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How was Hussein (may Allah be pleased with him) killed in detail?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Al-Hussein ibn Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both) was martyred in Karbala at the age of approximately fifty-six. The reason for his martyrdom was his refusal to pledge allegiance to Yazid. Although the people of Iraq invited him to come to them, Abdullah ibn Ziyad confronted him and had him killed, along with a number of his family members, including his two sons Ali al-Akbar and Abdullah, his brothers, and his nephews and paternal uncles. However, some of his family members survived. Yazid had ordered his governor in Medina to obtain the pledge of allegiance from Al-Hussein and Ibn Al-Zubair, but they secretly refused the allegiance and left for Mecca. Then Al-Hussein headed to Kufa, where he was killed on the Day of Ashura in a place called "Al-Taff." Al-Hussein suffered thirty-three stabs and thirty-four blows, and eighty-two men were killed with him, seventeen of whom were from the Fatimids. His head was raised to Ibn Ziyad, then his head and the women of his household were carried to Damascus. Those who killed Al-Hussein are not disbelievers, but they are wicked and unjust.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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