Today marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of the grandson Imam Hussein bin Ali, may God be pleased with them, at the famous site of Karbala, which corresponds to October 12 AD, on the tenth of Muharram.
The issue of the existence of the head of Imam Hussein, may God be pleased with him, remains a matter of contention to this day. There are many sources and differed in its presence, between Karbala in Iraq and others in Damascus, Palestine and Cairo. The writer and thinker Abbas al-Akkad says his famous sentence: In every place there are people of veneration and honor.” In his book, Abu Al-Shuhada Al-Hussein bin Ali.
The sayings regarding the tomb of the body of Hussein, peace be upon him, were in agreement in Karbala, and differed in the place of the honorable head.
First opinion:
The head was returned following a while to Karbala and was buried with the body there.
The second opinion:
He was sent to Amr bin Saeed bin Al-Aas, the governor of Al-Madinah, and he buried him in Al-Baqi’, near the grave of his mother, Fatimah Al-Zahra.
Third opinion:
He was found in the treasury of Yazid bin Muawiyah following his death, so he was buried in Damascus at the Gate of Paradise.
Fourth opinion:
He had traveled with him throughout the country until he reached Ashkelon, and its emir buried him there, and he remained there until the Franks seized it in the Crusades.
Fifth opinion:
After the Franks seized the head in the Crusades, al-Salih, the vanguard of the Fatimids in Egypt, gave them thirty thousand dirhams, to transfer it to Cairo, where he was buried in his famous scene. Sharif, and placed him in a green silk bag on an ebony chair, and under it he spread musk, amber and perfume.
Sixth opinion:
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi mentioned in what was mentioned among the various sayings that the head was in the mosque of al-Raqqa on the Euphrates, and that when he was brought before Yazid ibn Muawiyah, he said: “I will send it to the family of Abu Muait on the authority of Ras Uthman.” They were in Raqqa, so they buried him in some of their houses, then I entered that house in the Jami Mosque, which is next to its wall there.
The places mentioned in this regard are six in six cities: Medina, Karbala, Raqqa, Damascus, Ashkelon, and Cairo. It enters the countries of the Hijaz, Iraq, the Levant, Beit al-Maqdis, and the Egyptian lands, and it almost includes the entrances to the entire Islamic world from beyond those countries.
