Who was Hussain?
In the year 680 AD, the worst massacre in history found place. When the grandson of the prophet of Islam was murdered in Karbala. 72 people thirsted, starved and slaughtered in the end. The women, the elderly and the children were taken as prisoners.
Today, centuries later, their message, their story, is still memorialized every year, on the day known as Ashura. Every follower of the prophet mourns, commemorates and wears black as a sign of sorrow.
The battle took place in Karbala, Iraq on the tenth day Muharram in the Islamic calendar. The leader of the group, the king of martyrs was Imam Al-Hussain, grandson of the Messenger of God, Mohammed (peace be upon them both). The battle occurred after the army of Yazid bin Muawiya had surrounded Imam Al-Hussain, his family and companions for ten days in Karbala desert. The last three days, the army blocked them from the river Euphrates, the area’s only water source. They had to choose between to fight or to surrender and pay allegiance to a tyrant. Imam Al-Hussain chose to stand against injustice, even though he knew that this would cost him and his faithful companions their life. He gave his friends and family the option to leave him or stay and stand up against injustice – No one left the Imam. He stood against Yazid, the man who ruled the Islamic empire at the time, but his actions did not reflect what he represented – the religion of Islam.
After the death of Imam Al-Hussain, the women and children were taken as captives. Yazid conducted a propaganda war. If people asked who the prisoners were, the guards said that they were rebels. Yazid’s forces led the prisoners around in today’s Syria with the slain heads on poles, to statute an example. Yazid thought that people would forget Imam Al-Hussain and his message. It was a courageous woman who made sure it did not happen, Zainab, the imam’s sister. She was raised just like her brothers, in the prophet’s house. She told the people their true identity, and why Yazid killed her brothers, children, friends and relatives.
She asked the people to spreading the story of Karbala and what her brother stood for. Simply, to fight for justice, and what you believe is right.
If Imam Al-Hussain had surrendered and kept silent, he would have signalized that injustice should be accepted, and acts of terrorism and racism was part of Islam. Therefore it is still important to spread Imam Al-Hussein’s message, because there are many who falsify the religion, so that they can abuse the faithful people to commit acts in the name of the religion. The Imam’s message demonstrates to mankind how to follow the right path, the righteous path, and not to accept or follow anyone that falsifies a religion for their own gain!
Although he lost the battle for 1374 years ago,
his battle’s cry still echoes in history.
