The Blessed Birth of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him)

The Blessed Birth of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him)

This joyful news spread over the horizon of Medina. The Mothers of the Believers (wives of the Prophet) and other Muslim ladies hastened to the residence of the chief of the ladies and congratulated her about the newborn child and participated in her joy.

Grief and Weeping of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household)

When the news of his grandson’s birth was conveyed to him, [the Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household)] immediately hastened to his dearest Fatima (peace be upon her) in such a condition that his steps were heavy and grief and sorrow had enveloped him. Then in a choked voice he called out: “O Asma! Get me my child!”

Asma handed over the child to him. The Holy Prophet took him in his arms and kissed him again and again while all the time he was weeping. Asma became worried and asked: “May my parents be sacrificed on you, why are you lamenting?”

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) replied with his eyes filled with tears: “I am weeping for this son of mine.”

She was astonished to hear this and she could not understand the motive behind this. She asked: “He has just stepped into the world!”

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his Household) replied to her in an aggrieved tone: “An unjust group shall slay him after me, may the Almighty Allah deprive them of my intercession.”

After that he stood up in a sad mood and told Asma secretly: “Do not convey this to Fatima as she has just come out of labor…”

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) emerged from the house in a sorrowful mood because he had received the information from the unseen about the calamities that were to befall the child in the future; such calamities as could shake the complete life of every living person.

Year of Imam Hussein's Birth
The grandson of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) was born in the 4th year of the Hijri calendar and elsewhere the year is also mentioned to be the 3rd year of the Hijri calendar. Narrators also differ as to the month of his birth and most of them consider it to be the month of Shaban and on the 5th day of the month. Some of them have not specified the day of his birth and said he was born after a few nights of Shaban had passed. While some historians have ignored this and just state that he was born in Shaban and they are all unanimous in this.

Some elders also say that [he] was born at the end of the Rabi I, but this view is against the established one, so we must not pay any attention to it.
Birth Ceremonies of Imam Husain (peace be upon him)

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his Household) personally performed the religious ceremonies of the blessed newborn child and carried out the following rituals:

First: Azan and Iqamah
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his Household) took the blessed child in his arms and in his right ear recited the Azan and in his left ear recited the Iqamah.
And it is mentioned in narrations that: “This ritual protects the newborn child from the accursed Satan.”

The first voice to reach the ears of Husain (peace be upon him) was that of his grandfather, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) who was the first to have turned towards God and called the people towards Him…

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) inculcated these words into the soul of his grandson; words, which were the essence of faith and reality of Islam and he imbibed these things into the newborn child and taught him about them. They became a part of his elements and basics of his existence. He became absolutely devoted to these concepts in every aspect of his life. Thus he hastened towards the field of Jihad and sacrificed everything so that this formula of faith may be exalted on the earth and powers of righteousness and goodness may become dominant and signs of apostasy of ignorance that were trying to put out the divine light may be subjugated and destroyed.

Second: Naming
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) named the child ‘Husain’ just as he had named his brother, ‘Hasan’.
Historians state that Arabs were not aware of these names during the period of ignorance till the Prophet named his grandsons thus. Rather the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) gave them these names on the basis of divine revelation.

Third: Aqiqa Ceremony
Seven days, after the birth of the grandson of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household), [he] issued instructions that a sheep be sacrificed in Aqiqa for him and its meat be distributed to the poor people and also ordered that a leg of mutton be given to the midwife and this ritual became a recommended act of Islamic faith.

Fourth: Shaving of the Head of Imam Husain (peace be upon him)
In the same way, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) ordered to shave the head of his newborn grandson and in proportion of the hair shaved equivalent weight of silver be distributed among the poor. The weight of it came to be one and a half dirham, on the basis of what has come down in traditional reports. Then his head was anointed with perfume of saffron and other materials. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) prohibited the ritual of applying the blood of the slaughtered animal to the head of the newborn child.

Fifth: Circumcision
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) instructed his Ahl Bayt to have the newborn child circumcised on the seventh day of his birth. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) has recommended circumcision in this young age because it is purest and cleanest for [the newborn].

Attention of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) Towards Imam Husain (peace be upon him)
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his Household) personally took up the rearing of Imam Husain and gave him a lot of attention and mingled his feelings, emotions and aspirations with that of his own.

*Derived from the book "The Life of Imam Husain" by Baqir Sharif Al-Qarashi, published by Ansariyan Publications, Qom