THE STORY OF KARBALA - PART 9/04

THE MARTYRDOM OF ABBAS

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Husayn took the baby in his arms and climbed up to a hill and addressed
the enemy in the following words:

'O soldiers, if you think I have done some-thing wrong and deserve the
pain and hardship you are inflicting on me, this baby is innocent; so could
anyone of you have pity on him and give him some water.'

Humayd Ibn Muslim, an official battlefield reporter in Yazeed's army has
recorded that this scene was so full of pathos that some of the soldiers
turned their faces away and wept with tears.

Umar Ibn Scad called out to his master-archer Hurmula and said:

`O Hurmula, stop Husayn's discourse.'

Hurmula put a three-pronged arrow to his bow, took aim and shot the child
in the neck, still in Husayn's arms. The other two prongs of the arrow
pierced Husayn's arm and the baby's ear, respectively. The baby turned in
Husayn's arms violently and died that instant.

Husayn started walking back to his tent with the dead baby in his arms.

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