In the noble prayer of Nudba [that we read] on Friday mornings, it reads:

«أَینَ الطَّالِبُ بِذُحُولِ الاَنْبِیاءِ وَاَبناءِ الاَنْبِیاءِ اَینَ الطَّالِبُ بِدَمِ المَقْتُولِ بِکربَلاءِ

Where is that revenger [we are looking forward to], who will take the wrongdoers’ right against the prophets and their households (pbu th)?

Where is the avenger of [his lonely ancestor; Imam Ḥusayn (pbuh)] the martyr in The Battle of Karbalā1?

1-     The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD)a in Karbala, in present-day Iraq.[6] The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad’s grandson, Ḥusayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazīd I, the Umayyad caliph.

When Mu’āwiya I died in 680, Ḥusayn did not give allegiance to his son, Yazid I, who had been appointed as Umayyad caliph by Muawiyah; Ḥusayn considered Yazīd’s succession a breach of the Hasan–Mu’āwiya treaty. The people of Kūfah sent letters to Ḥusayn, asking his help and pledging allegiance to him, but they later did not support him. As Ḥusayn traveled towards Kūfah, at a nearby place known as Karbala, his caravan was intercepted by Yazid I’s army led by Al-Hurr ibn Yazid al Tamimi. He was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala by Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, along with most of his family and companions, including Ḥusayn’s six month old son, ‘Ali al-Asghar, with the women and children taken as prisoners.[6][7] The battle was followed by later uprisings namely, Ibn al-Zubayr, Tawwabin, and Mukhtar uprising which occurred years later.

The Battle of Karbalā played a central role in shaping the identity of the Shia and turned them into a sect with “its own rituals and collective memory.” For the Shia, Ḥusayn’s suffering and death became a symbol of sacrifice “in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against wrongdoing and falsehood.” Hence, the battle becomes more than a politically formative moment of the Shia faith within Islam. It also defines the theological origin of the Shia martyr ethos, and it provides members of the faith with a catalogue of heroic norms whose impact is still felt today. Therefore, the commemoration of the Battle of Karbalā must be seen as a paradigm (i. e. the “Karbalā paradigm”), since the view of history conveyed by it claims to provide a self-contained cosmology applicable to all aspects of life

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