Yazid's demand
Mu'awiya died in the middle of Rajab 60 AH, having already forced the notables of the empire to accept his son Yazid as heir. Yazid wrote at once to al-Walid b. Utba, governor of Madinah, ordering him to take the allegiance of Husayn b. Ali (a) and to accept no refusal. Summoned to the governor's house by night, the Imam refused: a man like himself, he said, could not pledge allegiance to a man like Yazid, and he would give his answer in public.
Leaving the Prophet's city
On 28 Rajab the Imam left Madinah with his family and most of Banu Hashim, taking the open road to Makkah rather than the by-ways, and citing the verse of Moses fleeing Egypt. He is reported to have written a will to his brother Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya explaining that he was not going out from ambition or to cause corruption but to seek reform in the community of his grandfather, to enjoin good and forbid wrong. He reached Makkah in early Sha'ban and remained in the sanctuary for four months.
Why the day is marked
This departure is counted as the beginning of the uprising that ended at Karbala. In many communities the day opens a season of remembrance that runs through the months to Muharram.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
