Imam
Hussain in the Battlefield to offer the greatest sacrifice
Imam Hussain went
to the battlefield wearing the Prophet’s robe and turban. Imam Hussain first
preached to his
enemies, the love of God, the obedience to the Holy Prophet and abstinence from
vice and
wickedness, and at last asked the people:
“Why do you kill
me?”, “Did I commit any sin or crime?”, “Did I plunder anybody?”, “Did I
interfere
with any one’s
affairs?”
All stood dumb and
none answered. Then the Holy Imam continued: “Then why do you kill me? What
answer have you to
give to God, and to the Holy Prophet on the Day of Judgment?”
When no answer from
the enemy forces, the Holy Imam said:
“You have killed
all my companions, my children, my brothers and
even my little
baby; now I tell you to leave me, I will migrate to
Yemen, to Iran or
even to the far off Hind (India), stain not your
hands with my
blood, which is the blood of the Holy Prophet himself,
you will not have
salvation. It is for you; I tell you, shed not my
blood and save
yourselves.”
This last offer of
the Holy Imam was superb and matchless and yet
the enemies did not
avail of it. It was in fact the fulfillment of the
‘Hujjat’ or the
argument to give the last chance to the greedy devils
to save themselves
from the wrath of God.
‘Umar son of Saad’
shouted to his men “Do not be fooled by Imam
Hussain’s words,
attack him now!” Arrows were showered on Imam
Hussain. He charged
into the battlefield like a lion, saying “If you
are determined to
fight me then I am ready; watch how the
Grandson of the
Prophet fights; see how the son of Ali and Fatima
fights. Even after
three days of hunger and thirst, I am not afraid to
die. For me death
is better than surrender.”
islamicoccasions.com
Presents THE KARBALA ~ 48
When the enemy saw
Imam Hussain charging towards them, they thought for a moment that Imam
Ali (pbuh) had come
down from the heavens to take revenge on them. Many of them ran away. When
‘Umar son of Saad’
saw the fear on their faces, he sent his bravest soldiers to fight Imam
Hussain.
There was not a
single member in Yazid’s army who could stand in front of Imam Hussain. The
enemy
troops surrounded
him from all sides, but he defeated them all. ‘Umar son of Saad’ stood back and
watched, amazed at
how Imam Hussain who had suffered so much, was fighting so bravely.
Imam Hussain had
chosen a point for his combat which was nearer the tents of the womenfolk. That
was for two
reasons. Firstly, he knew the unmanly and inhuman character of the enemies.
They lacked
even the sense of
honor to spare the tents of their attacks as it was he whom they were fighting.
Therefore he wanted
to restrain them from attacking his camp so long as he was alive and had the
strength to stop
them. He would make a frontal attack and they would flee. But he would not pursue
them but return to
guard the tents of his womenfolk from any assault. Secondly, so long as he was
alive he wanted the
members of his family to know that he was alive. Accordingly, he had chosen a
point from where
his voice could be heard by them. Whenever he returned after making an attack
he
would stand at that
point and cry out: There is no power or strength to save that which derives
from
God, the Exalted
and the Almighty.
His cries would
reassure the women who knew that the Imam was still alive. The Imam had told
them
not to come out of
the tents as long as he was alive. He had told them that they must not make any
untoward utterance
which might reduce their reward with God. He had told them that they would find
deliverance and
that their ultimate end would be a good one, that God will punish their
enemies.
Hussain son of Imam
Ali’s sense of manly honor and their own sense of feminine honor did not permit
them to come out.
Accordingly, when they heard the Imam utter ‘La Hawl Wala Quwatta Illa
Billahil Aliyyil
Azim’, they felt reassured. And as the Imam had come back to them once or twice
after
bidding them
farewell, they still expected the Imam to return.
The
unique unparalleled prayer (Namaz)
Every awakened mind
will surely confess that it is not possible for any mortal to understand the
great heavenly
personality which enacted the absolute submission to the Lord, which he
displayed
on the field of
Karbala.
Having lost every
one of his faithful comrades including his baby son, himself fully wounded from
head, to toe with
arrows struck in his holy body with his blood flowing from the wounds, his
clothes
drenched with
blood, and that of his comrades, his kith and kin whose dead bodies he removed
from
the field of the
massacre to a tent in his camp to spare them from being trampled under the
hoofs of
the cavalry of the
heartless enemy, hungry with choking thirst for the last three days, Hussain
was
seen seated on his
horse the ‘Zul Jinah’, looking every now and then towards Heaven with prayers
for
the acceptance of
his sacrifices. In the midst of the indescribable miseries, sorrow and grief,
and
under the
indefinable agony of the worst torturous and the most painful death, the Holy
Imam ever
remained mindful of
the Lord and his submission to Him with the desire not to leave the world
defaulting not even
a single one of the prayers (Namaz) prescribed by him for man in this world.
Imam Hussain
returned his sword back into the sheath so that he could prepare for Asr
prayers.
“YAA
AYYATUHAN NAFSUL MUTMAINNAH, IRJI’II ILAA RABBIKI RADHIYATAN
MARDHIYYAH,
FADKHULII FII IBAADII WADKHULII JANNATII.”
“O soul that is at
rest satisfied. Return to your Lord well-pleased (with Him), well-pleasing
(Him). So,
enter among My
servants, and enter into my Paradise.” (Al-Fajr 89:27-30)
49
~ islamicoccasions.com Presents THE KARBALA
His condition was
such that Hussain now could not of his own efforts get down from the horse.
Hussain hinted to
his horse (which was presented to him by his Grandfather) saying:
“Will you my dear ‘Zul
Jinah’ kneel down a little to enable me to roll myself down to the ground?”
The faithful animal
which was itself hungry, thirsty and wounded, spread its legs in such a way
that
the Godly soul, one
of the most brilliant stars of the heaven of divinity, slid himself down.
Now lying with his
bleeding wounds on the flaming sand of the burning desert, Imam Hussain,
desirous of
offering his prayers and engaged in his last prayer (Namaz) on earth, resting
his wounded
forehead on a heap
of the burning sand. Thus ultimately the wounded Holy Imam (pbuh) lay in
communion with the
Lord.
When ‘Umar son of
Saad’ saw this he ordered his army to attack him in force. Some of them threw
stones, while some
attacked him with swords and others with arrows. Imam Hussain was very badly
wounded; he was
bleeding from head to toe, and the sacred blood of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh), Imam Ali
(pbuh) and Fatima (pbuh) was flowing on the earth.
Even in the last
moments when that accursed wretch approached him to sever his sacred head, he
says, “When I
approached Imam Hussain son of Imam Ali & my eyes fell on him, the light
& burnish
of his face so
gripped me that I forgot my intention to kill him. The light of his face and
its awe-inspiring
beauty so gripped
me that I was distracted from the thought of killing him.”
Several men one
after another, were deputed by the Commander of the enemy forces to cut off the
head of the Holy
Imam, but every one that came near the Holy one lying on the burning sand,
found
his lips moving and
heard to say:
“O All-Merciful
Lord of the Universe accepts the humble sacrifice of Hussain.” And at the end
of the
prayers it was
heard: “O Lord! O Lord! Being repeated several times.”
Hearing these last
prayers of Imam Hussain, none dared to cut off his holy head, even on an offer
of
thousands of Gold
coins with promises of highly tempting rewards, but Shimr, the stone-hearted
brute committed the
heinous crime.
In those days they
used to train Arabic horses for the battlefield, such a horse would show a
particular
reaction when its
master was killed. The
members of Imam
Hussain’s household were in
the tents waiting
for the Imam, that he might
return to them once
again and they might see
his angelic visage
once again. Suddenly they
heard the sound of
the neighing of the Imam’s
horse ‘Zul Jinah’.
They rushed to the tent’s door
imagining that the
Imam had come. But they
saw the horse
without its rider with its saddle
overturned. It was
then that the children and
the women raised
the cries of Wa Husaynah!
and Wa Muhammada!
They surrounded the
horse and each of
them began to mourn for
him. Mourning is
part of human nature.
