The ruin and confusion brought about by the atrocious army were so great that Zeinab, the daughter of Ali (a.s.), had great difficulty in gathering the orphaned children, whom she had to appease and to appease and console till late midnight. Ali ibn Al-Hussein (a.s.) says, "My aunt Zeinab always performed her prayers standing. But on that night, intense grief and the extra-ordinary effort of gathering, guarding and consoling the children and women had made her so tired that she performed her night prayers sitting, for she could stand only with great effort.
Late after midnight, she sat facing the Qiblah and raised her trembling hands with a voice that spoke of her grief and fatigue, and yet determination. Allahu Akbar! One can only guess the feelings of this great daughter of Ali (a.s.) when she spoke to God during those prayers. Was she complaining of the destruction and death the oppressive regime had brought upon the household of the Messenger of God? Was she pleading with her God to accept all those sacrifices made by Hussein (a.s.) and his companions for the sake of Islam? Was she asking God to bestow a greater determination and strength to this daughter of Ali (a.s.) and sister of Hussein (a.s.) to enable her to fulfill this mission which had been brought up to this point by the martyrs and the most difficult part of which remained for her to complete? Was she beseeching the Almighty to give patience and forbearance to the hearts of the women and children whose sole guardian she had become? Was she praying that God may take His revenge from the oppressors and tyrants who had not heeded the exalted station of the House of the Prophet and had shed the blood of their heir of the Prophet? When we observe the dishonorable deeds of the evil regime of Yazid against the Household of the Prophet, there is no need to be surprised, for the foundations of disrespect and injustice towards them had been laid a long time before.
The regime of Yazid and Ibn Ziyad was only the successor of its predecessors. We need not be surprised at the hideous acts of the agents of Yazid for the sake of his political power and position. Don't we know about the conspiracies which had started even before the death of the Messenger (pbuh&hh)? Don't we know about the insulting fashion in which the Prophet (pbuh&hh) himself, on his death bed, was treated by his so-called "companions? Had not the dictates of political conspiracy demanded that Ali's (a.s.) house be broken into? That his wife and children be threatened with death? And that Ali (a.s.) be pulled out of his house with a rope around his neck? Who was it who cried from outside his door, By God, I will set fire to his house."?
After Ashura, almost 50 years after the Prophet's (pbuh&hh) death, the women and children of his household were taken prisoner and paraded through the streets and bazaars of Kufa and Damascus, was not Fatima (a.s.), the Prophet's beloved daughter, mistreated and beaten only days after her father's death? Shall we be surprised when, in the year 61 A.H., the so-called Muslims of Kufa, fighting under the command of Omar ibn Sa"d did not abstain from burning down the tents which housed the women and children of the Prophet's Household, when the companions of the Prophet, soon after his death, threatened to burn down the house of Ali and Fatima (a.s.)? Why must we be surprised at the looting and pillaging of the tents after the martyrdom of Hussein (a.s.), when we know that the Prophet's daughter was deprived of her rights of inheritance and her property confiscated by the companions of the Prophet himself? There is no reason to be surprised at the daughter of Ali (a.s.) the grandson of Ali (a.s.) and the women and children of his household being taken as prisoners from Karbala to Kufa and from Kufa to Damascus into the presence of the caliph of Muslims! Was not Ali (a.s.) himself taken into the presence of an earlier caliph with a rope clasping his neck...when the swords came out of their scabbards threatening his life and that of his household: either allegiance or...? The same condition and the same demand and a similar threat!?
