doing so. Indeed, when he sent his cousin to them, they broke their promise and violated their pledge to him. They helped against him the very people whom they had promised to ward off and fight alongside him.

Those of sound judgment who loved al-Husayn, such as Ibn ‘Abbās, Ibn ‘Umar and others, advised him not to go to them or accept their invitation. They considered that his going to them would serve no good purpose and bring no welcome outcome. Events unfolded just as they had said, and Allah’s decree was already ordained.

When al-Husayn—may Allah be pleased with him—set out and saw that circumstances had changed, he asked them to let him return, go to one of the frontier outposts, or join his cousin Yazīd. They denied him these options, insisting that he surrender as a captive. They fought him, and he fought them; then they killed him and a group of those accompanying him. He was wrongfully slain as a martyr—a martyrdom through which Allah honoured him and reunited him with the good and pure members of his household. Through it, Allah also disgraced those who wronged and attacked him. This gave rise to evil among the people.

An ignorant and unjust faction—either heretical and hypocritical, or misguided and wayward—then began professing allegiance to him and his household while making the day of ‘Āshūrā’ a day of mourning, sorrow and wailing. On that day they display the practices of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance: slapping their cheeks, tearing their collars and uttering the cries of that age.