He was also asked for a legal opinion concerning Yazid ibn Muʿawiyah, whereupon he attributed to Yazid dishonor(1) and flagrant sinfulness, and deemed it permissible(2) to revile him. Al-Ghazali(3), however, dissented, forbidding both his censure and his anathematization on the grounds that he was a Muslim; moreover, it has never been proven that he approved the killing of al-Ḥusayn—and even if that were established, it would still not justify cursing him, for a killer is not to be cursed, especially when the gate of repentance remains open: “He is the One who accepts repentance from His servants” (Quran 42:25).
He added, “Invoking mercy upon him is permissible—indeed, recommended; in fact, we pray for him together with the general body of the believers and Muslims in our formal prayers.”(4) Ibn Khallikān reproduces this statement at length, in these very words, in his biography of Ilkiyā al-Harrāsī.
He further notes that Ilkiyā means “one of lofty rank and honored precedence.” May Allah Most High have mercy on him.
[Then the year 505 AH began.]
In that year the sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad sent forth a large army in the company of Emir Mawdūd ibn Zankī(5), lord of Mosul, along with a number of commanders and deputies(6). Among them were Sukmān(7) al-Quṭbī, lord of Tabriz; Aḥmadīl(8), lord of Marāgha; and Emir Ilghāzī, lord of Mardin. Overall command rested with Emir Mawdūd of Mosul. They marched to fight the Franks in Syria, seized many fortresses from their hands, and slew great numbers of them—praise be to Allah.
When they entered Damascus, Emir Mawdūd went into the Umayyad Mosque to perform the prayer. A Bāṭinī, disguised as a beggar who asked him for alms,(9) approached; the emir gave him something, but as soon as he drew near the assassin struck him in the heart, and he died instantly. May Allah’s curse be upon that Bāṭinī.
A blind man was also found on the roof of the congregational mosque in Baghdad carrying a poisoned knife; it was said that he intended to assassinate the caliph.
In this same year the caliph’s wife—the sultan’s daughter—gave birth to a son, whereupon kettledrums and trumpets were sounded, and the vizier sat at Bāb al-Firdaws to receive congratulations.(10)