THE STORY OF KARBALA - PART 4
THE MORNING OF ASHOORA, THE DEFECTION OF HURR

Husayn and his companions had spent the night in prayers. Early morning, they came out of their tents and assembled to offer the morning prayers behind Husayn. Husayn asked his son Ali (Akbar) to recite the AZAN (official call for prayers). The significance of this is that Husayn's son looked exactly like the Prophet Muhammad (pbh) in appearance and that the AZAN has a
sentence in it meaning:

" I testify to Muhammad being a God-sent Prophet"

which is said twice.

As if Husayn was giving a last chance to the people assembled to fight him to rethink their motives. For they all claimed to be Muslims and were following the orders of a man claiming to be the rightful Khaleefa of the Prophet of Islam, who openly flouted all Islamic cove-nants. And Husayn being the grandson of the Prophet and being the most righteous person of his time
was being branded as a rebel. There were people in that crowd who had seen the Prophet and should therefore have been reminded of his looks by Ali standing up and reciting the AZAN.

It was however clear that Umar and his troops were not going to change their stance.

After the prayers, Husayn's followers took it in turn to approach the troops and address them formally. This was important because every member in Husayn's party had one or more rela-tives, kinsmen or at least people from his tribe facing him from among the enemy camp. Then Husayn himself rode towards the enemy troops and addressed them explaining in detail who he was, his close relationship to the Prophet, his puritan way of life and that he was a peaceful citizen living quietly without cau-sing any distur-bance to anybody, and that they were going to commit a grave sin by harming the Prophet's family.

Watching the crowd listening to these discour-ses, Umar Ibn S'ad became concerned that some of these lectures could affect the morale of his troops. To pre-empt this effort to compro-mise and bring sense into people, Umar stood up and said loudly: `Every one in my troops witness to the fact that the first arrow of this battle is being cast by none other than the commander-in-chief, that is myself.' Saying this he put an arrow to his bow and shot it towards Husayn.

This was symbolically the official beginning of the battle. Following the arrow cast by the commander-in-chief, thousands of arrows were shot by other archers in this first round. But no one was hurt in Husayn's camp at this stage because of the intervening distance.

Husayn had shown that he did not want to fight. He wanted people to understand why he was doing what he was doing. He, in fact, had expressed the wish to leave the Arab lands and emigrate to India if he was allowed to do so.

NOTE: Two 20th century writers have questioned this entire line of reporting. Muqarram in his maqtal (Arabic text) and IKA Howard of Edinurgh in his English writings have argued that once Husayn had arrived at Karbala, he knew exactly what he was standing for. There was no weakness in his stance. This is mere propaganda by the Umayyad writers to show that Husayn was talking about this kind of compromise, because they wanted to show him weaker than
actually he was.

Husayn wanted to leave a perfect legacy of martyrdom and sacrifice for one's princip-les, for all mankind and for all generations to come. But when it came to dying for his prin-ciples, he was going to fight bravely and then die, while Yazeed and his military commanders were adamant that Husayn should accept Yazeed as the legitimate Khaleefa. Husayn had seen that if he did that, he would be undoing all the hard work done by his grandfather the Prophet, his father Ali Ibn Abi Talib, his mother Fatima and his brother Hasan.

The most dramatic event soon after this was the defection of Hurr, the commander who had actua-lly led Husayn into Karbala, to Husayn's side. Hurr was followed by his son, his brother, and his slave servant.

Hurr obviously, came with a guilty feeling. Husayn accepted Hurr and his companions with open arms. Hurr then asked Husayn if he could turn to his own troops and fight them until his last breath. Husayn gave him the permission.

Hurr now confronted the troops he had been commanding a few moments ago. When Umar bin S'ad saw this dramatic change in Hurr's attitude he was filled with fear as well as anger. He sent one of his close company commanders known as Safwan bin Hanzala to go and talk to Hurr and persuade him to return to his previous post.

Safwan bin Hanzala came riding with a lot of pomp and pride. He addressed Hurr, saying: " O Hurr, you are one of the best soldiers and one of the ablest commanders on our side. What are you doing with Husayn? Your place his here, with us."

Hurr replied: " Safwan, you know that Yazeed is a debauch man, a drunkard and a libertine. And on this side is Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam. His mother was Fatima Zahra, who was married to Ali bin Abi Talib in Paradise. Husayn is the one whom Qur'an had addressed in the verse of CLEANSING (TAT-HEER). You know all this, and knowing this, you are hiding
the truth."

Safwan once again said; "Yes, granted all those things, but you are a soldier and a commander. What good is cleanliness and glory of Paradise for soldiers like us? Our place is with Yazeed, who holds power, who has wealth and has everything that you need in this world."

Hurr said: "O you despicable man! You know the Truth and even then denies it!"

Safwan was very angry at this insult. He pulled his lance and attacked Hurr with full force. Hurr, was even faster. He ducked and thrusted his own lance at Safwan, which broke Safwan lance in pieces and pierced right through his chest. Hurr, lifted Safawn on his lance from his horse (readers! can you imagine the fighting fervor of Hurr?) and crashed him on the battlefield.
Safwan's bone's were broken and he died.

Safwan bin Hnazala's three brothers were with him at Karbala. When they saw their brother being killed, they rushed forward and attacked Hurr all together. Hurr fought with them valiantly and killed them all.

Hurr returned to Imam Husayn, received final blessings from him and went back to fight the last battle of his life.

Hurr, his son and the servant fell on the enemy troops, fought valiantly until both the son and he servant were killed. Hurr's own horse was killed in the action. Hurr was a large man. He fought furiously on foot, reciting verses at the same time to the effect that he was a gallant warrior and that he was fighting in Allah's way. An arrow struck him in the forehead and he fell. Husayn rushed to Hurr's side, said comforting words to him, took a handker-chief out of his pocket which at one time had belonged to his mother Fatima Zahra, tied it round Hurr's bleeding wound and Hurr died in Husayn's arms.

This report has been prepared from the texts of Allama Qazwini's Riadhul Quds, Mulla Wa'iz Kashifi's Raudhatus Shuhada, Majlisi's Bihar-ul Anwar andTabari. In addition to those books, Ibn Khaldoon has written with extensive details about Hurr's valiant battle at Karabala in his TAREEKH.

Thank you for reading.

sincerely,

Syed-Mohsin Naquvi