The Journey · Dhul Hijja 60 AH

The caravan turns toward Iraq

Yazid had sent agents to kill the Imam even amid the rites of pilgrimage. Rather than let the sanctuary of Mecca be stained with blood, Imam al-Husayn (a) chose to leave.

His caravan — family, companions, women, and children — set out across roughly eleven hundred miles of summer desert toward Kufa. The poet al-Farazdaq warned him that the people's hearts were with him but their swords against him. He continued.

Then came the news of Muslim ibn ‘Aqil's death. The Imam gathered his companions and released them from any obligation; some left, but the closest remained.