THE STORY OF KARBALA - PART 9
THE MARTYRDOM OF ABBAS

    Now it was only Husayn and his half-brother Abbas left.  Abbas asked for
permission to fight.  Husayn wept and asked Abbas if he could go and fetch
water for the children, knowing very well what would be the result of that.
Abbas picked up a dry water-skin, took a lance in one hand and the standard
in the other and thus rode towards the river.  Abbas was so tall that his
feet very nearly touched the ground while riding and he could be seen from a
distance among the enemy troops.

    Abbas attacked the troops guarding the river banks with such valour and
ferocity that the troops had to run several hundred yards away from the bank.
 Abbas dismounted from his horse,

filled the skin with water and started to ride back towards his camp.
Watching this, Qays, the commander of the troops, shouted at them shaming
them and said:

     "O cowards, you cannot stop a single man!  Remember if any water reached
Husayn today, none of you will remain alive."

    Hearing this, the troops reformed their lines and attacked Abbas from all
sides.  Abbas now had a much more difficult task before him.  He came to the
river riding down hill and with an empty water skin.  He was now having to
ride uphill holding a full water-skin.

    He was trying to save the water-skin from arrows being shot from all
sides.  In the inte-nsity of battle one of the Umayyad soldiers sneaked
behind his back and with full force slashed his sword on Abbas' right
shoulder severing his arm completely.  Abbas held the water skin with its
tying string between his teeth and kept fighting with his left arm, until his
left arm was also severed in a similar manner.  Abbas continued towards his
camp undeterred holding the water-skin against his chest.  He had no arms to
fight but his will to survive and take the water to the children was so
strong that he was seen kicking the enemy soldiers out of their mounts, until
at last an arrow pierced the water-skin.  Abbas could now see the futility of
going back to his camp and turned back towards the river.  He had no arms to
fight.  One of the soldiers hit him on the head with a mace.  Abbas fell from
the horse and called out to Husayn.

    Husayn rushed to his brother's side, who was lying near the river bank.

    So far, Husayn had brought every relative's dead body back to his tent.
But when he reached Abbas, he saw that Abbas was so badly wounded that it
would be impossible to bring him back to the tents. Abbas also asked Husayn
not to take him back to the tents. Husayn asked him the reason. He said he
had promised the children to fetch water but he had failed them. He did not
want to face them even after his death. This was the last soldier to die in
Husayn's small group.  Eventually, Abbas was buried at the place he fell
fighting. That is why the mausoleum of Abbas is some distance away from those
of Husayn and all other martyrs.

    Husayn was now preparing to fight the last battle of his life.  He
approached the ladies tent to say the last farewell.  Suddenly there were
loud noises of weeping and wailing.  He rushed into the tent and found his
six month old baby son in its mother's arms totally ex-hausted of thirst.
Husayn asked his wife if he could present the baby to the enemy troops and
possibly somebody could have mercy and give the baby some water.

    Husayn took the baby in his arms and climbed up to a hill and addressed
the enemy in the following words:

    'O soldiers, if you think I have done some-thing wrong and deserve the
pain and har-dship you are inflicting on me, this baby is innocent; so could
anyone of you have pity on him and give him some water.'

    Humayd Ibn Muslim, an official battlefield reporter in Yazeed's army has
recorded that this scene was so full of pathos that some of the soldiers
turned their faces away and wept with tears.

    cUmar Ibn Scad called out to his master-archer Hurmula and said:

    `O Hurmula, stop Husayn's discourse.'

    Hurmula put a three-pronged arrow to his bow, took aim and shot the child
in the neck, still in Husayn's arms.  The other two prongs of the arrow
pierced Husayn's arm and the baby's ear, respectively. The baby turned in
Husayn's arms violently and died that instant.

    Husayn started walking back to his tent with the dead baby in his arms.
At the door he paused for amoment, turned back and stopped. Then started back
to his tent. This happened seven times. All this time he kept saying:

    'Indeed we are for Allah,
    And to Him shall we return.
    We have given in to His Will,
    And we have submitted to His Command.'

    As if he was hesitating to enter his tent. Perhaps he was collecting his
strengths to be able to face the mother of the baby who had been butchered in
his arms and blood was still dripping from the baby's neck.

    This particular act of Husayn has become a rite of Ashoora. The menfolk
among the devotees of Husayn go out into deserted areas of the coutry in the
late morning on the day of Ashoora and after performing Salat, they re-enact
the seven times walking back and forth reciting the verses quoted above.
    Husayn then reappeared from his tent with the Baby's remains in his arms.
He walked some distance away from his camp. Sat down and dug a shallow grave
with his sword. He buried the baby. Umayyad troops watched him while he did
all this. We shall see the significance of this one burial, later on.

Thank you for reading.

sincerely,

Syed-Mohsin Naquvi