# What kind of ruler was Yazid?

*Yazid: Muawiya's grave mistake, the attack on Madinah and Ibn Ziyad in Kufa*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iabl5vis3rg/s/11/
- Date: 2020-10-16 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Karbala & it's precursors | Mufti Abu Layth (35:11–40:51)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaBL5ViS3Rg&t=2111s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iabl5vis3rg/

**Topics:** Umayyads and Abbasids; Karbala

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth calls Muawiya's choice of Yazid a grave mistake: Yazid was a Muslim but a disappointment who attacked Madinah and installed the tyrant Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad in Kufa.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Muawiya's ultimate grave mistake was placing Yazid as his heir.

**Evidence, his words at 35:11:** “But what I feel an ultimate grave mistake of Muawiyah on was placing Yazid as his heir.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaBL5ViS3Rg&t=2111s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says Muawiya's ultimate grave mistake was placing Yazid as his heir, calling Yazid a disappointment and the opposite of his father, though he rejects as nonsense the claim that he was secretly a disbeliever and believes he was a Muslim. He says Yazid felt the rule was simply his due and saw himself in the line of the pre-Islamic Arab kings of the region, the Lakhmids and Ghassanids, and wanted to rule with an iron fist. Muawiya, he says, told Yazid he had handed him rule on a plate, with only five men of Quraysh yet to pledge, Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Husayn, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, yet Yazid made a mess of it, attacking Madinah in the event of al-Harrah for withholding its pledge. In Kufa he replaced the governor Nu'man ibn Bashir, a companion sympathetic to those who would not pledge, with Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, a tyrant whom Yazid personally disliked and mocked as a false claimant to the clan but appointed because he would keep Kufa under control.

## Sources and names cited

- Yazid ibn Mu'awiya
- Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
- Abdullah ibn Umar
- Ibn Abbas
- Husayn ibn Ali
- Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr
- Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr
- Nu'man ibn Bashir
- Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad
- the Lakhmids
- the Ghassanids
- the event of al-Harrah
- bay'ah

## Transcript (machine tier, 35:11–40:51)

[34:43] No, no, no." And people would Muawiyah would kind of be like, "No, I think we And he'd be like, "No, no, we can't. We can't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir, but we can't." And And the public But it worked. You see, my point is that this is how politics works, unfortunately. You see, you can't It's You know, it's not about like how much you fast and how much you pray and how much It's about how you manage people.

[35:11] And this is why I do kind of admire him because he he knew how to kind of handle people. But what I feel an ultimate grave mistake of Muawiyah on was placing Yazid as his heir. Yazid to me was an absolute na'alayk.

[35:35] You know, you know, you have this word na'alayk. This kind of like uh he was a disappointment of That's what he was. He was just a disappointment. Now, you know, there's things like people say, "Oh, they weren't He was a hidden hypocrite towards Islam." As in by hypocrite, I mean like towards Islam. Like inside he was a kafir and outside he was I think that's all nonsense and it's not true.

[36:02] I I do believe he was a Muslim. But he was a disappointment. He was the anti- the opposite of his father. He did not know how to play the game. He felt that, you know, this this thing of Bani Umayya was something that he just deserved. And he felt somehow You see, the Middle East had its own history by the way of Arab kings.

[36:28] The whole kings of the Lakhmid dynasty pre-Islam. And the the Ghassanids and it had like these whole the Manadhira like you can read about them the the different kings of the Arabs of the Middle East. He kind of felt that he was one of them. That I'm Because remember they're in Iraq. I mean I mean they're in Sorry, they're in Damascus, but it's close to Iraq. It's the Middle East.

[36:53] So, he feels that this he's part of that legacy. And he's You know, as soon as he comes in, he he wants to rule with this iron fist. And he wants to kind of Oh, and what's interesting is Muawiyah even tells him, "Look, I have made this so easy for you." This is what Muawiyah says to him. He says, "I've made this so easy for you.

[37:19] I've given this to you on a platter. Like it's handed to you." He says that I only see five people causing a a kind of like some turbulence. And they are Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, uh he says Hussein, Abdullah ibn Zubair, and Abdurrahman ibn Abi Bakr, the son of Abu Bakr.

[37:46] He says that these are the people of Quraysh that who have not given you bay'ah so far. They've not given you the pledge. And I can see them as causing some But look, really this is a done deal for you. I've handed it to you on a plate." And so, what does Yazid do? He goes and turns the whole thing into a god damn mess.

[38:13] Absolute Like you know, like you couldn't It's like It's bloody hell. Like somebody totally Like a Neanderthal couldn't have done a worse job than what he does. He begins with Waq'at al-Harrah. His first thing was, "Why have the people of Medina not given me bay'ah?" He attacks Medina.

[38:36] Literally attacks Medina. Like he sends his army. First of all, some of his governors, they agreeing to go, replaces them, sends someone else. By force, the iron fist. Forces them to subdue. And he only reigns a couple of years. And And his his the final year, it's to do with 61 Hijri, you've got Hussein, this incident. He's saying that these people haven't, you know, submitted to me.

[39:06] He wants their pledge of allegiance. So, this is what's going on. Now, what he does is there is a governor in Kufa called Nu'man ibn Bashir. Now, he is sympathetic. He's a Sahabi, great Sahabi on. He's sympathetic to those people who are not giving Yazid the pledge of allegiance.

[39:29] So, as in he's not encouraging them publicly, but he's sympathetic to them. So, he has him removed. And in his place, he places the son of Ziyad. Now, remember Ziyad I mentioned was a great warrior. You know the way Muawiyah had a disappointment of a child, Yazid. Ziyad had the ultimate disappointment.

[39:53] Obaid was an absolute tyrant. What's interesting is Yazid never ever liked Obaid. Because there's many descriptions of many narrations of because they would live within proximity that they would often argue. Uh this is during Muawiyah's time. He used to He used to He couldn't stand him and he felt that they are just kind of like commoners who have just made a false claim to the house of Bani Umayya.

[40:25] And he would say this openly sometimes that who the hell are you anyway? You know, just because like basically my dad pretended to allow your your dad to be his brother, you know, it doesn't make you royalty. So, these kind of arguments he would often have. But he does give him the governorship of Kufa because he knows that the guy is a tyrant and he will have it under control.

[40:50] And he does. He goes to Kufa and he's got it on lock. Now, in Kufa you have now we've fast forward we've come back to that point. You have a bunch of people, so many in their thousands, who are writing to Arabia. They're writing to Hussein. They are from the Shia to Ali. Uh they are from the Shia political Shia. They are telling Hussein, "Come here. We will give you our allegiance.

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/11. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iabl5vis3rg/s/11/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.