" الکعبةواقعة الحرة: عندما
هاجم "مسلمون" الکعبة
THE HARRA INCIDENT:
WHEN “MUSLIMS” ATTACKED
THE KA`BA
By
Yasin T. Al-Jibouri
The
text below is originally published on pp. 170 – 179 of my book titled Kerbala
and Beyond: An Epic of Immortal Heroism which was published by AuthorHouse
of Bloomington, Indiana, and released to the public on August 26, 2011. It is
slightly edited from the original, and the editing includes the removal of
accented characters, Arabic salutations, etc. You are at liberty to quote this
text, reprint it, circulate it, use it in your thesis, dissertation, term
paper, post it on your web site or use it in any other way you see fit, and
when you do, rest assured that the Almighty will be pleased with you and will
reward you in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. This text contains
two photos of the site of Harrat Waqim near Medina which I obtained for you
from the Internet. May Allah enable all of us to achieve such a great blessing
beyond which there is no other blessing at all, Allahomma Aameen.
THE HARRA INCIDENT
This incident started on a
Wednesday, Thul-Hijja 28, 63 A.H./August
31, 683 A.D.
and was led by Abdullah ibn az-Zubair, a cousin of the
Prophet of Islam (P). Let us stop here to introduce the reader to this man
although he is too well known to any average student of Islamic history.
His full name is Abdullah ibn az-Zubair ibn al-Awwam. His mother was Asma’, the
oldest daughter of caliph Abu Bakr and older sister of Aisha, the youngest wife
of Prophet Muhammed (P). He was born in 1 A.H. and died in 73 A.H. (622 - 692 A.D.) and participated in
the Muslim invasions of Persia, Egypt and North Africa and sided with his
maternal aunt, Aisha, during the Battle of the Camel against Imam Ali ibn Abu
Talib (as). He lived most of his life in Medina and rebelled against the
government of Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah and against Umayyad rulers of Hijaz,
declaring himself caliph. He extended his influence to Iraq after the Battle of
Marj Rahit till al-Hajjaj ibn Yousuf al-Thaqafi
succeeded in putting an end to his reign, executing him in the most ruthless
way by nailing him to the Ka'ba..
Abdullah
ibn az-Zubair delivered a sermon once wherein he strongly condemned those
responsible for killing Imam al-Hussain (as), his family and friends,
describing Yazid as a shameless drunkard, a man who preferred to listen to
songs rather than to the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, who preferred wine
drinking over fasting and the company of his hunting party to any majlis
where the Qur’an is explained. Amr ibn Sa'd ibn al-`Aas was then governor of
Mecca, and he was quite ruthless in dealing with Abdullah
ibn az-Zubair, keeping him under constant surveillance, sending spies to his
meeting places and constantly harassing him. When Yazid heard about Ibn
az-Zubair’s denunciations, he pledged to have him chained, so he dispatched
some of his men with a silver chain, ordering them to tie Ibn az-Zubair with
it. His deputies passed by Medina on their way to Mecca and met with Marwan ibn
al-Hakam who joined them in their effort to arrest Ibn az-Zubair, but the party
failed in carrying out its mission, and more and more people pledged to assist
Ibn az-Zubair against Yazid.
Having come to know of such
failure, Yazid called to his presence ten men from among the most prominent
supporters of his bloody regime, and there are always those who support bloody
regimes in every time and clime. He ordered these ten men to meet with Ibn
az-Zubair to dissuade him from rebelling. But they, too, failed in their
attempt due to the public support Ibn az-Zubair was enjoying. Yazid now
resorted to deposing Mecca’s governor Amr ibn Sa`d and appointing al-Walid ibn
Utbah in his place, prompting Ibn az-Zubair to write Yazid to describe his
newly appointed governor as an idiot who never listened to advice nor enjoyed
any wisdom. Yazid deposed al-Walid ibn Utbah and replaced him with Othman ibn
Muhammed ibn Abu Sufyan, a young man who knew absolutely nothing about politics
or diplomacy.
The first action the new governor
undertook was dispatching a fact finding committee to Damascus to ascertain all
the rumors about Yazid being a corrupt bastard, a man unfit to rule. Among the
members of the mission were: Abdullah ibn Hanzalah
al-Ansari,
Abdullah ibn Abu Amr al-Makhzumi, al-Munthir ibn
az-Zubair, and a good number of the most prominent men of Hijaz. Yazid received
them with open arms and showered them with money and presents, but when they
returned, they cursed Yazid for his blasphemy and un-Islamic conduct, encouraging
people to revolt against him, using the money they had received from him to
finance the rebellion against him. While passing by Medina, the residents heard
the report of the members of this committee. They, therefore, deposed their
governor, Othman ibn Muhammed, and elected Abdullah
ibn Hanzalah as their new governor.
When the Umayyads saw how the
public turned against them, they sought refuge at the house of Marwan ibn
al-Hakam, cousin of caliph Othman ibn Affan, where they were besieged. The siege
was not lifted till those Umayyads solemnly swore not to take any measure
against those who laid the siege against them and not to help Yazid in any way
whatsoever, a pledge which they did not keep, for Abu Sufyan, Mu'awiyah and
Yazid were their mentors, and these men never honored a pledge as long as they
lived.
When the rebellion reached such a
point, Yazid realized that he had lost control over the people of Hijaz, and
that only an army sent against them from Damascus would do the job. He,
therefore, appointed a ruffian man named Muslim ibn Uqbah al-Murri who was, at
the time, quite advanced in age, to undertake such a task. Despite his age,
Muslim agreed to shoulder the responsibility of quelling the rebellion. An
army, hence, of twenty thousand strong set out from Damascus to quell the
rebellion in Hijaz with clear orders from Yazid to "... Invite the people
to renounce their rebellion and to renew their pledge of loyalty [to Yazid].
Give them three days to consider doing so. If they persist in their defiance,
let the soldiers have a free hand in the city for three days: Any money or
weapons or food they lay their hands on is theirs. Once the three days are
over, leave the people alone, and spare Ali son of al-Hussain (Imam
Zainul-`Abidin) (as), and admonish everyone to be good to him and show respect
to him, for he did not join the rebellion," as at-Tabari tells us on the
first pages of Vol. 4 of his Tarikh (Beirut, Lebanon: Al-Amira
Publishers, 1426 A.H./2005 A.D.) where more details are provided about this
horrific crime of burning the Ka`ba, the holiest of holies in Islam.

Harrat Waqim
Yazid’s troops first attacked Medina
then Mecca. In Medina, according to al-Mas'udi and al-Daynuri, they demolished
homes, raped women, girls and even children, plundered anything and everything
they found in their way, committing untold atrocities justified only by those
who follow Yazid and who do not curse or condemn him, hence they shall receive
their share of the Almighty’s condemnation on the Day of Judgment and shall be
lodged in hell in the company of Yazid and his likes. In his renown Tarikh, Ibn
Katheer tells us that as many as seven hundred men who knew the text of the
Holy Qur’an by heart, including three close sahabis of the Prophet (P),
were killed in that incident which is referred to in the books of history as
the Incident of the Harra, a reference to "Harrat Waqim" where
Yazid’s army first attacked. This place is named after a man belonging to the
Amaliqa (“the giants”) and is one of two Medina suburbs bearing the same name:
the eastern Harra, this same “Harrat Waqim,” located on the eastern side of Medina,
and the western Harra, as we are told by Imam Shihabud-Deen Abu Abdullah Yaqut ibn Abdullah al-Hamawi
ar-Rami al-Baghdadi, famous as Yaqut al-Hamawi, who describes several places
each one of which is called “Harra,” then he details Harrat Waqim (see image
below) and comments saying the following on pp. 287-288, Vol. 2, of his
voluminous work Mu'jam al-Buldan:

Harrat Waqim near Medina, Hijaz
It was at this Harra that the
famous “Harra Incident” took place during the lifetime of Yazid son of
Mu'awiyah in the year 63 A.H./683
A.D. The commander of the army, who had been appointed by Yazid, was Muslim ibn
Uqbah al-Murri who, on account of his ugly action, was called “al-musrif” (the
one who went to extremes in committing evil). He [Muslim] came to Harrat Waqim
and the people of Medina went out to fight him. He vanquished them, killing
three thousand and five hundred men from among the mawali, one thousand
and four hundred from among the Ansar, but some say one thousand and seven
hundred, and one thousand and three hundred men from among Quraish. His hosts
entered Medina. They confiscated wealth, arrested some people and raped women.
Eight hundred women became pregnant and gave birth, and the offspring were
called “the offspring of the Harra.” Then he brought prominent personalities to
swear the oath of allegiance to Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah and to declare that they
were slaves of Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah. Anyone who refused was killed.
The people of Medina had re-dug
the moat (khandaq) which had been dug during the Battle of the Moat,
preparations for which started at the beginning of the month of Shawwal, 5 A.H. (the end of February, 627 A.D.), according to the
orders of the Prophet (P) and in response to a suggestion presented to him by
the great sahabi Salman al-Farisi as they stood to defend themselves
against a huge army raised by Abu Sufyan to fight them. They also tried to
fortify their city with a bulwark.
Yazid’s army succeeded in putting
an end to the rebellion at a very high cost, but Abdullah
ibn az-Zubair survived unscathed. A number of highly respected sahaba
and tabi’een as well as narrators of hadith and Sunna were
branded like animals as an additional insult.
Having finished with the people
of Medina, Muslim, the aging commander of Yazid’s handpicked troops, marched to
Mecca. On the way, he camped at a place called al-Mushallal. There, he felt
that death was approaching him, so he called to his presence al-Haseen ibn
Nameer as-Sukuni and said to him, "O son of the donkey’s saddle! By Allah,
had I not felt that death was approaching me, I would never have given you
command of this army. But the commander of the faithful (meaning Yazid) had put
you second in command, and none can override his orders. Listen, therefore,
carefully to my will, and do not listen to any man from Quraish at all. Do not
stop the Syrians from slaughtering their foes, and do not stay for more than
three days before putting an end to the reprobate Ibn az-Zubair." This is
sated by at-Tabari on p. 381, Vol. 4, of the Arabic text of his famous
voluminous Tarikh where he provides details of this incident. Muslim
died and was buried there. Once the Syrian army left al-Mushallal, people dug
up his grave, took his corpse out and hanged it on a palm tree. When the army
came to know about this incident, a detachment was sent to investigate and to
kill those suspected of hanging the corpse which was buried again and soldiers
were assigned to guard it at all times. These details and many more are stated
on p. 251, Vol. 2, of al-Ya'qubi’s Tarikh.
Catapults
were installed around Mecca and in the vicinity of the Ka'ba, the holiest of
holies in Islam. Fireballs were hurled and the Ka'ba was soon in flames... Its
walls collapsed and were burnt, and its ceiling crumbled... According to pp.
71-72, Vol. 3, of al-Mas'udi’s voluminous book Muraj at-Thahab, a
thunderbolt hit the Syrian army on a Saturday, Rab'i I 27, 61 A.H./December 28, 680

Catapult: Ancient field artillery, powerful in
old wars
A.D., only eleven days before
Yazid’s death, burning eleven of the attackers. Pleas to spare the Ka'ba went
unheeded, and the fighting went beyond the three days’ deadline put by Muslim.
The fighting took place during the last days of the month of Muharram and
continued through the entire month of Safar. When the news that Yazid had died
reached Mecca, Ibn az-Zubair addressed the Syrians thus: "Your tyrant has
just died; so, whoever among you wishes to join the people (in their rebellion)
may do so or he may return to Syria." But the Syrians attacked him. The
people of Mecca saw the extent of savagery of the Syrian army, so they
collectively shielded Ibn az-Zubair and forced the army to retreat and to
confine itself to its camp. Slowly the Syrians slipped out of their camp and
joined the Umayyads in Mecca who sheltered them and transported them back to
Syria in small groups, as we are told by at-Tabari who details these events on
pp. 16-17, Vol. 7, of his Tarikh.
Abdullah
ibn az-Zubair declared himself as caliph and appointed a new governor for
Mecca, and the people of Hijaz enjoyed a measure of self-rule till the year 72 A.H./692 A.D. when
al-Hajjaj ibn Yousuf ath-Thaqafiwas ordered by the Umayyad "caliph"
then, namely Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan, to bring the people of Hijaz back under
his rule. It was in the month of Thul-Qida 72 A.H./March 692 A.D. that Mecca was
attacked again (some of the war equipment used then included five catapults,
predecessors of today’s field artillery) and burnt again and its governor was
deposed. A new governor loyal to the Umayyads was installed in his place, and
he was a Syrian named Thu’labah who demonstrated utmost disregard and
disrespect towards the Islamic tenets and towards the people of Hijaz while
still claiming to be a Muslim!
Detailing the events of the year 73 A.H./692-93, at-Tabari, on
p. 202, Vol. 7, of his Tarikh, narrates saying that when the Ka'ba was
burnt, a dark cloud came from the direction of Jiddah roaring with lightning
and thunder. It stood above the Ka`ba and poured its water on it and put the
fire out. Then it went to the Abu Qubays mountain area where its lightning
damaged one of the five catapults, killing four of the soldiers tending to it.
Another lightning hit, killing forty other men. This incident is narrated by
several other historians besides at-Tabari. It was not long before al-Hajjaj
was able to arrest and behead Ibn az-Zubair whose severed head he sent to
Damascus together with those of Abdullah ibn Safwan,
Imarah ibn Amr ibn Hazm and others. Those who carried the heads and displayed
them on the way in Medina were generously rewarded by Marwan ibn Abdul-Malik.
Not everyone supported the revolt
led by Abdullah ibn az-Zubair. The famous sahabi
and cousin of the Prophet (P), Ibn Abbas, that is, Abdullah
ibn Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib, was among those who did not support Ibn
az-Zubair, considering him as an opportunist. When Imam Hussain (as) was in
Mecca immediately after his departure from Medina, and when the Meccans
expressed their support for him, Abdullah ibn
az-Zubair isolated himself and did not show any support for the Imam (as),
considering him as a competitor for his own bid to power. When the Imam (as)
left Mecca, Abdullah ibn az-Zubair felt relieved. Ibn
Abbas composed poetry depicting such an attitude of Abdullah
ibn az-Zubair. The reader is already acquainted with Ibn Abbas in a footnote
above. Since Aisha could not get Ibn az-Zubair, son of her sister Asma’
daughter of caliph Abu Bakr, to become the caliph following the murder of her
cousin, caliph Othman ibn Affan, Ibn az-Zubair now tried on his own to acquire
the caliphate for himself, and he met with success though for a short while.
Having come to know that Abdullah ibn Abbas refused to swear the oath of allegiance to Ibn
az-Zubair, Yazid wrote him saying,
It has come to my knowledge that
the atheist son of az-Zubair invited you to swear the oath of allegiance to him
and to be obedient to him so that you might support him in his wrongdoing and
share in his sins, and that you refused and kept your distance from him because
Allah made you aware of our rights, we family members of the Prophet; so, may
He grant you the rewards due to those who maintain their ties of kinship, those
who are true to their promise. No matter what I forget, I shall never forget
how you always remained in contact with us, and how good the reward you have received,
the one due to those who obey and who are honored by being relatives of the
Messenger of Allah. Look, then, after your people, and look at those whom the
son of az-Zubair enchants with his words and promises and pull them away from
him, for they will listen to you more than they will to him; they would hear
you more than they would hear that renegade atheist, and peace be with you.
Ibn Abbas wrote Yazid back
saying,
"I received your letter
wherein you mentioned Ibn az-Zubair’s invitation to me to swear the oath of
allegiance to him, and that I refused due to recognizing your right. If that is
the case [as you claim], I desire nothing but being kind to you. But Allah
knows best what I intend to do. And you wrote me urging me to encourage people
to rally behind you and to discourage them from supporting Ibn az-Zubair...
Nay! Neither pleasure nor happiness is here for you; may your mouth be filled
with stones, for you are the one whose view is weak when you listened to your
own whims and desires, and it is you who is at fault and who shall perish! And
you wrote me urging me to hurry and to join my ties of kinship. Withhold your
own, man, for I shall withhold from you my affection and my support. By my
life, you do not give us of what is in your hand except very little while
withholding a lot; may your father lose you! Do you think that I will really
forget how you killed al-Hussain (as) and the youths of Banu Abdul-Muttalib,
the lanterns that shone in the dark, the stars of guidance, the lamp-posts of
piety, and how your horses trampled upon their bodies according to your
command, so they were left unburied, drenched in their blood on the desert
without any shrouds, nor were they buried, with the wind blowing on them and
the wolves invading them, and the heinas assaulting them till Allah sent them
people who do not have shirk running through their veins and who shrouded and
buried them...? From me and from them come supplications to Allah to torment
you! No matter what I forget, I shall never forget how you let loose on them
the da’iyy (pretender of following Islam) and the son of the da’iyy,
the one begotten by that promiscuous whore, the one whose lineage is distant,
whose father and mother are mean, the one because of whose adoption did your
father earn shame, sin, humiliation and abasement in the life of this world and
in the hereafter. This is so because the Messenger of Allah (as) said,
"The son is begotten by wedlock, whereas for the prostitute there are
stones." Your father claims that the son is out of wedlock, and it does
not harm the prostitute, and he accepts him as his son just as he does his
legitimate offspring! Your father killed the Sunnah with ignorance while
deliberately bringing to life all misguidance. And no matter what I forget, I
shall never forget how you chased al-Hussain (as) out of the sanctuary of the
Messenger of Allah [Medina] to that of Allah Almighty [Mecca], and how you
dispatched men to kill him there. You kept trying till you caused him to leave
Mecca and to go to Kufa pursued by your horsemen, with
your soldiers roaring at him like lions, O enemy of Allah, of His Messenger (as),
and of his Ahl al-Bayt (as)! Then you wrote Marjana’s son ordering him to face
al-Hussain (as) with his cavalry and infantry, with spears and swords. And you
wrote him ordering him to be swift in attacking him and not to give him time to
negotiate any settlement till you killed him and the youths of Banu
Abdul-Muttalib who belong to Ahl al-Bayt (as) with him, those from whom Allah
removed all abomination and whom He purified with a perfect purification. Such
are we, unlike your own uncouth fathers, the livers of donkeys! You knew fully
well that he was most prominent in the past and most cherished in the present,
had he only sought refuge in Mecca and permitted bloodshed in its sanctuary.
But he sought reconciliation, and he asked you to go back to your senses, yet
you went after the few who were in his company and desired to eradicate his Ahl
al-Bayt (as) as if you were killing dynasties from Turkey or from Kabul! How do
you conceive me as being friendly to you, and how dare you ask me to support
you?! You have killed my own brothers, and your sword is dripping with my
blood, and you are the one whom I seek for revenge. So if Allah wills, you shall
not be able to shed my blood, nor shall you be faster than me in seeking
revenge so you would be more swift in killing us just as the prophets are
killed, considering their blood equal to that of others. But the promise is
with Allah, and Allah suffices in supporting the wronged, and He seeks revenge
for the oppressed. What is truly amazing is your own transporting the daughters
of Abdul-Muttalib and their children to Syria. You see yourself as our
vanquisher, and that you have the right to humiliate us, although through me
and through them did Allah bestow blessings upon you and upon your slave
parents. By Allah! You welcome the evening and the day in security indifferent
to my wounds; so, let my own tongue wound you instead, and let my tying and
untying not provoke you to argue. Allah shall not give you a respite following
your killing of the Progeny of the Messenger of Allah (as) except for a very
short while before He takes you like a Mighty One, and He shall not take you
out of the life of this world except as an abased and dejected sinner; so,
enjoy your days, may you lose your father, as you please, for what you have
committed has surely made you abased in the sight of Allah."
Ibn Abbas never swore the oath of
allegiance to the tyrant Yazid till his death.
Following the revolt of Abdullah ibn az-Zubair, other revolts erupted throughout the Islamic
lands. One of them was the Revolt of the Tawwabeen (the penitents) which broke
out in Kufa in 65 A.H./684-85 A.D., then the revolt in 66 A.H./686 A.D. which was led
by al-Mukhtar who killed all those who had participated in killing al-Hussain (as).
The Alawites (Alawids) followed with revolts of their own, including that of
the great martyr Zaid ibn Ali and his son Yahya and finally the revolt of the
Abbasides who put an end to the Umayyads’ rule for good.

The Ka`ba and Mosque in 1880 A.D.

A fairly recent photo of the Ka`ba

The Ka`ba and Mosque before the Clock Tower was built

The Clock Tower overlooking the Ka`ba and Haram Mosque
al-Hajjaj
ibn Yusuf at-Thaqafi’s cruelty and disrespect for Islamic tenets are matched
only by those demonstrated by Yazid son of Mu`awiyah. His date of birth is
unknown, but he died in 95 A.H./762
A.D. He was born at Ta’if, not far from Mecca,
and was famous for his loyalty to the Umayyads. Marwan ibn al-Hakam, cousin and
bearer of the seal of caliph Othman ibn Affan, placed him in command of an army
which he raised in order to subject Hijaz to the Umayyads’ control, rewarding
him for his success by appointing him as governor of Mecca and Medina to which
he later added Ta’if and Iraq. He founded the city of Wasit
(located in Iraq midway
between Basra
and Kufa), where he died, and expanded the territory under the Umayyads’
control. He also crushed the Kharijites. He was proverbial in his ruthlessness
and love for shedding blood. His passion for shedding blood can be understood
from the way he was born. Having just been born, he refused to take his
mother’s breast. It is said that Satan appeared in human form and said that the
newborn had to be given the blood of animals to drink and to be fed with
insects for four days. His cruelty towards those whom he jailed was unheard of.
His prisoners were fed with bread mixed with ashes. At the time of his death,
may he be placed in the deepest depths of hell, he and his Umayyad mentors and
their supporters, his prisoners numbered 33,000 men and women, 16,000 of whom
were completely naked and left to sleep without any blanket or sheet covering
whatsoever… Refer to what al-Jahiz has written about him.
Abdullah ibn Hanzalah belonged to the Ansar of the Aws tribe, and he
was one of the most famous of the tabi’een, a man of legendary courage
and fortitude. When the people of Medina rebelled against Yazid, they chose him
as their governor. He was killed during the Harra incident.
This
text is compiled from the contents of p. 250, Vol. 7, of Mujma az-Zawa’id
of Abū Bakr al-Haythami, p. 18, Vol. 4 (first edition), of al-Balathiri’s book Ansab
al-`Aashraf, p. 77, Vol. 2, of al-Khawarizmi’s great book Maqtal
al-Hussain (ﻉ), p. 50, Vol. 4, and of Ibn Katheer’s book At-Tarikh
al-Kamil, where the events of the year 64 A.H./684 A.D. are detailed, an account which
agrees with what is recorded in al-Mas'udi’s book Muraj at-Thahab.