By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

 

“Then the fate of those who committed misdeeds was that they denied the signs of Allah and they used to deride them.” (Holy Qur’an 30:10)

Today is the first of the month of Safar, the day, on which the children and womenfolk of the blessed household of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), were brought to Damascus as captives in chains and fetters, along with the severed head of Imam Husain (AS) and the other martyrs, 20 days after the bloodcurdling tragedy of Karbala. As they entered his court, the Omayyad tyrant Yazid with a goblet of wine in his hand, felt proud of perpetrating such an unpardonable misdeed and uttered the blasphemous words:

“The Hashemites had played the game of kingdom; neither any message descended [from heaven] nor revelation.”

This was ample proof that Yazid was not a Muslim and had no connection with Islam even though he masqueraded as caliph, as became clear with the sacrilege that flowed from his mouth: 

“I wish those of my (Omayyad) clan who were killed at Badr, and those who had seen the people of the Khazraj clan wailing (in the Battle of Uhud) on account of lancet wounds, were here. They would have hailed me with loud cries, saying: ‘O Yazid, may your hands never be paralyzed’.

“Because I have killed the chiefs of his (the Prophet’s) clan and I did so as revenge for Badr, which has now been completed…I would not belong to the family of (those defeated at the Battle of) Khandaq if I had not taken vengeance on the descendants of the person who claimed to be a Prophet. We avenged those killed by Ali (in battles) by slaying his son, a skilled horseman and a brave lion.”

The Prophet’s grandson by courting martyrdom rather than give pledge of allegiance to a Godless ruler, thus ripped off the mask of hypocrisy from the face of an infidel, who was further exposed in his true heathen colours by the sermons delivered by Lady Zainab (SA) and the 23-year old Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – the sister and son of Imam Husain (AS).  

After what had earlier happened in Kufa, when the survivors of the massacre of the Day of Ashura were brought to the court of the tyrannical governor of Iraq, Obaidollah bin Ziyad, even more tribulation awaited the Ahl al-Bayt in Syria, since the people of this land had been brainwashed so thoroughly by decades of Omayyad misrule that they barely had any idea of the position of the Prophet’s progeny and the genuine principles of Islam.

Allamah Shaikh Fakhreddin writes in his book “al-Muntajab” that according to Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS): 

“We were taken tied with ropes towards (the court of) Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah. My neck and that of (my aunt) Omm Kulsoum was tied with one rope, while the hands of (my elder aunt) Zainab and (my sister) Sakina (peace upon them) were bound along with the other ladies (of the Prophet’s Household). We were at times whipped for walking slowly and when we reached the court we saw Yazid sitting on a throne while in front of him lay the head of (my father) Imam Husain (AS) in a golden tray. He had a cane in his hand and was showing disrespect to the severed head.”

The tyrant was elated at what he thought the humiliation of the Prophet’s Household, whom God Almighty had praised in the Holy Qur’an and vouchsafed their pristine purity in Ayah 33 of Surah al-Ahzaab.

He poked his cane at the teeth of severed head of Imam Husain (AS). At this blasphemy, Hazrat Zainab (SA) could no longer bear the disrespect and as her grief-stricken younger sister Omm Kulsoum flung herself on the severed head of her brother, she started one of her most eloquent sermons in history and in Arabic literature that had a profound effect on the gathering. She said:

“All praise belongs to God, the Sustainer and Preserver of the Universe and His blessings on my grandfather Prophet Muhammad (SAWA). 

“O Yazid! You think that you have made our life miserable and made us prisoners. You feel elated because we have been presented in your court. You think we have been disrespected and that you have been honoured... You feel that you have conquered the world and feel that you are well set in power and control. Only time will teach you a bitter lesson. The Qur’an points out to people like you who are destined to go to hell, when God says:

“Let the faithless not suppose that the respite that We grant them is good for their souls: We give them respite only that they may increase in sin, and there is a humiliating punishment for them.” (3:178)

“O you the son of freed slaves! Is this your justice that the ladies of 

your household remain veiled and we, the Prophet’s family should be paraded thus? You think you have insulted our dignity.
“O Yazid! Your misdeeds have clearly proved your rebellion towards God and the message the Prophet brought to this world, and this has proved beyond doubt that you refuse to honour the Prophetic Message sent by God. This behaviour of yours does not come as a surprise, for your ancestors chewed the liver of the Prophet’s uncle Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib. (Your grandmother) Hind mutilated his body, had his liver torn out, tried to suck it to quench her thirst for vengeance at the Battle of Ohud. You belong to this clan, which always opposed the Prophet and collected armies from various clans to oppose him. The descendants of such rabble and monsters are the enemies of God and His Prophet, and are expected to be merciless and deadly since violence is part of their nature.”
“Remember! Your disgusting deeds are the results of your inherent animosity and malicious nature, which are the cause of so much vice in your character. This revenge is due to this nature and you have borne rancour in your heart for the Battle of Badr where your elders were killed because of their attack on the Prophet. He who looks upon us with animosity, malice and revenge is clearly an enemy of the Blessed Ahl al-Bayt. He who takes pleasure in taunting us proves his infidelity towards the Messenger of God. You take pride in saying that you have killed the grandson of the Prophet and imprisoned his family members. Don’t you consider this as a sin of extraordinary magnitude? On the contrary you say that had your forefathers seen this act of yours, they would have puffed with pride and would have said, ‘O Yazid, you have avenged us!
“O Yazid! You are disrespecting the head of Aba Abdullah al-Husain (AS) by caning his lips. Do you not know that these are the lips the Prophet has kissed on several occasions? On my soul, you have deepened our wounds by shedding the blood of the Chief of the Youths of Paradise, the son of Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). O Yazid! If you have a heart to take into account your nefarious deeds, you would surely wish that your arms be paralyzed and severed from the elbow and you would have exclaimed: ‘Would that my parents had never given birth to me.’ You would have realized that God and the Prophet are displeased with you.
“O Yazid, you have done what you wished to do, but remember that you are doomed to perish and you will be cut to pieces. Then (on Judgement Day) you will be taken to the presence of the Prophet and his family members and will be burned with the sins you have committed by shedding the blood of his progeny. You will undergo a horrible punishment and then there will be no escape for you and your accomplices. O Yazid! Do not be inflated with pride after slaying the Prophet’s progeny. Do you know what the Qur’an says about people who have been martyred?
“Do not suppose those who were slain in the way of Allah to be dead; rather they are living and provided for near their Lord.” (3:169)
The whole court was shocked at what they heard and when a few days later, when the four-year-old daughter of Imam Husain (AS), named Ruqayya (SA) attained martyrdom in the dungeon of Damascus, the terrified tyrant, sensing the people’s rising sentiments against him, released the Ahl al-Bayt and allowed them to return to Medina. Before leaving Syria, however, Hazrat Zainab (SA) held the first formal mourning ceremony for the martyrs of Karbala, which the faithful have continued to observe ever since in the months of Muharram and Safar.