Mu’awiyah’s son Yazid continued the trend years later by...

Mu’awiyah’s son Yazid continued the trend years later by murdering the other grandson of the Prophet, Imam Husayn in the tragic massacre at Karbala in the year 61 ah, in which he then took the women and children of the Prophet’s household captive and dishonored them by parading them through Iraq and Syria.

Yazid broadened his reign of terror and havoc by allowing his soldiers to rape the women and pillage the city of Madinah in the year 62 ah and topped his rule of tyranny with setting out to destroy the Ka’abah in the year 63 ah. Anyone who indulges in such vile practices should not only have been banned from leading the Islamic government, but should have also been ostracized from the nation.

Yet, despite the inclinations of the Bani Umayyah and the curse of Allah upon them, both the first and the second caliphs involved them in their power structure and exposed the ummah to their treachery. They made ‘Uthman a senior aide (vizier) and made use of others, such as Mu’awiyah, Utbah, Yazid, Sa’eed Ibn al-Aas, al-Waleed Ibn Uqbah, and Uttab Ibn Usayd, while other worthy men went unrepresented.

Ironically, at one time, the first caliph confided to al-Mugheerah Ibn Shu’bah his fear that the Bani Umayyah posed a serious threat to Islam and said, “By Allah, Bani Umayyah will cause Islam to become one-eyed.”[^7] Yet ironically, ‘Umar privileged people from the Bani Umayyah over others in his government.

When Mu’awiyah was only 18 years old, ‘Umar appointed him governor of Syria, although ‘Umar himself had refused to join the dispatch of Usama Ibn Zayd upon the order of the Holy Prophet on the pretext that Usama was only 18; and he also objected to the caliphate of ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib because ‘Ali was too young - 33 years old.[^8] In response to the criticism that Mu’awiyah was too young to govern, ‘Umar retorted, “Are you criticizing me for appointing him?

I heard the Prophet say about Mu’awiyah, ‘God, make a guide ( hadi ), a guided one ( mahdi ), and guide the people by him.’”[^9] ‘Umar even knighted some well-known enemies of the Prophet and Islam with honored titles.