Lift not up your voices above the voice of the Prophet...

Lift not up your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor shout when speaking to him as ye shout one to another, lest your works be rendered vain while ye perceive not." Quran (49:2) Ten years before Imam Hassan's martyrdom, in the year 40 A.H., Imam Hussain eulogized his father: Imam Ali - the first oppressed Imam, when the Kharijite Abdul Ar-Rahman bin Muljim assassinated him in collaboration with Mu'aawiyah - Omar's appointed governor over Syria.

In the year 61 A.H., barely 50 years after the Prophet's demise, Imam Hussain himself was martyred by Mu'aawiyah's son Yazid - the drunkard, the womanizer, the tyrant. The episode of Karbala is well documented in Islam's history. With slight factual mistakes2, the late (Egyptian) Shaikh Abdul Hameed Kushok spoke eloquently on the day of Ashoraa3. What need to be stressed here is that none but the appointed Twelve Imams who have suffered that much persecution.

Similar to saving Jesus from the Jewish persecution, Allah ordered Imam Mahdi to go into occultation. Imam Hussain sacrificed everything in the Path of Allah, including a newborn child. Upon testing Abraham, Allah ransomed His close friend's sacrifice with a more significant one. This magnificent ransom must have been of the same kind as the sacrifice itself. It can not be a lamb Gabriel brought down - or even a sacrificial animal a pilgrim makes upon performing Haj.

All evidences are indicative towards that the ransom might have been the master of the Martyrs - whom Allah will resurrect among others to reign during His kingdom. Some who were extreme in their cruelty and injustice will also be resurrected to be punished by their victims in this life, before tasting the humiliating chastisement in the Hereafter. Linage of is connected to Abraham through Ishmael. Imam Hussain was 's grandson - the son of Imam Ali and Fatimah (a.s.).

History records that the Prophet of Islam left only one daughter from his own seeds. Yet, the Quran, in its shortest chapter, prophesies that he was given abundant progeny! It is indeed saddening to see some Muslim doctors of religion who cannot fathom this fulfilled prophecy. A recent declaration by Dr. Zakir Naik4 puts him in the category of the Israelite scholar - Bal'am bin Ba'aoora..

In the chapter of Jum'ah, Allah describes him as being like a donkey that carries voluminous books on its back. If both Pharaoh and Moses cannot be right, then Imam Hussain and Yazid should not be viewed as just Imams (leaders).