Day of Ashura and its tragedy
Day of Ashura; the tenth of Muharram, was unique in its tragedies, misfortunes, and
disasters. On that day, the Ahlul Bayt had to suffer the ever most horrible adversity of this
world. Hence, it is certainly the day of grief.
From early morning, the Imam left his tent and saw in front of him innumerable warriors
and horses fill up the desert and unsheathe their swords for shedding his blood. Thus, the
Imam asked for a copy of the holy Qur’an to put it on the head and raise his hands upward
for supplicating to his Lord for seeking His refuge.
He then decided to deliver a speech before those troops so that they would be fully
acquainted with the reality of the situation. Hence, he rode on, went towards them, and
raised his voice with the finest words of wisdom so that most of them, at least, would hear
him.
As his harem could hear some of his words, they wept and cried, but the Imam asked his
brother al-’Abbas and his son ‘Ali to go to them and order them to stop it. He then
continued with such bright words that should have led every deviant to the right path.
However, the Umayyad army could not understand the Imam’s words because they were
too ignorant to understand anything other than criminality. In addition, they could not say a
single word as an answer.
The Imam then addressed some of them and reminded them of the missives they had sent
to him, but those individuals denied the whole matter! Qays ibn al-Ashaath then asked the Imam to submit to the Umayyads, but the Imam refused declaring his unchangeable situation:
“No by Allah, I will never submit to them like the humble and will not flee like slaves.”
The Imam’s companions, then, spoke similar words before the Umayyad army, but without
any use.
Finally, the Imam decided to advise them again so that none of them would excuse he had
not known the matter clearly. He opened a copy of the holy Qur’an on the head, wore the
turban of Prophet Muhammad (S), proceeded towards them, and said:
“So then, fie and grief be on you, O group. When you appealed for our help grievously and
we hurried for your help exhaustingly, you unsheathed against us a sword that had been in
our right hands and ignited against us the fire that we had struck against your and our
enemy.
You therefore formed groups surrounding your allies and became the support of your
enemies although they did not spread justice among you and you lost any hope in them. In
addition, you noticed no heresy or new opinion that came out of us. Why did you -woe to
you!- not leave us when swords were sheathed, malice was hidden, and the decision was
not taken. But you hurried to the sedition like locusts and fell on it like the falling of
butterflies (in fire).
Damn and away with the idols of the Ummah, irregulars of the parties, deserters of the
Book, expectorants of the Shaitan, distorters of the meanings, extinguishers of the
traditions, avowers of the bastards, and the mockers who divided the Qur’an believing in
some parts and rejecting others.
By God I swear, your disloyalty is expected because it is entwined with your arteries and it
recurred in your origins. You therefore are the bitterest fruit that causes its caretaker to
choke and gives good taste for its usurper. God curse the disloyal ones who disregard their
firm oaths after they have already appointed God as their Guarantor.
The bastard, son of the bastard, has forced me to choose one of two things - either fighting
or ignominy. Ignominy is impossible for us. Allah, His Apostle, the (faithful) believers, chaste
laps, jealous noses (individuals), and noble souls (personalities) refuse for us to prefer
obedience to the mean to the death of the honorable.
I am advancing to them with this family despite the alliance of the enemies, their great
numbers, and the betrayal of the supporters. They will soon ride their horses, war will flare
up, and the necks will be lapped. My father (peace be upon him) foretold me about so. So,
plan against me without delay. I trust God who is my Lord as well as yours. It is God who
controls the destiny of all living creatures. It is my Lord who knows the right path.
O Allah, prevent them from the drops of the heavens and impose upon them years of
draught like these which you imposed on the people in the time of Prophet Joseph, and set
up upon them the man of Thaqif as absolute master so that he will treat them unjustly and
make them drink from bitter water, for they have belied and disappointed us. You are
certainly our Lord. On You we rely, in You we trust, and to You everything returns.”
At these moments, the conscience of al-Hurr ibn Yazid woke up. He began to think of his
destiny if he would fight against Imam al-Husayn who represented the right party and the
true religion of God. Finally, he decided to join the Imam. He went to Omar ibn Saad and
said:
“Do you really want to fight against this man?” “Yes I do,” answered Omar, “I want to fight against him as intensely as possible.” “Why do you not respond to his calls and accept one of the options he had offered?” asked al-Hurr. “I would do if it is my right to choose. But the matter is not mine. It is your Emir’s,” answered Omar. Only then al-Hurr realized that Omar ibn Saad was fully ready to fight Imam al-Husayn (a); therefore, he changed direction towards the Imam and proceeded as he felt sorry for his past deeds against the Imam. When the Imam conferred upon him with pardon, al-Hurr turned the face towards the troops of Omar ibn Saad and went on addressing to them words of reproach and blame for disappointing the Imam. Anyhow, al-Hurr’s words did not find any place in the hearts of those troops.
The War
As Omar ibn Saad anticipated that other commanders would copy al-Hurr, he hurried
towards the Imam’s camp and threw an arrow towards him shouting, “Be the witnesses. I
am the first to throw al-Husayn!” This was the opening to hundreds of arrows which were shot towards the Imam. Seeing the situation, the Imam turned to his companions and said, “Stand up, generous people.
These arrows are your enemies’ messengers to you.” Hence, thirty-two horsemen and forty warriors had to encounter tens of thousands. However, this little party would not stop against those huge well-equipped numbers and showed unprecedented scenes of courage and bravery.
Then Omar ibn Saad gave the orders of waging a wide campaign during which all the detachments of the Umayyad army fought against the Imam’s companions.
Although half of the Imam’s companions were killed during that campaign, they combated extremely courageously and caused great losses to the Umayyad army. After this general campaign, the other companions of Imam al-Husayn began to wage individual campaigns against the other party.
In fact, their unparalleled heroism frightened the whole camp of the Umayyad army and caused it great losses; therefore, Amr ibn al-Hajjaj cried at them, “Do you know against whom you are fighting?
You are fighting against the most courageous horsemen of this country. They will keep killing anyone of you who intends to face them. By God I swear, if you only throw stones at them, you will kill them.”
Omar ibn Saad agreed on Amr’s opinion and ordered his forces to leave facing those
heroes. He then gave the orders of waging a general attack against the companions of
Imam al- Husayn. Nevertheless, the companions caused great losses to the attacking forces
to the degree that Urwa ibn Qays asked the general commander of the army to supply him
with more men and weapons.
Omar ibn Saad then had to call al-Hussayn ibn Numair and supply him with five hundred
bowmen who could wound the riding animals of the Imam’s companions. Thus, all the
companions, including al-Hurr ibn Yazid, had to fight against their enemies on feet. This
fighting was described by historians as the fieriest battle all over history; it continued until
midday.
In the midst of that horrible scene of fighting, Abu-Thumama as-Saidi, one of Imam al-
Husayn’s companions, raised his head to the sky then turned his face towards the Imam
and told about the time of the Dhuhr prayer. As a result, the Imam asked his companions to
demand with cease fighting so as they would offer the prayer. They responded to this
demand, but as soon as the Imam and his companions stood erect for the prayer, the
Umayyad army began throwing darts at them.
Saeed al-Hanafi made his body as the armor that protected the Imam, while he was
praying, from these darts. When the Imam finished his prayer, Saeed was heavily wounded
that he fell dead. The other companions continued fighting for sake of their Imam courageously until they all were killed.
It is worth mentioning that al-’Abbas ibn ‘Ali participated in these campaigns and fought
bravely and was given the missions of saving the companions when they were encircled by
the Umayyad army.
After the companions, it was the turn of the youth from the Prophet’s household. The first
one to advance was the young man who was the most similar to Prophet Muhammad (S) in
creation, morals, and personality. That youth was ‘Ali al-Akbar son of Imam al-Husayn.
The Imam felt very sad when he knew for certain that his son would be proceeding to fight.
He therefore raised his beard towards the heavens and complained to the Lord against the
gang who had fought against him and would be ready to kill his dearest one.
The Imam as well as the harem of the Prophet’s household saw off ‘Ali al-Akbar with tears,
cries, and moaning. The youth proceeded declaring the principles for which he was fighting
and his tremendous determination to protect the religion of God even if this would cost him
his life. He then encountered the enemies and showed indescribable courage and heroism
to the degree that historians have described his fighting by saying, “‘Ali’s fighting reminded
the enemies of the attacks of his grandfather Amir ul-Muminin.”
In the midst of the fighting, ‘Ali was seriously thirsty because the enemies had deprived
them of water. He therefore returned to his father and asked for some water. But the father
had nothing to do. He did not have a single drop of water to give to his son. Painfully he
apologized from his son and promised that the Prophet would very soon give him a drink of
water that would save him from thirst forever.
The young ‘Ali Akbar then went to the battlefield again and fought courageously despite
many wounds that he had on his body. The whole camp of the Umayyad army complained
about the great losses that the young son of Imam al-Husayn caused to them; therefore,
Murra ibn Munqith decided to kill him. So, he stabbed him with the spear from the back and
struck him with his sword heavily on his head.
‘Ali held fast on his horse’s neck since he thought that the horse would take him towards
his father’s camp. Unfortunately, the horse took him towards the enemies’ camp, who
encircled him and cut his body into pieces. The air carried the son’s cries to his father who
hurried to him and found him in the last sparks of life. He put his cheek on his son’s body
which had been cut to pieces and shed tears for him.
In this horrible situation, al-’Abbas was with his brother and felt the same painful feelings
for the great catastrophe that inflicted their camp by the martyrdom of ‘Ali. Zaynab, the
mistress of the Prophet’s harem, moaned for the martyrdom of her nephew and the Imam
was touched by that painful situation.
After that, the young descendants of ‘Aqil ibn Abi-Talib rushed for jihad so as to sacrifice
their souls for their leader. Like their forefathers, they fought courageously and caused
great losses to the Umayyad army. However, they were all martyred. These were nine
young men.
Then, it was the turn of descendants of Imam al-Hasan. They also pushed themselves for
protecting their uncle and defending their religion. Among them was al-Qasim whom is
described as the moon in brightness. Before he fought against the enemies, he had
declared, “My uncle al-Husayn will not be killed while I am alive.”
The Imam however did not permit al-Qasim to fight, but the young man insisted
importunately and went on kissing his uncle’s hands and feet; and begged him to let
him fight. Hence, the Imam had to permit him with weeping eyes and a burning heart.
Like the other heroes of the Hashemites, al-Qasim fought bravely and killed a number of
the Umayyad army. In the midst of the fighting, his sandal thong was cut. As he bent down
to repair it, one of the criminals of the Umayyad army, out of his disdain seized that
opportunity and struck al-Qasim on the head. He fell down and called for his uncle who
hurried towards him and killed that criminal.
The Imam then carried the dead body of his nephew and placed it beside the dead bodies
of his son and the other martyrs.
Then sons of Zaynab, daughter of Imam ‘Ali went for fighting. They also were killed. Then
none remained except the brothers of Imam al-Husayn.
Al-’Abbas was watching all these crises and misfortunes patiently and was waiting for the
proper opportunity to begin fighting against the enemies and take revenge upon them.
After the martyrdom of the youth of the Prophet’s household, al-’Abbas turned towards his
full brothers and said to them: “Brothers, proceed for fighting so that I will be sure that you
have done sincerely for sake of Allah and His Messenger and I will surely avenge your
blood. You have no children.”
He then turned his face towards his full brother Abdullah and said: “Proceed for fighting
until I will see your martyrdom and offer you as sacrifice for Allah.” All his brethren
welcomed his call and went for fighting against the enemies courageously. One by one,
they all were killed before their elder brother al-’Abbas who stood near their dead bodies
and shed tears for these bright faces.