Islam > Scholars > al-Husayn ibn Ali, the Martyr of Karbala
Biography of al-Husayn ibn Ali, the Martyr of Karbala as related by al-Dhahabi in Siyar A lam al-Nubala.
Updated on 14 September 2026 at 8:10 PM
📖 62 min read48 - Al-Husayn the Martyr, Abu Abdallah, son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, ibn Abd al-Muttalib * (peace be upon him)
The imam, the noble, the complete one, the grandson of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, his flower in this world and his beloved.
Abu Abdallah al-Husayn, son of the Commander of the believers Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi Talib, ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy al-Qurashi, al-Hashimi.
He narrated from: his grandfather, his two parents, his son-in-law Umar, and a group.
Those who narrated from him: his two sons Ali and Fatimah, Ubayd ibn Hunayn, Hammam al-Farazdaq, Ikrimah, ash-Sha'bi, Talhah al-Ijli, his nephew Zayd ibn al-Hasan, his grandson Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir (without having met him), his daughter Sukaynah, and others.
az-Zubayr said: his birth took place on the fifth of Sha'ban, of the fourth year of the Hijrah.
Ja'far as-Sadiq said: between al-Hasan and al-Husayn, in the pregnancy, there was a single purity.
Several hadiths concerning al-Husayn have already appeared in the biography of al-Hasan.
Hani ibn Hani narrated, from Ali, who said:
al-Husayn is the most similar to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, from the chest to the feet.
And Hammad ibn Zayd said, from Hisham, from Muhammad, from Anas, who said:
I was present with Ibn Ziyad when the head of al-Husayn was brought to him, and he began to poke it with a stick he had. I said: yet this one was the more similar of the two to the Prophet, peace be upon him.
And Jarir ibn Hazim narrated it, from Muhammad.
As for Nadr ibn Shumayl, he narrated it from Hisham ibn al-Hasan, from Hafsa bint Sirin: Anas told me, and he said: he was poking it with a stick in his nose.
Ibn Uyaynah: from Ubaydallah ibn Abi Yazid, who said:
I saw al-Husayn ibn Ali with a black head and beard, except for a few hairs at the front of his beard.
Ibn Jurayj: from Umar ibn Ata:
I saw al-Husayn dyeing himself with wasma; his head and his beard were of an intense black.
Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Ya'qub: from Ibn Abi Nu'm, who said:
I was with Ibn Umar; a man asked him about the blood of the mosquito, and he said: where are you from?
He said: from the people of Iraq.
He said: look at this one: he asks me about the blood of the mosquito, while they killed the son of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say: both of them are my two flowers of this world.
Narrated by Jarir ibn Hazim, and by Mahdi ibn Maymun, from him.
From Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who said:
I entered upon the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and al-Hasan and al-Husayn were playing on his chest. I said: O Messenger of Allah! Do you love them, both of them?!
He said: how could I not love them, when they are my two flowers of this world?
Narrated by at-Tabarani in the Mu'jam.
And from al-Harith, from Ali, raised to the Prophet: al-Hasan and al-Husayn are the two masters of the youth of the people of Paradise.
And it is narrated from Shurayh, from Ali.
And in this chapter: from Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Umar, Ibn Mas'ud, Malik ibn al-Huwayrith, Abu Sa'id, Hudhayfah, Anas, and Jabir, by ways that strengthen one another.
Musa ibn Uthman al-Hadrami (Shi'i, weak): from al-A'mash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, who said:
al-Husayn was with the Prophet, peace be upon him, and he loved him with an intense love, and he said: go to your mother.
I said: shall I go with him?
He said: no.
Then a light came, and he walked in its brightness until he reached his mother.
And Waki': Rabi ibn Sa'd told us, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Thabit, from Jabir:
that he said, while al-Husayn was entering the mosque: whoever wants to look at the master of the youth of the people of Paradise, let him look at this one.
I heard it from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
Strengthening it: Abdallah ibn Numayr, from Rabi al-Ju'fi.
Brought out by Ahmad in his Musnad.
And Sharik said, from Umm Salamah:
the Prophet, peace be upon him, wrapped Ali, Fatimah and their two sons in a garment, then said: O Allah, these are the people of the house of my daughter and my family: remove impurity from them, and purify them with a perfect purification.
I said: O Messenger of Allah! Am I among them?
He said: you are toward good.
Its chain is good (jayyid).
It has been narrated from Shahr by multiple ways.
And in some of them, he said: I entered upon her to console her for al-Husayn.
And al-A'mash narrated it likewise, from Ja'far ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Hakim ibn Sa'd, from Umm Salamah.
And Shaddad Abu Ammar narrated, from Wathilah ibn al-Asqa', the story of the garment (kissa).
Ahmad: Affan narrated to us, Huwayyib narrated to us, Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Khuthaym narrated to us, from Sa'id ibn Rashid, from Ya'la al-Amiri:
the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: al-Husayn is from my offspring among the offspring; whoever loves me, let him love al-Husayn.
And in a version: may Allah love the one who loves al-Husayn.
Abu Bakr ibn Ayyash: from Asim, from Zirr, from Abdallah:
I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, take the hand of al-Hasan and of al-Husayn, and say: these are my two sons; whoever loves them loves me, and whoever hates them hates me.
And Abu al-Jahhaf and Salim ibn Abi Hafsah and others narrated it likewise, from Abu Hazim al-Ashja'i, from Abu Hurayrah, raised to the Prophet.
And in this chapter: from Usamah, from Salman al-Farisi, from Ibn Abbas and from Zayd ibn Arqam.
Abd al-Aziz ad-Darawardi and others: from Ali ibn Abi Ali al-Lahabi, from Ja'far ibn Muhammad, from his father, who said:
the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, sat at the place of a funeral; al-Hasan and al-Husayn appeared and quarreled, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: leave it, O al-Hasan.
Ali said: O Messenger of Allah! You prevent him in favor of al-Husayn?
He said: here is Jibril saying: leave it, O al-Husayn.
And a similar version is narrated from Abu Hurayrah, raised to the Prophet.
And in the Marasil of Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad:
the Prophet, peace be upon him, heard al-Husayn crying and said to his mother: did you not know that his crying wounds me?
Hammad ibn Zayd: Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari told us, from Ubayd ibn Hunayn, from al-Husayn, who said:
I climbed upon the minbar beside Umar and said: come down from the minbar of my father, and go to the minbar of your father.
He said: yet my father had no minbar!
He seated me beside him; when he came down, he said: O my son, who taught you that?
I said: no one taught it to me.
He said: O my son! Allah made the hair grow on our heads, then upon you! And he placed his hand on his head and said: O my son, would that you came to us and visited us.
Its chain is authentic.
Ja'far ibn Muhammad narrated, from his father:
that Umar granted al-Husayn a stipend like that of Ali: five thousand.
Hammad ibn Zayd: from Ma'mar, from az-Zuhri:
that Umar clothed the children of the Companions; there was nothing in that suitable for al-Hasan and al-Husayn; so he sent to Yemen, and a garment was brought to him for the two of them, and he said: at last, my soul is at peace.
al-Waqidi: Musa ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim at-Taymi told me, from his father:
that Umar attached al-Hasan and al-Husayn to the share of their father, for their kinship with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him: five thousand for each.
Yunus ibn Abi Ishaq: from al-Ayyzar ibn Hurayth, who said:
while Amr ibn al-As was in the shade of the Ka'bah, he saw al-Husayn and said: here is the most beloved of the people of the earth to the people of heaven today.
And Abu Ishaq said: a man came to Amr and said: I have upon me a debt toward a descendant of Isma'il.
He said: I know none of them but al-Hasan and al-Husayn.
I said: I did not understand it.
Ibrahim ibn Nafi': from Amr ibn Dinar, who said:
when a man came to Ibn Umar and said: I have upon me a debt toward a son of Isma'il, he said: turn to al-Hasan and al-Husayn.
Hawdhah: Awf told us, from al-Azraq ibn Qays, who said:
the bishop of Najran and al-Aqib came to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him; he called them to Islam, and they said: we were Muslims before you.
He said: you both lie! Three things prevented you from Islam: your saying that Allah has taken a child, your eating of pork, and your prostration before the idol.
They said: who then is the father of Isa?
He did not know, until Allah sent down upon him: {the case of Isa with Allah is like the case of Adam}, up to His saying: {this is the true narration} (Surah Al 'Imran, verses 59-63).
So he called them to the mutual curse, took the hand of Fatimah, of al-Hasan and of al-Husayn, and said: these are my sons.
One of them said to the other: do not curse him, for if he is a prophet, nothing of you will remain.
They said: we have no need of your Islam nor of your curse: is there a third thing?
He said: yes: the jizyah.
They accepted it and returned.
Ma'mar: from Qatadah, who said:
when the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, wanted to make the mutual curse with the people of Najran, he took the hand of al-Hasan and of al-Husayn and said to Fatimah: follow us.
When the enemies of Allah saw that, they returned.
Abu Awanah: from Sulayman, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Abu Idris, from al-Musayyib ibn Najabah:
he heard Ali say: shall I not inform you of myself and of the people of my house? As for Abdallah ibn Ja'far: he is a man of amusement; as for al-Hasan: he is a man of a bowl of the young men of Quraysh: if the two rings of his intimates united, they would be of no help to you in war; as for me and al-Husayn: we are of you, and you are of us.
Its chain is strong.
And from Sa'id ibn Amr: al-Hasan said to al-Husayn: I wish I had a share of the hardness of your heart.
al-Husayn said: and I, I wish I had a share of what your tongue has of breadth.
From Abu al-Muhazzim, who said: we were at a funeral, and Abu Hurayrah came, shaking from his garment the dust from off the foot of al-Husayn.
And Mus'ab az-Zubayri said: al-Husayn performed the pilgrimage twenty-five times, on foot.
And Ubaydallah al-Wassafi narrated it likewise, from Abdallah ibn Ubayd ibn Umayr, and he added: and his two swift mounts were led along with him.
But the version differs concerning al-Wassafi: Ya'la ibn Ubayd said, from him: al-Hasan; and Zuhayr narrated from him a similar version, and in it he says: al-Hasan.
Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Muthanna said: al-Husayn was at the left wing on the Day of the Camel.
Ahmad, in his Musnad: Muhammad ibn Ubayd informed us, Shurahbil ibn Mudrik told us, from Abdallah ibn Nujayy, from his father:
that he marched with Ali and was his squire; when he reached Nineveh, marching toward Siffin, Ali called out to him: patience, O Abu Abdallah, on the bank of the Euphrates.
I said: and what is that?
He said: I entered one day upon the Prophet, peace be upon him, his two eyes overflowing, and he said: Jibril rose from beside me and informed me that al-Husayn will be killed, and he said: do you want me to make you smell of his earth?
I said: yes.
He extended his hand and took a handful of earth.
He said: he brought it to me, and I could not hold back my eye.
This is solitary (gharib), and it has a strengthener.
Yahya ibn Abi Zaydah: from a man, from ash-Sha'bi:
that Ali, on the bank of the Euphrates, said: patience, O Abu Abdallah.
Umarah ibn Zadhan: Thabit told us, from Anas, who said:
the angel charged with the rain sought permission from the Prophet, peace be upon him.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: O Umm Salamah, keep the door for us.
al-Husayn came and forced his way in, and began to cling to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Messenger of Allah kissed him.
The angel said: do you love him?
He said: yes.
He said: your community will kill him; if you wish, I show you
the place where he will be killed.
He said: yes.
He brought him a handful, or red earth.
Thabit said: we used to say that it is Karbala.
Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Waqid: my father told us, Abu Ghalib told us, from Abu Umamah:
the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to his wives: do not weep for this one before me.
He meant: al-Husayn.
It was the day of Umm Salamah; Jibril descended, and the Messenger of Allah said to Umm Salamah: let no one in.
al-Husayn came, weeping; she let him enter; he entered and sat in the lap of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
Jibril said: your community will kill him.
He said: they kill him while they are believers?
He said: yes.
And he showed him his earth.
Its chain is good (hasan).
Khalid ibn Makhlad: Musa ibn Ya'qub told us, from Hashim ibn Hashim, from Abdallah ibn Wahb ibn Zam'ah, from Umm Salamah:
that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, lay down one day, woke up dazed, then lay down again, then woke up dazed, then lay down again, then woke up, and in his hand was red earth, which he was turning over.
I said: what is this?
He said: Jibril informed me that this one will be killed in the land of Iraq: it is al-Husayn, and this is his earth.
And Ibrahim ibn Tahman narrated it, from Abbad ibn Ishaq, from Hashim, without mentioning that he lay down.
Ahmad: Waki' told us, Abdallah ibn Sa'id told us, from his father, from Aisha or from Umm Salamah:
that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to her: an angel entered upon me in the house, an angel who had never entered upon me before him, and he said: al-Husayn will be killed; if you wish, I show you his earth: and the hadith.
And Abd ar-Razzaq narrated it: Abdallah informed us, similar, and said: from Umm Salamah, without hesitation.
And it is narrated from Abu Wa'il, and from Shahr ibn Hawshab, from Umm Salamah.
And Ibn Sa'd narrated it from the account of Aisha.
And it has other ways.
And from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Sa'id ibn Junhan:
that Jibril came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, with an earth from the earth where al-Husayn will be killed.
It is said that its name is Karbala.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: karb (grief) and bala' (trial).
Isra'il: from Abu Ishaq, from Hani ibn Hani, from Ali, who said:
al-Husayn will be killed a certain death, and I know the earth where he will be killed.
Abu Nu'aym: Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Abbas told us, from Ammar ad-Duhni: that
Ka'b passed by Ali and said: from the offspring of this one a man will be killed, in a troop whose horses' sweat does not dry, until they come to Muhammad, peace be upon him.
al-Hasan passed, and it was said: this one?
He said: no.
al-Husayn passed, and it was said: this one?
He said: yes.
Husayn ibn Abd ar-Rahman: from al-Ala' ibn Abi Aisha, from his father, from Ras al-Jalut, who said:
we used to hear that a son of a prophet will be killed at Karbala.
al-Muttalib ibn Ziyad: from as-Suddi, who said:
I saw al-Husayn with a lock coming out from under his turban.
And al-Ayyzar ibn Hurayth said: I saw on al-Husayn a cloak of Khuzz.
And from ash-Sha'bi, who said: I saw al-Husayn wearing out the siwak in the month of Ramadan.
And a group narrated that al-Husayn dyed himself with wasma, and that his complexion was dark.
It has reached us that al-Husayn did not approve of what his brother al-Hasan did in handing over the caliphate to Mu'awiyah; his opinion was rather fighting; but he suppressed his anger and obeyed his brother, and pledged allegiance.
And he accepted the gifts of Mu'awiyah, and Mu'awiyah looked upon him favorably, respected him and venerated him. When Mu'awiyah did, after the death of the master al-Hasan, what he did of binding the caliphate to his son Yazid, al-Husayn suffered from it:
he had the right to it; he, Ibn az-Zubayr and the son of Abu Bakr refused the allegiance, until Mu'awiyah overcame them and took their allegiance under compulsion; they were overcome and powerless before the power of the moment.
When Mu'awiyah died, Yazid received the caliphate, and most of the people pledged allegiance to him; Ibn az-Zubayr and al-Husayn did not pledge allegiance to him: they turned away from it, and each of the two aimed at the matter for himself, and they left al-Madinah by night.
Sufyan ibn Uyaynah: from Ibrahim ibn Maysarah, from Tawus, from Ibn Abbas, who said:
al-Husayn consulted me about the departure, and I said: if people were not to despise me, you and I, I would thrust my hand into your head.
He said: being killed in such and such a place is more beloved to me than making its inviolability lawful: he meant: Mecca.
And that is what soothed my soul about him.
Yahya ibn Isma'il al-Bajali: ash-Sha'bi told me, who said:
Ibn Umar arrived at al-Madinah; he was informed that al-Husayn had set out toward Iraq; he caught up with him after a march of two nights and said: where are you going?
He said: toward Iraq.
And with him were missives and letters; he said: do not go to them.
He said: here are their letters and their allegiance.
He said: Allah gave His prophet the choice between this world and the hereafter, and he chose the hereafter; you are a part of him: none of you will ever succeed him, and Allah only turned him away from you for the one who is better for you. So return.
He refused, and Ibn Umar embraced him and said: I entrust you to Allah with the entrusting of a dead man.
Al-Hasan ibn Uyaynah added to it: from Yahya ibn Isma'il, from ash-Sha'bi:
he admonished him and said: the people of Iraq are deceitful men: they killed your father, wounded your brother, and they did, and did.
Ibn al-Mubarak: from Bashir ibn Ghalib, that az-Zubayr said to al-Husayn: where are you going? To a people who killed your father and wounded your brother!
He said: being killed is more beloved to me than that it be made lawful: he meant: Mecca.
Abu Salamah al-Minqari: Mu'awiyah ibn Abd al-Karim told me, from Marwan al-Asfar, al-Farazdaq told me, who said:
when al-Husayn departed, I met Abdallah ibn Amr and said: this one has departed: what do you see?
He said: I see that you set out with him: if you want this world, you will attain it, and if you want the hereafter, you will attain it.
So I set out toward him; on the road, his death reached me, and I returned to Abdallah and said: where is what you mentioned?
He said: it was a dream that I saw.
I say: this indicates the exactness of the opinion of Abdallah ibn Amr about al-Husayn in his march, and it is the opinion of Ibn az-Zubayr and of a group of Companions who lived through the year of al-Harrah.
Ibn Sa'd: al-Waqidi informed us, Ibn Abi Dhi'b told us, Abdallah ibn Umayr told me (hadith).
And Ibn Abi az-Zinad informed us, from Abu Wajzah (hadith), and Yunus ibn Abi Ishaq, from his father, and he named a group, then said:
I have therefore written the compilations of their hadith about the death of al-Husayn.
He said: the people of al-Kufah used to write to al-Husayn, calling him to come out to them from the time of Mu'awiyah; all of that he refused. People of them came to Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and urged him to set out with them; he refused, and came to al-Husayn, informed him,
and said: the people want to eat with us and shed our bloods.
al-Husayn remained on his state, hesitant in his resolve. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri came to him and said: O Abu Abdallah, I am for you a solicitous counselor; it has reached me that a people of your partisans wrote to you: do not then go out to them, for I heard your father say about al-Kufah: by Allah, I grew weary of it and they grew weary of me, I hated them and they hated me; I found in them no loyalty, and they have neither steadiness, nor resolve, nor patience before the sword.
And al-Musayyib ibn Najabah and a group came to al-Husayn after the death of al-Hasan, calling him to depose Mu'awiyah, and said: we know your opinion and the opinion of your brother.
He said: I hope that Allah will give to my brother according to his intention, and give to me according to my intention: the love of fighting the wrongdoers.
And Marwan wrote to Mu'awiyah: I do not feel safe that al-Husayn be a watchpost for the fitnah, and I think your day with him will be long.
Mu'awiyah wrote to al-Husayn: the one to whom Allah has given the hand of his right hand and His covenant deserves to fulfill it; I have been informed that a people of al-Kufah call you to discord, and they are those you have tested: they corrupted the matter with your father and your brother. Fear Allah, remember the pact: when you turn your back to me, I turn my back to you.
al-Husayn wrote to him: your letter has reached me, and I am not of what was reported to you as worthy; I wanted neither to wage war on you nor discord; I see for myself no excuse before Allah in leaving off fighting you, and I know no fitnah greater than your command.
Mu'awiyah said: we shall not depart from Abu Abdallah otherwise than as from a lion.
And from Juwayriyah ibn Asma', from Musaffi' ibn Shaybah, who said:
al-Husayn met Mu'awiyah at Mecca, near ar-Radm; he seized the bridle of his mount, tied his beast to it, then spoke with him at length, then went away. Mu'awiyah spurred the mount, and his son Yazid said to him: a man presented himself to you and tied his beast to it.
He said: leave him: perhaps he seeks it at my unguarded moment, and if he does not obtain it, then he kills me.
The hadith returns to the first:
They said: and when Mu'awiyah was at the agony of death, he called Yazid, gave him his recommendation and said:
look after al-Husayn, for he is the most beloved of the people to the people: respect his tie of kinship, be gentle with him; if there is anything from him, Allah will suffice you against the one who killed his father and abandoned his brother.
And Mu'awiyah died in mid-Rajab, and the people pledged allegiance to Yazid, who wrote to the governor of al-Madinah, al-Walid ibn Utbah ibn Abi Sufyan: call the people and have them pledge allegiance, begin with the notables, and be gentle with al-Husayn.
So he sent, by night, to al-Husayn and Ibn az-Zubayr, and called them to the allegiance of Yazid; they said: in the morning, we shall see what the people do.
And they sprang up and went out.
Now al-Walid had been harsh toward al-Husayn; al-Husayn insulted him, seized his turban and tore it off him, and al-Walid said: with this one, we shall come out only as from a lion.
Marwan (or another) said to him: kill him.
He said: that is protected blood.
And al-Husayn and Ibn az-Zubayr departed, each at his hour, toward Mecca; al-Husayn camped at Mecca, at the dwelling of Abbas, and Ibn az-Zubayr shut himself in the Hijr. He wore the garments of Yemen, and began to stir up against the Banu Umayyah; he came and went to al-Husayn, suggesting to him to advance toward Iraq, and saying: they are your partisans.
And Ibn Abbas forbade it to him.
And Abdallah ibn Muti' said to him: may my father and my mother be your ransom, gladden us with yourself and do not depart; by Allah, if you are killed, they will take us for servants and slaves.
And Abdallah ibn Umar and Abdallah ibn Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah met them, returning from the umrah, and he said to them: I remind you of Allah: if you do not return, you will enter the right side of that into which the people enter and you will see: if the people gather upon him, you will not separate; if they divide over him, you will have what you want.
And Ibn Umar said to al-Husayn: do not go out, for the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, was given the choice between this world and the hereafter, he chose the hereafter, and you are a part of him, you will not attain it.
Then he embraced him, wept and bade him farewell.
And Ibn Umar used to say: his departure has overcome us; by my life, he saw in his father and his brother a lesson, and he saw of the fitnah and the treachery of the people toward them what should have prevented him from moving.
And Ibn Abbas said to him: where do you want to go, O son of Fatimah?
He said: toward Iraq and my partisans.
He said: I detest this face of yours: you go out to a people who killed your father: up to when he said:
And Abu Sa'id said to him: fear Allah and hold to your house.
And Jabir and Abu Waqid al-Laythi spoke to him.
And Ibn al-Musayyib said: had he not gone out, it would have been better for him.
He said: and Amrah wrote to him, magnifying what he wanted to do, and informing him that he is driven only toward his death, and saying:
Aisha told me that she heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
say: al-Husayn will be killed in the land of Babylon.
When he read her letter, he said: there is then no escape from my death.
And Abdallah ibn Ja'far wrote to him, warning him and adjuring him by Allah, and wrote to him:
I saw a dream: I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and he enjoined upon me a matter to which I am going.
And al-Husayn refused everyone who gave him advice, except the march toward Iraq.
And Ibn Abbas said to him: I think that tomorrow you will be killed between your women and your daughters as Uthman was killed, and I fear that you may be the one through whom the trial of Uthman is made: to Allah we belong and to Him we return.
He said: O Abu al-Abbas! You are an old man who has grown old.
He said: if people were not to despise me, you and I, I would thrust my hand into your head, and if I knew that you would stay, then I would do it.
Then he wept and said: you have gladdened the eye of Ibn az-Zubayr.
Then he said afterward to Ibn az-Zubayr: what you loved has come, O Abu Abdallah: he goes out toward Iraq, leaving you and the Hijaz:
"O you, the turtledove of the son of Ammar ... good fortune has left you: whiten and yellow"
"And peck what you want to peck ..."
And Abu Bakr ibn Ayyash said: al-Ahnaf wrote to al-Husayn: {So be patient: the promise of Allah is truth, and let not those take you in who have no certainty} (Surah ar-Rum, verse 60).
Uwanah ibn al-Hakam: from Labitah ibn al-Farazdaq, from his father, who said:
I met al-Husayn and said: the hearts are with you, and the swords with the Banu Umayyah.
Ibn Uyaynah: from Labitah, from his father, who said:
al-Husayn met me while he was leaving Mecca with a group clothed in robes of brocade; he said: what is behind you?
And he had upon the tongue a heaviness from a paralysis that had happened to him.
And it is said: there were with al-Husayn and his group thirty-two horses.
And Ibn Sa'd narrated, by his chains, they said:
al-Husayn took the road of al-Udhayb, camped at the palace of Abu Muqatil, uttered a cry, then called upon returning to Allah and said: I saw as it were a horseman urging us on and saying: the people advance, and the dead advance toward them.
Then he camped at Karbala, and Umar ibn Sa'd marched toward him, as one compelled: up to when he said:
His companions were killed around him, and they were fifty; and of those, twenty faced him; he remained the whole day without anyone approaching him, and the footmen encircled him, and he charged them and put them to rout, and they recoiled from advancing upon him; Shimr cried to them: may your mothers lose you: what do you await
from him?
And Sinan ibn Anas an-Nakha'i pierced him at the collarbone, then pierced him at the chest: he fell, and Khuli al-Asbahi struck off his head: may Allah not be pleased with the two of them.
Ibn Sa'd recalled, by his chains, they said:
al-Husayn sent Muslim and ordered him to lodge with Hani ibn Urwah and to write the state of the people; he arrived at al-Kufah concealed, the partisans came to him, he took their allegiance and wrote to al-Husayn: eighteen thousand have pledged allegiance to me so far: hasten; nothing prevents (access to) al-Kufah.
So he hastened the march until he reached Zubalah; the messengers of the people of al-Kufah came to him with a register of a hundred thousand names. The governor of al-Kufah was an-Nu'man ibn Bashir; Yazid feared that an-Nu'man would not advance against al-Husayn.
He wrote to Ubaydallah, who was at Basra, and attached al-Kufah to him, and said to him: if you have two wings, fly toward al-Kufah!
He set out disguised as a pilgrim, passed through the market; the rabble saw him, threw themselves before him, taking him for al-Husayn, and cried: O son of the Messenger of Allah! Praise be to Allah who showed us you.
They kissed his hand and his foot; he said: how great is the corruption of these.
Then he entered the mosque, prayed two rak'ahs, mounted the minbar, gnashed his teeth, seized the messenger of al-Husayn, who was Abdallah ibn Buqtr, and killed him.
And there had come with Ubaydallah: Shurayk ibn al-A'war (Shi'i); he camped at the house of Hani ibn Urwah and fell ill; Ubaydallah visited him; thirty men were prepared to assassinate Ubaydallah, and that did not take place.
Ubaydallah understood it, sprang up, went out, and a slave of Hani denounced them; he sent to Hani, who was an old man, and said: what pushed you to give asylum to my enemy?
He said: O son of my brother, a right has come, truer than your right.
Ubaydallah sprang upon him with the lance until he pinned his head against the wall.
The news reached Muslim; he went out with about four hundred; he did not reach the palace but with about sixty; the sun set; they fought, and the companions of Ubayd
Allah were many upon them; night came, Muslim fled, sought asylum with a woman of Kindah; then he was brought to Ubaydallah, who killed him; he said: let me make my testament.
He said: yes.
He said to Umar ibn Sa'd: O you! I have a need toward you, and there is here no Qurashi other than you; this al-Husayn covered you with his shade: so send word to him to go away, for the people have duped and disbelieved him; I have a debt: acquit it for me, and bury my body. He did that.
And he sent a man on a she-camel toward al-Husayn, and met him at four stages; his son Ali the elder said to him: return, O my father, for these are the people of Iraq, with their deceit and the rarity of their loyalty.
The Banu Aqil said: this is not the hour of returning.
And they urged him on. al-Husayn said to his companions: you see what has reached us, and I see the people only ready to abandon us: whoever wants to return, let him return.
So a group went away from him. As for Ubaydallah, he gathered the fighters, lavished goods upon them, equipped Umar ibn Sa'd with four thousand; he refused and hated fighting al-Husayn, and he said: if you do not march toward him, I depose you, I strike down your house and I cut off your neck.
And al-Husayn was with fifty men, among them nineteen of the people of his house.
And al-Husayn said: O you! Let us return from where we came.
They said: no.
And that reached Ubaydallah, who thought of leaving him free, and said: by Allah, nothing of my doing has faced him, and he has appeared to me only as someone one lets go where he wants.
Shimr said: if you do that and the man escapes you, you will never obtain him.
He wrote to Umar:
"Now that our cords have seized him ... he hopes for safety, but there is no longer any escape"
He spurred him on, and said to Shimr: go: if he fights, Umar; otherwise kill him, and you are over the people.
And Ubaydallah controlled the bridge, and refused passage to whoever crossed it, when it reached him that people were slipping toward al-Husayn.
He said: the army mounted on horseback, al-Husayn seated; he saw them coming and said to his brother Abbas: stop them and ask them: what do they have?
He asked them; they said: the letter of the amir has reached us, which orders us to offer you to submit to his judgment or to fight you.
He said: keep away from us this evening, until we look into this night.
They kept away, and al-Husayn gathered his companions on the night of Ashura; he praised Allah and said: I think the people will fight none but you tomorrow; I have given permission to all of you: you are free of me; and this night has covered you: whoever has the strength, let him take away a man of the people of my house, and disperse into your darkness, for they seek only me: when they see me, they will let go of their quest for you.
The people of his house said: may Allah not make us survive after you: by Allah, we shall not separate from you.
And his companions said the same.
ath-Thawri: from Abu al-Jahhaf, from his father:
that a man said to al-Husayn: I have a debt; he said: do not fight with me, one who has a debt.
The hadith returns to the first:
When morning came, al-Husayn said: O Allah, You are my trust in every hardship, my hope in every severity, and You are, in what has befallen me, my trust; You are the master of every grace and the holder of every beauty.
And he said to Umar and his army: do not hasten; by Allah, I did not come to you before the letters of your like reached me: the Sunnah has been killed, hypocrisy has burst forth, the legal punishments have been suspended: advance then, perhaps Allah will repair the community through you.
I have come; if you shrink from that, I return: return to yourselves: is my death fitting for you, or is my blood lawful? Am I not the son of the daughter of your prophet and the son of his cousin? Are Hamzah, Abbas and Ja'far not my uncles? Has there not reached you the saying
of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, about me and my brother: "these are the two masters of the youth of the people of Paradise"?
Shimr said: he worships Allah on one edge, if he knows what he says.
Umar said: if your matter returned to me, I would answer.
And al-Husayn said: O Umar! There will be for what you see a day that will displease you: O Allah, the people of Iraq deceived me, duped me, did to my brother what they did: O Allah, scatter their affair upon them and multiply their number.
And the first to fight was a freedman of Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad; Abdallah ibn Tamim al-Kalbi faced him and killed him; al-Husayn was seated, wearing a coarse robe of Khuzz, and the arrows were falling around him; an arrow struck a child of three years among his sons; so he armed his maidservant, and his companions fought around him until they were all killed; and his son Ali recited:
"I am Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ... we and the people of the House are the nearest of kin to the Prophet"
A wound struck him, and al-Husayn became thirsty; a man came with water, he took it; Husayn ibn Tamim hurled an arrow at him which fell into his mouth; he began to gather the blood with his hand and praise Allah.
He made toward al-Musannat wanting the Euphrates; they interposed it between him and the water; a man hurled an arrow at him which settled in his palate; he remained his whole day without anyone approaching him, until the footmen encircled him, he who was solid in courage, fighting the fight of the courageous horseman; when he charged them, they gave way before him as the hand of the shearer gives way into which the lion has plunged, until Shimr cried out to them: may your mothers lose you! What do you await from him?
Zur'ah at-Tamimi came to him, struck his shoulder, and al-Husayn struck him at the collarbone and felled him; Sinan an-Nakha'i appeared, pierced him at the collarbone and at the chest: he fell; then they went down to strike off his head, Khuli al-Asbahi went down and struck it off, and he brought it to Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad, who gave him nothing.
He said: there were found on al-Husayn thirty-three wounds, and there were killed from the army of Umar ibn
Sa'd eighty-eight persons.
He said: none survived of the people of the house of al-Husayn but his son Ali the younger, from whom descends the Husaynid line: he was ill.
And al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali, who has descendants, and his brother Amr, who has no descendants, and al-Qasim ibn Abdallah ibn Ja'far, and Muhammad ibn Aqil: he brought them, with Zaynab and Fatimah, daughters of Ali, and Fatimah and Sukaynah, daughters of al-Husayn, and his wife ar-Rabbab al-Kalbiyyah, mother of Sukaynah, and Umm Muhammad, daughter of al-Hasan ibn Ali, and slaves and maidservants of theirs.
He said: the goods of al-Husayn were taken, and a man took the jewels of Fatimah bint al-Husayn, and wept; she said: why do you weep?
He said: would I strip the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, without weeping?
She said: then leave it.
He said: I fear another will take it.
And Umar ibn Sa'd advanced and said: never has a man returned to his family with a worse burden than that with which I return: I obeyed Ibn Ziyad, disobeyed Allah, and severed the tie of kinship.
And al-Bashir came to Yazid; when he informed him, his two eyes welled with tears, and he said: I would have been content with your obedience without the death of al-Husayn.
And Sukaynah said: O Yazid, would the daughters of the Messenger of Allah be captives?
He said: O daughter of my brother! This, by Allah, is harder for me than for you; I have sworn: had there been between Ibn Ziyad and al-Husayn any kinship, he would never have faced him; but Sumayyah set the distance between the two of them: may Allah have mercy on al-Husayn: Ibn Ziyad hastened against him; by Allah, if I were the decider, I could not turn away from him the death that hastened, a part of my life, I would have wished that he be brought to me in safety.
Then he turned to Ali ibn al-Husayn and said: your father severed my tie of kinship and disputed my power with me.
A man rose and said: their captives are lawful to us.
Ali said: you lie, unless you leave our religion.
Yazid abstained, made provision for the women, and they were brought in to his women, and he ordered
the women of the family of Abi Sufyan to lead the mourning over al-Husayn three days: up to when he said:
And Umm Kulthum bint Abdallah ibn Amir wept, and Yazid, who was her husband, said: she has the right to lament over the great of Quraysh and its master.
Jarir ibn Hazim: from az-Zubayr ibn al-Khirrit, who heard al-Farazdaq say:
I met al-Husayn at Dhat Irq, and he said: what do you see the people of al-Kufah doing with me? for I have with me a load of their letters.
I said: they will abandon you: do not go.
And Yazid wrote to Ibn Abbas, recalling the departure of al-Husayn, and said:
I think that men of the East came to him and made him promises of caliphate; you have their information: if he does it, he will have severed the kinship and the tie; you are the elder of the people of your house and the one looked to: restrain him from running to division.
Ibn Abbas wrote to him: I hope his departure will not be a matter that you hate, and I shall not cease counseling him.
And al-Husayn sent to al-Madinah, and there joined him those who were light of the Banu Abd al-Muttalib: nineteen men, women and children; and his brother Muhammad followed them, caught up with them at Mecca, informed him that the departure on this day is not an opinion; he refused; Muhammad therefore held back his children, and al-Husayn resented him and said: you prefer your children to a place where I shall be struck.
And the people of Iraq sent him messengers and letters; he set out with his family, and with sixty elders of the people of al-Kufah, on the tenth of Dhu al-Hijjah.
Marwan wrote to Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad ibn Abihi: as for us: al-Husayn has set out toward you; by Allah, no man whom Allah saves is more beloved to us than al-Husayn: guard yourself against stirring up against yourself what nothing can stop up.
And Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq wrote to him: al-Husayn has set out toward you: in such a case, one is freed or one is taken back.
az-Zubayr: Muhammad ibn ad-Dahhak told us, from his father, who said:
al-Husayn departed, and Yazid wrote to Ibn Ziyad his lieutenant: al-Husayn heads toward al-Kufah; your time has been tested by him among the times, your land among the lands, and you among the governors: there, you are freed or you return a slave.
Ibn Ziyad therefore killed him, and sent him his head.
Ibn Uyaynah: a Bedouin told me, called Bujayr, of the Tha'labah, being a hundred and sixteen years old, who said:
al-Husayn passed while I was a boy, in small number of people; his brother said to him: O son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah! Here you are in small number of people.
He said, with the whip, pointing to the traveling saddlebag: here behind me is a sack full of letters.
Ibn Uyaynah: Shihab ibn Kharash told us, from a man of his people, who said:
I was in the army that Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad equipped against al-Husayn; they were four thousand, aiming for Daylam, and Ubaydallah turned them toward al-Husayn; I met him and said: peace be upon you, O Abu Abdallah.
He said: and upon you be peace.
And he had a cataract on the eye.
Shihab said: I informed Zayd ibn Ali of it, and that astonished him; and he had a cataract.
Ja'far ibn Sulayman: from Yazid ar-Rishk, who said:
the one who met al-Husayn told me: I saw tents pitched for al-Husayn; I came, and behold an old man reciting the Quran, tears flowing down his two cheeks; I said: may my father and my mother be your ransom, O son of the Messenger of Allah! What made you descend
into this earth and this solitude?
He said: here are the letters of the people of al-Kufah to me, and I see them only as my killers: when they do that, they will leave no inviolability of Allah without profaning it, and Allah will establish over them the one who will humiliate them, until they are viler than the heel of the sandal of the maidservant: he meant: its sole.
al-Mada'ini: from al-Hasan ibn Dinar, from Mu'awiyah ibn Qurrah, who said:
al-Husayn said: by Allah, I shall be assailed as the Banu Isra'il were assailed on a Sabbath day.
Ahmad ibn Janab al-Massisi: Khalid ibn Yazid al-Qasri told us, Ammar ad-Duhni told us:
I said to Abu Ja'far al-Baqir: inform me of the death of al-Husayn.
He said: Mu'awiyah died, and al-Walid ibn Utbah, governor of al-Madinah, sent to al-Husayn for the allegiance, and he said: delay me.
And he made him wait; he set out therefore toward Mecca; the messengers of the people of al-Kufah came to him, and (his governor) was an-Nu'man ibn Bashir; al-Husayn sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil: go, look upon what they have written.
Muslim took two guides and marched; they grew thirsty in the desert, and one of the two died.
Muslim wrote to al-Husayn asking for release, and he wrote to him: go toward al-Kufah.
And he did not release him; he arrived there, camped at Awsaja, and the people of al-Kufah slipped toward him: twelve thousand pledged allegiance to him.
Ubaydallah ibn Muslim rose and said to an-Nu'man: you are truly weak!
He said: being weak is more beloved to me than being strong in disobedience to Allah, and I shall never break an inviolability that Allah has covered.
And he wrote his word to Yazid; Yazid was angry against Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad, and wrote to him his approval about him, and that he had established him over al-Kufah in addition to Basra, and wrote to him to kill Muslim.
Ubaydallah set out therefore, in the sight of the people of Basra, toward al-Kufah, veiled; he passed by no circle without greeting them, and they said: and upon you
be peace, O son of the Messenger of Allah (the believer al-Husayn).
He camped at the palace; then he called one of his freedmen, gave him three thousand dirhams and said: go, seek the one who takes allegiance from the people of al-Kufah, and say: I am a stranger, come with this wealth to live on it.
He went out, inquired subtly until he came upon an old man charged with the allegiance; he introduced him to Muslim, gave him the dirhams and pledged allegiance to him; he returned and informed Ubaydallah.
Muslim moved to the dwelling of Hani ibn Urwah al-Muradi; Ubaydallah said: is Hani not to come to us?
Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath and others went out to him and said: the amir has mentioned you.
He went up with them, and came to him, and Shurayh the judge was with him; Ubaydallah said: there has come to you a she-camel with splayed legs.
When he greeted, he said: O Hani, where is Muslim?
He said: I do not know.
The holder of the dirhams went out to him; when he saw him, he pointed at him with his finger and said: O amir! By Allah, I did not call him to my house, but he came and threw himself upon me.
He said: bring him to me.
He said: by Allah, if he were under my two feet, I would not lift them from him.
So he struck him with a stick, wounded him in the face; Hani leaned toward the sword of a policeman who was drawing it, he was prevented from it, and he said: your blood has been spilled.
And he imprisoned him. The news flew toward Madhhij: behold at the door of the palace a crowd. The news reached Muslim, who called his signal; forty thousand gathered to him; he organized them and aimed at the palace; Ubaydallah sent to the notables of the people of al-Kufah, gathered them at his house and charged them; they leaned from the palace over their tribes, began to speak to them, and they slipped away until Muslim was left with only five hundred; he had nonetheless written to al-Husayn to hasten; night having fallen, these went away, until Muslim remained alone, wandering in the alleys.
He came to a house! A woman came out to him, and he said: give me to drink.
She gave him to drink, then entered, tarried as Allah willed, then came out, and behold him at the door; she said: O you, your place is a place of suspicion,
rise.
He said: I am Muslim ibn Aqil: is there an asylum?
She said: yes.
She brought him in; her son was a freedman of Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath; he went to his master and informed him; Ubaydallah sent the police toward Muslim; he went out, surrendered his sword, and fought; Ibn al-Ash'ath granted him a safe-conduct; he surrendered; he was brought to Ubaydallah, who struck off his neck and threw him to the people, and killed Hani, and the poet said:
"If you know not what death is, look ... Hani at the market and the son of Aqil"
"The order of the amir reached them, and by morning ... they are words that every road runs with"
"Asma of the Hamalidj would ride in safety ... while Madhhij sought her by killing her"
He means: Asma bint Kharidjah.
He said: al-Husayn advanced upon the letter of Muslim, until, at an hour from al-Qadisiyyah, a man met him and said to al-Husayn: return: I have left behind me no good for you.
He thought of returning; the brothers of Muslim said: by Allah, we do not return before taking vengeance, or being killed.
He said: there is no good in life after you.
And he marched; the cavalry of Ubaydallah met him; he turned toward Karbala, set his back against Qussamiyah so as to fight from one side only, and he had forty-five horsemen and about a hundred footmen.
And Umar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas came (Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad had set him over the army); he asked Ubaydallah to dispense him from it, and he refused.
al-Husayn said: choose one of three: either you leave me and I join the frontier marches; or I go to Yazid; or I am sent back to al-Madinah.
Umar accepted that and wrote to Ubaydallah, who wrote: no, nor any grace, until he puts his hand in my hand.
al-Husayn said: no, by Allah!
And he fought; his companions were killed, among them about seventeen young men of the people of his house.
He said: an arrow kept coming and falling upon a little child of his; he began to wipe the blood from him and say:
O Allah, judge between us and our people: they called us to help them, then they kill us.
Then he fought until he was killed; a man of Madhhij killed him and struck off his head, went with it to Ubaydallah and said:
"Water my two mounts: they are emptied ... for I have killed the veiled king"
"I have killed the best of people, of his mother and of his father ..."
And he carried it as a present to Yazid, with the head; it was placed before him, and Abu Barzah al-Aslami was nearby; Yazid began to poke his mouth with the stick and said:
"I would split a skull of men who were proud toward us ... while they were more obstinate and more unjust than we"
Thus said Abu Barzah.
What is well established: that this was before Ubaydallah.
Abu Barzah said: raise your stick: I saw the mouth of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, upon this one.
And Umar ibn Sa'd sent off his family and his children to Ubaydallah.
And none of them remained but a boy who was ill among the women; Ubaydallah ordered that he be killed; his aunt Zaynab threw herself upon him and said: he shall not be killed until you kill me.
He softened for her, equipped them toward Syria; when they arrived at Yazid, he gathered those who were present, who congratulated him; a man
ruddy and bluish looked at a young girl among them and said: give her to me, O commander of the believers.
Zaynab said: no, and no grace for you, unless you leave the religion of Allah.
Yazid said to her: be silent.
Then he brought them in to his family, equipped them and transported them to al-Madinah.
Up to here, from Ahmad ibn Janab.
az-Zubayr: Muhammad ibn Hasan told us:
when Umar ibn Sa'd camped against al-Husayn, he harangued his companions and said: what you see has happened to us; the world has changed and has become unrecognizable, its good has turned away, it has been scraped until nothing of it remains but like the dregs of the vessel, and like a vile manner of living, like a dried-up pasture. Do you not see the truth to which one does not hold, and the falsehood to which one puts no end? Let the believer desire the meeting with Allah: I see death only as felicity, and life with the wrongdoers only as regret.
Khalid ibn Abdallah: from al-Jurayri, from a man:
that al-Husayn, when the arms weighed upon him, said: do you not accept from me what the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, used to accept from the polytheists? When one of them inclined, he accepted it.
They said: no.
He said: then let me return.
They said: no.
He said: then let me go to the commander of the believers.
A man took up arms upon him and said to him: receive glad tidings of the Fire.
He said: rather, if Allah wills, of the mercy of my Lord and the intercession of my Prophet.
He was killed; his head was brought, it was placed in a basin before Ibn Ziyad, who poked it with his stick and said: he was a handsome young man.
Then he said: who of you killed him?
The man rose and said:
and what did he say to you?: he repeated the account.
He said: his face blackened.
Abu Ma'shar: from his men, who said:
al-Husayn said, when they camped at Karbala: what is the name of this earth?
They said: Karbala.
He said: karb (grief) and bala' (trial).
And Ubaydallah sent Umar ibn Sa'd for his war, who said: O Umar! Choose for me one of three: either you let me return; or you direct me to Yazid and I put my hand in his hand; if you refuse, direct me to the Turks, and I wage the holy war until I die.
He sent that to Ubaydallah, who thought of directing him to Yazid; Shimr ibn Dhi al-Jawshan said to him: no, unless he submit to your judgment.
He sent him that, and al-Husayn said: by Allah, I shall not do it.
And Umar delayed fighting him; Ubaydallah sent him Shimr ibn Dhi al-Jawshan, who said: if he fights, otherwise kill him, and take his place.
And there were in the army of Umar thirty men of the people of al-Kufah, who said: the son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, offers you three qualities, and you do not accept one of them! And they went over to al-Husayn and fought.
Abbad ibn al-Awwam: from Husayn, who said:
I witnessed the death of al-Husayn; Sa'd ibn Ubaydah told me: I saw al-Husayn wearing a robe of byssus; a man called Amr ibn Khalid at-Tuhawi hurled an arrow at him, and I looked at the arrow in his side.
Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, from his father, who said:
Zur'ah hurled an arrow at al-Husayn, it reached his palate; he began to gather the blood, saying thus toward the sky.
And he called for water to drink; when he reached for it, they interposed between him and the water, and he said: O Allah, give him thirst.
He said: the one who saw him dying told me, crying from the heat in his belly and the cold in his back, and before
him the refreshing water and the snow, and he said: give me to drink: thirst kills me; then his belly folded in.
al-Kalbi: Rafidi, suspected.
al-Hasan al-Basri said: sixteen men of the people of his house came with al-Husayn.
And from Ibn Sirin: the sky has not wept over anyone after Yahya, peace be upon him, except over al-Husayn.
Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah: my father told us, from my grandfather, from Isa ibn al-Harith al-Kindi, who said:
when al-Husayn was killed, we remained seven days; behold, we prayed the asr, looked at the sun at the edges of the walls: it was like yellowed covers, and we looked at the stars striking one another.
al-Mada'ini: from Ali ibn Mudrik, from his grandfather al-Aswad ibn Qays, who said:
the horizons of the sky reddened after the death of al-Husayn six months: they were seen like blood.
Hisham ibn Hasan: from Muhammad, who said:
do you know of what this redness in the horizon is? It is from the day of the death of al-Husayn.
al-Fasawi: Muslim ibn Ibrahim told us, who said:
Umm Suq al-Abdiyyah told us, who said:
Nadra al-Azdiyyah told me, who said:
when al-Husayn was killed, the sky made water rain down, and in the morning everything of ours was full of blood.
Ja'far ibn Sulayman ad-Du'abi: my aunt told me, who said:
when al-Husayn was killed, there rained upon us a rain like blood.
Yahya ibn Ma'in: Jarir told us, from Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, who said:
al-Husayn was killed while fourteen years remained to me, and the warss that was in their army turned to ash, the horizons of the sky reddened, they slaughtered a she-camel in their army, and they saw in its flesh flames.
Ibn Uyaynah: my grandmother told me, who said:
I saw the warss turn back to ash, and I saw the meat as if fire were in it, when al-Husayn was killed.
Hammad ibn Zayd: Jamil ibn Murrah told me, who said:
they seized she-camels in the army of al-Husayn on the day he was killed; they cooked of them, and it became bitter (like the alqam).
Qurrah ibn Khalid: I heard Abu Raja' al-Utaridi, who said:
we had a neighbor of Balhujaym; he arrived at al-Kufah and said: what do you see of this wicked one, son of a wicked one? Allah has killed him: he meant: al-Husayn, may Allah be pleased with him.
Allah therefore cast upon him two stars from the sky, and his sight was effaced.
Ata ibn Muslim al-Halabi said: as-Suddi said:
I came to Karbala as a merchant; an old man of Tay' prepared food for us; we supped at his place, and we mentioned the death of al-Husayn, and I said: none took part in his death without dying an evil death.
He said: how you lie: I am of those who took part in it.
We had not moved before he approached the lamp, which fed on naphtha; he began to pull out the wick with his finger, and the fire seized it; he began to extinguish it with his saliva, and the fire caught hold of his beard; he ran, threw himself into the water, and I saw him like a live coal.
Ibn Uyaynah: my grandmother, my father's mother, told me, who said:
I lived to see two men of those who witnessed the death of al-Husayn: as for one, his limb elongated to the point that he wrapped himself in it; as for the other, he would receive the jug and drink it whole.
Hammad ibn Zayd: from Ma'mar, who said:
the first thing by which az-Zuhri became known is that he spoke in the circle of al-Walid; al-Walid said: who among you knows what the stones of the house of Jerusalem did on the day of the death of al-Husayn?
az-Zuhri said: it has reached me that no stone was turned over but that fresh blood was found beneath it.
Hammad ibn Salamah: from Ali ibn Zayd, from Anas, who said:
when al-Husayn was killed, his head was brought to Ibn Ziyad, who began to poke his teeth with a stick, and said: yet he had a beautiful mouth.
I said: by Allah, I shall spoil it for you.
And I said: I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, kiss the place of your stick with his mouth.
al-Hakim, in the Kuna: Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud told us, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Hanafi told us, Umar ibn Yunus told us, Sulayman ibn Abi Sulayman az-Zuhri told us, Yahya ibn Abi Kathir told us, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Amr told us, Shaddad ibn Abdallah told me:
I heard Wathilah ibn al-Asqa' when the head of al-Husayn had been brought; a man of the people of Syria cursed him, and Wathilah became angry, rose and said:
by Allah, I shall never cease to love Ali and his two sons after having heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, at the
dwelling of Umm Salamah, cast over Fatimah, her two sons and her husband a garment of Khaybar, then say: {Allah only desires to remove impurity from you, O people of the house, and to purify you entirely} (Surah al-Ahzab, verse 33).
Sulayman: they weakened him, and the Hanafi: suspected.
And it is narrated from Abu Dawud as-Sabi'i, from Zayd ibn Arqam, who said:
I was with Ubaydallah; the head of al-Husayn was brought; he took a stick and began to move it away from his two lips; I never saw a mouth more beautiful than his: it was like pearls; I could not restrain raising my voice in weeping.
He said: what makes you weep, O old man?
I said: what makes me weep is what I saw of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him: I saw him suck the place of this stick, kiss it and say: O Allah, I love him: love him then.
Hammad ibn Salamah: from Ammar ibn Abi Ammar, from Ibn Abbas:
I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in a dream at midday, disheveled, dusty, and in his hand a vial with blood.
I said: O Messenger of Allah, what is this?
He said: it is the blood of al-Husayn and of his companions: since that day I have not ceased gathering it.
That day was reckoned, and they found that he was killed on that day.
Ibn Sa'd: from al-Waqidi and from al-Mada'ini, from their men:
that Muhfaz ibn Tha'labah al-A'idi brought the head of al-Husayn to Yazid and said: I have come to you, O commander of the believers, with the head of the maddest and most deaf of people.
Yazid said: the mother of Muhfaz did not give birth to a madman nor a deaf man; but the man did not ponder the word of Allah: {Say: O Allah, master of the kingdom, You give the kingdom to whom You will} (Surah Al 'Imran, verse 26).
Then Yazid sent the head of al-Husayn to the governor of al-Madinah,
and it was buried at al-Baqi', beside his mother.
And Abd as-Samad ibn Sa'id al-Qadi said: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Bahra'i told us: I heard Abu Umayyah al-Kala'i, who said:
I heard Abu Karib, who said: I was among those who revolted against al-Walid ibn Yazid at Damascus; I took a basket and said: there is my booty; I mounted my horse and went out by the Tuma gate.
He said: I opened it, and behold inside a head on which was written: this is the head of al-Husayn ibn Ali. So I dug for it with my sword and buried it.
Abu Khalid al-Ahmar: Razin told us: Salma told me, who said:
I entered upon Umm Salamah, who was weeping; I said: what makes you weep?
She said: I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in a dream, and upon his head and his beard the dust; I said: what is the matter with you, O Messenger of Allah?
He said: I witnessed the death of al-Husayn, weeping.
Razin: he is ibn Habib; Ibn Ma'in declared him reliable.
Hammad ibn Salamah: from Ammar ibn Abi Ammar: I heard Umm Salamah say:
I heard the jinn weep for al-Husayn and lament over him.
Suwayd ibn Sa'id: Amr ibn Thabit told us, Habib ibn Abi Thabit told us:
that Umm Salamah heard the weeping of the jinn over al-Husayn.
Ubayd ibn Jannad: Ata ibn Muslim told us, from Abu Janab al-Kalbi, who said:
I came to Karbala and said to a man of the nobles of the Arabs: it has reached me that you hear them.
He said: you meet neither free man nor slave but that he informs you that he heard them.
I said: and you, what did you hear? He said: I heard them say:
"The Messenger passed the hand over his forehead ... so he has a radiance upon the cheeks"
"His two parents of Ali Quraysh ... and his grandfather, the best of grandfathers"
Muhammad ibn Jarir: I was informed from Abu Ubaydah, Yunus ibn Habib told us, who said:
when Ubaydallah killed al-Husayn and his family, he sent their heads to Yazid, who rejoiced.
Jarir: from al-A'mash, who said:
a man of the Banu Assad relieved himself upon the grave of al-Husayn, and the family of that house was tried by a calamity.
Hisham ibn al-Kalbi said: when water was made to flow over the grave of al-Husayn, the trace was effaced.
"They wanted to hide his grave from his enemy ... but the fragrance of the earth of the grave pointed out the grave"
Sufyan ibn Uyaynah: Ja'far ibn Muhammad told us, from his father, who said: Ali was killed while he was
aged fifty-eight years, and al-Hasan died at that age, and al-Husayn was killed at that age.
I say: his saying: al-Hasan died at that age: error; rather he lived forty-seven years.
The community said: he died on the day of Ashura, of the year sixty-one.
Some added: the day of Saturday.
It is said: the day of Friday.
It is said: the day of Monday.
And his birth: in Sha'ban, of the fourth year of the Hijrah.
Abd al-Hamid ibn Bahram and a last reliable man: from Shahr ibn Hawshab, who said:
I was at the house of Umm Salamah, wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him, when the death of al-Husayn reached her; she said: so they did it?! May Allah fill their houses and their graves with fire.
And a fainting seized her, and we rose.
And az-Zubayr transmitted, from Sulayman ibn Qatta, who weeps for al-Husayn:
"The slain of at-Taff of the family of Hashim ... humiliated necks of Quraysh that humbled themselves"
"If they pursue the confronter of the house in the morning ... like Ad, who mistook the guiding and went astray"
"I passed over the worms of the family of Muhammad ... and I found them like themselves when they settled"
"And they were for us a booty, then became calamity again ... great was that calamity and immense"
"May Allah not remove the dwellings and their people ... even if in the morning they scorned me and emptied themselves"
"Do you not see that the earth has become sick ... from the loss of al-Husayn, and the lands have grown cold"
His saying: humiliated necks: that is: they would not refrain from killing a Qurashi after him.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Hamzah: my father told me, from his father, who said:
my father Hamzah ibn Yazid al-Hadrami informed me, who said:
I saw a woman among the most beautiful and the most intelligent of women, called Rayya, wet nurse of Yazid.
A man entered upon Yazid and said: rejoice: Allah has made you master of al-Husayn.
His head was brought; he said: it was placed in a basin; he ordered the boy to uncover it; when he saw it, he covered his face, as if he smelled its odor.
I said to her: he poked his teeth with a stick?
She said: yes, by Allah.
Then Hamzah said: some of ours told me that he saw the head of al-Husayn crucified at Damascus three days.
And Rayya told me that the head remained in the arsenals until Sulayman governed; he sent, it was brought, and there remained of it only a white bone; he put it in a basket, perfumed it, wrapped it in a shroud and buried it in the cemeteries of the Muslims.
And he recalls the rest of the story, and it is of strong chain.
Yahya ibn Bukayr: al-Layth told me, who said:
al-Husayn refused to be taken prisoner until he was killed at at-Taff, and they carried off his children: Ali, Fatimah and Sukaynah, toward Yazid; Sukaynah stayed behind her screen so as not to see the head of her father, and Ali was chained; he poked at the two teeth
of al-Husayn, and the house declaimed in that state.
Ali said: {no disaster strikes the earth nor yourselves but that it is inscribed in a Book} (Surah al-Hadid, verse 22), the verse.
It weighed upon Yazid that a verse be declaimed, and Ali recited a verse of the Quran, and he said: rather: {because of what his hands have earned}.
He said: as for me, by Allah, if the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, saw us, he would love to draw us near.
He said: you have spoken true: leave them.
He said: and if we stood before him, he would love to bring us close.
He said: you have spoken true: bring them close.
Sukaynah and Fatimah began to stretch to see the head, and Yazid kept turning his face away.
Then he ordered for them an equipage, made good their goods, and they departed toward al-Madinah.
Kathir ibn Hisham: Ja'far ibn Burqan told us, from Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, who said:
when the head of al-Husayn was brought to Yazid, he began to poke his teeth and say: I did not think...
And his beard and his head were well dyed with khidab.
And killed with al-Husayn: his four brothers: Ja'far, Atiq, Muhammad and al-Abbas the elder, and his eldest son Ali, and his son Abdallah; and his son Ali Zayn al-Abidin was ill: he was spared, and Yazid honored him and protected him.
And killed with al-Husayn: his nephew al-Qasim ibn al-Hasan, and Abdallah and Abd ar-Rahman, the two sons of Muslim ibn Aqil ibn Abi Talib, and Muhammad and Awn, the two sons of Abdallah ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib.
al-Mada'ini: from Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, from Amr ibn Dinar, Muhammad ibn Ali told us, from his father, who said:
al-Husayn was killed, and we were brought into al-Kufah; a man met us, brought us into his house and lodged us; I slept and woke only to the noise of horses in the alleys; we were transported to Yazid; his eye welled when he saw us, he gave us what we wanted and said: there will be in your people affairs: do not enter into them with them.
When the day of al-Harrah arrived, what happened; he wrote
This Companion also has a full Sira page: Al-Husayn Ibn Ali.
Depending on the sources and the transliteration styles, the name is also written: al-Husayn ibn Ali, Hussein ibn Ali, Husayn the Martyr, Abu Abdillah al-Husayn, Sayyid ash-Shuhada, Imam Husayn. All these spellings refer to the same person, as related by the hafiz al-Dhahabi.