505 AH) was one of the earliest Sunni scholars to defend Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah.
Finding Excuses for YazidĪbu Hamed al-Ghazali (d.
Yazid, who ruled for only three years is associated with a series of bloody events, a gory chapter in Islamic history, the most important being the massacre of the grandson of the Prophet, Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Talib The killing of Al-Hussein, the prophet’s grandson, at the hand of Umayyad Caliph Yazid remains fertile ground for the Sunni-Shiite rift, which possibly started the day the prophet died for many Islam scholars.Īt the end of the year, Hussein bin Ali decided to travel to Al Kufa, after receiving dozens of pledges from his supporters (the Shiites) promising him victory and support and to revolt against Yazid.Įvents escalated and reached a climax on the tenth of Muharram in 61 AH, in the region of Karbala in Iraq, when the Umayyad army intercepted the path of Hussein and his family and friends, a battle broke out between the two parties, in which the grandson of the Prophet drowned in his blood after the Kufis failed him.įrom Ghazali to Ibn Khaldun. Al Hussein and Ibn al-Zubayr refused and left Madina heading for Mecca away from the powerful grip of the Umayyads.
In 60 AH / 679 AD, with the death of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, these differences erupted, and appeared on the political scene, after Yazid demanded that his opponents pledge allegiance to him. Ibn Katheer al-Dimashqi explains Mu'awiya's move in his book "The Beginning and the End" by saying: "He believed him to have worldly brilliance, the knowledge of warfare of the sons of kings, and thought that no other man is better to be the Caliph”.ĭespite the opposition of a group of companions of the prophet such as Hussein bin Ali and Abdullah bin Zubair, but they were forced to remain silent after they were threatened with death, according to the "History of the Prophets and Kings" of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari. After listening to advice from some of his followers and supporters he appointed his son Yazid as his heir and sent word to the Muslim settlements to receive their oath of allegiance (bay’ah). This allowed Mu'awiya to circumvent the terms of the peace treaty he had already agreed to. In 50 AH / 670 AD, Al-Hasan ibn Ali, the most fortunate in the line of succession died. In 41 AH (661 AD), the civil war between the Muslims ended, and a truce was brokered between Hassan bin Ali and the people of Iraq on the one hand, and Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan and the people of Syria on the other hand and it was agreed that Muawiya was to become the Caliph, establishing the Umayyad Caliphate.ĭespite the conflicting statements regarding the terms and conditions of the peace treaty most historical sources (like the Kitab al Tabaqat al Kubra of Ibn Sa’d) recount that the agreement stipulated that the succession would be determined after the death of Muawiya through Shura (consultation) among the Muslims without any interference from the first Umayyad caliph. Yazid, who ruled for only three years is associated with a series of bloody events, a gory chapter in Islamic history, the most important being the massacre of the grandson of the Prophet, Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Talib along with part of his family in Karbala in 61AH.ĭespite the catastrophic impact of this event on the history of Islam, many Sunni scholars and thinkers have scrambled to find justifications and excuses for Yazid in an attempt to exonerate & distance him from this incident while other Sunni scholars consider him degraded and have vilified and & execrated him.īetween the two camps, the most popular Sunni stance towards Yazid is that of neutrality Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah summarized this position in his book “The Complete Collection of Fatwas” “Yazid among the scholars of Islam is a king among kings They do not love him in the way they do the saints and the righteous and the right thing to do is what the Imams do, not to delve into love nor to vilify”.