They are directed to observe Sabbath and rest...

They are directed to observe Sabbath and rest, and a day of convocation in which they should afflict their souls and give offerings of fire to the Lord on that day.[^5] There is no explanation with Christian and Jewish theologists as to why they are commanded to afflict their souls on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the Hindu mythology, Pandavas got the permission to untie their weapons from the Jimmi plants in preparation of regaining their lost empire from the Kauravas.

Until date, the Hindus celebrate it as Dasara, the tenth day of their seventh month. On this day, Hanuman found out the place where Ravana had hidden Sita, and informed it to Rama. According to Muslim traditions, it was on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the place now called Karbala, Noah’s Ark was caught in a whirlpool and barely escaped drowning.

On that day while passing the plains of Karbala during their times, the Prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus stumbled, suffered bleeding injuries and cried when their hearts suddenly became heavy with inexplicable deep sorrow. Suffice it to say that the Tenth day of the Seventh month is of great importance in every religion, signifying war or sorrow. It was the invariable custom among the Arabs in their wars to challenge the opponent into a single combat.

Those who were at the bottom of the hierarchy came out first to throw or face the challenge, followed progressively by the best, bravest, and renowned warriors, sparing the commander until the last. If the single combat was indecisive, in rare cases, recourse was to be a general onslaught by the entire army, but, ordering a general onslaught was looked down upon by valiant and noble soldiers as a mean and cowardly act of a vile and weak commander.

In the battle of Karbala, the tradition of single combat was adopted in the initial stages. The hostilities were invariably commenced by Yazid’s forces, who, finding confidence in their numbers, challenged Imam Husayn’s small number of companions and family members in single combat. Imam Husayn (a.s.) being steeped in his father Imam Ali’s tradition, advised his small group of companions to refrain from commencing any hostility, and only to defend themselves whenever the enemy threw a challenge.

The scribes present in the battlefield were not in agreement as regarding who was the first martyr or the sequence in which Imam Husayn’s companions went forth to meet the enemy’s challenge.