08/07/2025
Having cast a look at the troops that resembled a torrent, Hussain Ibn Ali (ra) raised his hands to supplicate thus:
"O Lord! You are my trust in every adversity, my hope in every hardship! You are to me my trust and treasure for whatever afflicts me! How many worries have You removed and dissipated that over-burdened my heart, exhausted my plans, betrayed my friends, and elated my enemy which I complained to You, having placed my hope upon You? You are the Originator of every blessing and the ultimate end of every wish." (1)
Hussain Ibn Ali called for his horse/camel. Having mounted it, took the copy of the Holy Qur’an with him, then stood in front of those people and said, "O people! The Book of Allah and the Sunnah of my grandfather, the Messengerﷺ of Allah, are the arbitrators between you and me." (2)
Then he called out loudly enough to be heard saying: "O people! Listen to my speech and do not rush till I admonish you with that which I owe you, and so that I tell you why I have come here; so, if you accept my excuse and believe my statement and fare with me with equity, you will be much happier, and you will see no reason to expose me to this. But if you do not accept my reason and do not fare with me with equity, then gather your affair and your accomplices, and do not feel sorry for what you do but effect your judgment in my regard and do not grant me any respite; surely my Lord is Allah Who revealed the Book and He looks after the righteous." When the women heard his statement, they cried and wailed, and their voices grew loud, whereupon he sent them his brother, Al-’Abbas Ibn Ali, and his son, Ali Al-Akbar, to ask them to remain quiet and not to cry. Once the ladies were quiet, Hussain praised Allah again and glorified him, blessed Muhammadﷺ and all angels and prophets, delivering a speech that no orator before or after him was more outspoken. (3)
Then he said, "O servants of Allah! Fear Allah and be on your guard with regard to this life which, had it remained for anyone at all, the prophets would have been the most worthy of it and the most pleased with fate. But Allah created this life so that it would perish. What is new in it will soon grow old. Its pleasure diminishes and its happiness is fleeting. A man’s home is but a mound, and one’s house is a fort; so, get ready for the next, for the best with which you prepare yourselves is piety. Fear Allah so that you may be the winners. (4) O people! Allah, the most Exalted One, created life and made it a temporary abode, taking its people from one condition to another. Conceited is whoever gets fascinated by it, and miserable is whoever gets infatuated by it. So, do not let this life deceive you, for it shall disappoint whoever trusts and desires it! I can see that you have all set your minds on doing something because of which you have caused Allah to curse you and to turn His Glorious Countenance away from you, causing you to be the object of His Wrath Kind is our Lord, and mean servants of His are you! You declared obedience to and belief in Muhammad the Messenger, then you put your ranks together to kill his Progeny and offspring! Satan took full control of you, making you forget the remembrance of Allah, the Great. Perdition, hence, is your lot and ultimate end! We belong to Allah, and to Him is our return. These are people who have turned apostates after having believed, so away with the oppressive people." (5) "O people! Identify me and find out who I am! Then go back to your evil selves and blame them, then see whether it is lawful for you to violate my sanctity. Am I not the son of your Prophet’s daughter (Fatimah), the son of his cousin (Ali) , the foremost to believe, the one who testified to the truth of what he had brought from his Lord? Is not Hamzah (ra), the Master of Martyrs, my uncle? Is not Ja’far At-Tayyar (ra) my uncle? Have you not heard that the Messengerﷺ of Allah had said about me and about my brother (Hasan): "These are the leaders of the youths of Paradise?" So if you believe what I say, which is the truth, let me swear by Allah that I never deliberately told a lie since I came to know that Allah hates lying and liars, and that lying is detrimental to those who invent it. But if you disbelieve in me, there are among you those who, if you ask them, can inform you of the same. Ask Jabir Ibn ‘Abdullah Al-Ansari, Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri, Sahl Ibn Sa’id Al-Sa’idi, Zayd Ibn Arqam, and Anas Ibn Malik, and they will tell you that they have heard these ahadith of Allah's Messengerﷺ with regard to myself and to my brother. Is this not sufficient to curb you from shedding my blood?" Al-Shimr then said, "He worships Allah by a letter, had he known what he is saying!" Habib Ibn Muzahir (ra) said to him, "By Allah! I see you worshipping Allah on seventy letters, and I testify that you are truthful when you say that you do not know what he is saying! Allah has surely sealed your heart!" Al-Hussain then said, "If you doubt what I have said, do you doubt that I am the son of your Prophet’s daughter? By Allah, there is no son of a Prophet from the east of the earth and the west besides myself, be it among you or among others. Woe unto you! Are you seeking revenge on me for killing one of you? Or is it on account of your wealth which I devoured? Or are you seeking qisas?" None of them spoke a word to Sayyiduna Hussain, so he called out, "O Shabth Ibn Rab’i! O Hijr Ibn Abjar! O Qays Ibn al-Ash’ath! O Zayd Ibn al-Harith! Did you not write me saying, ‘Come, for the fruits are ripe, the pastures are green, and you will come to troops ready for your command'?"
They said, “We did not do so.” Then Sayyiduna Hussain said, "Subhan'Allah! (Glorified is Allah). Yes, by Allah, you did exactly so!" Then he said, "O people! If you hate me, let me go away from your sight to a safe place on earth" Qays Ibn Al-Ash’ath said to him, Are you not going first to accept the authority of your relatives (i.e. Yazid and others from Banu Ummayya)? They surely will not deal with you except most amicably, and they will not harm you in the least." Al-Hussain said to him, "Are you the brother of your brother?! Do you want Banu Hashim to demand that you pay for the blood of someone else besides that of Muslim Ibn Aqil? No, by Allah! I shall not give them as the subservient ones give, nor shall I flee from them as slaves flee! (6)
"O People! I have sought refuge with Allah, your Lord and mine, against your stoning me, and I seek refuge with my Lord and yours against any arrogant person who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning.” Then Sayyiduna Imam Hussain Bin Ali (ra) alighted from his she-camel, asking Uqbah Ibn Sam’an to tie it for him. (7)
📚References:-
📘1) Ibn Al-Athir, Al-Kamil, Vol. 4, p. 25. Ibn ‘Asakir, Tarikh, Vol. 4, p. 233. On p. 158 of his Misbah (Indian edition), Al-Kaf’ami says that the Prophet had thus supplicated during the Battle of Badr. This supplication is abridged by Al-Thahabi who quotes it on p. 202, Vol. 3, of his book Siyar A’lam Al-Nubala’.
📘2) Ibn Al-Jawzi, Tathkirat Al-Khuwass, p. 143.
📘3) Al-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 6, p. 242.
📘4) Al-Husari, Zahr al-Adab, Vol. 1, p. 62. Dar al-Kutub al-’Arabiyya: 1372 A.H./1952 A.D.
📘5) Ibn Hazm on p. 164 of his book Jamharat Ansab Al-’Arab, says, “Followers of Al-Harith Ibn Rashid, a descendant of ‘Abd al-Bayt Ibn Al-Harith, reneged from Islam during Ali’s caliphate, so he fought them, killing them and taking their women and children captive.
📘6) Muhammad Ibn Abu Talib Al-Ha’iri, Maqtal Al-Hussain.
📘7) Al-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 6, p. 243.
