After the Prophet's demise his companions continued to...

After the Prophet's demise his companions continued to imitate him in the matter of love for Husayn. A special reason for their displaying love for him was that his features very much resembled those of the Prophet. This is borne out by the statements of those persons who had seen the Prophet as well as Husayn. The great names of the ancestors and their achievements have a great deal to do with the development of their children and the making of their future bright.

When the child hears about the achievements of his ancestors from his very early age a picture of theirs is drawn on his brain, and consequently he acquires the qualities of his ancestors. A child naturally inherits the qualities of his forefathers, but his living with them at the same place casts a great influence on them. Besides the Prophet, Husayn also saw his revered father.

He saw his perseverance, steadfastness, justice, sympathy, help for the oppressed and anger for the oppressors as well as good treatment and kindness shown to the enemies. He accompanied his father in the Battles of Camel, Siffin and Nahrawan, and saw his astonishing bravery, and learnt from him the ways of fighting for the sake of goodness, and also knew from him how to sacrifice one's life to protect the oppressed and helpless from tyranny.

Husayn's revered mother was a very tender-hearted and kind lady. On account of this very tender-heartedness she was always grieved to see the hardships to which her father, the Prophet, and his companions were subjected by the Quraysh. She was extremely sad on the day of the Battle of Uhad when many Muslims were killed at the hands of the polytheist Quraysh and their dead bodies were cut to pieces. It was a very depressing scene for her to see her father weeping for his uncle Hamzah.

It is said that after the death of the Prophet, Anas bin Malik went one day to see lady Fatima and requested her to control her grief in the interest of her own health. She said only this reply: “O Anas! How did you tolerate to entrust the pure body of the Prophet to the grave?” Then she burst into tears, and Anas too began to weep. He came back with a heart which was shattered by the grief of Fatima. Husayn used to see his grief-stricten younger sister Zainab and felt extremely sad for her.

Husayn looked at his mother and sister and then imagined the sufferings and hardships which time had in store for himself, his sister and their descendants.