****Simulation Of Imam Husayn Ibn Ali Ibn AbiTalibs Head**** On the second day after the #battle of #Karbala, the forces of #Yazid I raised the #headofHusayn on a lance. They took it to Kufa to present it to Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad, the governor of Kufa, leaving behind the mutilated body of Husayn. The headless body was thus buried there by the tribe of Bani Assad, who were living in the vicinity of Karbala. After the exhibition and display of the head of Husayn, ibn Ziyad dispatched it to #Damascus to be presented to Yazid as a trophy. Yazid celebrated the occasion with great pomp and show by displaying the head of Husayn in his crowded and decorated court. The head was then buried in a niche of one of the internal walls of Jame-Masjid, Damascus, Syria. Afterwards, the head of Husayn remained confiscated and confined in Damascus by the order of the Umayyad monarch, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (d.86/705), in this condition for about two hundred twenty years. When the Abbasids took power from the Umayyads, in the garb of taking revenge of Ahl al-Bayt, they also confiscated the head Husayn and proved to be worse enemies than the Umayyads. It was the Abbasid emperor Al-Muqtadir (d. 295/908), an enemy of the Ahl al-Bayt He attempted many times to stop the pilgrimage to the head, but in vain. He thus tried to completely eliminate the sign of the sacred place of Ziyarat; he transferred the head of Husayn to Ashkelon (located 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Gaza Strip and 58 km (36 mi) south of Tel Aviv, Israel) in secrecy, so that the pilgrims could not find the place. It was the 15th Fatimid/Ismaili/Dawoodi Bohra Imam Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah (d.386 AH/996) who traced the site of the head of his great-grandfather through the office of his contemporary in Baghdad, in 985. In the city of Ashkelon, Israel, it remained buried at Baab al Faradis, for a long time (about 250 years up to 1153). Commander of the Fatimid forces Dai Badrul’jamali (d. 487/1095) conquered Palestine, during the period of 18th Fatimid Imam Maad al-Mustansir Billah (d. 487/1094). The Fatimid Imam assigned him to discover the head of Husayn ibn Ali. The Dai, in 448 (A.H) discovered the place of Raas al Imam al Husayn. Under the instructions of the Fatimid Imam Maad al-Mustansir Billah, Badr al-Jamali constructed a mosque and donated several huge properties to meet the expenditure of the Trust, so as to maintain the affairs of the Mashhad the place of burial. He also prepared a wooden minbar (pulpit) and placed it in the mosque, where Raas al Imam al Husayn was buried. This minbar bears the historical account which is engraved in Arabi Fatemi Kufic script about the Raas al Imam al Husayn. The following part of text is a translation of the Arabic inscriptions, which is still preserved on the Fatimid minbar: .. among the miracles, a major glory with the wishes of Allah, is the recovery of the Head .. Imam.. Husain .. which was at the place of Ashkelon, .. hidden by the tyrants... .. Allah has promised to reveal.. wishes to hide it from the enemies..to show it to Awliya ... to relieve the heart of ‘Devotees’ of Imam Husain, as Allah knew their pure heartedness in Walayat and Deen. ... May Allah keep for long our Moula .. Al Mustansir’billah.. .The .. Commander of the forces.. the Helper of Imam.. the leader of Do’at .. Badr al Mustansari has discovered Raas al Imam al Husain in Imam Mustansir’s period, and has taken it out from its hidden place. He specially built a Minbar for the Mashhad, at the place where this sacred Head lay buried. .. He (..Badrul’jamali) constructed this building ..the revenue from which is to be spent only on this Mashhad ... .[66] The shrine was described as the most magnificent building in Ashkelon.[67] In the British Mandate period it was a large maqam on top of a hill with no tomb but a fragment of a pillar showing the place where the head had been buried.[68] After the 21st Fatimid Imam At-Tayyib Abi l-Qasim went into seclusion, his uncle, Abd al Majid occupied the throne of the Fatimid Empire. Fearing disrespect and the atrocities of the traitors and enemies, the Majidi-monarch, Al-Zafir, ordered the transfer of the head to Qahera. The W’ali of the city of Ashkelon, Al Amir Sayf al Mamlaka Tamim along with the custodian of the Mashhad, Qazi Mohammad bin Miskin, took out the buried casket of Raas al Imam al Husayn from the Mashhad, and with due respect and great reverence, on Sunday 8 Jumada al-Thani, 548 (31 August 1153) carried the head from the city of Ashkelon to Qahera, Egypt. Syedi Hasan bin Asad (Hir’az, Yemen) discussed this event in his Risalah manuscript as follows: When the Raas (head) al Imam al Husain was taken out of the casket, in Ashkelon, drops of the fresh blood were visible on the Raas al Imam al Husain and the fragrance of Musk spread all over. Historians, Al-Maqrizi, Ahmad al-Qalqashandi, and Ibn Muyassar (d.1278) have mentioned that the casket reached Qahera on Tuesday 10 Jumada al-Thani (2 September 1153). Ust’ad Maknun accompanied it in one of the service boats which landed at the Kafuri (Garden). Buried there in the place known Qubbat al Daylam or Turbat al Zafr’an (currently known as Al Mashhad al Husain, wherein lie buried underground thirteen Fatimid Imams from 9th Muhammad at-Taqi to 20th Al-Amir bi-Ahkami l-Lah). This place is also known as B’ab Makhallif’at al Rasul and located in Al-Hussein Mosque. During the golden era of the Fatimid Caliphate, on the day of Ashurah, every year the people of Egypt from far and near used to gather and offer sacrifices of camels, cows, goats in the name of Allah, recite Marsiyah-elegies on the Ahl al Bait and the Ans’ar of Husayn and pronounced L’anat (curse) loudly on Yazid, Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, ibn Ziyad and other murderers of Husayn. During the tenure of Saladin, all Marasim al Az’a or mourning commemorations for Husayn were declared officially banned as they were considered Bid‘ah. The famous Mamluk historian of Egypt, Mohiyuddin Abd al Zahir (d. 1292) wrote: When Salahuddin came to power he seized all the Palaces of the Aimmat Fatemiyeen and looted their properties and treasures. He destroyed the valuable and rare collection of the hundred thousands books, available in libraries, in the river Nile. When he learnt through his intelligence.. that one of the.. custodians of Raas al Imam al Husain.. was highly respected by the people of ..Qahera, he surmised that perhaps he .. be aware of ..treasures of the Aimmat Fatemiyeen. Salahuddin issued orders to present him in his court. He inquired of him ..of the Fatemi..treasures. The nobleman flatly denied ..about the treasures. Salahuddin was angered, and ordered his intelligence .. to ask him through ‘third-degree-torture’, but the nobleman bore ..torture and repeated ..statement. .. Salahuddin ordered his soldiers to put a cap containing Centipedes on the head of the nobleman. ..such type of punishment was so severe and unbearable..none could survive even for a few minutes. Prior to putting the Cap of Centipedes on the head, his hair was shaved, to make it easy for the Centipedes to suck blood, which in turn made holes in skull. But! In spite of that punishment the noble custodian of Husain’s Head..felt no pain at all. Salahuddin ordered for more Centipedes to be put on .. but it could not kill or pain him. Finally Salahuddin Ayyubi ordered for a tight cap full of Centipedes .. to accomplish the result. Even this method could not torture or kill him. The Ayyubid brutes were greatly astounded further when they saw, on removing the cap, the Centipedes were dead. Salahuddin asked the nobleman to reveal the secret of this miracle. The nobleman revealed as follow: “When Raas al Imam al Husain was brought to Qasar, Al Moizziyat al Qahera, he had carried the casket on his head. ‘O Salahuddin! This is the secret of my safety. The burial place is now also known as Raous (head)-us-Husain, A silver Zarih (Maqsurah) is made on the place by Dawoodi Bohra Dai, and the place is visited regularly by all Shia. The presentation of the Maqsurah is also unique in the history of loyalty and faithfulness. The Maqsurah of Raas al Imam al Husain was originally constructed for the Al Abbas Mosque at Karbala, Iraq. When this Maqsurah reached the mosque of Al-Abbas ibn Ali it would not fit on the place. The size of the Maqsurah and the site of the fitting place differed at the time of fitting, although every technical aspects and measurements of the site were taken into account very precisely. The engineers were astonished, as what had happened, although every minute detail was handled very professionally. The loyalty of Al-Abbas ibn Ali was also witnessed on that day too, as it had been witnessed on the day of Aashurah. There a divine guidance came to the effect by way of intuition that a sincere, faithful, loyal and devoted brother could not tolerate, that the head of Prophet Muhammads grandson, Husayn, buried in Al Qahera, Egypt, should be without a Maqsurah, thus how could he accept this gift for himself. Hence even after Shahadat, Al-Abbas ibn Ali paid his tribute to Husayn and presented his own Maqsurah for Raas (head) al Imam al Husain. When this above-mentioned Maqsurah was brought from Karbala, Iraq to Al Moizziyat al Qahera, Egypt, it fitted upon the original position of the grave known as Mashhad of Raas al Imam al Husain in such a manner, as if it had been fabricated for Raas al Imam al Husain itself. Arab traveler Ibne Batuta also wrote in his safarname (rihla) that, after the incident of Karbala the head of Husain was in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. From there it was taken and buried in Ashkelon. During the crusade the Fatimid ruler of Egypt exhumed the head and brought it to Egypt. Thereafter the head of Husain was buried again in the al Qarrafa graveyard in Cairo. The site of the graveyard became the mausoleum called Raasul Husain (inside Al-Hussein Mosque). [69] During the period of Saladin, and by his order, the minbar made by Dai Badr-ul Jamali was transferred from Ashkelon to the Masjid Khalil al Rahman (Cave of the Patriarchs), Hebron in the West Bank, Palestinian territories. Saladin did not know that this minbar contained an inscription showing the history of Husayn. The 51st al Dai al Fatemi/Dawoodi Bohra, Taher Saifuddin (d.1385/1965) got the honour to visit Masjid Khalil al Rahman, and he discovered the Fatamid minbar, one thousand years after the seclusion of the Fatamid Imams. The Masjid of the Ashkelon known as Masjid Al Mashhad al Husain was blown up deliberately as part of a broader operation of defence force in 1950 at the instructions of Moshe Dayan, but the devotees of Ahl al Bait did not forgotten it.[70] A few years ago, the 52nd Fatamid/Ismaili/Mustali/Dawoodi Bohra Dai Mohammed Burhanuddin, built a marble platform, as per traditional Fatimid architectural design, at the site, on the ground behind the Barzilai Hospital, Ashkelon and since then thousands of devotees have come from across the world, year round to pay tribute to Husayn.[71]
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 05:24:05 +0000
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