If you do not find yourself comfortable there...

If you do not find yourself comfortable there, you should seek the sands and mountain passes, and you should move from one country to another till you see what the people decide to do. Your view will be the most wise and your actions the most terse when you are ahead of events. Things will be most complicated for you if you turn your back to them.”[^6] Al-Husayn (‘a) said, “Brother!

Had there been on earth neither resort nor a hiding place for me at all, I would still refuse to swear the oath of allegiance to Yazid son of Mu’awiyah.” It was then that Muhammad interrupted his statement when he burst out weeping. Al-Husayn (‘a) then said to him, “Brother! May Allah reward you well. You have offered your advice and given a terse suggestion, and I am determined to go to Mecca. My brothers, nephews, and supporters see what I see, and their view is my view.

As for you, you may stay in Medina so that you may keep an eye on them and not conceal anything of their affairs from me.”[^7] Imam Husayn (‘a) left Ibn al-Hanafiyya and entered the [Prophet’s] Mosque as he recited these verses: The eminent ones are not frightened in the morning By an assailant, nor shall I be called a Yazid[^8]; Should I, fearing death, to injustice yield, While the fates watch over me against deviating?[^9] Abu Sa’id al-Maqbari heard him, so he realized that he was undertaking a great matter[^10].

Umm Salamah's View Umm Salamah said, “Do not cause me grief by going to Iraq, for I heard your grandfather the Messenger of Allah (S) saying, ‘My son al-Husayn will be killed in the land of Iraq in a tract of land called Karbala’,' and I have a specimen of your grave's soil in a bottle which the Prophet (S) had given me.” Al-Husayn (‘a) said to her, “ Mother!

And I, too, know that I will be slain unjustly and oppressively, and the Omnipotent has decreed to see my family and followers in chains, seeking help and finding none to offer it to them .” Umm Salamah then asked him, “How strange! How do you march there knowing that you will for sure be killed?” The Imam (‘a) said to her, “ Mother! If I do not die today, I will tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. By Allah! There is no avoiding death.

And I even know the day when I will be killed, and the time when I will be killed, and the grave in which I will be buried just as I know you, and I look at it just as I look at you. If you wish, mother, I can show you my grave and those of my followers.