Hazrat Muslim Ibn Aqeel Ibn Abi Taleb

Compiled by: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 5th of the Islamic month of Shawwal in 60 AH, Muslim Ibn Aqeel Ibn Abi Taleb, the cousin and emissary of Holy Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) grandson, Imam Husain (AS), arrived in Kufa and was warmly welcomed by the people, with as many as 18,000 giving him oath of allegiance and reaffirming the letters they had sent to the Holy Prophet's grandson in Mecca, inviting him to come to Iraq to deliver the ummah from the tyrannical and Godless rule of the Omayyad usurper, Yazid bin Mua'wiyyah.
Muslim wrote to the Imam of the situation and called on him to come to Iraq to lead the people. Two months later, however, when Yazid dispatched to Kufa as governor, the bloodthirsty Obaidollah ibn Ziyad, who immediately resorted to threats and bribes, the majority of the Kufans broke their oath of allegiance to Muslim and betrayed him, as a result of which he was martyred.
When Imam Husain (AS) arrived in Iraq he was prevented from entering Kufa and cruelly martyred in the plain of Karbala by the forces of Ibn Ziyad, which also included the majority of those who had written letters to him, inviting him to come to Iraq and deliver them from Omayyad oppression.