Imam Hussain and Tawhid
By Dr. Maqsood Jafri

The real Tawhid is that one should only surrender to God. When someone fears any authority or power other than God he practically denies God. Tawhid means freedom, equality and justice. Wherever there is monarchy there can be no Tawhid. Some Muslim countries make tall claims of Tawhid but they are black spots and the vestiges of shame and ignominy on the bright brow of Islam. The minute study of the Torah, the Bible and the Quran approves this verity that all prophets upheld the standard of monotheism. Prophet Noah told his nation to abandon the worship of idols and worship one God but they declined. They made a mockery of his teachings and of his making an Ark in a waterless vicinity. Similarly, we find Hazrat Abraham breaking the idols and challenging Nimrod for his false claim of being a Deity. The great prophets like Hazrat Moses, Hazrat Jesus and Hazrat Mohammad raised a clarion call for the omnipotence and omniscience of one God. The core message of the Quran is monotheism.

On the conquest of Mecca the first thing that the holy prophet of Islam did was to break 365 idols placed in the Kaaba. The prophet raised Hazrat Ali on his shoulders and ordered him to dash all the icons. These idols represented different tribes. Lat, Manat and Uzza were considered the daughters of God which God emphatically condemned. Islam rejects the gods of pride, self and power. In Surah Shoorah God ordains the resolving of all social and political matters and disputes in the light of consensus and counselling. When Mouwiyya undemocratically and un-Islamically appointed his renegade, apostate, drunkard, womaniser, gambler, corrupt and cruel son Yazid as his successor, he demanded allegiance from Hazrat Imam Hussain. Amir Mouwiyya had told his son that four persons, Abdullah Ibn Omar, Hussain Ibn Ali, Abdullah Ibn Zubair and Abdul Rehman bin Abu Bakr, could be a potent threat to his dynasty and must be kept under surveillance. Mouwiyya had breached the treaty made with Hazrat Imam Hassan that

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