Re: Sayings of Imam Husayn
armughal, How could the oath have already been taken and then 'falsely' announced?
And if we are to take your point about kufa, why did the Imam head off towards Mecca and stay there for what at least three months leading upto zilhajj?
Yes Imam did recieve letters from Kufa, but most of this was during his time in Mecca when the people of Iraq got the news (news didn't travel as fast then) that Imam had left Madina, refused allegiance to Yazid and was now in Mecca.
Here's the timeline:
26th Rajab - letter recieved by governor of Madina from Yazid
28th Rajab - Imam and most of Banu Hashim leave Madina
4th Shaban - Imam Hussayn's caravan arrives in Mecca
10th Ramadhan - Imam recieves first letter from the people of Kufa followed by other petitions from different people
End of Zi'lqada - Hazrat Muslim ibn aqeel arrives in Kufa
within less than a month the political environment of Kufa changes, fearing revolt, on 2nd of Zil-hajj, Yazid appoint Ibn Ziyad the governor of Kufa the city is sealed and there are curfews all around.
8th Zil-Hajj - Imam realises Yazid's soldiers have arrived in Mecca, armed under their Ihram and so changes his Ihram and niyyat and leaves Mecca with his family.
9th Zil-hajj - Hazrat Muslim is killed in Kufa by the governor.
Somewhere on his journey between Mecca and the eventual Karbala Imam recieved news of Muslim's death and that Kufa was a no go area for him.
Then they are met up with Yazid's soldiers who are under orders to not let him go further to kufa or to turn back to Mecca and Madina.
2nd Muharram - Imam's caravan and the soldiers waiting for further orders reach and camp at Karbala.
If you say that the Kufah people wrote to Imam while he was in Madina, you are forgetting a couple of things:
1 - Muawiyah died sometime in early/mid Rajab and any time before that would not have tolerated people from what was effectively his 'kingdom' calling Imam Hussayn to become their leader because he had already fought Imam Ali and in the end had a conditional peace treaty with Imam Hassan to consolidate his position as caliph. Imam Hassan then lived in Madina, as did Imam Hussayn.
2 - Imam Hussayn lived all these years in Madina, during the rule of Muawiyah and during all this time the Kufans did not feel obliged to invite him to Kufa as their leader.
3 - Which indicates that something happened between the death of Muawiyah (Rajab) and Yazid becoming Caliph (Rajab) that caused the people of Kufa to invite Hussayn to become their leader. Here the assumption you are making of course that (a) people from kufa knew Imam would not tolerate Yazid, although he did tolerate his father Muawiyah for Caliphate. That is an impossible assumption to make unless of course you already know there is going to be a showdown because Hussayn has already refused allegiance to Yazid and by the time this news has spread to Iraq, Hussayn is already in Mecca. That is where you would write letters of invitation, not to Madina.
Now if you insist on saying he recieved messengers and letters in Madina from Iraq during this very very short amount of time (at least 3 weeks) and supposing Imam immeditely jumped at the chance and did not take time to discuss the offer with his family and friends in Madina, it doesn't need a genius to figure out that he would have set off to Kufa and not to Mecca, given the politcal climate and reasoning for going - i.e. to take caliphate in kufa.
All of this shows that it would have been physically impossible for Imam Hussain to have recieved letters of invitation in Madina. Therefore his decision to leave Madina would have been the result of something else, i.e. having no other option; being compelled to leave to avoid bloodshed, in other words, forced.
