Editing Hussain ibn Ali (section)

==Oath of Allegiance to Hussain==
In Kufa the leaders of the Shiʿa, on learning of Muawiya’s death, assembled again in the house of Solayman b. Sorad. They wrote to Hussain praising God for having destroyed the obstinate tyrant Mu’awiya, who had seized the rule of the Muslim community without its consent, appropriated its fayʾ (immovable properties acquired by conquest) and made it pass into the hands of the wealthy and powerful, who had killed their best men and retained the most evil among them. They urged Hussain to join them, since they had no [[imam]]. They informed him that they did not attend the Friday prayer with Mu’awiya’s governor Noʿman b. Bashir Ansari and would drive him out of the town as soon as Hussain agreed to come to them. They sent him in short order seven messages with bags of letters of support by Kufan warriors and tribal leaders. The first two of them arrived in Mecca on 10 Ramadan 60/13 June 680. Hussain wrote the Kufans that he understood from their letters that they had no imam and they wished him to come to unite them by right guidance. He informed them that he was sending his cousin [[Muslim ibn Aqil]] b. Abi Taleb to report to him on the situation. If he found them united as their letters indicated he would speedily join them, for it was the duty of the imam to act in accordance with the Koran, to uphold justice, to proclaim the truth, and to dedicate himself to the cause of God. 

Hussain was also visited by a Shiʿite supporter with two of his sons from Basra, where Shiʿite sentiment was otherwise limited. He then sent identical letters to the chiefs of the five divisions into which the Basran tribes were divided for administrative purposes. He wrote them that God had preferred the Prophet Muhammad above all His creatures and that his family were his legatees (awsiaʾ) and heirs of his position. Their people (Qoraysh) had illegitimately claimed the right which belonged exclusively to the Prophet’s family. The family had consented to their action for the sake of the unity of the community. Those who had seized the right of the Prophet’s family had set many things straight and had sought the truth. He, Hussain, prayed to God for mercy on them and on the Prophet’s family. He was now summoning them to the Book of God and the tradition (sunna) of His Prophet. The tradition had indeed been destroyed while innovation had been spread. Hussain promised to guide them on the path of righteousness if they would obey and follow him. The contents of the letter closely reflected the guideline set by [[ʿAli ibn Abi Talib|Ali]], who had strongly upheld the sole right of the family of the Prophet to leadership of the Muslim community but had also praised the conduct of the first caliphs Abu Bakr and Omar. While most of the recipients of the letter kept it secret, one of them suspected that it was a ploy of the governor [[ʿObayd-Allah Ibn Ziad|Obayd-Allah Ibn Ziad]] to test their loyalty and turned it over to him. Obayd-Allah seized and beheaded Hussain’s messenger and addressed a stern warning to the people of Basra.<ref>Tabari, II, pp. 235-36, 240-41</ref>