ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imam Hasan and Caliphate The Formal Announcement of Peace After a long struggle, the understanding between Imam Hasan (as) and Muawiya had been reached on various issues. The Imam (as) had, after the acceptance of the conditions demanded by him, agreed to hand over power to Muawiya for a specified period.

During this period, high powered delegations had been exchanged and signatures from the leaders on both sides on the terms of the agreement had been obtained. Particularly, from the Amir of Syria, a number of firm commitments had been taken, and he had vouched, affirming Almighty God as witness, that he would fully abide by the terms and conditions of the Peace Treaty. Although all the formalities of the treaty had been completed, yet the formal announcement of the treaty was awaited.

After the treaty, Imam Al-Mujtaba (as) instructed Qais bin Sa'd, through a letter, that he should return to Kufa and he himself decided to go back to Kufa along with the rest of the army at Madain. According to the historians, Qais addressed his army after receiving the Imam (as)'s letter. After analyzing the existing situation, he told the soldiers that they had to decide whether they wanted to continue the fight without the Imam (as) or they would accept the allegiance of a misguided person.

Just after his speech, all the soldiers in one voice agreed to a ceasefire, after which he had no hesitation in leaving the northern parts of Iraq, where he had laid a siege against the Syrian army.[^1] If this is correct, then it is not difficult to conclude that Qais was personally strictly against giving allegiance to Muawiya. He considered war as the only solution of the problem.

However, it seems that he could not fully appreciate the very poor conditions in Iraq and the prevailing dangerous situation, and was carried away by emotions. Despite his intelligence, bravery, military skills and honesty, he had an element of disagreement with the Central command.

Perhaps that was the reason why he was not given the exclusive command of the vanguard unit, which was given to a three member consultative council, under which Ubaidullah bin Abbas was the senior one and Qais was assigned the number two position. The armies of Syria and Iraq had gathered in strength at Nakhaila, a suburb of Kufa city.