Yazid Must Be Cursed-Sunni Scholars

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

All those who oppose the cursing of Yazid should be aware of Qazi Thanaaullah Panipati, Ibn Assakir, Amro bin Bahr al-Laythi and Sibt ibn Jauzi. All of them are rated as great scholars by Ahle Sunnah and they all have accursed Yazid. These scholars have also urged Muslims to curse Yazid and given reason for their verdict. Of the four, Qazi was a  scholar of 13^th century. He had studied under Shah Wali Ullah Muhaddith-e-Dehalvi. His son Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddith Dehalvi used to call Panipati as ‘Baihaqi’ of his time in view of his commentary on Holy Quran and truthfulness in narrating the traditions. Qazi was also the Caliph of Mirza Mazhar Jane-Jana who was killed in Delhi for his remarks against observance of Muharram rituals in 1195 Hijri. Mirza held Qazi in very high esteem and used to address him as ‘Alam-Ul-Huda’(The standard of Guidance).His  commentary is known as, ‘Tafseer-e-Mazhari’ and is very popular among the believers.

His background is enough to prove that no Muslim can deny his views about Yazid as irrelevant or non-pertinent. Under the commentary of  Surah Noor (24): Verse 55,“…and whoever is ungrateful after this, these it is who are the transgressors…”, he records “It is possible that this verse refers to Yazid b. Muawiya who martyred the grandson of the Holy Prophet  and his companions; companions who were actually the members of the Prophet’s family.(Tafseer-e-Mazhari (Urdu), vol.8 p. 268).

Qazi further writes “Yazid and his associates did Kufr with the bounties of Allah. They deemed it as their aim to have a grudge against the progeny of the Holy Prophet murdered Imam Husain unjustly. Yazid did Kufr with the religion of Prophet to the extent that Yazid recited the following couplets over the killing of Imam Husain::
‘Where are my ancestors, they should come and see that I have taken revenge from the progeny of the Prophet and Bani Hashim’. And his last verse was “I would not be from the progeny of Jandab had I not taken revenge from the progeny of Ahmad for whatever they had done.”
Tafseer-e-Mazhari (Urdu), vol.5 p. 271, commentary of Surah Ibrahim (14):29.

Likewise Ibn Asaakir also endorses views of Qazi and writes:”.when Husain’s head was brought before Yazid, he recited the couplets of Ibn Zubairi: I wish my ancestors of Badr were here to see the fright of al-Khazraj (tribe) as the spears hit.((Al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah, vol.8 p. 204).

Amro bin Bahr al-Laythi, popularly known as Al- Jahidh, has also highlighted the un-Islamic character of Yazid . He says ““The evil deed which Yazid committed by killing Hussain (as) and took the daughters of Allah’s messenger as slaves and hit the lips of Hussain’s (head) with the stick, scared the people of Madina, destroyed the Kaaba, shows that he (Yazid) was rough, stone hearted, Nasibi, possessed bad thoughts, venom, hatred, hypocrite, was out of the pale of faith, Fasiq and an accursed, and who ever forbid cursing the accursed is himself an accursed person.”(Al-Risalah al-Hadyia Ashar, page 398).

On the basis of the above mentioned verses, Sibt ibn Jauzi had deemed Yazid to be a disbeliever. He did not stop at denouncing Yazid as an apostate but also compiled a book on why Yazid should be cursed. The scholar also advanced a fitting rebuttal to his supporters who refrain from cursing him on various pretexts like Yazid not being directly responsible for killing Imam Husain, his having sought forgiveness before dying, prohibition of cursing Muslims and reverting of curse to the one who curses. He titled his book appropriately as €˜Al-Rad ala al-Mutassib al-Aneed al-Maane min Zamme Yazida (˜Rebuttal to the stubborn fanatic who refrains from cursing Yazid).In view of his harsh words against Yazid and call to Muslims to curse him, certain pro-Yazidi scholars brand him as Imami whereas there is clear cut proof that he was a Sunni who was Hambali before embracing the Hanafi school.(More References available on request)