The trinity of idolatry and tyranny...

The trinity of idolatry and tyranny; Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab, and Abu Sufyan held their picks and began tearing down what the savior of humanity built. The third of the trinity and the leader of the Umayyad party, Abu Sufyan, was the bitterest of the all in his enmity and fighting against Islam. They followed every means and trick to strangle the voice of Islam and put out its light.

They spared no effort at all to resist that mission until a group of the believers in this mission were forced to emigrate to Abyssinia, while the Prophet (a.s) and his other companions suffered all kinds of persecution and pains for more than ten years until he was forced to leave his and his fathers’ homeland and emigrate to Yathrib. And there, too, Abu Sufyan chased him even in his emigration.

There was no banner of war raised against Islam, unless the Umayyads and their leader Abu Sufyan raised it and flamed its (war) fires. They lurked to put out the light of this mission, and provoked the feuds of the tribes against it until Allah granted His prophet the great victory and made him subject the tyrants of Quraysh and make them slaves according to the rules of war. However, the Prophet (a.s) pardoned and set them free saying to them, ‘Go!

You are free.’ He was satisfied with their apparent belief and the saying of the shahada by their tongues whereas their hearts were full of disbelief and grudge against Islam. They still lurked to efface Islam and pluck out its roots. “They did not become Muslims but they submitted unwillingly, and when they found supporters against Islam, they leapt on”. Nothing of Abu Sufyan and the Umayyds’ inners changed at all after their being Muslims, but the way of fight and struggle changed.

Abu Sufyan and Mu’awiya entered Islam just to do away with and plot against it, for an internal enemy is more able to plot and act than an external one. This enmity was spontaneous and eternal; and what is spontaneous and eternal cannot be removed. It was not a competition for wealth or authority, but it was the enmity of principles and natural opposition and dissention. It was the enmity of darkness to light, deviation to guidance, falseness to the truth, and injustice to justice.

Therefore, the Umayyads remained on their inner disbelief and deceit though they were considered as Muslims and they received the blessings of Islam, but Islam had never touched even one hair of theirs nor had it wetted a feather from their wings.