Day 3

The lesson

1. He was seven when the Prophet passed away (Danishnama-yi Imam Husayn). In the caliphate of his father, Imam Ali, he commanded the left wing at the Battle of Jamal (al-Jamal of al-Mufid) and the right wing at Siffin, where he also gave a speech urging the army to struggle (Waq'at Siffin of Nasr ibn Muzahim; Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub).
2. He stood by his brother Imam al-Hasan's peace with Mu'awiya, calling al-Hasan 'my Imam' (Ikhtiyar Ma'rifat al-Rijal of al-Tusi), and kept to the treaty after al-Hasan's martyrdom in 50 AH, when his own imamate began. To Kufans who wrote urging an uprising he answered: stay in your land and in your houses while Mu'awiya lives; if God brings something about while I live, I will write to you (Ansab al-Ashraf of al-Baladhuri; al-Akhbar al-Tiwal of al-Dinawari; al-Irshad).
3. He condemned Mu'awiya for killing Hujr ibn Adi, Amr ibn al-Hamiq al-Khuza'i and their companions, writing to him: I do not know a greater fitna for this umma than your rule over them (Tarikh Madinat Dimashq of Ibn Asakir; al-Tabaqat al-Kubra; Ikhtiyar Ma'rifat al-Rijal). When Mu'awiya called for allegiance to Yazid as his successor in 56 AH, he refused and, before the people, called Yazid unfit (al-Imama wa l-Siyasa of Ibn Qutayba; al-Bidaya wa l-Nihaya).

Questions

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Questions are written by AI from the lesson’s facts, and each answer was checked against its fact.