Today, in the thirty-sixth episode of our series, we focus on the events which happened in the days immediately after the tragic events of Ashura, that is, the 10th of Moharram in the year 61 AH. In particular, we look at the role in spreading the message of Imam Husain (AS) by his sister Hazrat Zainab’s (SA). Despite the fact that the granddaughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was taken captive by Omayyads, along with children and womenfolk of the Blessed Household, she boldly faced the situation and through her wise and eloquent sermons exposed the falsity of the tyrannical Omayyad regime.
In Islam, everyone has a social duty, both men and women. Islam requires both men and women to carry out their duties in relation to truth and falsehood, right and wrong. Every uprising or movement has two stages. The first stage involves fighting for your cause, and making a sacrifice for what you believe in. During this stage many offer their lives for the cause they believe in. The second stage is the post-fighting stage, where the main task is to spread the central message of the uprising or revolution. During the second stage, the public becomes aware of the ideals and objectives of the uprising or revolution. As far as the movement of Imam Husain (AS) was concerned, the Prophet of Islam’s grandson, who was also his 3rd Infallible Heir, provided leadership and direction and was the standard bearer of his own movement, until the afternoon of 10th of Moharram, when he was martyred in Karbala in an unequal combat. From that point onwards, his sister, Hazrat Zainab (SA) became the standard bearer of her martyred brother’s uprising. The Prophet’s granddaughter was entrusted with a special mission: To keep her martyred brother’s message alive. Under her guidance and that of her nephew, Imam Ali Zain ul-Abedeen (AS), the women and children of the blessed household were to spread the message of Imam Husain’s (AS) sacrifice, even while they went through huge ordeals and sorrows. Their grief for the heart-wrenching tragedy of Karbala was a vehicle of change, and cannot be separated from their accomplishment of the mission.
Hazrat Zainab’s (SA) role in spreading the message of the Epic of Ashura was exemplary. Her efforts stand out in particular. After the martyrdom of her brother almost all male members of the family, including her two teenage sons, she bravely rose to the occasion, despite being taken captive. In Kufa she changed the situation and the panicked governor of Iraq, Obaidullah Ibn Ziyad, had no other choice but to send the noble captives towards Syria and Damascus. During the journey, the women were deliberately kept tired and hungry. This was on top of the grief they were all suffering as a result of the martyrdoms of their male relatives. Yazid’s aim was to publicly humiliate them and to ridicule them to the point where Imam Husain’s (AS) followers lost all public support. However, Hazrat Zainab (SA) addressed Muslims everywhere along the way, exposing Yazid and his evil actions, his un-Islamic acts, and telling the Muslim world about the atrocities that were committed in Karbala. When brought to the court of Yazid, she rocked Damascus with her electrifying sermons by rejecting Yazid’s claims of being the caliph – or political leader of the Muslims – and thus thoroughly exposed him for what he really was. She never shied from her mission, so much so that Yazid had to release the blessed captives of the household of the Prophet of Islam, and sent them back to Medina. Of course, without the accounts provided by members of the Martyred Imam’s family, particularly Hazrat Zainab (SA), the true story of what happened in Karbala, may never have come out. In fact her famously eloquent speeches and her eye-opening revelations about the events of Karbala, did not allow the enemies of Islam to alter and manipulate history as they wished.
When Muslims captured from the Eastern Roman Empire the land of Shaam, which today is split into Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Zionist-usurped land of Palestine, a Godless tyrant such as Mu’awiya Ibn Abu Sufyan was appointed as governor by the caliphal regime in Medina. Mu’awiya ruled from Damascus for about 42 years, of which the last 19 years were as the self-styled caliph of the Muslim World, after he had forcibly seized the caliphate from the Prophet of Islam’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS). Mu’awiya not only dominated Syria and its people politically and militarily, but he also tried to introduce a distorted version of Islam among the then mostly Christian people of Syria. He tried to portray the usurper and tyrannical Omayyad regime as somehow connected to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), despite the fact that he and his father were bitter opponents of the Prophet of Islam. In fact, Mu’awiya had suggested to the newly converted people of Syria that his clan the Bani Omayyah was the only true relation of the Prophet of Islam. At the same time, he spread lies against the Ahl al-Bayt, especially the Prophet’s first divinely-designated heir, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), who had almost vanquished him in Battle of Siffin, but for a stratagem to which he resorted to deceive Muslims by raising copies of the holy Qur’an on spear-points and calling for peace. After the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, he seized the caliphate by imposing a treaty upon the Prophet’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), who very well knew that Mu’awiya was a liar and thus wanted to expose his charlatanry by agreeing to hand over the political rule of the Muslim realm, but with conditions that the caliphate would return to the Prophet’s Household on the death of Mu’awiya.
The crafty Mu’awiya then had Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) martyred through a dose of poison, and knew that as long as the Prophet’s younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS) was alive, he cannot rest in peace. He tried to restrain life for Imam Husain (AS), but the Prophet’s grandson exercised patience. Then on his deathbed in 60 AH, in violation of the terms of the treaty signed with Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) in 41 AH, the crafty Mu’awiya named his libertine son, Yazid, as the next caliph. Yazid knew that he had no right to rule the Muslims and so he thought of murdering Imam Husain (AS) to remove the main obstacle. Thus, with the tragic martyrdom of the younger grandson of the Prophet of Islam, the Omayyad tyrant thought that he had removed the danger to his rule, and now started humiliating the Prophet’s family. At this, the Prophet’s granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA) rose to the occasion and despite being a captive, delivered such eloquently electrifying sermons that the people of Syria, and the people of other lands far away from Mecca and Medina, got a historic chance to get to know the real genuine Islam.
source : irib
