When the incident of Kerbala occurred, there were no means of
communication like we have today. The news of Syria used to reach Kufa
and Medina after a long time. At times, people would not even get the
news of an incident. The best proof of this fact is this incident of Kerbala.
Imam Husain (a.s.) denied paying allegiance to Yazid and went to Mecca
from Medina. After that, a number of incidents occurred and the Imam
gets martyred. When the people of Medina got this news, they woke up
from a deep slumber, rubbed their eyes and asked, “Is the Imam really
martyred? Why was he martyred?” They decided to go to Syria to know
the exact cause. Seven or eight people went to Syria for this purpose. After
making enquiries for some time, they met the caliph and returned after
seeing all the conditions.
When the people of Medina asked about the real
matter, they said, “Please don’t ask that. As long as we remained in Syria,
we feared that stones will rain from the sky and we would be destroyed.”
(People are denying the truthfulness of this statement of Imam Husain
(a.s.): “I say farewell to this Islam from a distance, in which an impure
ruler. Yazid is inflicting severe atrocities on the people”) When asked
further, they said, ‘‘We are coming back after meeting a man who openly
drinks wine, plays with dogs, keeps monkeys as pets and commits all
sins.” (Abdullah, son of Hanzala Ghasilul Malaika, used to say that Yazid
did not even leave his mother). He fornicated even with his Mahram
women. That is those people became certain that the prediction of Imam
Husain (a.s.) was absolutely right because Imam Husain (a.s.) was aware
of these things since before.
Biharul Anwar, Vol. 44, Pg. 326; Mausuat-e-Kalimat al-Imam al-Husain, Pg. 285.
Tarikh Khulafa, Suyuti, Pg. 205.