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Part 4 - Karbala - A Part of Divine Plan of Creation |
When Muhammad (may our salams and Allah’s peace be unto him and his holy family) was only 25 years old he married a lady named Khadeeja. She was a lady of some repute and had a lot of wealth. There is some confusion in historical accounts as to how many children Muhammad had. Majority of Muslims maintain that Khadeeja gave birth to four daughters after getting married to Muhammad. Some claim that when she married Muhammad, she already had three daughters from a previous marriage. Some say that those daughters were actually those of her sister Hala whom she had adopted and Muhammad adopted them as his own daughters because he was always very kind to orphans; and that Khadeeja’s marriage to Muhammad was her first marriage. However, one thing is certain that Fatima was Muhammad and Khadeeja's daughter and she was greatly adored by her father. She survived both her parents and it was only through the line of Fatima and her marriage to Ali that Muhammad’s progeny continued.
After Muhammad started preaching his message and he was hounded by the people of Makkah to the extent that he had to leave his home for Madinah, he left ‘Ali, his cousin, in charge of his affairs in Makkah. ‘Ali later joined him in Madinah. He in fact escorted Muhammad's family to Madinah. In the second year of Hijra Fatima was married to ‘Ali. She gave birth to her first child in the third year of Hijra, who was named Hasan. Eleven months later she gave birth to her second son who was named Husayn. She also had two daughters who were named Zaynab and Umme-Kulthoom.
There are so many reports about Muhammad's affection towards his two grandsons that every historian and collector of Hadeeth has devoted a chapter exclusively on this topic. Apparently the two children were extremely intelligent and had realized the importance of their grandfather's mission from the early childhood. There are reports that Hasan would come back home from the mosque and his mother would enquire about the sermon and he would relate the full sermon as he had heard from his grandfather.
There are reports that Husayn would come running into the mosque while the Prophet would be in sajdah leading the prayers, and playfully ride on his grandfather's back. The Prophet would extend his prostration until Husayn would climb down of his own will. Then there is the well recorded episode of the children giving away their day's meal (a piece of barley bread) to an orphan, a prisoner and a destitute wayfarer. This is actually recorded in Qur'an in chapter 76, verses 7 10.
Husayn grew up with a tremendous sense of responsibility for the good of mankind. He learned the lesson of wisdom from his grandfather, he inherited bravery and gallantry from his father and pride in his strong character from his mother.
During the last days of the third Khaleefa ‘Uthman, a lynching mob surrounded the house and cut his food and water off. ‘Ali assigned the responsibility of providing food and water to ‘Uthman and his family during this siege to Husayn.
Later on, when ‘Ali himself became the fourth Khaleefa, Mu’awiyah the governor of Syria rebelled against him and came to fight at Siffeen in Iraq. Mu’awiyah's army took the banks of the river Euphrates and cut off water to ‘Ali and his troops. Husayn, who was now in his prime, led a group of fighters, fought bravely against the Syrians and conquered the banks of the river. It was at another bank of the same river that he would fight again, the last battle of his life and die for his principles, 23 years later.
Allama Hamwayni writes a hadeeth in his Faraa’id-as-Simtayn (the unique pearls of the two strings) as follows:
Allah created Adam and he lived with his wife in the Garden. One day Adam looked to a corner of the Heavens and noticed five figures doing prayers to Allah. So Adam asked Allah if He had created someone else like him (Adam). The Almighty replied that those five figures were going to appear in the world in Adam’s progeny. And then Allah introduced the five to Adam by asserting that He had extracted (shaqaqtu) the names of those five from His own five different names.
The first one of them is Muhammad, since Allah is hameed (most praiseworthy), the second is cAli since He is cAla(Most High), the third of them is Fatima since He is the Creator (faatir) of heavens, and the other two are Hasan since He is qadeem-al-Ihsaan and Husayn since He is muhsin.
Prof. Ayub has quoted this hadeeth in his Redemptive Suffering in Islam, in a slightly different format. Ayub has associated the hadeeth to Adma’s eating of the Forbidden Tree and then asking forgiveness of Allah. Archangel Gabriel brings the five names to Adam as a means to forgiveness. As soon as Adam utters the name of Husayn his eyes are filled with tears. Adam asks the reason for that, of Gabriel. On Allah's command Gabriel tells Adam the story of Karbala. Adam weeps still more, he is also forgiven. Since then every great prophet, including Nooh and Ibraheem have been told the story of Karbala and they have all wept for Husayn.
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