When she returned...

When she returned, she found that Sukaina, the teenaged daughter of Imam Husayn (a.s.), was missing too. Once again, Lady Zainab (a.s.) went into the battlefield. She found that, clasped to a headless body, Sukaina appeared to be asleep. She heard a voice asking her not to disturb the child. Lady Zainab (a.s.) then asked, “ Are you my brother Husayn ?” She received the reply, “ Yes .” The battlefield was strewn with the bodies of the martyrs.

The men of Umar bin Sa’d removed the bodies of their killed soldiers, leaving behind the bodies of Imam Husayn (a.s.), his relatives and companions.[^1] Some persons related to some of Imam Husayn’s companions removed the bodies of their relatives. Al-Hurr’s tribesmen took away the bodies of al-Hurr, his son, and brother and buried them at their village that is about seven kilometers from Karbala. Some other persons took the bodies of their relatives.

Only the bodies of the offspring of Abdul Muttallib were left in the battlefield. It was an unholy custom among the Arabs in the pre-Islamic times that the body of the vanquished was trampled under the hoofs of horses in a show of barbaric power. The custom was prohibited and discontinued after the Prophet (S) had proclaimed Islam. Thus in none of the several battles and skirmishes, nowhere do we find such incidents of trampling of dead bodies.

As a mark of their return to barbarism, Umar bin Sa’d ordered horses to be freshly shod in order to trample the headless body of Imam Husayn (a.s.). Umar bin Sa’d called for volunteers to trample Imam Husayn’s body (a.s.) under the hoofs of their horses.

The ten accursed men, who volunteered to do that, were [1] Ishaq ibn Hawiyyah [2] al-Akhnas ibn Marsad ibn Alqama ibn Salamah al-Hadhrami [3] Hakeem ibn Tufayl al-Sinbisi [4] Amr ibn Sabih al-Saidawi [5] Raja’ ibn Munqith al-Abdi [6] Salim ibn Khaythama al-Ju’fi [7] Wahidh ibn Ghanim [8] Hani ibn Thubeit al-Hadhrami [9] Salih ibn Wahab al-Ju’fi and [10] Useid ibn Malik.[^2] Before trampling the body, the accursed Ishaq ibn Hawiyyah pillaged the shirt from Imam Husayn’s headless body; al-Akhnas ibn Marthad ibn Alqama al-Hadhrami took his turban; al-Aswad ibn Khalid took his sandals; Jamee’ ibn al-Khalq al-Awdi or according to some others, Aswad ibn Handhala took his sword; Badjal took Imam Husayn’s ring by cutting his finger.

When the severed heads of the Hashimites were counted, Umar bin Sa’d noticed that the head of the infant Ali al-Asghar (a.s.) was missing.