He ordered his men to find it soon.

He ordered his men to find it soon. They started poking the ground with lances to find the sift soil where Ali al-Asghar (a.s.) was buried by Imam Husayn (a.s.). Soon, a lance struck a soft spot and when probed deeper out, came the body of the infant transfixed on the lance.

The infant’s head was severed and mounted on a lance with the other heads of the seventeen Hashimites.[^3] We have dealt with some detail in order to show that the headless bodies trampled and left in the battlefield were practically unrecognizable.

Though there are several reports that men from the tribe of Banu Asad buried the bodies on the night of the eleventh of Muharram,[^4] Shiite sources discount such accounts, firstly on the ground that Banu Asad could not have identified the bodies, and secondly, on account of a fundamental belief that the Imam being Immaculate could only be buried by another Imam . The Waqifites believed that Imamate ended with the seventh Imam Musa al-Kadhim (a.s.).

Ali bin Hamza, a Waqifite man*,* argued that since Ali bin Musa ar-Redha (a.s.) was in Medina when his father Imam Musa al-Kadhim (a.s.) died in Baghdad, he (ar-Redha) could not have buried his father, being in Medina away from Baghdad, and so ar-Redha (a.s.) could not be the Imam. Imam ar-Redha (a.s.) asked, “ Tell me, who buried Imam Husayn at Karbala?

” The Waqifite man answered, “ Of course, it was Imam Ali ibnul Husayn Zainul Aabidin (a.s.) who buried Imam Husayn (a.s.).” Imam Reza (a.s.) said, “ But Imam Zainul Aabidin (a.s.) was unconscious with fever and was taken to Kufa as a captive. How could he have buried Imam Husayn?

” The Waqifite replied, “ Imam Zainul Aabidin (a.s.) by his miraculous powers came from Kufa to Karbala in the night after Ashura, buried his father and other relatives and he returned to Kufa before Umar bin Sa’d or ibn Ziyad could notice his absence.” Imam ar-Redha (a.s.) replied, “ The same powers that enabled Imam Zainul Aabidin to come from Kufa to Karbala in order to bury Imam Husayn enabled me as the Imam to come from Medina to Baghdad to bury my father .” The incident is reported in detail by Sheikh Abbas al-Qummi.[^5] There are no detailed reports available about the burial, probably because the historians recording the incidents moved to Kufa along with the caravan on the eleventh of Muharram.