Muslim ibn Aqil (AS): The Envoy Who Died Before Karbala

Quick Answer

• Who: Muslim ibn Aqil (AS), son of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, nephew of Ali (AS) and cousin of Imam Hussain (AS)
• Mission: sent to Kufa in 60 AH to test whether the city's invitations were real
• What he found: between twelve and thirty thousand pledges, and a city that would not stand by them
• Died: 9 Dhu al-Hijja 60 AH, executed in Kufa, about forty days before Karbala
• Known as: the first martyr of Kufa, and the ambassador of Hussain (AS)
• Shrine: inside the Great Mosque of Kufa, next to Hani ibn Urwa

Karbala is usually told as one story. It is really two, and the first one finishes before the second begins.

Muslim ibn Aqil (AS) was sent ahead to answer a simple question: are the letters from Kufa real? He found out that they were real in the way that handwriting is real, and worthless in the way that promises are worthless. He was killed for it, and the man who trusted his report was killed about forty days later.

Who Was Muslim ibn Aqil (AS)?

Muslim (AS) was the son of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, a brother of Ali (AS), which made him a nephew of Ali (AS) and a cousin of Hasan (AS) and Hussain (AS). The biographical entries differ about his date of birth, from the early 640s to the late 650s, so his age in 60 AH cannot be pinned down.

What the entries agree on is his reputation. He is described as a warrior before anything else, and one account places him at Siffin in 657 fighting for his uncle Ali (AS). Another has him governing a district in Egypt before returning to Medina. The stories do not all fit together, and the honest reading is that we know his reputation and his last year, not his life before it.

He was married to Ruqayya, a daughter of Ali (AS), which made the relationship to Hussain (AS) doubly close: cousin on one side, brother-in-law on the other.

Why Was He Sent to Kufa?

Because Hussain (AS) had received sacks of letters and no proof.

In 60 AH, after Muawiya's death, the people of Kufa wrote to Hussain (AS) inviting him to come and lead them, calling Yazid's rule illegitimate. Hussain (AS) needed one thing before he moved his family across a desert: evidence that the invitation would survive the first month. Muslim (AS) was the man he trusted with that question.

He left Mecca on 15 Ramadan 60 AH and hired two guides in Medina. Both guides lost the way and died of thirst. Muslim (AS) wrote to Hussain (AS) asking to be released from the mission, and Hussain (AS) told him to continue. That exchange is in the early accounts, and it sets the tone: this was not a man looking for a fight, it was a man doing an errand that had already gone wrong once.

The wider sequence, from the letters to the march to Karbala, is laid out in the story of Karbala and its message.

What Did He Find in Kufa?

A city that signed, and a city that did not mean it.

He entered Kufa on 5 Shawwal 60 AH and stayed first at the house of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, then with Hani ibn Urwa, a tribal elder of the Murad. The pledges came in fast. The early sources give numbers between twelve thousand and thirty thousand men. The historian Mahmoud Ayoub's reading of that figure is the one that explains Kufa: the pledges were made less to Hussain (AS) than to the tribal leaders backing him at the time.

That detail is the key to everything that follows. A pledge given to a chief is not a pledge given to a cause. When the chief was bought off or frightened off, the pledge left with him, and the man who collected it was left alone.

The governor at that point was Numan ibn Bashir, a companion of the Prophet (PBUH) who took no action. He was replaced. The new governor, Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, arrived by the shortest road, and some Kufans mistook him for Hussain (AS) and welcomed him at the gate.

Date, 60 AH	What happened
15 Ramadan	Muslim (AS) leaves Mecca for Kufa with two guides, both of whom die on the way
5 Shawwal	He enters Kufa and stays with Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, then Hani ibn Urwa
Shawwal to Dhu al-Hijja	Pledges from twelve thousand to thirty thousand men are recorded; he writes to Hussain (AS) to come
Early Dhu al-Hijja	Ibn Ziyad arrives, threatens the city, and has Hani ibn Urwa arrested
8 or 9 Dhu al-Hijja	Muslim (AS) revolts with about four thousand men; the tribes withdraw, and he is left alone
9 Dhu al-Hijja	He is captured and executed on the roof of the citadel; his head and body are thrown down

Why Did the Revolt Fail?

Because four thousand men can surround a palace, and four thousand men in one city can also be sent home.

When Ibn Ziyad had Hani arrested, Muslim (AS) came out openly and the number who followed him is given as about four thousand. They surrounded the governor's palace. Ibn Ziyad did not fight them in the street. He worked on the men who owned them: threats to some chiefs, promises to others, and by nightfall the crowd had gone.

Muslim (AS) spent that night looking for shelter, and the detail is preserved without decoration. He knocked at doors. A woman of the Kinda tribe, Taw'a, took him in. Her son Bilal gave the address to a tribal leader the next morning, and that leader passed it to the governor. Arab tradition remembered him for it as the most treacherous of Arabs, a reputation he carried for generations.

Sixty or seventy men surrounded the house. He fought them in the doorway and wounded one of them, Bakr ibn Humran, who would later be named as his executioner. Then he was overpowered, promised safety in some accounts, and delivered to Ibn Ziyad.

The sharp exchange with the governor is the last thing he does in the record. Before the execution he gave his will to Umar ibn Sa'd, the man who would later command the army at Karbala, and asked him for three things: carry word to Hussain (AS) that the people of Kufa had betrayed him, settle his debts, and bury his body.

He was killed on the roof of the citadel, in public. Hani was killed with him. Their bodies were dragged through the streets, and their heads were sent to Yazid in Damascus.

What Did His Death Do?

Two things, and both are measurable.

First, it broke the Kufan question. Nobody could now claim that the invitations had been serious. The city had shown, in about two months, exactly what its promises were worth, and Muslim (AS) made sure the warning was sent before he died.

Second, it did not stop him. Hussain (AS) received the news on the road, at a stopping place called al-Tha'labiyya, and kept going. Some reports say he thought of turning back and was argued out of it by Muslim's (AS) sons. Wilferd Madelung, whose biography of the period is the standard one, treats that report as unlikely: the sequence of his own statements makes it clear he had already decided.

His sons are in the story too. Muhammad ibn Muslim and Ibrahim ibn Muslim went to Karbala and were killed there, which means the family lost the father in Kufa and the sons at Karbala in the same season. The man who received the report is described in the life of Imam Hussain (AS), and the day his caravan finally reached is set out in what Ashura means.

The Quran's command to return what is entrusted to you is the verse usually attached to his mission, because he was sent as the keeper of a trust and delivered the answer with his life: Allah commands you to return your trusts to their owners, and when you judge between people, judge fairly (4:59). The other verse the tradition leans on here is the one about what has been written: nothing happens to us except what Allah has decreed; He is our protector (9:51).

How Is He Remembered Today?

As the ambassador who died before the battle, and as the proof that the blame for Karbala does not sit only with one dynasty.

His shrine stands inside the Great Mosque of Kufa, and Hani ibn Urwa's is beside it; both are visited by pilgrims who stop in Kufa on the way to Karbala. In South Asia his story is told in the majlis on 9 Dhu al-Hijja, and in the nauha he is the one who wrote the letter that brought the caravan. The phrase most used for him is the simple one: the first martyr of Kufa. What that day means in the yearly calendar is set out in what Muharram means.

There is also a harder way of remembering him, and the article would be false without it. He is the man whose success turned out to be the trap. He did his job exactly, reported honestly, and the report he sent was the reason Hussain (AS) came.

What Does a Failed Mission Teach?

Four things, and they are uncomfortable.

• Popular support is not a structure. Twelve thousand pledges evaporated in an afternoon, because each pledge belonged to a chief rather than to a cause.
• Report honestly, even when the report is bad news. Muslim (AS) could have written what Hussain (AS) wanted to read. His last will is a warning against the city, which means he told the truth to the end.
• A promise of safety is only as good as the man giving it. He was offered protection and killed anyway. The same governor broke the guarantee he had given to a tribal elder, and the city watched him do it.
• Doing your job well does not guarantee the outcome. He did the assignment correctly, and the correct answer was the one that led the family into Karbala.

That last point is why his story is told before the battle every year, and not after it.

Key Takeaways

• Muslim ibn Aqil (AS) was a nephew of Ali (AS) and a cousin of Imam Hussain (AS), sent to Kufa in 60 AH to test the city's invitations.
• He collected pledges given as between twelve thousand and thirty thousand men, but the pledges belonged to tribal chiefs rather than to the cause.
• When Hani ibn Urwa was arrested, he revolted with about four thousand men, who were dispersed within a day by threats and payments.
• He was captured in a stranger's house, gave his last will to Umar ibn Sa'd, and was executed on the roof of the citadel on 9 Dhu al-Hijja 60 AH.
• His shrine is inside the Great Mosque of Kufa, beside Hani ibn Urwa's.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Muslim ibn Aqil (AS)?

The son of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, nephew of Ali (AS) and cousin of Imam Hussain (AS). Husayn sent him to Kufa in 60 AH to find out whether the invitations from the city were genuine.

Why was he sent to Kufa?

The Kufans had written inviting Hussain (AS) to lead them against Yazid. Before moving his family, Hussain (AS) needed to know whether that invitation would hold, and Muslim was the man he sent to test it.

When was he killed?

On 9 Dhu al-Hijja 60 AH, about two months after he arrived in Kufa and roughly six weeks before Karbala. He was executed on the roof of the citadel on the governor's order.

Did he become the ruler of Kufa?

No. The pledges he collected were enough to bring him out into the open, but when the governor applied pressure the tribal leaders withdrew their men and he was left with no force. He never took the city.

Why is he called the first martyr of Kufa?

Because he was the first of the Karbala family to be killed in that campaign, in Kufa, months before the battle. His cousin Hani ibn Urwa was killed alongside him.

Where is his shrine?

Inside the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, with Hani ibn Urwa's shrine beside it. Both are visited by pilgrims travelling to Karbala.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Muslim ibn Aqil", for his parentage and marriage, the journey and the two guides, the pledges of twelve to thirty thousand, the failed revolt, his capture and execution, his last will, and the shrine in Kufa, at Wikipedia.org.
• Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Hosayn b. Ali" by Wilferd Madelung, for the sequence of the campaign, Hussain's (AS) decision to continue after learning of the execution, and the battle of Karbala, at IranicaOnline.org.
• Encyclopaedia Iranica, entry on Ali b. Hosayn b. Ali, for the treatment of the family after the events of 60 to 61 AH, at IranicaOnline.org.
• The Quran, Surah An-Nisa, verse 59, commanding that trusts be returned to their owners and that judgement be fair, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah At-Tawbah, verse 51, on nothing befalling us except what Allah has decreed, at Quran.com.

Disclaimer: This article follows the sequence given in the early historical accounts and in the standard modern biographical literature, and it says where the numbers of pledges and troops differ between sources. It does not present disputed figures as settled. If you find an error, write to us through the contact page and we will correct it.