But I fought you so that I may rule over you and the...

But I fought you so that I may rule over you and the Almighty Allah has given this to me while you were not desirous of it.” [2] This speech indicates the mischievous aspects of Muawiyah because he on the basis of rulership and power indulged in bloodshed of Muslims and spread sorrow and grief in their houses.

We are compelled to investigate the political progress of Muawiyah’s regime and the great disasters which were contemporary to his period because according to our belief these were the factors that led to the rising of His Eminence, Imam Husain [1] Ruhul Islam , Pg.

296 [2] Life of Imam Hasan (a.s.) 2/262, Sharh Nahjul Balagha 16/46 (‘a) from that aspect that His Eminence witnessed the deprivation and problems of the Muslims in which they were involved and deviation and helplessness from social defects of Umayyad regime; therefore His Eminence (‘a) began his great revolution after the death of Muawiyah. It was a revolution aimed at social awakening and as a result uprooted the Umayyad rule and destroyed all its signs indications.

Some of Muawiyah’s political stances were as follows: Muawiyah’s Fiscal Policy Muawiyah in no way observed any policy that could be termed as a policy to solve economic or monetary problems.

It was solely aimed at acquiring wealth for himself and hoarding it under his control and spending it according to his desires and inclinations in such a way that he gave his great wealth to those who were his partisans while he deprived his opponents from even the ordinary share to which they were legally entitled. He used to seize properties and impose unjustified taxes.

Muawiyah’s regime had absolutely no sign of Islamic economics policy which was aimed at solving economic problems in the best way because Islamic fiscal policy was encouraged for increasing personal income and fighting unemployment and poverty and it considered the government wealth as the property of people which should be utilized for development and progress of the society.

While Muawiyah spread poverty and needfulness among the majority of the people and confined the hoarding of wealth for a minority who were connected to the regime. Some of the special features of his fiscal policy were as follows: Economic Deprivation Muawiyah imposed an oppressive economic policy in provinces that were opposed to his regime. He spread helplessness and needfulness in those provinces so that the people there may not be able to rise up in his opposition.