When Abdullah came to Damascus...

When Abdullah came to Damascus, he was received with unusual and extraordinary honours and regards and was housed in a palatial abode luxuriously furnished particularly for him. On the third day of his arrival Ahdullah was offered to wed Mu’awiyyah's daughter, to which Abdullah resented but the offer was also with the threat of losing his position as well as his life against any refusal. Poor Abdullah was forced to accept the offer.

The next day of his acceptance, Abdullah was asked to divorce Zainab, saying that the daughter of the Ruler, a princess could not have any rival to her bed. Abdullah was forced to write a letter of divorce to Zainab.when Abdullah had executed the divorce, the very next day after it; he was not given an interview with Mu’awiyyah, saying that the offer to wed his daughter was only an offer and had been withdrawn.

The letter of divorce was sent to Zainab through a special messenger with Yazid's offer to wed her, Zainab was then at Madina when Abu Darda the messenger from Mu’awiyyah arrived there. God is always there to protect the interest of the righteous ones when they are unjustly aggressed by any tyrant.

Abu Darda before going to Zainab, went first to pay his regard to Husayn the Holy Imam and intimated to him the object of his visit to Madina.Husayn hearing the painful story, told Abu Darda to convey his own (Husayn's) offer to Zainab along with that of Yazid's. Zainab receiving the letter of her divorce began to sob. When the offers of Yazid and Husayn were conveyed to her she readily preferred the Holy Imam, and got herself wedded to him.

When the disappointing story was conveyed to Mu’awiyyah and Yazid, it enraged both the father and the son. Abdullah was dismissed from the governorship and all his property in Iraq and elsewhere was confiscated and he was rendered a destitute. Poor Abdullah having lost his wife, his post, and all his properties, did not know what to do, and at last he walked all the way from Iraq to Madina to recover from Zainab the money he had left with her.

Reaching Madina he went to the residence of the Holy Imam. Now Zainab could talk to Abdullah only from behind the screen; neither could he see her nor could she look at him. Both stood quietly shedding tears, when Husayn suddenly appeared and removed the screen from between them saying: “Abdullah! God is my witness, not a glance of mine has fallen on thy wife.