How did Ashura day go?

On the night of Ashura, the Imam gave a speech to his companions and said: The target of Yazid and his army is me, and they want me to pledge allegiance to Yazid, while the humiliation of pledging allegiance is far from me. I prefer to die with dignity than to live with the shame of allegiance to this corrupt person. The Imam said: As you know, Ibn Ziyad sent a large army to fight with us (it is mentioned in history that there were thirty thousand people in Ibn Ziyad’s army). And with these few people that we have, surely none of us will be alive tomorrow. Therefore, I take my allegiance from you and turn off the lights so that you can use the darkness of the night without shame and return to your city with your family. (This was one of the fountains of Imam’s chivalry, although he was a little strong, but he was not ready for anyone to lose his life for him and his family.). With this suggestion of the imam, some people took advantage of the darkness of the night and left. But every one of them was upset when they heard these words and said that it is not a pity that you die and we live after you. And some of them said that if we become martyrs 70 times on this road and come back to life, we will still sacrifice ourselves to you and your way.

The day before Ashura, Shammar was one of the commanders of Ibn Ziyad’s army. Because the brothers of Imam Hussain (A.S.) (Abbas (Abul-Fazl) Aoun, Jafar and Abdullah) their mother was from his tribe, he had obtained a letter of protection for them from Ibn Ziyad. He asked them to leave the Imam’s tents and get a letter of protection in front of the Imam’s tents. He faced the harsh and humiliating treatment of Hazrat Abbas and his brothers and returned embarrassed.

When the day of Ashura came, it had been three days that Ibn Ziyad’s army had closed the Euphrates water route to the Imam and his companions.
This was while the Imam had pitched a tent on the edge of the Euphrates a few days before, when Ibn Ziyad’s army was still small. He left the way for drinking water and even ordered the horses to water themselves and take whatever water they wanted.

This dam caused thirst in the tents and companions of the Imam and was an important factor in weakening the forces of the companions of the Imam. As we have in the hadiths that Hazrat Ali Akbar (eldest son of Imam) after making several brave attacks on the enemy. He returned to his father and said, “Father, I am thirsty, I see the sky dark.” Imam Hussain started crying and said, “My son, put your tongue in my mouth, maybe it will quench my thirst a little.”
The Imam said: Be patient, my child, you will soon be fed by the hand of the grandmother of the Messenger of God. And Hazrat Ali Akbar returned to the field and killed a number of other enemies. He advanced to the heart of the enemy and fell down from his horse. Suddenly, his voice was raised to shout for me. Like an angry lion, the Imam tore through the enemy army and appeared on the bed of his son and placed his head on his chest until his soul was separated from his body. He said, O my son, I will leave this world after you.

The imam brought Ali Akbar’s body to the front of the tents and placed it next to the purified body of the other martyrs.

As Imam was a zealous person, he wanted no one to be exposed to the tent of his Ahl al-Bayt and his companions as long as he was alive. Therefore, they pitched the tents in such a way that the enemy could only attack them from one side, and that side was also limited by digging a ditch and filling it with firewood in order to set fire to them in times of danger. At this time, one of the enemy’s people came near the ditch and said, “O Hussein, you want to burn in the fire of hell in this world” and the Imam cursed him.
His horse ran from the side of the ditch and knocked him to the ground and went to hell.

During the 10 days they were stationed in the plain of Karbala, the Imam regularly advised the enemies. On the last day, before the war started again, the Imam preached a sermon to the enemy’s army and said: “Was it not you who sent me a letter to come to Kufa?” And he ordered one of his companions to take all the letters and even called the people of the enemy army by name saying that this is not your letter. In the end he said: Now that you don’t want me, I have nothing to say. Let me go back to my city and country. Or should I go to other provinces? Am I not the son of your Prophet? What will you gain by killing me?

Imam said: If you have no religion, at least be a free man. They said: You have only one way and that is to pledge allegiance to Yazid.

The Imam said: The humiliation of swearing allegiance to the corrupt Yazid is far from us. One of the enemies shouted, “Hossein, stop, you have made us tired, and only the sword will judge between us and you.”
After fulfilling the duty, the Imam gave the command to be ready to fight.

First, the companions of the Imam came one by one and asked permission from the Imam to go to the battlefield. With their brave attacks, which were caused by the spirit of martyrdom. Some of the enemies were sent to hell. And finally, they died due to exhaustion, thirst and injuries. From 80 years old to 13 years old, they were among the Imam’s companions.