He considered Makkah to be a haven and intended to stay there...

He considered Makkah to be a haven and intended to stay there, but the Kufians invited him and assured him of their assistance. The Imam himself, too, was afraid lest he should be assassinated in Makkah and thereby the sanctity of the Ka'bah should suffer. He, therefore, accepted the invitation of the Kufians and went towards Karbala. Consequently he and his dear ones and companions were killed and the other members of his family were made captives.

Some have narrated that the Imam did not think that he would be killed; otherwise he would not have taken such a bold step. Still others say that the Imam rose because he was under the impression that on account of his relationship with the Holy Prophet he would certainly not be killed, or he was fully convinced that even if he did not rise he would be killed disgracefully at the hands of Ibn Ziyad or someone else.

He, therefore, preferred being killed while performing jihad (the Holy war) to dying a disgraceful death. Some say that the step taken by the Imam amounted to endangering his life, but as the Almighty Lord had given orders in this behalf he was obliged to obey the same. Some opponents, and those, who consider that everyone wishes to be a sovereign, also, say that love for rulership placed Imam Husayn in this perilous situation, but it was not proper to kill him in such a tragic manner.

It would have been better to control and dissuade him by means of threats and allurements. The correct answer to all these questions is that the factors for such a movement had commenced from the very beginning of the rule of Mu'awiya and were becoming stronger day after day.

At last the matters had taken such a turn that if Imam Husayn bin Ali had not taken this step all the traces of Islam would have been obliterated and the pains taken by the Holy Prophet would have been wasted, neither the Qur'an nor Islam would have survived. The root cause of all these events was the drama that was staged at Saqifa Bani Saida immediately after the demise of the Holy Prophet.

The most important development was the unprecedented method that was adopted for the selection of the Caliph. In violation of the Peace Treaty that Mu'awiya had concluded with Imam Hasan and according to which the Muslims were to choose the Caliph after him, he began obtaining the oath of allegiance for Yazid.