and Abdullah slipped out of Madinah under the cover of darkness, and settled in Makkah. During his stay in Makkah, Hussain received countless letters from the people of Kufah, urging him to move to their city and spearhead the opposition against Yazid from there. Although a number of prominent companions of the Prophet advised Hussain against such a move, he did not listen to them and instead set out for Kufah. The governor of Kufah at the time was Numan ibn Bishr who was too lenient for the liking of Yazid and, therefore, he replaced him with a ruthless young man called Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad, who played a pivotal role in suppressing the khawarij sect. As soon as Ibn Ziyad was informed that Hussain was on his way to Kufah, he stationed guards on the outskirts of the city to capture him on his arrival. Oblivious of the tumultuous situation prevailing in Kufah at the time, Hussain walked straight into Ibn Ziyad’s death-trap.
After entering Iraq, Hussain set up camp adjacent to a hill inside the border. Here, he reminded Ibn Ziyad’s forces that he came to Iraq on the invitation of the people of Kufah but, as expected, the commander of the army denied having sent him an invitation and a quarrel broke out between the two parties. Ibn Ziyad then wrote to his commander to force Hussain to camp in a barren place where there was no water. That fateful place was Karbala. Here Hussain, his family and small band of followers camped, and it was here that one of Islamic history’s most heinous crimes was to be perpetrated by Yazid’s men – as prophesied by the Prophet decades earlier. After Hussain settled at Karbala, Ibn Ziyad sent Umar ibn Sa’d with a large contingent to confront Hussain and his men. However, Hussain and Umar tried to resolve the dispute through negotiation in order to avoid fighting and bloodshed. After much discussion, both parties agreed a peace plan. Umar then wrote to Ibn Ziyad with the proposed truce, but the ruthless governor rejected the truce; he was persuaded by his aide Shimar ibn Dhul Jawshan not to accept it. Instead, the governor urged Umar to fight Hussain and force him to pledge loyalty to Yazid.
Disaster was now looming on the horizon. Ibn Ziyad sent Shimar with the instruction to force Hussain to surrender. When Umar ibn Sa’d received Ibn Ziyad’s letter, the former rebuked Shimar for wrecking his peace plan. Though Umar ibn Sa’d (who was the son of the distinguished companion Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas) was keen to resolve the conflict without a fight, the bloodthirsty Shimar was keen to fight and shed innocent blood. When Hussain refused to surrender voluntarily, the hope of reaching a peaceful resolution vanished. That evening Hussain spoke to his family and friends and asked them to prepare for battle. This conflict was destined to become one of the most heartbreaking tragedies in the annals of Islam. The impact of this tragedy continues to upset Muslim feelings and consciousness to this day. On the tenth of Muharram, sixty one years after the hijrah, Hussain, his family and friends took a stand against political tyranny and oppression. Attacked by Ibn Ziyad’s forces, Hussain and his followers fought like lions – and one by one they fell on the battlefield – except the indomitable Hussain who continued to fight. No one dared to touch the man who was the apple of the Prophet’s eye. In desperation, as arrows pierced his body and neck, Hussain searched for water to drink but his heartless pursuers refused him relief. The cursed Malik then landed a blow on his head.
Lifting his eyes up to the heavens, Hussain cried, ‘Lord, deprive these people of rain and the bounties of the earth…they invited us with the promise to support our cause. When we came, they turned against us and started butchering us.’ Saying this, Hussain picked up his sword and marched towards the enemy and they fell upon him from all directions. His body was mutilated and the wretched Shimar cut off his head, and it was carried to the governor of Kufah who, in turn, sent it to Yazid in Damascus. According to the historians, Hussain’s body was buried in Karbala but there is much disagreement concerning the burial site of his head. Some historians say it was taken to Madinah and buried in Jannat al-Baqi next to his mother’s grave, while others say it was buried in Damascus. Either way, Hussain was brutally martyred at the age of fifty-five. He was a man of sound principles who lived by his principles and died fighting for justice and truth. Hussain’s uncompromising stance against Yazid earned him the title of ‘prince of martyrs’, while Yazid became known to posterity as the ‘king of hatred’, the most despised man in Islamic history. More than half a century after Hussain’s martyrdom, justice caught up with the wretched men who were responsible for the grisly murder of Hussain at Karbala. The House of Umayyah (the Umayyad dynasty) soon crumbled and the butchers of Karbala were caught and punished in an exemplary fashion by the Abbasids. Hussain did not die in vain; it was a battle of good against evil, right against wrong, and truth against falsehood. That is why today the name of Hussain has become totally synonymous with the fight against injustice, brutality and oppression throughout the Muslim world.
ACCORDING TO THE Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad was uswatun hasana (or the ‘best role model’) for all people for all times to come. The Qur’an provides the outlines of Islamic principles and teachings, while the normative practice (sunnah) of the Prophet is regarded as the most authoritative commentary on the Qur’anic revelation. For this reason, Muslims have always been keen to record the Prophet’s words and deeds for a better understanding of the Qur’an, and for the benefit and guidance of future generations. It was by no means an easy task given the fact that in seventh century Arabia illiteracy was widespread and the vast majority of the people relied heavily on their memories for preserving information and passing important data from one generation to another by means of oral communication. The Arabs, however, were gifted oral communicators who had developed a fine tradition of promulgating genealogical information from one generation to another, spanning many centuries. Utilising the same methodology, the early Muslims recorded each and every word and deed of the Prophet for posterity. Amongst the companions of the Prophet, one man more than any other, stands out like a shining star for his utter devotion and dedication to preserving the ahadith (or sayings of the Prophet); he was Abu Hurairah.
His pre-Islamic name was Abd ash-Shams but after embracing Islam he changed it to Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr, although he became well known by his nickname, ‘Abu Hurairah’ (meaning the ‘father of the kitten’), received due to his love and affection for his pet kitten. Born into the Daws tribe of southern Arabia, Abu Hurairah was about twelve when Muhammad became a Prophet and started preaching Islam in Makkah. Although little is known about his early life, like most of the Arabs of his time, he grew up in southern Arabia without any schooling and was known to have been illiterate. Young boys in those days often worked as shepherds, general labourers or, if they were lucky, they accompanied the merchants to neighbouring countries to conduct business. These long and often protracted journeys to and from leading trading centres, like Makkah, Damascus and Yemen, were considered to be highly lucrative, and only the wealthy traders engaged in such ventures. Abu Hurairah was still in his teens when the Prophet began to preach the message of Islam to his kith and kin. This was followed by an open call to all the people of Makkah. Young Abu Hurairah was, of course, unaware of Muhammad’s Prophetic mission at the time.
After preaching in Makkah for more than a decade, the Prophet left his native city and moved to the nearby oasis of Madinah, where he received a warm welcome. At the time Abu Hurairah was in his early twenties. As an intelligent and contemplative young man, he led a very simple lifestyle even in his pre-Islamic days, and would have probably embraced Islam had he been living in Makkah when the Prophet first began his mission. As it happens, it was not until seven years after the Prophet’s migration (hijrah) to Madinah that Abu Hurairah came to hear about the Prophet and his mission. Immediately he set out for Madinah in order to meet the Prophet. When he arrived (in 628), he was told that the Prophet was in Khaibar where he was seeking to put an end to the anti-Islamic activities which were being masterminded there at the time. Keen to meet the Prophet, he set out for Khaibar – which is located around one hundred and sixty kilometres from Madinah – and after a long and exhausting journey, he formally became a Muslim at the hands of the Prophet. He was about thirty at the time. Thereafter, Abu Hurairah became a very close associate of the Prophet, and regularly accompanied him wherever he went and, as a result, he learned and mastered all aspects of Islamic teachings and practices under the guidance of the Prophet.
Although
