but strove throughout his life...

but strove throughout his life, to organise a group of sincere believers from among the Community, attentive to the objectives of the new religion, believing in the legitimacy of Ali's claims to the Imamate, and applying the Sunna of the Prophet in their daily lives.

When he finally came to power, after the death of Uthmans Imam Ali did not demand silence as regards economic and political corruption, but rather encouraged the Community to purify their hearts and their actions, and fought those Muslims who sought to exploit the Islamic expansion to their own ends, or inter- preted the laws of Islam according to their own desires and interests, at the expense of those of society at large.

Al-Hasan followed in the footsteps of his father in the fight against the power of the Jahiliyya, and against some of the Muslims, whose souls had not been purified by the fear of God, and who were exploiting the economic and political advantages of the Islamic expansion into Syria.

For this reason he continued to fight and encourage his followers in their struggle, but some of his followers refused to obey his com- mands, and one even tried to assassinate him in al-Mada'in, which resulted in al-Hasan's receiving a serious leg injury, which contributed to his later agreement to a truce.

The splits amongst the followers of al-Hasan, and the spread of the disturbances amongst his army on, one hand, and the unity of the opposition and their insistence on continued hostilities on the other, forced al-Hasan to sign the truce with Mu'awiya.

Some of the most important stipulations of this truce was that Mu'awiya would not endanger the life or the properties of al-Hasan's followers, or curse the People of the House, in the mosques, and that al-Husayn should succeed Mu'awiya on the death of the latter. Imam al-Husayn committed himself to acting according to the stipula- tions of this agreement, whereas the opposition, during the twenty years of Mu'awiya's rule, systematically broke the points of agreement one after another.

In the last years of his rule Mu'awiya designated Yazid as his successor, thus breaking his promise to al-Hasan, that al-Husayn would succeed him. Al-Husayn had been keeping a careful watch on the activities of Mu'awiya during his rule, and had, accordingly, prepared his followers for any eventuality.