Section 13

Imam Husain (a.s) on way to Kufa

Our Shaikh Sadooq, through his successive chain of narrators, relates from Amr bin Qays Mashriqi, who says that I alongwith my cousin came to the presence of Imam Husain (a.s) at Qasre Bani Maqatil. We saluted the Imam and my cousin asked him, "The colour of your hair is due to the dye or a chemical dye"? Imam replied,

"It is dyed, for we, the Bani Hashim turn old very soon."

Then the Imam turned towards us and asked,

"Have you come to assist me"?

I answered, "I have a large family and I also have the trust of other people with me. I do not know what will be the outcome of this, and hence do not desire that the wealth of people (with me) may go waste." My cousin too said something similar. Then Imam said,

"Then go away from here and do not remain so as to hear our cry or see our gloom, for the one who hears our cry and beholds our gloom and yet does not hasten to assist us, then it is the right upon Allah, the Honoured, the Glorfied, to throw him headlong into the fire of hell."

(Irshad) Then in the last part of the night, Imam ordered water to be taken and left from Qasre Bani Maqatil.

Uqbah bin Sam'an says, that we went alongwith the Imam and he took a short nap on the horse's back. Then he woke up and uttered the words:

"Verily we are Allah's and verily unto Him shall we return. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds."

Then he repeated it twice or thrice. His son Ali bin Husain (a.s), who was riding a horse, came upto him and asked, "Why did you (suddenly) praise Allah and utter the words of "returning to Him"? Imam replied,

"O my dear son! Sleep overtook me, and I saw a rider come up to me from behind and said: These people are proceeding further, while death is

advancing towards them. I perceived that they were our spirits informing us of our death."

Ali bin Husain said, "O dear father! May your Lord not bring forth evil! Are we not on the right"? Imam replied,

"Why not, by Him towards Whom all servants return."

Then Ali said, "Then we do not fear, for we shall die on the right." Imam said,

"May Allah reward you abundantly, the reward which is due from a father to his son."

(Irshad and Kamil) When it dawned, Imam Husain (a.s) recited the morning Prayers and hastily ascended his horse and turned towards the left. He tried to dispel his companions (from Al-Hurr's army). Then Al-Hurr bin Yazeed came up to him and desisted him and his companions from doing so. And as much as Al-Hurr tried to take them to Kufa, they resisted until they stopped, but they followed in the same way until they reached Ninawa. When Imam Husain (a.s) haulted there, a rider, equipped with arms and carrying a bow on his shoulder, arrived from Kufa. Everyone stopped and watched him, and when he came, he saluted Al-Hurr and his companions and did not salute Imam and his companions. Then he handed over the letter of Ubaydullah bin Ziyad to Al-Hurr, whose contents were as follows: "Now then! As soon as my letter and messenger reaches you, be severe towards Husain. And let him hault at a barren land, devoid of fortresses and water. I have instructed my messenger not to part with you until you have carried out my orders, Salutations."

When Al-Hurr read the letter of Ubaydullah, he told them, "This is the letter of the commander Ubaydullah, in which he has ordered me to stop you wherev­er this letter reaches me. And this is his messenger, who shall not part with me until I carry out his orders."

(Tabari) Then Yazeed bin Muhajir Abul Sha'sa Kindi looked at the messenger of Ibne Ziyad and asked him, "Are you not Malik bin Numayr"? He replied in the affirmative, while he was from the clan of Bani Kinda. Abul Sha'sa said, "May your mother mourn you! What order have you brought"? He re­plied, "What have I brought, but the orders of my Imam and fulfilled my allegiance to him." Abul Sha'sa said, "You have disobeyed your Allah and obeyed your Imam in that which will doom you. And you shall earn disgrace and the fire of hell, what an evil Imam you have. Allah says in the Qur'an: And we made them Imams who invite unto the (hell) fire, and on the day of Qiyamah they shall not be helped, (Surah al Qasas: 41) while your Imam is one of them."

(Irshad) Al-Hurr thus forced Imam and his companions to hault at that place, devoid of habitation nor water. Imam said,

"Woe be to you! Leave us, so that we may hault at this village (Ninawa or Ghaziriyyah) or that (Shu­fiyyah)."

Al-Hurr replied, "By Allah! I cannot permit you to do so, they have appointed that man as a spy over me." Then Zuhayr bin Qayn said, "O son of the Prophet of Allah! I see that the matter will get worse than this. It is much easier for us to fight these people now, than to fight with the group who shall come after them. By my life! So many people will come afterwards that it is beyond our strenght to confront them." Imam replied,

"I shall not (be the first to) fight them."

Saying this he dismounted, and that was on Thursday, the second of the month of Moharram sixty-first year of migration.

Sayyed ibne Tawoos says, that Imam Husain (a.s) stood amidst his compan­ions and delivered a sermon. He praised and glorified Allah and sent salu­tations upon his Grandfather and then said, "You have seen as to what have they brought forth... (till the end)" And he delivered a sermon similar to that which we have quoted earlier when Imam met Al-Hurr.