The people of Madina came to know about the martyrdom of the Imam in this way and awaited the return of the Ahlul Bayt who had been made prisoners. At last Imam Sajjad and his companions reached Madina. He dismounted near Madina and made the ladies descend. He then sent a man to Madina to inform the people about his arrival. The messenger says that when he arrived in Madina he went to the Masjid of the Prophet of Allah. There he wept loudly and said: "O people of Yathrib! With what hope can one continue to live in this city? Husayn bin Ali has been martyred and the eyes of the people are shedding tears for him".
The Imam's messenger could content himself with saying this. However, he did not consider it sufficient to explain his own object as well as that of his Imam. He did not desire that people should weep and lament much. However, he wanted to add a document to the documents about the tragedy of Karbala ! so that the study of the event might become easier for those : who came later. It was not the only object of the rising of Imam Husyan that spiritual reward should be earned by arranging meetings for mourning his martyrdom and it should not always be made the subject matter of religious discourses from the pulpit as a touching event which provokes tears. The event of the rising of Imam Husayn is in itself a very important event and has a vital significance in the history of Islam which should be studied keeping in view its own value and worth. It is more valuable than that it should be mentioned lightly while studying other matters.
In the second poetic verse recited by the messenger of the Imam he disgraced the Umayyad dynasty for ever. Standing by the grave of the Holy Prophet he said: "These faithless people killed the son of their Prophet, besmeared his body with dust and blood and hoisted his head on the spear".
Then he informed the people about the arrival of the Holy family and added that they had at that time dismounted outside the city of Madina.
The people started going out of the city and the roads were blocked. Madina assumed an unusual appearance. When Imam Sajjad saw himself face to face with the people of Madina he made a sign to the people to remain quiet. At this moment he considered it necessary to inform the Muslims of Madina about the events which had taken place during the journey covering a number of months. The details of his speech on this
occasion will be given later.
When the Ahlul Bayt left for Madina they were, notwithstanding their being bereaved and mournful, fully confident about their own victory and the helplessness of the enemy. While they were still in Syria the signs of yazid 's helplessness began to appear. As we have alluded earlier the Ahlul Bayt were released from imprisonment soon and were transferred to the capital as ordered by the caliph. There they were treated by the people of Damascus with honor and respect. As written by Tabari the women of the family of Mu'awiya went, without exception, to the ladies of Bani Hashim to offer condolences. They mourned the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and a gathering to mourn for the martyrs of Bani Hashim was held in the palace of the caliph for three days. Yazid did not spend the morning and the evening except in the company of Imam Sajjad. It was on one of those days when a child of Imam Hasan or Imam Husayn had accompanied the fourth Imam and during the course of conversation Yazid said to him: "Are you prepared to fight with my son Khalid?" He replied: "No, except that you may give a knife to me and a knife to him and then we may fight with each other". Yazid was deeply impressed by the bravery and frankness, especially of a child who had suffered so many hardships. He embraced him and said words which means: "The cub of a lion is also a lion".
Nuaman Bin Bashir
Nuamān bin Bashir was ordered to make arrangements for the return of Ahlul Bayt and to send a reliable and honest person with them. According to Shaykh Mufid Nuamān himself was ordered to go with them. It is written in Akhbiirud Duwal that Nuamān bin Bashir accompanied Ahlul Bayt from Syria to Madina along with thirty other men and served them throughout the journey. Nuamān treated them so respectfully that Fatima, the daughter of Imam Ali who was one of the ladies who had been made prisoners said to her sister lady Zaynab: "This man has behaved towards us very gently and it is proper that we may give him a reward". However, Nuamān did not accept the reward and said: "If I have rendered any service it has been for the sake of Allah and on account of your relationship with the Prophet of Allah".
Nuamān bin Bashir and his father both were the companions of the Holy Prophet. His father Bashir bin Sād Khazraji was the first person who took the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr in Saqifa bani Sa'idah. It has been written that his object in taking this oath was not to please Allah, but he took it lest Sād bin Ubada Khazraji should attain to the caliphate. As he envied Sād and did not wish that any Khazraji except him should become caliph he made haste in taking the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr and took it even before the distinguished Muhajirs did so. Nuamān himself was one of those persons who did not take the oath of allegiance to Imam Ali. He was a supporter of Mu'awiya and was inimical towards the people of Kufa on account of their friendship for Ali. After Uthman was killed and Imam Ali became caliph he (Nuamān) went away to Syria and in the Battle of Siffin none from amongst the Ansar (i.e. the Muslims who were the companions of the Holy Prophet and belonged to Madina) except Nuamān and Salma bin Mukhlad accompanied Mu'awiya. Nuamān was alive till 65 A.H. In that year he thought of becoming the caliph and some persons gathered round him. However, he was defeated by Marwan bin Hakam and killed. In any case, during the journey of Ahlul Bayt from Syria to Madina Nuamitn behaved towards them with great respect, and every Muslim appreciates his good behavior.
The Ahlul Bayt, however, reached near Madina. It was the same Madina which had been inhabited by the Holy Prophet and his descendants and for which they had great attachment. From the time of the Holy Prophet's migration i.e. from 1 A.H. the people of Madina i.e. the Ansar and the Muslims of the tribes of Aws and Khazraj had made extreme sacrifices for the sake of the Holy Prophet. It was the same city which received the Prophet of Islam with devotion and sincerity and opened its gates before him when all other gates were closed for him, and also provided quarters to the Muhajirs and homeless Muslims who migrated from Makkah and the regions of the Hijaz. The Prophet, too, who had at one time migrated to this place only to comply with the Command of Allah, developed so much love for it that even after the conquest of Makkah in 8 A.H. he did not choose to reside in Makkah and returned to Madina after the Battles of Hunayn and Taif were over, and spent the remaining part of his life there. He went to Makkah only in 10 A.H. to perform Haj and to teach the Muslims the ceremonies connected therewith and even then he returned to Madina after performing Haj.
Madina was the birth-place of Imam Husayn and most of his brothers and sisters. Fifty seven years of his life had been spent in Madina excluding the period of four years and four months of the caliphate of his father and his brother Imam Hasan when he remained in Iraq. Madina was the city which provided favorable atmosphere for the Prophet's call to Islam and at a time when Makkah had virtually become a prison for him it was this city which made his message reach the people of the world.
Imam Ali hints in one of his sermons at the facilities which Madina provided for the spread of Islam. He says: "The Prophet of Allah was born in Makkah but migrated to Madina. It was from there that he communicated the message of Islam to different parts of the world".[24] The near relations of the Prophet of Allah were hostile to him. They fought against him and made him leave his home. However, the two tribes of Aws and Khazraj accepted him, brought him to their city and sacrificed their lives and wealth to spread his call. This is the fact which Ali has mentioned in one of his aphorisms; he says: "When the relatives and near ones of a person desert him and do not render him assistance, others come forward to help him and Allah prepares them to take the place of his near relations". The same thing happened in the case of the Prophet of Allah. There were twenty five families of Quraysh, who were all related to the Holy Prophet and were the descendants of Prophet Ibrahim, Adnān and Nazar bin Kanāna were the honorable fore-fathers of the Holy Prophet. All these families who were Isamaili and Adnani Arabas rose in opposition to the Prophet of Allah and, so long as he was in Makkah, prevented the expansion of Islam by all possible means. They tortured the followers of the Holy Prophet and killed some of them in a most tragic manner. They used abusive and unbecoming language for the Holy Prophet till he was obliged to migrate from Makkah. And even when he went to another city they did not leave him alone but started hostilities, created trouble, killed his supporters as and when it was possible and instigated the Jews of Madina to fight against him and violate the pacts made with him. They sent their eloquent poets to the Bedouin Arabs and instigated them also to rise against the Prophet of Allah till in 5 A.H. they were able to gather together about 12,000 persons against the Muslims from amongst the polytheists of Makkah, the Bedouins and the Jews. All this was done by the near relations of the Prophet of Allah. These ungrateful Quraysh remained inimical towards him before as well as after migration and did not change their attitude till Makkah was conquered and they were no longer in a position to oppose him.
Imam Ali wrote to Muawiya: "Our people i.e. our relatives and the families of Quraysh, all of whom were our uncles and cousins determined to kill our Prophet and annihilate us. They took decisions and also acted to destroy us. They deprived us of the amenities of life and subjected us to all inconveniences and fear. They made us so helpless that we had to take refuge in an uneven mountain i.e. for three years and a few months we were besieged in one of the valleys of Makkah called Shib Abi Talib and spent our lives there in constant fear. Apart from what they did in Makkah, when we abandoned our home and went to other cities, they did not let us live in peace there also, but sparked off war and created mischief".[25] In these few sentences Imam Ali has referred to the activities of the relatives of the Holy Prophet against the Prophet. He briefly mentions every stage at which he was opposed by them and refers to Quraysh all the difficulties and impediments that he had to surmount. Such was the behavior of the relatives of the Holy Prophet towards him and this is a specimen of their enmity and unkindness towards a man whose fame, and the spread of whose call, and whose recognition by the people as their chief, would have been more than anything else a means of their own honor and pride. However, as against these unkind and ungrateful people of Quraysh, who, it might be said, were opposed to their own dignity and honor, two groups, who were the descendants of the Qahtāni tribes of Yemen, got ready to accept and support the Prophet of Allah and made more sacrifices for the advancement of the Prophet's call than could be expected of the near ones. They were not Adnāni or Ismaili Arabs and had no relationship with Quraysh or the families of Hashim and Abdul Muttalib. However, with the preliminaries which Allah provided, hundreds of years before the birth of the Prophet of Islam. He made them migrate from South Arabia and Yemen to North Arabia and the Wādiul Qura in the Hijaz and the city of Yathrib.
Notes
[24] Nahjul Balāgha (Sermon 156).
[25] Nahjul Balāgha (Letter 9).
