Qais Ibn Musheer Qais ibn Musheer was a leading member of...

Qais Ibn Musheer Qais ibn Musheer was a leading member of the Shiah community in Kufa. He had been sent by the people of Kufa to persuade Imam Husayn to accept the invitation to go to Kufa as their Imam. It was upon his arrival in Mecca that Imam began to seriously consider going to Kufa and sent Hazrat Muslim as his envoy to study the situation there and report to Imam. He rode to Kufa with Hazrat Muslim and brought back to the Imam Hazrat Muslim's message of the sincerety of the people of Kufa.

Qais ibn Musheer decided to stay on with Imam so that he could proudly ride into Kufa with the grand son of the Holy Prophet. Imam Husayn was, however, forced to leave Mecca before he could perform Hajj. The caravan left Mecca on the eighth Dhul Hajj. When they reached the fourth stop of the journey, a settlement called al-Haajir, Imam Husayn decided to send a letter to the people of Kufa telling them of his departure from Mecca and that he would shortly arrive in Kufa.

He gave this letter to Qais and asked him to take it to Kufa. This was before Imam had heard of the death of Hazrat Muslim. Qais was proud to be Imam's messenger. Indeed he is known in history as Safeeratul Husayn Ibn Ali , the ambassador of Imam Husayn. He galloped towards Kufa. When he reached al-Qadassiya, on the outskirts of Kufa he was astonished to see a large garrison of soldiers guarding the borders of the city. He suspected some thing was wrong. He hid behind the bushes.

At night he visited some bedouins who were camping around. From them he learnt of the arrival of Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad as the new Governor, and of the efforts being made by him to capture Hazrat Muslim. Qais was in a dilemma. Should he rush back to Imam Husayn to advise him of the danger or should he try to get into Kufa and help Hazrat Muslim? He spent the night trying to gather more information from the bedouins.

Qais learnt of how ibn Ziyad had spread terror in the city and how he had isolated Hazrat Muslim. He also learnt that the blockade was being strictly enforced and it was virtually impossible to get into Kufa without being caught. Qais was anxious to learn of how Hazrat Muslim was but the bedouins did not know much about him. In fact it was on that very morning that Hazrat Muslim had been killed. Thinking that he might be some help to Hazrat Muslim, Qais decided to get into Kufa.

He waited until sunset. Carefully, hiding himself from the soldiers posted to guard the borders, Qais tried to make his way into Kufa.