The Kufans were quite perplexed under the heavy strangulation over the city...

The Kufans were quite perplexed under the heavy strangulation over the city, not daring to utter a single word, since Ibn Ziyad had ordered the chiefs of tribes to be thrown into jail and the people to leave their houses unarmed. Meanwhile, he ordered the sacred severed heads of the martyrs to be handed out among the chiefs of the tribes who were in Karbala carrying the head of Imam al-Husayn (as) in front of the caravan. In this way, they led the caravan into the city of Kufa.

‘Ubayd Allah Ziyad intended to create terror in people's minds and to show off this manifest conquest before their eyes. But with all these intense security measures, why couldn't they prevent the unwavering and fiery statements and impressive message of the irresistible lady of history, Hadhrat Zaynab (as)?

As if waking from a deep slumber, people began to find out that the captives were children of ‘Ali (as) and the progeny of the Prophet (S), whose men were killed in Karbala with the sword of injustice. There appeared a great commotion among those people, which little by little turned into bursts of weeping. Fatigued and sick and in captivity, Imam al-Sajjad (as) looked at those people and said: “Are they weeping for us?

Who has killed our dear ones then?” Zaynab (as) called people to silence and after praising the Almighty Allah, and greeting His Holy Messenger, Hadhrat Muhammad (S), said: “...O people of Kufa! O impostors and plotters and traitors! May this weeping of yours be never soothed! You are like that woman who spins her cotton into thread from dawn till dusk and then starts unraveling it all along till dawn.

Beware that you have founded your faith on fraudulence and trickery...!” Hadhrat Zaynab (as), thereupon severely reproached the Kufans, asserting: “Verily, you have defiled yourselves with such a great disgrace and infamy that it could not be erased from you till the Resurrection. May baseness and abjection be upon you!

Do you not know how you beheaded the beloved grandson of the Apostle of Allah (S), broke off so many pledges, took captive the nobles of his household and the freeborn of his progeny, and shed his pure blood unjustly...?” The Kufans kept so silent and motionless as if birds had perched on their heads! Zaynab's scathing words, as if uttered through ‘Ali (as)'s pure mouth astonished the unfaithful Kufans. It surprisingly sounded like ‘Ali (as)'s voice reverberating in Kufa...

Imam al-Sajjad (as) called his aunt to silence.