the following verse: "0 you who believe, obey God and His Messenger and the people of authority from among you, ."

The beginning of the verse which commands us to obey God and His Messenger contradicts the obedience of a

transgressor ruler who legalizes what is forbidden in Islam. When we obey this Ruler, we would be disobeying God and His Messenger. Despite all of this, Muslim masses and scholars took the end of the verse and overlooked its beginning. They ignorantly or deliberately identified the obedience of God and his Messenger with the obedience of the unjust rulers. Thus, when a transgressor ruler kills innocent Muslims because they are opposed to his un-Islamic behavior, his action would be justified.

Muslim in his Sahih (part 12, page 40) reported the following: "Abdullah Ibn Omar came to (his cousin) Abdullah Ibn Mutee when the Battle of ‘Al-Harrah’ took place. (In this Battle, the sacred City of the Prophet was defiled by Yazeed’s army and its righteous people were massacred.) Spread the cushion for Abu Abdul-Rahman (Abdullah lbn Omar), Abdullah Ibn Mutee said to his aides. But Ibn Omar said to him: 1 did not come here to sit down; I came to report a hadith. I heard the Messenger of God saying: ‘Whoever stands in open disobedience (of a caliph to whom he owes obedience) will meet God on the Day of Judgment lacking any excuse. And whoever dies owing no allegiance to a caliph, dies in a pre-Islamic state.’

By reporting this hadith, Ibn Omar was trying to prevent his cousin Ibn Mutee from revolting against Yazeed, urging him to give allegiance to the wicked caliph who demolished the Kaaba, defiled the sanctity of Medina, and killed the lmam Hussein.

This shows that it was possible for a hypocritical government to cancel Islam gradually, and to deviate completely from the path of the Prophet Mohammad.

Muaweyah fought the Imam Ali in a war in which 45,000 Muslims died. And the Muslims of his province did not see any wrong in what Muaweyah and they had done. Yet, the Holy Qur’an (chapter 4, verse 93) declares that whoever deliberately kills one believer, he would live eternally in Hell.

The consequence of such attitude by the Muslims in obeying corrupt leaders is that an un-Islamic ideology would be accepted and a real Islamic ideology would be rejected. The majority of the Muslims would be supporters of a corrupt ruler and ready to fight his opponents who see in his words and deeds the antithesis of the Islamic teaching. Yet these opponents are usually afraid to defy such an unjust ruler, because he controls the military and financial power of the nation.

Under such circumstances, it would be necessary for the leader of the opposition to do what is beyond his ability. His followers arc less than a minority and the government is despotic, determined to eliminate any opposition, by the most savage means.

The Imam Hussein realized that the Omayyad leadership is ready to change the Faith of Islam and to abolish it. Nothing would be prohibited or too sacred to a man like Muaweyah, who tried to kill by thirst, the Imam Ali and his army, including the two grandsons of the Prophet: Imam Hassan, and Imam Hussein.

The Imam Hussein knew that Yazeed was, by far, less religious than his father Muaweyah.

The whole nation had failed to stand up to Yazeed. They succumbed to his will and agreed with him. As deviation and revision became the normal way of life in the Islamic government, the future outcome became obvious. Revision, deviation and regression towards the pre-Islamic state would continue until gradually the Faith was abolished.

Witnessing the failure of the whole nation, the Imam took upon himself to do alone what the whole nation could not do. One man carries the responsibility of the whole Muslim World. Should he fear to do so, the continuity of Islam would be in a serious jeopardy. The continuity of Islam needed a protector. It needed the unique