| Mahatma
Gandhi |
My
faith is that the progress
of Islam does not depend
on the use of sword by
its believers, but the
result of the supreme
sacrifice of Husain, the
great saint. |
|
| Dr.
Rajendra Prasad |
The
sacrifice of Imam Husain
is not limited to one
country, or nation, but
it is the hereditary state
of the brotherhood of
all mankind. |
|
| Dr.
Radha Krishnan |
Though
Imam Husain gave his life
almost 1300 years ago,
but his indestructible
soul rules the hearts
of people even today. |
|
| Swami
Shankaracharya |
It
is Husain's sacrifice
that that has kept Islam
alive or else in this
world there would be no
one left to take Islam's
name. |
|
| Rabindranath
Tagore |
In
order to keep alive justice
and truth, instead of
an army or weapons, success
can be achieved by sacrificing
lives, exactly what Imam
Husain did. |
|
| Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru |
Imam
Husain's sacrifice is
for all groups and communities,
an example of the path
of rightousness. |
|
| Mrs.
Sarojini Naidu |
I
congratulate Muslims that
from among them, Husain,
a great human being was
born, who is reverted
and honored totally by
all communities. |
|
| Reynold
Alleyne Nicholson |
| (1868-1945)
Sir Thomas Adams Professor
of Arabic at the University
of Cambridge. |
"Husayn
fell, pierced by an arrow,
and his brave followers
were cut down beside him
to the last man. Muhammadan
tradition, which with
rare exceptions is uniformly
hostile to the Umayyad
dynasty, regards Husayn
as a martyr and Yazid
as his murderer." |
| [A
Literary History of the
Arabs, Cambridge, 1930,
p. 197] |
|
| Robert
Durey Osborn |
| (1835-1889)
Major of the Bengal Staff
Corps. |
"Hosain
had a child named Abdallah,
only a year old. He had
accompanied his father
in this terrible march.
Touched by its cries,
he took the infant in
his arms and wept. At
that instant, a shaft
from the hostile ranks
pierced the child's ear,
and it expired in his
father's arms. Hosain
placed the little corpse
upon the ground. 'We come
from God, and we return
to Him!' he cried; 'O
Lord, give me strength
to bear these misfortunes!
' . Faint with thirst,
and exhausted with wounds,
he fought with desperate
courage, slaying several
of his antagonists. At
last he was cut down from
behind; at the same instance
a lance was thrust through
his back and bore him
to the ground; as the
dealer of this last blow
withdrew his weapon, the
ill-fated son of Ali rolled
over a corpse. The head
was severed from the trunk;
the trunk was trampled
under the hoofs of the
victors' horses; and the
next morning the women
and a surviving infant
son were carried away
to Koufa. The bodies of
Hosain and his followers
were left unburied on
the spot where they fell.
For three days they remained
exposed to the sun and
the night dews, the vultures
and the prowling animals
of the waste; but then
the inhabitants of a neighbouring
village, struck with horror that the body of a grandson
of the Prophet should
be thus shamefully abandoned
to the unclean beasts
of the field, dared the
anger of Obaidallah, and
interred the body of the
martyr and those of his
heroic friends." |
| [Islam
Under the Arabs, Delaware,
1976, pp. 126-7] |
|
| Sir
William Muir |
| (1819-1905)
Scottish scholar and statesman.
Held the post of Foreign
Secretary to the Indian
government as well as Lieutenant
Governor of the Northwestern
Provinces. |
"The
tragedy of Karbala decided
not only the fate of the
caliphate, but of the
Mohammedan kingdoms long
after the Caliphate had
waned and disappeared.
" |
| [Annals
of the Early Caliphate,
London, 1883, pp. 441-2] |
|
| Peter
J. Chelkowski |
| Professor
of Middle Eastern Studies,
New York University. |
"Hussein
accepted and set out from
Mecca with his family
and an entourage of about
seventy followers. But
on the plain of Kerbela
they were caught in an
ambush set by the . caliph,
Yazid. Though defeat was
certain, Hussein refused
to pay homage to him.
Surrounded by a great
enemy force, Hussein and
his company existed without
water for ten days in
the burning desert of
Kerbela. Finally Hussein,
the adults and some male
children of his family
and his companions were
cut to bits by the arrows
and swords of Yazid's
army; his women and remaining
children were taken as
captives to Yazid in Damascus.
The renowned historian
Abu Reyhan al-Biruni states;
". then fire was set to
their camp and the bodies
were trampled by the hoofs
of the horses; nobody
in the history of the
human kind has seen such
atrocities." |
| [Ta'ziyeh:
Ritual and Drama in Iran,
New York, 1979, p. 2] |
|
| Simon
Ockley |
| (1678-1720)
Professor of Arabic at the
University of Cambridge. |
"Then
Hosein mounted his horse,
and took the Koran and
laid it before him, and,
coming up to the people,
invited them to the performances
of their duty: adding,
'O God, thou art my confidence
in every trouble, and
my hope in all adversity!'.
He next reminded them
of his excellency, the
nobility of his birth,
the greatness of his power,
and his high descent,
and said, 'Consider with
yourselves whether or
not such a man as I am
is not better than you;
I who am the son of your
prophet's daughter, besides
whom there is no other
upon the face of the earth.
Ali was my father; Jaafar
and Hamza, the chief of
the martyrs, were both
my uncles; and the apostle
of God, upon whom be peace,
said both of me and my
brother, that we were
the chief of the youth
of paradise. If you will
believe me, what I say
is true, for by God, I
never told a lie in earnest
since I had my understanding;
for God hates a lie. If
you do not believe me,
ask the companions of
the apostle of God [here
he named them], and they
will tell you the same.
Let me go back to what
I have.' They asked, 'What
hindered him from being
ruled by the rest of his
relations.' He answered,
'God forbid that I should
set my hand to the resignation
of my right after a slavish
manner. I have recourse
to God from every tyrant
that doth not believe
in the day of account." |
| [The
History of the Saracens,
London, 1894, pp. 404-5] |
|
| Edward
G. Brown |
| Sir
Thomas Adams Professor of
Arabic and oriental studies
at the University of Cambridge |
"A reminder of the blood-stained field of Kerbela, where
the grandson of the Apostle
of God fell at length,
tortured by thirst and
surrounded by the bodies
of his murdered kinsmen,
has been at anytime since
then sufficient to evoke,
even in the most lukewarm
and heedless, the deepest
emotions, the most frantic
grief, and an exaltation
of spirit before which
pain, danger and death
shrink to unconsidered
trifles." |
| [A
Literary History of Persia,
London, 1919, p. 227] |
|
| Ignaz
Goldziher |
| (1850-1921)
Famous Hungarian orientalist
scholar. |
"Ever
since the black day of
Karbala, the history of
this family . has been
a continuous series of
sufferings and persecutions.
These are narrated in
poetry and prose, in a
richly cultivated literature
of martyrologies - a Shi'i
specialty - and form the
theme of Shi'i gatherings
in the first third of
the month of Muharram,
whose tenth day ('ashura)
is kept as the anniversary
of the tragedy at Karbala.
Scenes of that tragedy
are also presented on
this day of commemmoration
in dramatic form (ta'ziya).
'Our feast days are our
assemblies of mourning.'
So concludes a poem by
a prince of Shi'i disposition
recalling the many mihan
of the Prophet's family.
Weeping and lamentation
over the evils and persecutions
suffered by the 'Alid
family, and mourning for
its martyrs: these are
things from which loyal
supporters of the cause
cannot cease. 'More touching
than the tears of the
Shi'is' has even become
an Arabic proverb." |
| [Introduction
to Islamic Theology and
Law, Princeton, 1981,
p. 179] |
|
| Edward
Gibbon |
| (1737-1794)
Considered the greatest
British historian of his
time. |
"In
a distant age and climate
the tragic scene of the
death of Hosein will awaken
the sympathy of the coldest
reader." |
| [The
Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, London,
1911, volume 5, pp. 391-2] |
|
