Muharram Al Haram is the most important month of Islamic calendar. A great saint from the Prophet’s Family is reported as saying, “Allah’s Messenger had desired the caliphate of Ali, but it was made known to him from the Unseen that the •will of Allah Almighty was different. He then abandoned his desire, submitting himself to Allah’s will.” One of the reasons why Allah’s •will was different could have been that after the demise of Allah’s Messenger, when the Companions were more than ever in need of alliance and unity, if Ali had taken the leadership, this would most probably have aroused in many persons and tribes a tendency to compete, because of his pious, fearless, dignified, heroic and independent personality and his
•widely known courage -as was indeed the case during his caliphate- and divisions among the believers would have resulted. Another reason for the delay of Ali’s caliphate is the following: at the time of his caliphate, the Muslim community, which had rapidly developing through the intermingling of many tribes and peoples, possessed such traits as reflected the opinions of the seventy-three sects that Allah’s Messenger had predicted would evolve in due time.
Therefore, in the face of such disturbances, someone was needed •with the wondrous strength, courage, respectability and sagacity of Ali, someone haring the force of the respected Hashimites and the Prophet’s Family, so that he could resist such hardships. And indeed he did so, in a fashion conformable to the prediction of the Prophet, who had said to him, “I have fought for the revelation of the Qur’an; you •will fight for its explanation. ” A further reason for this delay is that
•without Ali, the magnificence of sovereignty would most probably have caused the Umayyad dynasty to go completely astray. However, haring to cater to the opposition of Ali and the Prophet’s Family, and to preserve their prestige before the Muslims, the leaders of the Umayyad dynasty, willingly or unwillingly but in any case with full rigor, worked for at least encouraged their subjects and followers to do so- for the protection and propagation of the truths of faith and Islam and the Quranic order.
Thus, thousands of punctilious expounders of the Islamic law, distinguished traditionists, saints and men of purity emerged during their reign. Had it not faced the strong religiosity, sainthood and virtuousness of Ali and of the Prophet’s Family, the Umayyad dynasty would from the very beginning have pursued its own course, as happened at the end of its rule and that of the Abbasid dynasty.