Imam Husayn’s Uprising Against Yazid

Question

Given the soundness of the hadith “The caliphate after me is thirty years,” and given that Hazrat Imam Hasan ﵁ relinquished the caliphate — we have heard this hadith through many channels. By what claim, then, did Hazrat Imam Husayn ﵁, having set out from noble Makka, come to be martyred at Karbala? Moreover, there is a mutawatir hadith in the Mishkat and elsewhere stating that most rulers will be unjust and will commit much oppression; the Companions ﵃ asked: will the Muslims, then, not oppose such rulers?

Answer

Hazrat Imam Husayn’s ﵁ uprising was not based on a claim to the rightly-guided caliphate of the Messenger ﷺ, which had expired after the passing of thirty years — it was based on delivering the subjects from the hand of an oppressor, and helping the oppressed against the oppressor is among the obligatory duties.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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