussein (AS), with this view, showed who deserves to be the ruler and leader. He said, “The Imamate and leadership is the right of the one who acts according to the Book of God and practices on the basis of justice; and follows the truth and has devoted himself to God.”

The Umayyad usurper rulers, in contrast to the divine commands, not only were not in pursuit of establishment of justice, but also committed any crime to cement the foundations of their misrule. They went to such excesses that Imam Hussein (AS), addressing the entire humanity and the people of his time, said vociferously, “Don’t you see that the right is not practiced and the wrong is not forbidden. In such conditions, a faithful should get prepared for meeting his Lord.”

 Here Imam Hussein means a faithful must be ready for martyrdom as the circumstances are intolerable. His words indeed show the characteristics of the divine leaders. In ayah 73 of surah Anbiya, we read, “And We made them leaders who guided by Our command, and We revealed to them doing of good and maintenance of prayer and giving of alms, and Us alone did they worship.”

The despotic Umayyad rulers, especially Yazid, not only didn’t have any of these merits, but according to Imam Hussein, he worshipped the Satan instead of God. They changed God’s halal into haram and vice versa. They violated all divine sanctities like the Qur’an, the Ka’aba, and the Prophet. They denied revelation and prophethood. And they created the most harrowing tragedy in history, killing of Imam Hussein and taking his womenfolk and children as captives.

When Imam Hussein (AS) saw these ideological perversions and corruptions among the Islamic Ummah, he said, “My God, You know that we have not risen up in pursuit of power and wealth; but we seek to restore the signs of Your religion and make all-out and basic reform in Your cities, to make Your oppressed servants secure and set up Your forgotten limits.”

In short, we can say that Imam Hussein (AS) wanted to relieve the Islamic Ummah from the yoke of oppressive and corrupt rulers. Alas, thousands of people who had written letters to offer their help to the Imam, forgot their divine duty through intimidation or temptation and became the manifest example of ayah 179 of surah A’araf, “They have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. They are as livestock, nay, they are in worse error.”       

RM/SS