Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali
Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali
Peace Be Upon Him
Imam Abu Ṭālib said: He resembled the Messenger of God ﷺ from his navel to his feet, and he was fair in complexion. It has been narrated that when he sat in a dark place, one could find one’s way to him by the whiteness of his forehead and chest.
His children were: ‘Ali al-Akbar — according to al-‘Aqīqī and many of the Ṭālibiyyah, though al-Kalbī and Muṣ’ab ibn al-Zubayr and many genealogists hold him to be the younger — and from him the lineage descends; ‘Abdullāh; ‘Ali al-Aṣghar, both of whom were martyred alongside their father; and Ja’far, who died in infancy.
It is noted that ‘Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn passed away in the year ninety-four, and his son Muḥammad ibn ‘Ali in the year one hundred and seventeen,1 each of them living sixty-three years. This is reported in Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn on the authority of al-Ṣādiq.
- ‘Ali al-Akbarlineage continued through him
- ‘Abdullāhmartyred alongside his father
- ‘Ali al-Aṣgharmartyred alongside his father
- Ja’fardied in infancy
✦ Martyred at the Battle of Karbalāʾ
He (peace be upon him) departed from Medina when the news of Mu’āwiyah’s death reached him and allegiance to Yazīd was demanded of him — which he refused — on a Sunday with two nights remaining of Rajab in the year sixty, heading to Mecca. He entered it on a Friday night, three days into Sha’bān. While he was in Mecca, letters from the people of Kufa arrived one after another pledging allegiance, during Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that year.
When the pledge of the people of Kufa reached him, he departed from Mecca towards them on the eighth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah.
It is narrated that when he resolved to set out for Iraq, he addressed his companions, praised and extolled God, then said:
“This world has turned hostile and its goodness has withdrawn, leaving nothing but the dregs at the bottom of a vessel and a wretched life like a barren pasture. Do you not see that truth is no longer acted upon and falsehood is no longer forbidden? Let the believer yearn to meet his Lord, for I see death as nothing but felicity, and life among the oppressors as nothing but wretchedness.”
Zuhayr ibn al-Qayn al-‘Ajalī rose and said: “We have heard your words — may you be guided. Even if this world were to endure and we were to live in it forever, and even if our going forth meant your companionship and support, we would choose to go forth with you over remaining in it.” Al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali (peace be upon him) thanked him, then recited:
I shall go forth — for death holds no shame for the young man,
when he intends what is right and strives as a Muslim,
and gives of himself alongside righteous men,
and parts from the wicked and strives against the criminal.
If I live I shall not regret, and if I die I shall not be blamed —
sufficient as your affliction: that you live humiliated.
When he descended at the garden of Banū ‘Āmir, he wrote to his brother Muḥammad and his household:
“From al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali to Muḥammad ibn ‘Ali and his household: if you join me you will be martyred, and if you stay behind you will not attain victory. Peace.”
When he reached Karbalāʾ, he asked: “Where are we?”
They said: “At Karbalāʾ.”
He said: “Grief, by God, and affliction — here is where our mounts shall rest and our blood shall be shed.”
It has been narrated by Zayd ibn ‘Ali on the authority of his father (peace be upon him) that al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali (peace be upon him) addressed his companions, praised and extolled God, then said:
“O people, death has been inscribed upon the children of Adam as a necklace is clasped about the neck of a maiden. How I yearn with longing for my forebears, as Jacob (peace be upon him) yearned for Joseph and his brother.
I have a place of falling that I shall surely meet — as though I can see my limbs being torn apart by the beasts of the wilderness, grey and dust-covered, having filled their bellies with me.
May God’s pleasure be our pleasure, we the People of the House. We endure His trials so that He may grant us in full the reward of the patient. The sanctity of the Messenger of God shall never be sundered from him, nor his progeny, nor his limbs — they shall be gathered in the sacred enclosure, and his eye shall be gladdened by them, and his promise to them fulfilled.
Whoever among you is ready to give his soul, let him prepare to depart, for I depart tomorrow, God willing.”
Then he rose to face his enemy.
Al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) then stood among them, praised and extolled God, invoked blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, and said:
“Woe and grief upon you, O assembly! When you called out to us in anguish and confusion and we answered your call, rushing to you prepared and ready — you drew against us a sword from our own necks.
Woe upon you — why did you not confront us openly before the sword was unsheathed, the heart was composed, and counsel was still sound? Instead you rushed upon us like swarming flies and gathered together like moths drawn to flame.
Ugly are you — for you are nothing but the tyrants of this nation, the dregs of factions, the discards of the Book, the spittle of Satan, the band of sinners, the distorters of scripture, the extinguishers of the Sunnah, the killers of the children of prophets, the destroyers of the progeny of the trustees, the attachers of the illegitimate to lineage, the tormentors of believers, the heralds of the scoffers — those who made the Qur’an into fragments. You rely upon Ibn Ḥarb and his followers, and it is us you make war upon.
Know that the curse of God be upon the oath-breakers who violate their pledges after solemn confirmation, having made God their surety over them — and you, by God, are they.
Know that the bastard son of a bastard has placed me between two choices: the sword or humiliation. And far be it from us to accept degradation! God refuses it, and so does His Messenger and the believers — and noble cheeks, and pure laps, and proud noses, and lofty souls — that the deaths of the base be preferred over the deaths of the honourable. Know that I have made my plea and given my warning. Know that I advance with this household, few in provision and forsaken by companions.
Know that after this, no more time shall pass than it takes to mount a horse before the millstone turns upon you — a covenant my father charged me with. So gather your resolve and your partners, then plot against me all together and give me no respite.
I have placed my trust in God, my Lord and your Lord; there is no creature but He holds it by its forelock — my Lord is upon a straight path.
O God, withhold from them the rain of the sky, bring upon them years like the years of Joseph, and set upon them the youth of Thaqīf to make them drink a bitter cup, leaving none of them alive — a killing for a killing, a blow for a blow — avenging me and my allies and my household and my followers, for they deceived us, lied to us, and abandoned us. You are our Lord; in You we place our trust, to You we turn, and to You is the return.”
Then he said: “Where is ‘Umar ibn Sa’d? Call ‘Umar to me.” He was summoned, though he was reluctant and unwilling to come. Al-Ḥusayn said:
“O ‘Umar, you presume to kill me, believing that the bastard son of a bastard will grant you the provinces of al-Rayy and Jurjān. By God, you shall never enjoy that — ever. This is a covenant assured. Do what you intend, for you shall know no joy after me in this world or the next. It is as though I see your head mounted upon a pole erected in Kufa, with boys throwing at it and using it as a mark between them.”
The younger of the two grandsons, Abu ‘Abdillāh al-Ḥusayn, was martyred at the age of fifty-six. He was killed by the soldiers of Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān at Karbalāʾ on a Friday, the tenth of Muḥarram al-Ḥarām, in the year sixty-one.
He was martyred along with the people of his household — his own sons, the sons of his brother al-Ḥasan, and the sons of the Trustee — none surviving except those through whom God preserved the lineage of His Prophet; and likewise from the sons of ‘Aqīl ibn Abī Ṭālib, the sons of Ja’far ibn Abī Ṭālib, and from among their allies — may God’s blessings be upon their pure and sacred souls.
After their martyrdom, God manifested signs: the reddening of the sky, the bleeding tree, the flowing of blood from the earth, and the darkness — and none doubted that punishment had descended.
Al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) had informed those present at his martyrdom from among the tyrants of the nation of what the Trustee had charged him with in a lengthy sermon, and had warned them of the various forms of punishment they would face after his death, and that God would take vengeance upon them through the youth of Thaqīf and other oppressors.
Not one of those who were present at the martyrdom of al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) remained without God hastening punishment upon him in this world. Some were burned by fire, some were struck with leprosy, some were taken by madness — and none of them left this world except that God had made his punishment manifest before all creation.
Imam al-Murshid Billāh related with his chain of transmission going back to Sa’īd ibn Jubayr on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbās (may God be pleased with them both):2
“God revealed to Muḥammad ﷺ: ‘I slew seventy thousand on account of Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā, and I shall slay seventy thousand, and seventy thousand, on account of the son of your daughter.'”
This was also related by al-Ḥākim in Al-Mustadrak and others.
Scholarly References & Annotations
Al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Kathīr give the year as one hundred and fourteen; such differences in matters of this kind are many and of little consequence — noted by the Author (peace be upon him).
Al-Amālī al-Khamīsiyyah (1/190); Mustadrak al-Ḥākim (3/195–196). See also Lawāmi’ al-Anwār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Mu’ayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 1, p. 346 (1st ed.); vol. 1, p. 438 (2nd ed.); vol. 1, p. 629 (3rd ed.).