Table of Contents

Click on a link below to be taken to the selected chapter, or scroll down the page to see each chapter's summary.

I. Imam Hussain and the Prophet Muhammad

II. Imam Hussain and Imam Ali

III. Imam Hussain and Imam Hasan

IV. Imam Hussain's Imamate (Coming Soon)

V. The Journey to Karbala (Coming Soon)

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I. Imam Hussain and the Prophet Muhammad

The grandsons of the Prophet, Hasan and Hussain, held a beloved place in his heart. The Prophet called them the Masters of the Youths of Paradise and tasked them with a special future. Descendents of Prophet Abraham through Isma’il, the line of Muhammad represents the best hopes of humanity and the Muslim world and the promise of justice on earth. But Muhammad knew that they would face persecution and hardship just as he had faced during his own time. The full realization of the mission of Muhammad was far from complete in society -- it is up to his progeny to complete the promise of the message Muhammad brought to humanity.

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II. Imam Hussain and Imam Ali

Hussain and his brother, Hasan, witness the burial of their grandfather, Muhammad, and mother, Fatima, within a matter of weeks. They are now raised in the household of Ali, along with their sister, Zaynab, and stand shoulder to shoulder with their father as he defends the legacy of the Prophet. When Ali becomes Caliph, they are the first to defend him, and when war is imposed on Ali, they are the first on the frontlines of the battles of Jamal and Siffin. They experienced the governance and strategic patience of Ali from up close; it will prove useful in their future challenges.

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III. Imam Hussain and Imam Hasan

After the assassination of Imam Ali by a group of his former soldiers, Ali’s son and successor, Imam Hasan, has mobilized an army from southern Iraq to march on the rebel Mu’awiya in Syria. But Hasan’s position is greatly weakened; the Arabs do not respect him as a leader in his early 30s to the same extent as they did his father as a senior companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Many of Hasan’s commanders have been bought off by Mu’awiya, and he is facing a mutiny within his own army by extremist members. Faced with an impossible task, Hasan is offered a poisoned chalice of “peace” negotiations...

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IV. Imam Hussain's Imamate

Mua’wiya has assassinated Hussain’s brother, Hasan, through poisoning. For now, the Umayyads are in complete political control of the empire. Hussain faces a difficult situation: does he continue to honor the treaty signed between Hasan and Mu’awiya, or does he mobilize political opposition against the injustices unfolding in Muslim lands? This period of ten years represents a tense standoff between Hussain and Mu’awiya, and the nuanced political exigencies that drove the decision-making of the Imam during this time underscore the values for which he stood.

Coming Soon

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V. The Journey to Karbala

A new Umayyad tyrant, Yazid ibn Mu’awiya, has ascended the throne in Damascus, and he is forcing allegiance at the point of a sword. Yazid is calling himself the successor to the Prophet Muhammad and the Commander of the Faithful. Hussain knows that assenting to Umayyad rule would allow a new interpretation of Islam far from the revelation of Muhammad to dominate the Muslim world. Hussain gathers his family and companions around him and heads towards Kufa, Iraq -- the capital of his father Imam Ali’s government -- whose people have written to him inviting him to establish a new government and Islamic political system. Soon, his caravan will be surrounded and cut off from water in the scorching desert sun, and Hussain will have to make a choice: to bow down to tyranny or sacrifice his life for the message of Islam...

Coming Soon

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