ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imam Hasan and Caliphate War Preparations Many letters had been exchanged between Imam Hasan (as) and Muawiya who thought that through his cunning and threats he would be able to force the grandson of the Holy Prophet (saws) to resign, but he was very surprised when the Imam (as) did not take any notice of his tactics. Rather, he in turn put political pressure on Muawiya to give up the rebellious approach and pay allegiance to him.

After being defeated politically, Muawiya decided to take up arms and planned for a large scale attack on Iraq. He sent the following letter to his agents in Egypt, Jordan and various areas in Syria: "Almighty God in His grace gave the chance to one of His bondsmen to assassinate ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (as). So, he assassinated him. After him, his followers are suffering from disturbed conditions and division.

We have received letters from their respectable personalities wherein they have sought protection from us for themselves and their tribes. As soon as you receive this letter of mine, you should come to me with your total army and armament. For sure, you have taken revenge of your blood, have got your wishes fulfilled and Almighty God has killed the rebellious and our enemies.

My compliments and may God's blessings be on you." [^1] On Muawiya's orders, the armed forces started gathering from different areas, and when all, said to have numbered sixty thousand, had assembled, he marched towards Iraq. [^2] Doctor Husayn Muhammad Jafri writes that he had two main objectives in this attack: (1) Through the demonstration of armament and his army's strength, he wanted to force Imam Hasan (as) to abdicate the caliphate.

(2) On the failure of his above plan, he wanted to attack the Iraqi army before it could get well prepared for war. [^3] Imam Al-Mujtaba (as) was regularly receiving messages regarding the planned attack and the people of Kufa had realized that Muawiya was coming with a large army to attack them.

Though it had been the family tradition of the Hashmi tribe that they would not be the first to attack, Imam Al-Mujtaba (as) had a different motive for not trying to fight Muawiya, which was due to the attitude of the residents of Kufa itself. In the circumstances, the Imam (as) did not want to initiate the war, but now the situation was quite different. Muawiya had given him the ultimatum for war and was marching towards his territory.