The Survivor of Karbala Martyred
By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
"O Allah, make the beginning of this day of mine righteousness; its middle prosperity; and its end success!
"I seek refuge in You from a day whose beginning is fright; whose middle is anxiety; and whose end is pain!
"O Allah, give me on every Monday two favours from You: the felicity to obey You at its beginningand the favour of Your forgiveness at its end!”
Today is Monday, and the above passage is from the special supplication for this particular day in the Divine Court. It was taught by the person whose martyrdom anniversary we are commemorating today on the 25th of Muharram.
He was the Survivor of the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, and the reason he could not wage armed Jihad with the sword on the Day of Ashura (Muharram 10) was because God Almighty Willed that he be sick and bed-ridden that day when his father, Imam Husain (AS), his two brothers – the youth Ali Akbar, and the 6-month infant Ali Asghar – as well as his cousins, his uncles, and the small group of devoted followers were mercilessly massacred by the Godless Omayyads.
Eventually, he also left the world as a martyr – 34 years after Karbala, but not before universalizing and immortalizing the message of his father.
The enemies did not show any mercy to him and immediately put chains and fetters on his feeble body. They dragged him to Kufa and thence to Damascus on foot, along with the noble ladies and children of his household. Undaunted by the atrocities of the enemies of God and humanity, the great-grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) waged a unique Jihad through patience, piety, prudence, and sermons in the court of Yazid that almost changed the political climate of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and forced the tyrant to free the progeny of the Prophet.
Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS), or the Ornament of the Pious needs no introduction. For 34 years, he carried on his novel Jihad, while the self-styled caliphs rose and fell – amongst the Omayyads in Damascus, and in Hijaz, where for ten years, from 63 to 73 AH, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr masqueraded as caliph to make life torturous for Muslims, especially the progeny of the Prophet.
As the 4th Infallible Heir of the Last and Greatest of Prophets, before his martyrdom through poisoning in the year 95 AH (713 AD), he bequeathed to posterity the pure and pristine teachings of Islam, including beautifully moving supplications, known as "Sahifat as-Sajjadiyya” that continue to be recited by the faithful, and are rightly called Psalms of the Prophet’s Progeny.
Born in 38 AH in Medina during the caliphate or political rule of his grandfather, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), he was also named Ali (AS). He had for his mother, the noble, monotheistic, and virtuous princess of Iran, Shahrbano. His mother passed away while he was still a child, and he was brought up by his impeccable paternal aunt, the Prophet’s granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA).
On growing up, he married his first cousin, Fatema, the daughter of his paternal uncle, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) and accompanied his father Imam Husain (AS) to Karbala, along with his wife and three-and-a-half year old son – the future Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS).
He was 23-years old and in the prime of his youth during the tragedy that befell the noble household in Karbala, but because of high fever that day, he was confined to bed and could not take part in the battle. Nonetheless, he waged another kind of Jihad and through his sermons unmasked the tyranny of Yazid and the hypocrisy of the Omayyad regime. One of his famous statements stands out as a beacon of guidance for the seekers of truth. He remarked:
"To see your enemy plunging in acts of disobedience to God because of you is a sufficient victory from God to you.”
These bestial acts of disobedience of God by their dastardly enemies are undoubtedly the most glorious victories for the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. True to the promise of God, the Chosen Ones of God are triumphant in every sphere of life as their devilish opponents damn themselves to perfidy by indulging in the most inhuman acts against them. On the late afternoon of the 10th of Muharram, 61 AH, when the bed-ridden Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), awoke to the ghastly sight of his father’s head mounted on a lance, he immediately saluted the Martyr of Karbala with tearful eyes and a choking voice.
This was indeed a victory for the Ahl al-Bayt for having successfully passed the divine test of martyrdom. The evening of Ashura with all its heartrending scenes of the burning of the encampment of the Prophet’s Household by the Omayyad hordes and their looting of whatever meagre worldly things the noble children and womenfolk possessed, was sufficient success in the tests ordained by God for the 4th Imam.
The next morning brought more success to him and his equally patient aunt, Hazrat Zainab (SA), as the cowardly enemies plunged deeper and deeper into the abyss of the inferno by chaining and fettering him and the rest of survivors of the tragedy, for presentation at the court of the despicable governor of Kufa, Obaydollah ibn Ziyad.
The sermons in Damascus, of the aunt and the nephew, who vanquished the tyrant Yazid by exposing him and his sires in their true heathen colours, in their own courts, are outside the scope of this brief column.
Following his return to the outskirts of his hometown Medina, the 4th Imam for the next 34 years of his life, witnessed triumph after greater triumph in spreading the Word of God through prayers, supplications, admonitions, and definition of social and individual rights, including the rights of our own bodily parts upon us, while silently suffering the suffocating atmosphere, as caliph after caliph marched into the fires of hell by indulging in the most abominable sins that included Yazid’s massacre of the men of Medina and the storming of the holy Ka’ba in Mecca.
Next followed the almost decade long terrorizing of the Muslim ummah, coupled with pressures, threats and near torching alive of the male members of the noble Bani Hashem clan by the despicable Abdullah ibn Zubayr, who masqueraded as caliph in Arabia and Iraq, until he died an ignominious death in 73 AH near the holy Ka’ba which was burned down in the process by the infidel Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, whose bloody crimes against humanity, revived and strengthened the demonic hold on the Muslims of the self-styled Omayyad caliph, Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan.
Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) had to endure more trampling of the shari’ah of his ancestor the Prophet, as Arab armies swept towards the Atlantic coast of Africa and into Spain in the west, while in the east, they burst with savagery on Sindh and the lands beyond the Jaxartes River in Central Asia, while placing a ban on the conquered people from becoming Muslim, so that the regime will not be deprived of jizya levied by them on the non-Muslims.
Could there be a greater violation of the letter and spirit of the holy Qur’an?
The regime viewed him as a thorn, and thus in 95 AH the 4th Imam was fatally poisoned by the self-styled Omayyad caliph Walid ibn Abdul-Malik. He left the world as the victorious martyr at the age of 57, but not before ensuring that the genuine teachings of the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet would be carried on triumphantly after him by his son and successor, Imam Muhammad Baqer (AS), who in turn would bequeath this salvaging legacy to his son, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), and subsequently grandson and progeny, with the last of them rising in the end times – by the Will of God – as Qa’em al-Mahdi (AS) to herald the grand victory of truth and Islam by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.
"O Allah, make the beginning of this day of mine righteousness; its middle prosperity; and its end success!
"I seek refuge in You from a day whose beginning is fright; whose middle is anxiety; and whose end is pain!
"O Allah, give me on every Monday two favours from You: the felicity to obey You at its beginningand the favour of Your forgiveness at its end!”
Today is Monday, and the above passage is from the special supplication for this particular day in the Divine Court. It was taught by the person whose martyrdom anniversary we are commemorating today on the 25th of Muharram.
He was the Survivor of the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, and the reason he could not wage armed Jihad with the sword on the Day of Ashura (Muharram 10) was because God Almighty Willed that he be sick and bed-ridden that day when his father, Imam Husain (AS), his two brothers – the youth Ali Akbar, and the 6-month infant Ali Asghar – as well as his cousins, his uncles, and the small group of devoted followers were mercilessly massacred by the Godless Omayyads.
Eventually, he also left the world as a martyr – 34 years after Karbala, but not before universalizing and immortalizing the message of his father.
The enemies did not show any mercy to him and immediately put chains and fetters on his feeble body. They dragged him to Kufa and thence to Damascus on foot, along with the noble ladies and children of his household. Undaunted by the atrocities of the enemies of God and humanity, the great-grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) waged a unique Jihad through patience, piety, prudence, and sermons in the court of Yazid that almost changed the political climate of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and forced the tyrant to free the progeny of the Prophet.
Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS), or the Ornament of the Pious needs no introduction. For 34 years, he carried on his novel Jihad, while the self-styled caliphs rose and fell – amongst the Omayyads in Damascus, and in Hijaz, where for ten years, from 63 to 73 AH, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr masqueraded as caliph to make life torturous for Muslims, especially the progeny of the Prophet.
As the 4th Infallible Heir of the Last and Greatest of Prophets, before his martyrdom through poisoning in the year 95 AH (713 AD), he bequeathed to posterity the pure and pristine teachings of Islam, including beautifully moving supplications, known as "Sahifat as-Sajjadiyya” that continue to be recited by the faithful, and are rightly called Psalms of the Prophet’s Progeny.
Born in 38 AH in Medina during the caliphate or political rule of his grandfather, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), he was also named Ali (AS). He had for his mother, the noble, monotheistic, and virtuous princess of Iran, Shahrbano. His mother passed away while he was still a child, and he was brought up by his impeccable paternal aunt, the Prophet’s granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA).
On growing up, he married his first cousin, Fatema, the daughter of his paternal uncle, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) and accompanied his father Imam Husain (AS) to Karbala, along with his wife and three-and-a-half year old son – the future Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS).
He was 23-years old and in the prime of his youth during the tragedy that befell the noble household in Karbala, but because of high fever that day, he was confined to bed and could not take part in the battle. Nonetheless, he waged another kind of Jihad and through his sermons unmasked the tyranny of Yazid and the hypocrisy of the Omayyad regime. One of his famous statements stands out as a beacon of guidance for the seekers of truth. He remarked:
"To see your enemy plunging in acts of disobedience to God because of you is a sufficient victory from God to you.”
These bestial acts of disobedience of God by their dastardly enemies are undoubtedly the most glorious victories for the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. True to the promise of God, the Chosen Ones of God are triumphant in every sphere of life as their devilish opponents damn themselves to perfidy by indulging in the most inhuman acts against them. On the late afternoon of the 10th of Muharram, 61 AH, when the bed-ridden Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), awoke to the ghastly sight of his father’s head mounted on a lance, he immediately saluted the Martyr of Karbala with tearful eyes and a choking voice.
This was indeed a victory for the Ahl al-Bayt for having successfully passed the divine test of martyrdom. The evening of Ashura with all its heartrending scenes of the burning of the encampment of the Prophet’s Household by the Omayyad hordes and their looting of whatever meagre worldly things the noble children and womenfolk possessed, was sufficient success in the tests ordained by God for the 4th Imam.
The next morning brought more success to him and his equally patient aunt, Hazrat Zainab (SA), as the cowardly enemies plunged deeper and deeper into the abyss of the inferno by chaining and fettering him and the rest of survivors of the tragedy, for presentation at the court of the despicable governor of Kufa, Obaydollah ibn Ziyad.
The sermons in Damascus, of the aunt and the nephew, who vanquished the tyrant Yazid by exposing him and his sires in their true heathen colours, in their own courts, are outside the scope of this brief column.
Following his return to the outskirts of his hometown Medina, the 4th Imam for the next 34 years of his life, witnessed triumph after greater triumph in spreading the Word of God through prayers, supplications, admonitions, and definition of social and individual rights, including the rights of our own bodily parts upon us, while silently suffering the suffocating atmosphere, as caliph after caliph marched into the fires of hell by indulging in the most abominable sins that included Yazid’s massacre of the men of Medina and the storming of the holy Ka’ba in Mecca.
Next followed the almost decade long terrorizing of the Muslim ummah, coupled with pressures, threats and near torching alive of the male members of the noble Bani Hashem clan by the despicable Abdullah ibn Zubayr, who masqueraded as caliph in Arabia and Iraq, until he died an ignominious death in 73 AH near the holy Ka’ba which was burned down in the process by the infidel Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, whose bloody crimes against humanity, revived and strengthened the demonic hold on the Muslims of the self-styled Omayyad caliph, Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan.
Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) had to endure more trampling of the shari’ah of his ancestor the Prophet, as Arab armies swept towards the Atlantic coast of Africa and into Spain in the west, while in the east, they burst with savagery on Sindh and the lands beyond the Jaxartes River in Central Asia, while placing a ban on the conquered people from becoming Muslim, so that the regime will not be deprived of jizya levied by them on the non-Muslims.
Could there be a greater violation of the letter and spirit of the holy Qur’an?
The regime viewed him as a thorn, and thus in 95 AH the 4th Imam was fatally poisoned by the self-styled Omayyad caliph Walid ibn Abdul-Malik. He left the world as the victorious martyr at the age of 57, but not before ensuring that the genuine teachings of the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet would be carried on triumphantly after him by his son and successor, Imam Muhammad Baqer (AS), who in turn would bequeath this salvaging legacy to his son, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), and subsequently grandson and progeny, with the last of them rising in the end times – by the Will of God – as Qa’em al-Mahdi (AS) to herald the grand victory of truth and Islam by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.