Muslim in Kufa

THE KUFEES GAVE Muslim a very warm reception and thousands of them paid their 'Bait' to the Holy Imam on the hands of Muslim. Poor Muslim, impressed with and guided by the enthusiasm of the deceitful Kufees and not knowing what would befall him the very next day, wrote a letter to Husain to go over to Kufa. When the letter inviting the Holy Imam had gone with a favourable report about the situation at Kufa, Muslim learnt of the treachery, i.e., the turn of the tide of the situation. Yazid, having learnt of Muslim's arrival at Kufa as the Deputy of the Holy Imam and the Kufees having paid their homage to the Holy Imam, as their religious head, sent Ibne Zaid to handle the situation in his favour. In a day or two, almost all the leaders of the town were bribed and strong threats from Yazid's deputy the Governor of Kufa, made the people of the town as a whole, desert poor Muslim. Under the strict ordinances issued against those who gave even shelter to him, Muslim was left all alone in Kufa. None in Kufa would now even speak to Muslim and he was left actually homeless, wandering in the streets with everyone in town, now hostile to him. None would allow him even to rest for a while in the shade of his house. At every door he stood, he was being driven away, not even a cup of water he could have from anyone in the town. Hungry and thirsty, the helpless Deputy of the Holy Imam actually wandered in the streets of Kufa with his two innocent children, in the hope of help from some one, but none took pity on him, and not even on the innocent young children. The helpless father and his two young children were being driven away from place to place, nowhere to rest even for a while.

Hani ibne Orvah, the good-hearted Kufec who offered hospitality to Muslim was mercilessly butchered. All those miseries and persecution did never upset Muslim in the least but the one and only worry he felt, and which grieved him the most of which he frequently shed tears, was that he had written to the son of Fatema, the Holy Imam, in favour of such a treacherous people and had invited him to go over to a place where only death and destruction waited for him. He could not leave the town for he was not allowed to do it, nor could he send any note to the Holy Imam to intimate the treacherous change in the situation.

Adapted from the book: "Husain; The Saviour of Islam" by: "S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali"