Alliance of Marwan with Muawiah and his wickedness

          Late Muhaddith e Qummi writes:

“After the incident of Jamal, Marwan joined hands with Mu’awiyah, and strived against Imam Ali (a.s.) due to the wickedness of his birth, his evil intentions and the animosity he had towards him, and he ruled twice over Medina after the martyrdom of his holiness.

          Ibn e Atheer says: On every Friday, he used to ascend the Holy Prophet’s pulpit and limitlessly curse Imam Ali (a.s.) in the presence of the ‘Muhajireen’ and ‘Ansaar’. And when Yazid bin Mu’awiyah attained power, Marwan was in Medina, and in the incident of ‘Harra’, he provoked Muslim bin Uqba for the killing of the people of Medina, and he was in Syria at the time of the caliphate of Mu’awiyah bin Yazid. When Mu’awiyah died, and the kingdom of the sons of Abu Sufiyan came to an end, and people pledged allegiance with the son of Zubair, Marwan decided to pledge allegiance with him as well and wanted to travel towards Mecca, a few men stopped him and tempted him towards caliphate. Marwan moved towards ‘Jabia’ which lies between Syria and Jordan. Amr bin Saeed bin al-Aas, better known as ‘Ashdaq’, promised Marwan that he will convince the people to pledge allegiance with him with the condition that the caliphate and the kingdom will be passed on to him after Marwan.

          Marwan said: After Khalid bin Yazid bin Mu’awiyah, caliphate will be yours. Ashdaq accepted his proposal and invited people towards his allegiance.

          The first people to pledge allegiance with him were the people of Jordan who made allegiance unwillingly due to the fear of their swords. Thereafter, the people of Syria and other cities pledged allegiance.

          Meanwhile, Marwan sent his representatives to different countries and himself travelled towards Egypt and surrounded the people of Egypt and in short, battled against them until they gave up their allegiance with Ibn e Zubair and came under the oath of Marwan.

          Then Marwan allotted his son Abdul Aziz as their governor and returned towards Syria. After entering Syria, he called for Hassan bin Malik, who was the chief of Qahtaan, in order to make sure that he doesn’t revolt after he is gone with the intention of caliphate; he warned and cautioned him against building such hopes and to keep away all the desires of caliphate and governance from his mind.

          When Hassan witnessed this, he stood up and delivered a sermon in which he invited the people to pledge allegiance with Abdul Malik bin Marwan after the demise of Marwan and Abul Aziz bin Marwan after the death of Abdul Malik; people pledged allegiance without any opposition.

          When this news was heard by Fakhta, the mother of Khalid bin Yazid who later became the wife of Marwan, she decided to kill Marwan because he broke his oath, as he had promised that the caliphate will be given to Khalid bin Yazid after his death. Hence, she mixed poison in milk and gave it to Marwan, when Marwan drank from it, his tongue became paralyzed and he began to count his days.

          Abdul Malik and all the other sons of Marwan came near him, Marwan indicated with his finger towards the mother of Khalid, that she is the one who poisoned him, but the mother of Khalid, with the intention of concealing the truth, said: ‘My father may be sacrificed on you, you love me so much that you are thinking about me even before your death and advising your sons regarding me’.

          And as per another narration, while Marwan was sleeping, Khalid’s mother placed a mat over his face and sat with all her maids on it until Marwan was choked to death.

          This incident occurred in the sixty fifth year of Hijri, Marwan lived for sixty three years and ruled as a caliph for nine months and a few days. He had twenty brothers, eight sisters, eleven sons and three daughters.

          In both the Shia and Sunni books, narrations regarding the curses upon him exist; and in the Sunni books, a narration is found in which Ayesha said to him:

          ‘I bear witness that the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) cursed your father while you were in his loin’.

          And in books like ‘Hayatul Haywaan’, ‘Tareekh e Khamees’ and ‘Akhbar ud-Duwal’, a narration has been quoted from the Mustadrak of Hakim which states:

          Abdur Rahman bin Awf states that no child took birth but he was brought to the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) so that his holiness may pray for him. When Marwan was brought near the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), his holiness said about him:

ھو وزغ بن الوزغ الملعون بن الملعون

          ‘He is a lizard and the son of a lizard, a cursed one and the son of a cursed one’.

          Hakim writes that this Hadith is absolutely authentic.

          And it is Hakim who narrate that:

                   ‘Amr bin Marra al-Jahni, a companion, narrates: Hakam bin Abil Aas sought permission to meet the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), his holiness recognised his voice and said: Let him in; Allah’s curse be upon him and that which comes into being from his loins except the believers who will be very few in number...”[1]