Imam Husayn
Grandson of the Prophet and third Shia Imam (626–680 CE), killed at the Battle of Karbala against Yazid; his martyrdom is central to Shia mourning and identity.
Read in context →Biography
Husayn ibn Ali (c. 626–680 CE) was the younger son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, revered as the third Imam in Shia Islam. After the death of the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya, Husayn refused to pledge allegiance to his son Yazid, whom he regarded as illegitimate, and set out toward Kufa in response to invitations from supporters. He and a small band of family and followers were besieged by Umayyad forces at Karbala, where he was killed on the tenth day of Muharram (Ashura) in 680 CE. His death transformed the early pro-Alid movement into a distinct religious community and became the emotional and devotional center of Shia identity, commemorated annually in the Muharram mourning rituals and the Arba'in pilgrimage. A noted nuance is that his stand is interpreted across a spectrum — from a bid for the caliphate to a principled, foreseen self-sacrifice against tyranny — shaping its powerful symbolic meaning.
Quotes & narrations
«Hayhat minna al-dhilla! — Far be it from us to accept humiliation!»
«If you have no religion and do not fear the Day of Resurrection, then at least be free (noble) in your worldly life.»
«I see death as nothing but happiness, and life with oppressors as nothing but disgrace.»
Related entities
Sources
- Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill), "al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī" (L. Veccia Vaglieri)
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Ḥosayn b. ʿAli" and "Karbala"
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "al-Husayn ibn Ali"