Why Was Imam Husayn Martyred? The Story of Ashura

A few days before Ashura, the Umayyad army, commanded by Umar ibn Sa’d, sealed off Husayn’s camp from the Euphrates River. The order came from Umar ibn al-Hajjaj, and it turned into one of the cruelest parts of the whole siege: Husayn, his companions, and the small children traveling with them went days with barely any water. The blockade wasn’t a battlefield accident — it was deliberate psychological and physical pressure, meant to break Husayn’s resolve and force him into submission.

The thirst began well before the fighting itself and continued straight through to the day of the battle, so by the time swords were drawn, Husayn’s camp was already exhausted, hungry, and desperately thirsty. Historical accounts describe this water blockade as one of the cruelest details of the siege — and it’s the detail that, more than almost any other, became a lasting symbol of the family’s suffering in later Shia mourning traditions.

According to the traditional accounts, Husayn gathered his companions the night before the battle and told them plainly: anyone who wanted to leave, under cover of darkness, was free to go, and no one would stop them. He didn’t want people staying out of fear or obligation — only by choice. By these accounts, not a single one of his companions left.

On the morning of the tenth of Muharram, the battle began. Husayn’s side numbered only around 72 people, facing an army several thousand strong. That small group wasn’t limited to the Prophet’s own household — it included companions from various Arab tribes, and, according to some accounts, even men who had started the day in Yazid’s army before crossing over to join Husayn, most famously Hurr ibn Yazid al-Riyahi. Traditional narrations describe Husayn’s companions and relatives going out to the field one by one to defend him, and being killed one by one in turn — among them his brother Abbas (who was killed trying to bring water back for the children), his son Ali Akbar, and his nephew Qasim. Even Husayn’s infant son, Ali Asghar, is said to have been killed that same day.

In the end, Husayn himself — about 54 years old — was left alone on the field and was killed there. Traditional accounts describe him holding his ground to the very last moment, refusing to withdraw even when badly wounded and exhausted. Across both Shia and non-Shia retellings of the battle, this is remembered as the clearest example of his courage.

Once the fighting ended, the surviving women and children of Husayn’s family — including his sister Zaynab and his son Ali ibn Husayn (who had missed the battle because of illness) — were taken captive. They were marched first to Kufa, then on to Damascus, Yazid’s capital. Historical accounts treat Zaynab’s speeches during that journey of captivity as one of the key moments that carried the story of Karbala forward to later generations.

According to historical accounts, Husayn’s body and those of most of his companions were buried at Karbala itself — the site that later became the shrine of Imam Husayn in the modern city of Karbala. Husayn’s severed head was sent, along with the caravan of captives, first to Kufa and then to Damascus — a practice that, at the time, was a routine way of displaying military victory and power, but which later generations came to see as one of the starkest symbols of the injustice done to the Prophet’s family.

Historians disagree on some of the finer details of that day — the exact order in which people were killed, or the precise size of each army — because the earliest sources don’t always agree with one another. But the core of the story is consistent across every account: Husayn stood against injustice even at the cost of his own life. That’s what has made Ashura one of the most defining events in Shia collective memory.

Every year, on the day of Ashura, millions of Shia Muslims around the world retell this story — not simply as a sad memory, but as a model of standing firm against injustice, whatever the cost. Over the centuries, it’s been kept alive in many forms, from religious sermons to ritual passion plays (ta’zieh).

To read about what led Husayn to Karbala in the first place, see Why Did Imam Husayn Go to Karbala?. To learn where Karbala is today, see Where Is Karbala Today?. You can also read more about his life on the Imam Husayn character page.