Monday, January 30, 2012
ENEMY DECIDES TO ATTACK:-
All efforts of the enemy through temptations, promises, persecutions and tortures, to persuade the Holy Imam, to yield to Yazid were in vain. Even the killing heat and the thirst of three continuous days suffered by himself, his faithful companions, the helpless ladies and even the innocent infants and the babies, could not move the Holy Imam to effect the least change in the strength of his will re-establish the Truth paying any price the task might demand. On the 9th day of Muharram, the enemy's forces advanced towards the camp of the helpless Imam to affect a wholesale massacre of all the inmates therein. Hussain sent word to the enemy's Commander, Ibna-i-Sa'd through the brave Abbas with the request for a night's time to spend it in his last prayers to the Lord which was at first refused but ultimately with much reluctance granted.
The Holy Imam and Ibne-Sa'd confer:
The Holy Imam sent for the enemy's Commander Ibna-i-Sa'd and proposed three honorable conditions:
"Leave me, and I shall quit the Muslim Empire with my whole family and children, and live in some non-Muslim lands. I shall go away to Yemen or to Iran or to the far off Hind (i.e., India)."
The tyrant answered: "It can never be so."
Hussain said: "Will you at least allow having some water for the helpless ladies and the innocent babies who are dying of thirst in my camp?"
The tyrant replied: "First pay 'Bait' (allegiance) and then take the water from the river."
Hussain at last said: "Ibna-i-Sa'd, why dost thou destroy the house of the Holy Prophet? If the whole world were to be given to me to rule over, I shall never yield to the tyrant."
Hussain had done the best possible to avoid bloodshed, but every offer for a peaceful settlement was rejected and the surrender to Yazid was insisted upon. Hussain then decided to fight the might of the Devil for the truth and to surrender his all in the way of the Lord and to demonstrate to the human race what Bravery, Steadfastness, Patience and Fortitude, ever in the worst of the painful sufferings, those who really love God should put up with to defend the Truth and uphold it.
When all efforts through exhortations to the enemy's forces proved fertile and the only alternative left was to fight for the cause of Truth, the Holy Imam decided first to prove the miraculous strength and the matchless prowess the godly ones possessed, and how bravely the huge host of the enemy could be resisted, and then to surrender himself and his dear ones to drink the cup of martyrdom and to fulfill the Covenant of the Lord to save the Truth for all times Hussain asked Ibna-i-Sa'd: "Will you at least agree to conduct tomorrow's battle in single combats between one from either side?" Ibna-i-Sa'd consented but the treacherous Brute did not keep to his promise.
The night before the tenth Muharram:
The night following the ninth day of Muharram presented a unique spectacle which has no parallel in the history of the world. A detailed description of the scene of that night in Karbala, requires at least a separate chapter. However, only a few important events of the dreadful night are briefly related here.
Since his arrival at Karbala on the 2nd Muharram, the Holy Imam used to gather all those who had accompanied him from Mecca, and address them after every night prayer, advising them to leave him to his own fate and to return to their homes, giving them every assurance that the consequences of his journey would be quite a different one from what had been imagined by them to be. It is reported that hearing the Holy Imam announcing the ultimate end of his journey, the people began deserting him in groups.
The final shifting:
Hussain had to offer the sacrifice which had been termed by God Himself as 'Zibh-e-Azeem' the Great Sacrifice (37:104-108). The purity of his body and the divinity of his soul were unquestionable, but those whom he had to offer along with himself in the way of the Lord, had to be of some purity worthy to be blessed with the martyrdom. There were the good and the bad ones, mixed up, in his camp but what he needed was only a pure and clean stuff to be presented to God along with himself. Many who had accompanied him with selfish intentions, had deserted him, and of those still left, the Holy Imam wanted to effect a final shifting so that only those who desired nothing but the pleasure of the Lord, might remain to accompany him in his resignation to the Divine will, to resist against the onslaught of the falsehood of the Devil. At last on the 9th Muharram, soon after the enemy's consent to wait till the following morning, the Holy Imam, after the 'Isha' or the night prayers summoned the remaining people and addressed them thus:
"Brothers! You are sadly mistaken if you have hoped that tomorrow's battle will bear any fruit for you to fulfill any of your worldly ambitions. I tell you now openly that I will be mercilessly butchered. My Brother Abbas will lose both his hands and die on the banks of the river. My eighteen-year-old son Ali-e-Akbar will die by the lance pierced through his breast. Qasim, my nephew, will be killed and be trampled under the hooves of the enemy's cavalry. And similarly, every one of my companions who will remains with me here, be he a relative or a friend of mine, will be rolling in his own blood and ultimately be slain. I tell you, not even my baby son Ali-e-Azgher will be spared; he will receive an arrow on his tiny neck in my own arms and pass away. Only my son Ali, who is sick, will survive to suffer the worst of tortures along with the people of my family. Friends! You need not worry yourself about the 'Bait' or the allegiance you have paid me. I release you from the oath. You leave me to my fate and save yourselves. They are only after my life. The night is dark and you can easily escape."
At the end of his speech, the Holy Imam asked his brother Abbas to put out the lamp in the tent so that people may walk away in the darkness without being ashamed of being seen by him.
It is reported that as soon as the lamp was put out, all those who had accompanied the Holy Imam from Mecca in their vain hopes of making their own fortune, began to desert the Holy Imam in batches and when the lamp was again lit after a while, there were left only a few here and there, and those who remained constituted the godly band of the Holy Seventy-Two who stood fast by the Holy Imam in the battle for Truth to save the human race against its falling into the abyss of falsehood.
This small band of godly souls, pure in their spirit and sincere in their desire to fight and fall in the way of the Lord, spent the night in prayers reciting audibly the Holy Qur'an and rejoicing in the hope to drink the fast-approaching cup of martyrdom the following morning. Everyone anxiously waited for the break of dawn, to lay down his life in the way of the Lord in supporting the cause of Truth. The ladies were preparing their young children to be sacrificed along with the Holy Imam in upholding the cause of the Lord. The noble mothers of the family of the Holy Prophet were busy advising their young sons to be steadfast in facing the might of the Devil in defense of the right, and to lay down their lives cheerfully and thus to drink the cup of martyrdom in the cause of the correct guidance of the Human Race.
The night in the Yazidian camp:
While the hungry and thirsty devotees of God in the Holy Imam's camp spent the night in prayers and the devotional supplicative services to God, the soldiers in the Yazidian ranks in the opposite camp spent the whole night in drinking, feasting and making merry in the hope of the promised rewards from Yazid in return for the destruction of the family of the Holy Prophet. God alone knows how many thousands of bowls of wine were emptied on that night. The Yazidian forces anxiously awaited the break of the dawn of the next day to affect the brutal slaughter of the Holy Imam and the small band of his kith and kin and faithful devotees.
The Holy Imam's last prayer with his devotees on earth:
At the break of the dawn of the fateful day, 10th Muharram 61A.H. (October 680 A.D.), Hussain called his son Ali (Ali-e-Akber) who resembled the Holy Prophet the most, and said:
"Ali, my dear! Let me hear thy 'Azan' (the call for Prayer) for the last time in this world!"
When Ali-e-Akbar gave the call 'Azan' in the Sahara, reporters say that the voice resembled the voice of the Holy Prophet and Hussain hearing the last 'Azan' of his son in the voice of his Grand father, remembering the Apostle of God, shed tears, and as the voice of Ali-e-Akber reached the inmates in the camp, Zainab along with Umm-e-Laila, the mother of Ali-e-Akbar and the other ladies came out of the tents to hear the call for prayer in the sweet enchanting voice of the beautiful son of Hussain resembling the voice of the Apostle of God, raising their hands to heavens prayed for the safety of their dear Caller to prayers.
It was the third day of the thirst inflicted on the whole camp of the Holy Imam. The Holy Imam and his devotees performed 'Tayammum' instead of 'Wozu' (Ablution) and the Holy Imam offered the last congregational prayers with his devotees on earth.
An Urdu poet has referred to this historic 'Namaz' (Prayer) and the 'Namazies', i.e., the supplicants in a beautiful couplet:
Chand Shar'maa'ey, Chah'ray Mutajalli Aisay
Na Imam Aisa Howa, Phir Na Musalli Aisay
Ashamed would be the moon, faces so bright
The Imam of the kind, never did appear, nor the supplicants like these.
Hussain had not even finished his prayers when a rain of arrows from the Yazidian forces began to shower on the praying Imam and his godly devotees. It is reported that Omar Ibne Sa'd was the first to take the bow in the Yazidian camp and shoot an arrow towards Hussain saying: (addressing the men of his forces):
"Witness ye all that I am the first to shoot an arrow against Hussain."
Reporters of the event relate that along with Omar 4,000 archers in the Yazidian ranks simultaneously shot towards the Holy Imam's camp, and before the holy souls could conclude their prayers, thirty of the godly ones, who were engaged in the prayer, were shot dead.
Soon after the prayer was over, the Holy Imam ordered all his faithful companions to fall in, and divided his small godly band into three flanks, i.e., the right and the left wings and the central body. Hussain called his brave brother, Abbas, the Faithful and presented to him the Holy Standard of Truth and thus Abbas from that day came to be known as 'Abbas-e-Alamdar' or Abbas the Standard Bearer.
Ali-e-Akber's Martyrdom:
After Abbas, came the turn of Ali-e-Akbar, to go to the battlefield. It is reported that this eighteen-year-old son was so very much loved by one and all in the camp that the account of his taking leave of his mother, aunts, sisters, brothers and other relatives is so pathetic that none can resist shedding at least a few tears over the heart-rending event. At last when the Holy Imam sent Ali-e-Akbar, the 'Ahmad-i-thani', i.e., (Muhammad the Second), to the battlefield, he raised his head towards Heaven and said:
"Lord! Here is sent in Thy way, the one who resembled the most with Thy Prophet Muhammad, whenever we did desire to have a view of the Holy face departed away from us, we used to look at the face of this youth."
"Lord! Hussain has one Ali-e-Akbar and he is sent to be sacrificed for Thy cause, had I many more like him, I would have similarly offered them all in Thy way."
Is not this offer more acceptable to God than that of Abraham who offered with his eyes blindfolded? Is not this a Greater Sacrifice than that of Ishmael?
When Ali-e-Akbar went into the battlefield, it is reported that the Devil's forces were so much amazed at his resemblance with the Holy Prophet that such of those who had seen him before, wondered if the Holy Prophet had reappeared in the world to help his dear grandson Hussain. People were so anxious to have a look at the enchanting beauty of the youth that those in the rear of the enemy's ranks, mounted on the horses and camels, even stood on the backs of the animals to have a look at the matchless and the wonder striking beauty of this son of the Holy Imam. But lo! There was a treacherous onslaught and Ali-e-Akbar fell with a lance pierced through his breast as the Holy Imam had prophesied. God alone knows what a patient heart the Holy Imam had been endowed with, which never gave way against any catastrophe even that of the loss of such a son. The Holy Imam stood looking at his son dying before his eyes and lifting his head towards Heaven said:
"Lord! It will be quite sufficient for Thy Hussain if thou accepteth this sacrifice and if thou art pleased with this humble offer."
The Holy Imam and Ibne-Sa'd confer:
The Holy Imam sent for the enemy's Commander Ibna-i-Sa'd and proposed three honorable conditions:
"Leave me, and I shall quit the Muslim Empire with my whole family and children, and live in some non-Muslim lands. I shall go away to Yemen or to Iran or to the far off Hind (i.e., India)."
The tyrant answered: "It can never be so."
Hussain said: "Will you at least allow having some water for the helpless ladies and the innocent babies who are dying of thirst in my camp?"
The tyrant replied: "First pay 'Bait' (allegiance) and then take the water from the river."
Hussain at last said: "Ibna-i-Sa'd, why dost thou destroy the house of the Holy Prophet? If the whole world were to be given to me to rule over, I shall never yield to the tyrant."
Hussain had done the best possible to avoid bloodshed, but every offer for a peaceful settlement was rejected and the surrender to Yazid was insisted upon. Hussain then decided to fight the might of the Devil for the truth and to surrender his all in the way of the Lord and to demonstrate to the human race what Bravery, Steadfastness, Patience and Fortitude, ever in the worst of the painful sufferings, those who really love God should put up with to defend the Truth and uphold it.
When all efforts through exhortations to the enemy's forces proved fertile and the only alternative left was to fight for the cause of Truth, the Holy Imam decided first to prove the miraculous strength and the matchless prowess the godly ones possessed, and how bravely the huge host of the enemy could be resisted, and then to surrender himself and his dear ones to drink the cup of martyrdom and to fulfill the Covenant of the Lord to save the Truth for all times Hussain asked Ibna-i-Sa'd: "Will you at least agree to conduct tomorrow's battle in single combats between one from either side?" Ibna-i-Sa'd consented but the treacherous Brute did not keep to his promise.
The night before the tenth Muharram:
The night following the ninth day of Muharram presented a unique spectacle which has no parallel in the history of the world. A detailed description of the scene of that night in Karbala, requires at least a separate chapter. However, only a few important events of the dreadful night are briefly related here.
Since his arrival at Karbala on the 2nd Muharram, the Holy Imam used to gather all those who had accompanied him from Mecca, and address them after every night prayer, advising them to leave him to his own fate and to return to their homes, giving them every assurance that the consequences of his journey would be quite a different one from what had been imagined by them to be. It is reported that hearing the Holy Imam announcing the ultimate end of his journey, the people began deserting him in groups.
The final shifting:
Hussain had to offer the sacrifice which had been termed by God Himself as 'Zibh-e-Azeem' the Great Sacrifice (37:104-108). The purity of his body and the divinity of his soul were unquestionable, but those whom he had to offer along with himself in the way of the Lord, had to be of some purity worthy to be blessed with the martyrdom. There were the good and the bad ones, mixed up, in his camp but what he needed was only a pure and clean stuff to be presented to God along with himself. Many who had accompanied him with selfish intentions, had deserted him, and of those still left, the Holy Imam wanted to effect a final shifting so that only those who desired nothing but the pleasure of the Lord, might remain to accompany him in his resignation to the Divine will, to resist against the onslaught of the falsehood of the Devil. At last on the 9th Muharram, soon after the enemy's consent to wait till the following morning, the Holy Imam, after the 'Isha' or the night prayers summoned the remaining people and addressed them thus:
"Brothers! You are sadly mistaken if you have hoped that tomorrow's battle will bear any fruit for you to fulfill any of your worldly ambitions. I tell you now openly that I will be mercilessly butchered. My Brother Abbas will lose both his hands and die on the banks of the river. My eighteen-year-old son Ali-e-Akbar will die by the lance pierced through his breast. Qasim, my nephew, will be killed and be trampled under the hooves of the enemy's cavalry. And similarly, every one of my companions who will remains with me here, be he a relative or a friend of mine, will be rolling in his own blood and ultimately be slain. I tell you, not even my baby son Ali-e-Azgher will be spared; he will receive an arrow on his tiny neck in my own arms and pass away. Only my son Ali, who is sick, will survive to suffer the worst of tortures along with the people of my family. Friends! You need not worry yourself about the 'Bait' or the allegiance you have paid me. I release you from the oath. You leave me to my fate and save yourselves. They are only after my life. The night is dark and you can easily escape."
At the end of his speech, the Holy Imam asked his brother Abbas to put out the lamp in the tent so that people may walk away in the darkness without being ashamed of being seen by him.
It is reported that as soon as the lamp was put out, all those who had accompanied the Holy Imam from Mecca in their vain hopes of making their own fortune, began to desert the Holy Imam in batches and when the lamp was again lit after a while, there were left only a few here and there, and those who remained constituted the godly band of the Holy Seventy-Two who stood fast by the Holy Imam in the battle for Truth to save the human race against its falling into the abyss of falsehood.
This small band of godly souls, pure in their spirit and sincere in their desire to fight and fall in the way of the Lord, spent the night in prayers reciting audibly the Holy Qur'an and rejoicing in the hope to drink the fast-approaching cup of martyrdom the following morning. Everyone anxiously waited for the break of dawn, to lay down his life in the way of the Lord in supporting the cause of Truth. The ladies were preparing their young children to be sacrificed along with the Holy Imam in upholding the cause of the Lord. The noble mothers of the family of the Holy Prophet were busy advising their young sons to be steadfast in facing the might of the Devil in defense of the right, and to lay down their lives cheerfully and thus to drink the cup of martyrdom in the cause of the correct guidance of the Human Race.
The night in the Yazidian camp:
While the hungry and thirsty devotees of God in the Holy Imam's camp spent the night in prayers and the devotional supplicative services to God, the soldiers in the Yazidian ranks in the opposite camp spent the whole night in drinking, feasting and making merry in the hope of the promised rewards from Yazid in return for the destruction of the family of the Holy Prophet. God alone knows how many thousands of bowls of wine were emptied on that night. The Yazidian forces anxiously awaited the break of the dawn of the next day to affect the brutal slaughter of the Holy Imam and the small band of his kith and kin and faithful devotees.
The Holy Imam's last prayer with his devotees on earth:
At the break of the dawn of the fateful day, 10th Muharram 61A.H. (October 680 A.D.), Hussain called his son Ali (Ali-e-Akber) who resembled the Holy Prophet the most, and said:
"Ali, my dear! Let me hear thy 'Azan' (the call for Prayer) for the last time in this world!"
When Ali-e-Akbar gave the call 'Azan' in the Sahara, reporters say that the voice resembled the voice of the Holy Prophet and Hussain hearing the last 'Azan' of his son in the voice of his Grand father, remembering the Apostle of God, shed tears, and as the voice of Ali-e-Akber reached the inmates in the camp, Zainab along with Umm-e-Laila, the mother of Ali-e-Akbar and the other ladies came out of the tents to hear the call for prayer in the sweet enchanting voice of the beautiful son of Hussain resembling the voice of the Apostle of God, raising their hands to heavens prayed for the safety of their dear Caller to prayers.
It was the third day of the thirst inflicted on the whole camp of the Holy Imam. The Holy Imam and his devotees performed 'Tayammum' instead of 'Wozu' (Ablution) and the Holy Imam offered the last congregational prayers with his devotees on earth.
An Urdu poet has referred to this historic 'Namaz' (Prayer) and the 'Namazies', i.e., the supplicants in a beautiful couplet:
Chand Shar'maa'ey, Chah'ray Mutajalli Aisay
Na Imam Aisa Howa, Phir Na Musalli Aisay
Ashamed would be the moon, faces so bright
The Imam of the kind, never did appear, nor the supplicants like these.
Hussain had not even finished his prayers when a rain of arrows from the Yazidian forces began to shower on the praying Imam and his godly devotees. It is reported that Omar Ibne Sa'd was the first to take the bow in the Yazidian camp and shoot an arrow towards Hussain saying: (addressing the men of his forces):
"Witness ye all that I am the first to shoot an arrow against Hussain."
Reporters of the event relate that along with Omar 4,000 archers in the Yazidian ranks simultaneously shot towards the Holy Imam's camp, and before the holy souls could conclude their prayers, thirty of the godly ones, who were engaged in the prayer, were shot dead.
Soon after the prayer was over, the Holy Imam ordered all his faithful companions to fall in, and divided his small godly band into three flanks, i.e., the right and the left wings and the central body. Hussain called his brave brother, Abbas, the Faithful and presented to him the Holy Standard of Truth and thus Abbas from that day came to be known as 'Abbas-e-Alamdar' or Abbas the Standard Bearer.
Ali-e-Akber's Martyrdom:
After Abbas, came the turn of Ali-e-Akbar, to go to the battlefield. It is reported that this eighteen-year-old son was so very much loved by one and all in the camp that the account of his taking leave of his mother, aunts, sisters, brothers and other relatives is so pathetic that none can resist shedding at least a few tears over the heart-rending event. At last when the Holy Imam sent Ali-e-Akbar, the 'Ahmad-i-thani', i.e., (Muhammad the Second), to the battlefield, he raised his head towards Heaven and said:
"Lord! Here is sent in Thy way, the one who resembled the most with Thy Prophet Muhammad, whenever we did desire to have a view of the Holy face departed away from us, we used to look at the face of this youth."
"Lord! Hussain has one Ali-e-Akbar and he is sent to be sacrificed for Thy cause, had I many more like him, I would have similarly offered them all in Thy way."
Is not this offer more acceptable to God than that of Abraham who offered with his eyes blindfolded? Is not this a Greater Sacrifice than that of Ishmael?
When Ali-e-Akbar went into the battlefield, it is reported that the Devil's forces were so much amazed at his resemblance with the Holy Prophet that such of those who had seen him before, wondered if the Holy Prophet had reappeared in the world to help his dear grandson Hussain. People were so anxious to have a look at the enchanting beauty of the youth that those in the rear of the enemy's ranks, mounted on the horses and camels, even stood on the backs of the animals to have a look at the matchless and the wonder striking beauty of this son of the Holy Imam. But lo! There was a treacherous onslaught and Ali-e-Akbar fell with a lance pierced through his breast as the Holy Imam had prophesied. God alone knows what a patient heart the Holy Imam had been endowed with, which never gave way against any catastrophe even that of the loss of such a son. The Holy Imam stood looking at his son dying before his eyes and lifting his head towards Heaven said:
"Lord! It will be quite sufficient for Thy Hussain if thou accepteth this sacrifice and if thou art pleased with this humble offer."
Labels: Ahlul Bayt a.s.w and Bani Hashim
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