Yazid was Never Amirul Muminin

It is Not an Innovation of The Shi’as

In their pamphlet, the wahabis state: “The Sabai writers of Iraq concocted false, brutal and frightful traditions such that Husayn and his kith and kin were deprived of water, forced into a battle, and then beheaded. Such traditions are neither believable nor reliable, and are far from being true.”

Our reply: Where we can find our reply from books written in Kiswahili and available in local shops, there is no need to refer to books which may not be available, or which may have been written in languages unfamiliar to most of us. For that reason, let us review a book named Maisha ya Sayyidna Husayn 1999 ed. (The Biography of Sayyidna Husayn) authored by Sheikh Abdallah Saleh Farsy and published by Adam Traders of Mombasa.

On page 37 of this book, Sheikh Abdallah states that: “when he (Imam Husayn) told them that he was not prepared to surrender to Ubeydillah and then be humiliated and killed together with his followers, family members, both male and female, young and old, they surrounded them completely so that they should not be able to escape. They were deprived of water and food from the eighth to the tenth of the month (of Muharram) 61 (A.H.). Thus having been made weak through hunger and thirst, they were then killed.”

At this point, the author then names “the first eleven martyrs”, all of them belonging to the Prophet’s family. Again, on page 39 of the same book, he says that after this massacre, (their heads) were “dispatched with festivity and drum beats to the governor of Kufa. Each carrier was boasting in the presence of the governor, saying, ‘I killed so and so’ as they each received their prizes.” The Sheikh then adds: “The heads were then put on display.”

Our question is: Did these heads fall off their respective bodies on their own if they had not been severed?

2. Over and above this, they (the Wahabis), allege in their pamphlet that: “And the Shia’s claim that Husayn was beheaded is an utter lie.”

Our reply; Re-visit Sheikh Abdallahh’s book. On page 38 of his book, our Sheikh says that having been “surrounded from all sides and attacked with arrows, spears and swords, he (Imam Husayn) fell down and his head was severed by them (the oppressors). And by common account, this act was carried out by Shimr bin Ziljawshan …” Further more, he adds: “What is it that fortune and the love of fame cannot do!”

However, these oppressors were not satisfied by cutting off Imam Husayn’s head. Sheikh Abdallah Farsy explains (on page 39) that when the severed head was presented to the governor, Ubeydillah, the governor struck the head with a cane as if it were a drum.” When the head was presented to the Ruler himself (Yazid bin Muawiya), Sheikh says on page 40 that “he (the Ruler) repeated what his governor of Kufa had done before, holding a cane and poking at the teeth of Husayn…”

These are the writings of Sheikh Abdallah S. Farsy, who was the Chief Kadhi of Kenya and, prior to that, of Zanzibar. What! Do we count him “as a Sabai author from Iraq?” Was he a Shia? A “liar”? Was not he the same Sheikh of whom the “Ahlul Tawheed” were proud, then and now? What have they to say?