ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Shi'ite Encyclopedia (chapter 5) Tragedy of Karbala As Reported By the Sunnis (part Ix) When the head of al Husayn, peace be on him, arrived and after Ibn Sad arrived on the next day (bringing) with him the daughters and household of al-Husayn, peace be on him, Ibn Ziyad sat before the people in the governor's palace. He had given the people a general summons and had ordered them to be present (to see) the head.

He put it in front of him, and he began to look at it with a smile. In his hand he had a cane and he began to poke at the teeth with it. When Zayd b. Arqam, a Companion of the Prophet who was (then) an old man, saw him poking at the teeth with the cane, he said Take your cane away from those two lips. For, by God, other than Whom there is no deity, I have seen the lips of the Apostle of God, may God bless him and his family, touch those two lips countless times. (With that) he began to weep.

"Does God make your eyes weep?" asked Ibn Ziyad. "Or are you weeping because of God's victory? If it was not for the fact that you are an old man who has become silly and your mind has left you, I would cut off your head." Zayd b. Arqam stood up in front of him and went to his house. (Meanwhile) the family of al-Husayn, peace be on him, was brought before Ibn Ziyad.

Zaynab, the sister of al-Husayn, peace be on him, came in in the middle of the group, pretending not to be herself; she was wearing her dirtiest clothes. She went and sat in a corner of the palace and her maids crowded around her. "Who is that woman who has gone to the side and has sat in a corner with her women?" Ibn Ziyad demanded but Zaynab did not answer. He repeated the question about her a second time.

This is Zaynab, daughter of Fatima, the daugher of the Apostle of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, one of her women told him. "Praise be to God Who has disgraced you, killed you and revealed the false nature of your claims," said Ibn Ziyad as he came towards her. Praise be to God Who has favoured us with His Prophet, Muhammad, may God bless him and his family, answered Zaynab, and He has purified us completely from sin.

He only disgraces the great sinner and reveals the false nature of the profligate. Such men are not among us, praise be to God.