ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Husyan the Sacrifice For Mankind Exposing the Savagery of Tyrants The peace of Yazid was wine, aba-qays (his pet monkey), playing with dogs and monkeys, adultery and licentious, despising and disdaining all civil moral values. Chroniclers mention that when Mo'awiyah was very ill on his deathbed, Yazid did not give the slightest care about his father, and in a nearby village he was drinking wine and playing with his dogs.

(This is recorded in Morawwij al-Thahab). He was unbothered about the entire situation, to the extent that he was absent from his father’s deathbed, not giving any value to his father, or to his successorship, so the conduct of Yazid during peacetime had become well known to the people. It was Yazid's war that needed to be exposed. One of the subtlest measures that Imam Husayn alayhis-salam took was to send his cousin and representative Muslim ibn Aqeel alone to Kufa.

Some people are very surprised by this action of Imam Husayn alayhis-salam. They are also very surprised about another broad measure the Imam took which was inviting his companions to leave him if they wished, rather than gathering them - as military leaders would do in such circumstances. Imam Husayn alayhis-salam invited his companions to leave him up to the eve of Ashura. This may seem very odd at surface.

“Does he want to fight a battle tomorrow with the support of only about seventy companions?” “Yes he does, he knows exactly what he is doing”. In fact if he were to do otherwise, we would have asked, “Why Imam Husayn alayhis-salam went into battle – with say 10,000 companions – when he knew that he was going to be killed in any case?”20 The Umayyad government was strong and covered a vast area stretching from the former Soviet Union to the middle of Africa.

It was this gigantic government that Imam Husayn alayhis-salam decided to stand up against. Imam Husayn alayhis-salam wanted to fight the tyrant Yazid, and we said earlier that Yazid was 20 This is given the fact that some reports state that the army of Yazid consisted of more than 100,000 men.

So if Imam Husayn alayhis-salam went into battle with the support of 10,000 companions he would be killed, and the savagery and barbarity of Yazid would not be shown, whereas when he went into battle with the support of some seventy companions he and his companions were killed but then Imam Husayn alayhis-salam brought out the barbarity and savagery of Yazid.