About
Muslim B. Aqeel
Imam Hussain(a.s.)'s caravan left
Madina on 28th of Rajab, 60 A.H. and reached Makkah on the 4th of
Shabaan. Imam(a.s.) had not yet made up his mind on where to go. For the
time being he decided to stay in Meakkah at least until the month of Zil-Hajj
and perform the pilgrimage.
The people of Kufa in Iraq heard of
what had happened in Madina. Kufa was an important Shiah centre. The
Shiahs there had long suffered under Muawiya. They feared even greater
sufferings under Yazid. They felt that slowly Islam would be totally
destroyed by the greed for power and glory of these two men. They were
anxious to preserve the teachings of the Holy Prophet(pbuh&hf). They
needed an Imam who would teach the tafseer of the Holy Quran and relate
to them the true sayings, ahaadees, of the Holy Prophet(pbuh&hf). They
held a meeting in the house of Sulayman bin Surad, a companion of the
Holy Prophet(pbuh&hf), and decided to write a letter to Imam Hussain(a.s.)
to invite him. Hazrat Salman(a.r.) said in this meeting "You should be
aware that Moawiya has died and Imam Hussain(a.s.) has declined the
baiyat (allegiance) of Yazid and he has gone to Makkah. You are his and
his father's Shiahs. If you strongly believe that you will not falter in
helping him and fighting his enemies then I invite you to write him a
letter but if you feel weakness and fear then for God's sake, do not
betray a person and endanger his life".
In this letter they wrote: "This letter
is to Hussain ibn-e-Ali(a.s.) from Sulayman bin Sard, Mussayab bin
Najiyah, Rafaah bin Shaddad, Habib ibn-e-Mazahir and other friends among
the Muslims and Momineen of Kufa." This was followed by the information
of Moawiya's death and Yazid's becoming caliph. Then they wrote "We
invite you to come to Kufa as we have no Imam to guide us. Through you,
Allah will unite us on the path of truth. The Governor of Damascus Noman
bin Basheer is in the Dar-al-Amarah but we do not participate in
Salat-il-Juma with him neither we pray salt-il-Eid with him. If we know
that you are coming then we will force him to get out of here and go
back to Syria."
Abdullah bin Sabie Hamdani and Abdullah
bin Daal took this letter to Makkah and gave it to Imam Hussain(a.s.).
This was the first letter that reached Imam Hussain(a.s.) on the 10th of
Ramzan. In another couple of days, 53 petitions and letters were sent to
Imam Hussain(a.s.) by different people through special emissaries
including Qais ibne Musheer as-Saydawi, Abdur Rehman bin Abdullah bin
Kadan and Ammara bin Abaid Salobi. These were followed up by hundreds of
other letters and many special emissaries from the people of Kufa to
Imam Hussain(a.s.). The Governor in Kufa was a man called Nu'amaan bin
Basheer. Although he was a follower of Muawiya and Yazid, he was not by
nature a cruel man. The people of Kufa believed that Imam(a.s.) would be
safe in Kufa.
When Imaam Hussain(a.s.) received so
many petitions and messages from Kufa he decided to send his cousin
Hazrat Muslim bin Aqeel(a.s.) as his emissary to Kufa to study the
situation there and report to Imam(a.s.). Imam Hussain(a.s.) would go
only if there would be no danger to the people of Kufa or to Imam(a.s.)
or any of his companions or family.
He wrote a letter to the people of Kufa
and gave it to Hazrat Muslim(a.s.). In this letter Imam(a.s.) said, "I
am sending my cousin and one of the most trusted ones from my family,
Muslim ibne Aqeel, to report to me about your affairs. If his report
agrees with what you have written I will soon be with you. You must be
clear of the fact that the Imam is the one who follows the book of Allah
only, and serves Allah in all matters and affairs with justice, honesty
and truth and submits to the command of Allah."
Who was Muslim ibne Aqeel(a.s.)? He was
the son of Aqeel ibne Abu Taalib(a.s.) - the real brother of Imam
Ali(a.s.). He was a famous warrior. He married Ruqayya binte Imam
Ali(a.s.) - Imam Hussain(a.s.)'s sister through another mother. We know
of his four children - Abdullah aged about 15 years, Muhammad who was
about ten years old, Ibraheem who was eight and young Ruqayya who was
just five or six. All these children had travelled with their parents
and were in Makkah.
As Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) was preparing
for the journey, Imam Hussain(a.s.) went to him and said: "Muslim, the
whole world knows that you are one of the bravest warriors. It is just
possible that seeing you in Kufa some people may think that our
intention is to fight Yazid. Take your two sons Muhammad and Ibraheem
with you. When they see you with such young children, they will know
that our intentions are peaceful".
Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) and his two sons
said good-bye to all and left Makkah. Their journey through the desert
in the heat of summer was very difficult. They arrived in Kufa towards
the end of Ze'Qaad. They were received extremely warmly by the people of
Kufa. At the time of his arrival, Sulayman bin Surad was not present in
Kufa, therefore, Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) stayed in the house of Mukhtar bin
Abi Abaida Saqafi. The news of his arrival spread like wild fire in Kufa
and people started visiting him in groups. Very soon more than 18,000
people appeared before Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) and pledged their allegiance
to Imam Hussain(a.s.) as their Imam (Tareekh-e-Tabri, Vol.6-Page 211).
It is important to note here that this
figure reflects the number of people who pledger allegiance at that time
but they were not all true followers and die hard supporters of Imam
Hussain(a.s.). Kufa had been ruled by Ziyad and Aal-e-Ziyad for 20 years
during which they committed unmatched atrocities on the followers of
Ahl-e-Bait(a.s.) and any one known to be sympathetic to Imam Ali(a.s.)
was victimized and killed. Under these circumstances, it is correct to
conclude that true followers of Imam Ali(a.s.) in that crowd were only a
handful and the others had joined them only because they were fedup with
the rule of Moawiya and were not in favour of Yazid becoming the next
caliph.
Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) reported to Imam
Hussain(a.s.) through Abis ibne Shabib that most of the people in Kufa
were ready to receive him as their Imam and advised that Imam(a.s.)
should proceed to Kufa (Tareekh-e-Tabri, Vol.6, Page211). Amongst the
people of Kufa there were many spies employed by Yazid to report to him
directly. When Yazid heard from them of the invitations to Imam
Hussain(a.s.) and the arrival in Kufa of Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) he was
filled with fury. He sent a message to his Governor in Basrah,
Ubaydullah ibne Ziyad, to go to Kufa and take over the position of
Nu'amaan ibne Basheer. Ibne Ziyad was also told to arrest Hazrat
Muslim(a.s.) and kill him and do all that was necessary to suppress the
Shiahs in Kufa.
Ibne Ziyad was a cruel, unjust and
shrewed man. He kept his journey from Basra to Kufa a secret and just
before entering Kufa he covered his face with a black scart so that he
could not be recognized. He had a few horsemen in front of him and a few
behing him as he entered Kufa. The people of Kufa had been waiting for
the arrival of Imam Hussain(a.s.) anxiously and they presumed that the
Imam had arrived. Soon people started gathering around him and singing
welcoming songs. Ine Ziyad kept observing the people and memorizing
faces as the crowd grew and soon it was difficult for his convoy to
proceed swiftly. One of his guards, Muslim bin Amr Bahili, shouted
"Clear the way, this is the Amir Ubaidullah ibne Ziyad". Hearing this,
people started running away quickly and when ibne Ziyad reached the
Dar-al-Amara only a handful people had been left. Ibne Ziyad arrived in
Kufa on the evening of 2nd Zil-Hajj. On the following day he went to the
mosque and addressed the people of Kufa. He first announced his
appointment as Yazid's governor. He then threatened any one who was
engaged in any activity against the government with immediate death, and
ordered them to surrender Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) to him.
Ibne Ziyad sealed Kufa in such a way
that no one could go in or out of the city without the governor's
permission.
Since several people knew that he was
staying with Mukhtar Saqafi, Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) decided to move from
there as a measure of precaucion and protection. At the invitation of
Hani ibn-e-Urwah(a.r.), another leading member of the Shiah community,
he moved to Hani's house. This was done secretly and except for a few
people no one knew where Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) was. Through a spy, Maaqal,
who pretended to be a Shiah, Ibne Ziyad found out where Hazrat
Muslim(a.s.) was. Since ibne Ziyad had prior relations with Hani(a.r.),
he called him by trick to his palace and got him arrested and thrown
into prison. Hazrat Muslaim(a.s.) got the news of Hanis arrest and not
wishing to further endanger the lives of his friends, Hazrat Muslim(a.s.)
and his two sons left Hani's house. He left the children with Qadhi
Shurayb, a judge, and went into the desert to try and get back to Imam
Hussain(a.s.) to warn him not to go to Kufa. This was the 7th of Zil-Hajj.
That whole day and the following day Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) tried to get
out of the city. He found all the exists sealed and guarded by Ibne
Ziyad Soldiers.
On the 8th, late in the evening, tired,
hungry and exhausted, Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) knocked at the door of a house
on the outskirts of the city. A lady opened the door. Hazrat Muslim(a.s.)
requested for a little water to quench his thirst. The lady gave him
water. When she learnt who he was, she invited him in and offered him
shelter for the night. This lady was called Tau'aa. She gave Hazrat
Muslim(a.s.) some food and water and took him to a room where he might
spend the night.
Late that night Tau'aa's son came home.
When he learnt that the man Ibne Ziyad was looking for was in his
mother's house, he felt that he would be rewarded by the governor if he
got Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) arrested. Unknown to his mother he slipped out
in the darkness of the night and gave the information to a captain in
ibne Ziyad army. Early the next morning, five hundred soldiers under the
leadership of Mohammad bin Ashas surrounded the house of Tau'aa and
demanded Hazrat Muslim(a.s.)'s surrender. Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) came out
holding his sword. Three times he drove the enemy away and killed 150
men. Twice Ibne Ziyad had to send in reinforcements.
While Hazrat Muslim was fighting, some
soldiers went up the rooftops and began throwing stones and lighted
torches at him. Others dug a trench in the path of Hazrat Muslim(a.s.)
and covered it with grass. Ibne Ziyad told him commanders to trick
Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) otherwise it would not be possible to capture him.
Although badly wounded and totally exhausted, Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) kept
on fighting. As a trick, soldiers of ibne Ziyad offered peace and
protection to Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) but he rejected the offer. He was
deeply wounded in this tough fight and finally fell into the trench.
More than fifty soldiers pounced upon him and chained him. He was
dragged to the court of Ibne Ziyad.
Ibne Ziyad told Hazrat Muslim(a.s.)
that he would be killed and asked him if he had any last wishes. Hazrat
Muslim(a.s.) said: "I owe a debt which should be discharged by selling
off my sword and armour. Secondly I want my body to be given a proper
burial. Thirdly I want a message sent to Imam Hussain(a.s.) advising him
not to come to Kufa." Ibne Ziyad agreed to the first request but refused
to do anything about the second and third requests. He then ordered
Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) to be taken to the roof of the palace to be executed
and his body thrown to the ground.
Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) was calm and
composed as he was dragged up the steps. He was reciting "Allahu Akber"
until the last moment. Then there was an absolute silence followed by a
thud as the head of Hazrat Muslim(a.s.) was chopped and his body fell to
the ground. This was on 9th of Zil-Hajj. Immediately after Hazrat
Muslim(a.s.) was martyred, Hani ibn-e-Urwah(a.r.) as well was dragged to
the roof top and executed. |