Ismail Kamdar – Karbala’s Aftermath The Second Civil War
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AI: Transcript ©
The tragedy of Karbala,
we often speak about it as a one
stop incident in our history.
But
the reality is that Karbala was actually the
beginning
of a very dark period in our history.
It had a ripple effect across the Muslim
Ummah,
and it led to several other
negative events
that would take place over the next few
years.
And this is something that we we don't
talk about in our community for a number
of reasons.
Number 1, we are as a community, we
don't really study history. This is a major
problem. Right? History isn't really covered beyond
the Sira and the Cholovar Rashidin, and this
is, of course, after that time.
And that's problematic. We are we should be
familiar with every point in our history, in
every era of our history.
The other reason why it's not really covered
in our communities is that
some of our leaders assume that if we
talk about these incidents,
it may lead to sectarianism,
it may lead to doubts about the religion,
it may make Islam look bad,
and I don't agree with that.
I think as a community,
we are mature enough
that we can discuss our history
without
having to have negative
opinions about the people who came before us,
without having to,
without gaining some sectarianism
or doubts about the religion of it, then
we can have mature intellectual discussions about our
history of what actually happened.
So I just want to mention
about
today I will talk about what happens after
Karbala.
Right? That's what today gonna be about. What
happened after Karbala? Actually,
I may have to extend this over 3
or 4 because
a lot of things happen after Karbala.
Right? I'm gonna do this a bit backwards
in that I'm going to
I'm going to start with the lessons,
and then I'm gonna go into the historical
facts. I normally I narrate the story and
then I give the lessons.
Today, I'm going to give the lessons first,
and then we'll begin going into the history
because that history is going to go over
a few weeks.
Right?
The first lesson I want us to take
from this period of our history
is for us to understand
that while our religion
is from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
the people throughout our history are human.
You see many of us have this
misunderstanding
that, you know, before World War 1, it's
all Oliya
and and highest people that, you know, only
good things happen. We have this utopia, this
this mitt in our mind. They were just
all pious people and this is, you know,
where we take our din from.
And this myth also comes from the idea
of what we call Islamic history.
This is why when I teach history, I
always tell people it's not Islamic history, it's
Muslim history.
Islamic history is just the prophets and the
1st generation of the Sahaba.
Anything after that is Muslim history because these
are human beings.
What you will find with many of these
figures that we study is they have both
good and bad in there just like us.
You know, many of us, we have this
this picture in our mind that we want
to box people in history into heroes and
bullets.
But most people in history are not heroes
and bullets. They did normal people. Right? They
did good things at one point in their
life and bad things at other point in
their life. They're not you can't put them
into these boxes. History is much more complex
there, and you'll see this in the stories
that we go through. That some of the
people who are the heroes at one point
in the story,
they do bad things at other point in
the story. Right? Because these are human beings
dealing with very challenging times.
So we need to avoid
this labeling of everyone in history into the
point, into these boxes of heroes and villains.
Another
important thing that we need to keep in
mind,
when we study specifically this point in history,
the 1st 100 years,
we tend to back project our
back project our current,
our current
worldview and our current landscape of the Muslim
world to that era. What do I mean
by this?
Today, we are a lot of wars going
on in a Muslim world between Sunnis and
Shia. Right?
So some people go back and they read
Ali versus Muawiyah and Hussein versus Yazid and
Zayd ibn Ali versus your males, and they
read it as Sunni versus Shia.
This is a misreading of history
because Shi'ism doesn't exist at this point in
our history.
Right? These are certainly 2 parts of the
Quraysh, the Ahlulbayt and obeyance. They were part
of the Quraysh.
These are 2 tribes of the Quraysh fighting
over politics, fighting over power. In reality, both
tribes have the same Aqidah.
Both tribes follow the same Islam. They're not
fighting because the other groups are deviant or
the other group has a different aqeedah from
us or the other group is preaching a
new version of Islam. It's just political.
We read into it the sectarianism.
But at that time, there's no sectarianism. At
that time, it's pure politics.
Right? This is our misreading of history, then
we go back, everything, oh, this is Shia
versus Sunni. It's not Shia versus Sunni.
Right? It's Muslim versus Muslim. It's it's people
fighting over power. So this is
a
is that there has never been, at any
point in our history,
a time where everything is perfect and rosy.
Because every generation has their ups and downs.
Every generation has their times of ease and
their times of difficulty. Every generation goes through
trials and this is how our history goes.
The time of Abu Bakr and Umar, there
is ease. The time of Usman and Ali,
there's trials and tribulations.
The time of Muawiyah, there is ease. The
time of Yazid and what follows in tribulations.
And he goes like this up and down,
up and down, up and down.
Every generation go through the periods of ease
and the periods of tribulation.
This is
life, and this is something that we should
find comfort in.
Because sometimes we think that we are living
in the end times, that we are living
in the more difficult of situations. Everyone before
us, you know, they lived in the golden
age. In reality,
the generations before us faced many trials
worse than what we face today.
Right? We actually should be grateful that we
do have to look through the Mongol invasion
or the Crusaders invasion of of of of
Jerusalem
or what the reconquestor
did to Spain.
Every generation has their ups and downs. There
are a lot of bad things happen in
our history as well.
So let's get into the history of it.
Last week, we spoke about karma. Right? We
spoke about what happened at Karbala. What many
people don't realize is that Karbala
sets in motion
many events
that would
change the landscape of the Muslim world in
a variety of ways.
It is in many ways the catalyst of
what happens after it.
It's very similar
to the murder of Usman Radeel Anhu. Right?
These are two events that have a similar
and different timeline.
It's similar in some ways and different in
other ways.
Usman Radulanhu,
who was an Omayyad Khalifa,
he is murdered
and this leads to a civil war between
the Umayyads Mahawiya and the Ahlul Bayt Ali,
right?
One generation later, one of the Ahlul Bayt
Hussain is murdered and this leads to a
civil war between the Umayyads and other factions.
Right? So there's similarities here, but there's also
differences.
So what happens?
Karbala is not something that the Ummah just
let go.
It wasn't something that the Ummah just let
go of.
Rather, there were consequences.
The first thing that happens after Karbala
is haram, the battle of haram. What is
the battle of haram? Well, essentially the Muslims
of Madinah
would not sit back and do nothing about
Garmak.
They rebelled against Yazid
and they protested against Yazid and they said
he's not fit to be the Khalifa and
they want a new Khalifa.
So Yazid, he tells Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad, the
man who murdered Hussain,
to go for Madinah.
And
this shows even the tyrants had subconscious.
Says, I already have the blood of Ahlul
Bayt on my hands. I don't want the
blood of the people of Badina on my
hands. So he refuses to go. So even
here, these limits to his tyranny. He didn't
want to double the amount of murders on
his head.
So Yazid, he hires a bunch of mercenaries,
a bunch of thugs
led by a man called Muslim, Iba Uqba.
And this army of Muslim ibn Uqba they
invade Madinah
and they massacre the Muslims of Madinah
One of the worst incidents in our history.
In fact, historians
point to this incident
as the worst thing that Yazid did.
Why?
Because to Karbala,
Yazid didn't tell
his commander to do Karbala,
but he is guilty because he didn't fire
him or punish him for doing it. With
this word with the attack of the Holy
Land, the city of Nabi salalahu alayhi sallam,
the children and the grandchildren of the Sahaba,
This was a direct command
by Yazid,
where he told his army to attack Madinah,
and he gave them 3 days to do
whatever they want to the people of Madinah.
And
And I can't even mention the member what
his army did to the people of Madinah
in those 3 days.
Then he tells his army to go to
Makkah.
So what else happens after Karbala?
I already mentioned last week that Abdullah ibn
Zubayr, the great Sahabi, whose father and grandfather
from the Ashura,
Abdullah ibn Zubair refuses to give bay out
to Yazid. He takes over Makkah. He established
it at his own land.
When Karabala happens,
this is when Abdullah ibn Zubair says Yazid
is not first fit to be the Khalifa
I am the Khalifa so he declared himself
to be the Khalifa
So Yazid now sent Muslim and Ibn Uqbah
in his army after Makkah. And they surround
Makkah with catapults. And they warm Makkah.
And they destroy the Kaaba with catapults.
Right?
All in an attempt to get to Abdullah
ibn Zubayr.
It is the father of Allah and why
all of this is going on, Yazid dies.
Dies at a young age from some health
problem, a heart attack or something. You know,
Allah took him before he could do more
damage.
And everything we just mentioned, Yazid was only
the Khalifa for 3 years.
All of this mess happens in a 3
year period.
Right? All of this mess happens in a
3 year period.
But the death of Yazid is not the
end of it
because after he dies,
things get more complicated.
You see, Mahawiya Radialaanu, he had a logic
behind what he did. Right? Many people don't
agree with it, but it was a logic.
His logic was if I don't choose my
successor,
there will be civil war over who is
the Khalifa.
So he was right in his logic. He
was wrong in his choice of successor. He
didn't realize his son yet he was gonna
be such a tyrant. Right?
He was wrong in his choice. Now when
Yazid dies, what happens? There is a civil
war over the Philafin
because Yazid chooses his son Muawiyah Muawiyah the
second to be the Khalifa, but Muawiyah the
second is also sick and he dies 40
days later
And that's it. That's the end of the
line of Moawiya.
Many people think the Umayyads that we know
of is the descendants of Moawiya. They're not.
Another plot was coming. Right? Ma'awiya's,
dynasty is history people. Ma'awiya, Yazid, Ma'awiya the
second. And Muawiyah the second, we can't even
really count him. He dies 40 days after
his father.
So Muawiyah the second dies, who's the Khalifa?
Abdullah ibn Zubair has a lady declared himself
the Khalifa in Makkah.
Because of Karbala and Harrah, the majority of
the Muslim world has lost faith in Yazid
and his descendants.
Right? And by the way, Yazid was actually
a righteous man. He may if you if
you will actually had the proper khilaf and
maybe you would have turned things around. But
the Qadr of Allah, he also died. Yeah.
So at this point, the majority of the
Ummah
gives the pledge of allegiance to Abdullah ibn
Zubair
and the majority of the Ummah accepts Abdullah
ibn Zubair as the Khalifa of the Muslim
world
But, 2 plot twists.
In Kufa,
there is a group of people feeling guilty
about Karbakh.
So they rise up. They take power. They
establish their own,
and this becomes a separate state.
Right? Run by a group of rebels led
by a man called.
The other plot twist
in
Damascus, in Syria,
which is the heartland of the Omayyads.
The people of that man still want an
Omayyad ruler.
So Marwan ibn Hakam,
he sets himself up to be the Khalifa.
Right?
In Damascus.
Harwan ibn Hakam, he is the cousin of
Muawiyah and Usman. So in the Umayyah family,
there's 3 branches. Usman,
Muawiyah, Marwan. Right? These are 3 branches of
the Umayyah family. If we have Khalipa, some
all 3 branches.
So he's the cousin of Muawiyah and Usman.
He's the eldest of the Umayyads that's still
alive. Some people even say he was a
Sahabi. I I don't agree with that. I
think he was a nidahabin,
but some people say he was a Sahabi.
Right?
So even Hakam, he's a elderly man at
this time. He's the oldest of the Omegas.
He sets himself up as a Khalifa in
Damascus.
So what happens now? We have 3 people
claiming to be the Khalifa at the same
time. What do you think is going to
happen?
Civil war.
A civil war worse than the 1st civil
war because the 1st civil war lasted 4
or 5 years. The civil war between Abdullah
ibn Zubair and the Omayyads
last for 14 years.
The next 14 years of our history,
Muslims fighting each other over the hillafat.
Anyway,
Barani bin Hakam doesn't last long.
Right? His death is a
strange
story. So basically, to consolidate power, manwan ibn
Hakam marries the widow of Yazid.
He marries the widow of Yazid and tells
her let me be the Khalifa after me
your sons can be the Khalifa right
then when he marries her and he becomes
the Khalifa
he changes the law where his sons will
be the Khalifa, not her sons.
Right?
And
to make things worse,
in front of her sons to embarrass her
family, in front of her sons and the
entire court, he jokes about what he and
his wife got up to in the bedroom.
Very inappropriate things,
come enter them on
the. The son gets angry, he goes and
tells his mother what her husband is saying.
That night while he's sleeping, his his wife
kills him. So he's also in the Khalifa
for 8 months. Right?
Some of the historians say his wife suffocated
him with a pillow, others say she stabbed
him to death. Either way, she kills him
in his sleep. His son, Abdul Malik comes
into power.
And this is where we have to stop
her today
because this is where it gets complicated.
Because now over the next 13 years, you
have Abdul Malik ibn Marwan
fighting Abdullah ibn Zubair for the Khilakat. But
here's the thing,
both of these men did a lot of
good for the Ummah.
Both of these men, when you analyze their
lives outside of the civil war, they're actually
heroes of the Ummah.
This is where history gets complicated.
You can have 2 people who in of
themselves are good people, but when it comes
to power, they're gonna fight each other. So
what we're going to do inshallah
is next week, we'll give the biography of
Abdullah ibn Zubir, specifically about his khilafat and
how he dented. And the week after that,
we'll do the biography of Abdul Malik ibn
Marwan and specifically his
and how he dented.
Because Abdullah ibn Zubayr is the last of
the Sahaba to serve as Khalifa.
And it's a tragedy that many of us
don't even know he was a Khalifa.
Many of us think they were 4 Sahaba
where Khalifa. They were 7 Sahaba where Khalifa.
Right?
So we talk about Abdullah ibn Sabir
next week. And inshallah, the week after that,
we'll talk about Abdul Malik ibn Marwan, and
all of this is still
the consequences of Karma.
Right. Karbala has a ripple effect for more
than 14 years. It's the beginning of a
long period of many many events,
many, many negative events that derailed the Ummah
for a while.
And it's important that we study these and
we understand these because this is our history
and we must be honest about our history.
We offer
Many years ago,
maybe 6 or 8 years ago,
I was in,
Mombasa in Kenya
in a masjid giving a lecture after Margareb
about leadership lessons from the lives of the
Sahaba.
And I brought up the civil war,
and I derived some leadership lessons from both
Ali and Muwagya.
And after the lecture,
one mother approached me looking a bit upset
and she told me, why did you mention
the civil war?
I said, what do you mean? See, I
don't want my children to know these things
ever happened.
Why did you mention the civil war in
a public lecture? My children, our children don't
need to know this is how I fought
each other. They only need to know this
civil war's happened.
And I explained to her.
I explained to her that it's not good
or healthy
to hide our history from our children.
This will not have a positive impact on
them
because when you hide something,
it shows that you don't understand it and
you can't explain it properly.
And not just that, but they will hear
about it from other sources, especially in the
age of the Internet.
And they may hear about it from people
with ulterior motives.
Somebody who's trying to pull them into a
different sect, somebody who's trying to make them
doubt Islam, somebody who's trying to make them
leave Islam may bring up these incidents
and exaggerate about them and give some wrong
details about them and because they don't know
the true story,
they're gonna end up getting caught up in
this trap.
Therefore,
what is the main reason why I wish
to bring up these topics and talk about
it?
So that the younger generation know the actual
history.
So we don't fall for the traps of
the propaganda that's out there.
You know, one of
the good and bad things
about our honesty,
right, about us is our honesty.
As in Ummah, we are an honest Ummah
and our historians were honest.
This is why when you read history books
in some other nations, a lot of times
it's full of fairy tales, it's full of
myths, it's full of,
whitewashing,
right?
When you read our history books, it's full
of the bare facts.
It's full of facts that
are sometimes we don't like them, but they're
the facts. The historians
of the Muslim world
recorded things as they went
without sugar sugarcoating
it. And so this is how we need
to teach it as well.
So my final lesson for today
is that
as educators,
as parents,
as community leaders,
we need to revive
the study of history
and we need to be honest about our
history
and we need to have frank discussions about
our history
and we need to make sure the next
generation
know their history
and we shouldn't be shy of any specific
events in our history. We shouldn't overlook entire
periods in our history. We should rather have
discussions about them because this is all a
part of what made the Muslim world what
it is. As you will see in the
coming weeks, Abdul Malik ibn Marwan is the
one who establishes
the civilization of Islam.
All of these negative events but eventually they
enter the man literally making Muslims into a
superpower.
So everything
connects together, and you can't have missing pieces
to the puzzle. You have to talk about
the good and the bad to understand our
history. And so inshallah, we will continue next
week when we look at the biography of
Abdullah ibn Zubair and then we go after
with the biography of Abdul Malik ibn Marwan.
We ask