After the martyrdom of Imam Ali (P) in the 40th year (AH) by Khawarij (the outlawed rioters), according to a saying by the Messenger of Allah(P) and the last will of the Emir of the Pious Believers, Imam Ali (P),the Imamate and leadership of the Shi’a Muslims was transferred to Hassan ibn-Ali (P), the elder son of Imam Ali (P). Imam Hussain (P)who had been the permanent companion, colleague, and sympathizerof his brother, side by side with him used to guide the Islamic societyin accordance with Imam Hassan’s will, to an extent that when in orderto preserve the interests of the Islamic society and the dear Islam, andbased on a divine order from Almighty Allah Imam Hassan (P) who wasunder the bitter and sorrowful conditions of the time was urged to sign apeace treaty with Muawiyah , Imam Hussain (P) shared the grieves andsorrows of his brother and since he knew that peace was to the benefitof Islam and the Muslims he never deviated from the approach that hadbeen adopted by his brother, and always obeyed him wholeheartedly.Even when Muawiyah, resorting to his permanent impolite approach, inthe presence of Imam Hassan (P) and Imam Hussain (P) began cursingImam Ali (P) and Imam Hassan (P), Imam Hussain (P) stood up andgave him a crushing response, but when Imam Hassan (P) asked him toremain silent, he obeyed and sat back in his place. Then Imam Hassan(P) himself responded to Muawiyah most clearly and firmly, totallydefaming him before everyone at his palace, on the spot. When as a result of a plot hatched by Muawiyah and his permanentintrigues Imam Hassan (P) was martyred, Hussain (P) in accordancewith the advice of the Messenger of Allah (P) and the Emir of thePious Believers (P), became the Imam of the Islamic society and wascommissioned by God to lead the Muslims. Imam Hussain (P) whowas witness to the unjust and corrupt method of Muawiyah as the self-claimed caliph, which had imposed a great threat against the IslamicUmmah (nation) tried to reflect his opposition against the false method! Muawiyah despite the entire imposed limitations and hardships ofthe time. His opposition of course, due to the conditions of the time andthe status quo never led to an uprising. Imam Hussain (P) knew that ifhe would openly announce his intention and begin a clear campaignhe would have got killed before launching any movement and makingany fruitful move. Therefore, he chose to suffer and observe patience solong as Muawiyah was alive, and just like his brother he did not launcha public uprising. He just used to seriously criticize and condemn themoves made by Muawiyah, and raised hope in the hearts of the peoplethat in the near future he would make an effective move. During the period that Muawiyah was gaining the people’scovenants for yielding to being the crown prince of his corrupt son,Yazid, Imam Hussain (P) was seriously opposing him and never yieldedto vow covenant with Yazid, or to the acceptance of him as a crownprince, and he even at times addressed Muawiyah harshly and wrote ahotly worded letter to him, condemning his indecent move. Muawiyah, too, did not insist in getting covenant from him forYazid and the Imam (P) remained with his same firm stand, till the deathof Muawiyah. With the death of Muawiyah and coming to power of Yazid thepath was well paved for launching an open uprising and rioting againstthe state corruption and the unethical behavior of Yazid. But why was the uprising against Yazid clicked? It can definitely beclaimed that the period of Yazid’s rule, which lasted some four years, wasone of the darkest days of the Islamic history. Yazid had a hedonist anddegenerate personality and most probably drinking wine and gamblingwere dearer in his eyes than being the caliph of the Muslims. Muawiyahhad during his lifetime tried hard to present a reputable image of Yazidto the Islamic society. Yet, the majority of the society, and even the closerelatives of Muawiyah could not accept that big lie. At any rate, thefour-year rule of Yazid was marked with three of the bitterest events ofthe Islamic history. The first one was the most significant Ashura event,the martyrdom of Hussain ibn-Ali (P) and his faithful companions inKarbala, and being taken captive of his wife, his infallible son (P), hischildren and his other family members, as well as the wives and otherfamily members of his supporters and assistants in Karbala. The secondcatastrophe was the Horrah event and the cruel massacre of the peopleof Medina, raping the Muslim girls and women there on pretext of theirrelatives’ refraining from vowing covenant with Yazid, and committingother shameful crimes by the side of the Prophet’s holy shrine. Yazid’sagents did not leave anyone alive in the city of the Prophet (P), exceptthose who would vow covenant with Yazid, and anyone who refrainedI tom doing so was brutally martyred. And of course the third catastrophe,loo, was invading the Ka’ba, aimed at totally destroying God’s House,based on a direct order issued by Yazid and on pretext that Abdullah ibn-Zubair who resided near Ka’ba had not vowed covenant with Yazid.In the invasion Ka’ba was set ablaze and mostly destroyed using stone-thrower cannons, and incidentally, it was in the course of that greatcatastrophe that Yazid’s death at the age of 39 put an end to his wretchedhis and his dark report card for good in history. His conduct was socorrupt and shameful that many Shi’a and Sunni prominent scholarshave considered cursing him permissible. Yazid had declared himself caliph after the death of Muawiyah inthe second half of Rajab of the year 60 (AH) and in a letter addressedto Walid ibn-Utbah, the governor of Medina he had asked him to gainthe covenant of Hussain ibn-Ali (P), Abdullah ibn-Zubair, and Abdullahibn-Umar for him. When Yazid’s caliphate was announced with the darkrecord of his ethical and financial corruption many protest movementslook shape among the Muslims. In addition to those three people, anumber of others, including Abdul-Rahman ibn-Abibakr, the disciplesof the Prophet (P), the Khawarij, and the Shi’a Muslims in Iraq believedthat inheriting the caliphate was against the traditions of the Prophet (P)and the ruling methods of the four caliphs. Imam Hussain announced that the caliphate of Yazid was againstIslam and breaching the rules of the peace treaty that his brother ImamHassan (P) had signed with Yazid’s father, and thus refrained fromvowing covenant with Yazid. Abdullah ibn-Umar said that if caliphatecould be inherited from father to son, now I were a caliph after my latefather, and thus he even claimed that he, and not Yazid, was the caliphof the Muslims! Abdullah ibn-Zubair, too, who had fled from Medinato Mecca at night, in Mecca refrained from obeying Yazid, and beganinviting the people to oppose Yazid. Yet, among these three people, it was Imam Hussain’s upraisingthat remained in memories and minds for good, although it led to themartyrdom of him and his faithful followers. All the same, the incentivesand objectives of this upraising became great lessons for good for theentire noble freedom seekers of the world; those who would never trade-in the prestige and glamour of martyrdom and embracing death for thesacred cause of Allah, for yielding to the wretchedness of living underthe rule of tyrant rulers.