As Yazid, the disgraced son of Ameer Muawiyah, claimed the throne and declared himself a Caliph, several letters pleaded with Imam Hussain ibn Ali to march down to Damascus and dethrone Yazid. These invitations were based on the agreement between Muawiyah and Imam Hassan which spelled in clear terms that after Muawiyah’s reign, the legitimate claim to Caliphate will be of Hassan’s younger brother, Hussain.

Most of these letters were from Kufa (south of Baghdad, in Iraq). To test the waters and ensure that these messages were credible, Muslim ibn Aqil, a cousin of Hussain, was sent down to Kufa. His exciting welcome coupled with thousands of people declaring their allegiance to Muslim ibn Aqil made him write a letter to Hussain assuring him that the invitations from the people of Kufa are to be trusted and that he should arrive as soon as possible to meet the people of Kufa.

This letter had departed. Hussain, as desired by his cousin, started his march to Kufa. He arrived in Karbala only to find out that Muslim ibn Aqil was brutally killed as he uttered his last words – I wish I could tell my brother Hussain that the people of Kufa have shown their real colours.

The rest, of course, is well-known history. From being made to suffer for a drop of water to the eventual assassination, Hussain and the brave men and women who accompanied him fought a war they never planned to fight. They gave up their lives because to agree to unjust rule based on tyranny and the rejection of ideas that Prophet stood for was not what they could tolerate. They left the Earth victorious, leaving an example of how history remembers not those who oppress, but those who speak-up.

With the unfortunate spread of terror from ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Taliban to the racism and communalism that is engulfing the world, we witness another re-incarnation of Yazid. As peace is compromised with gross violations of human rights, equality, and justice, the world awaits a Hussain ibn Ali.

May we all imbibe the spirit and ideas that the great Hussain held high. May freedom and liberty wipe out oppression and guarantee peace. May every human be treated as just that – human and equal.