He saw the strong resistance to the message Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had brought from Allah that He is the God who should be worshipped and He is the source of all wisdom, benevolence and instructions to guide the lives of His subjects. He is the God to whom people will revert on the Day of Judgement and be held accounted for their deeds. And that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is the last messenger of God and his progeny is the ultimate protector of his commandments - divine prescriptions.
There was piecemeal acceptance of the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Makkah owing to growing opposition from his own relations and tribesmen who were yet to be converted to Islam. For them the concept of one God and negation of deities, identified with their tribes and clans, was an alien abstraction that the Prophet (SAW) was trying to indoctrinate in them. They took it as gross violations of the faith they had inherited from their forefathers and had believed in its truthfulness. There were people who resisted out-and-out and confronted the Prophet (SAW) openly. But there were many who chose to indulge into the 'wait-and-see game' before striking at Islam at an appropriate time.
However, a sudden surge in the Holy Prophet's following came when he migrated to Madina. This was also not without resistance to the teachings of Islam. At times there were violent resistance and confrontation between the followers of the Holy Prophet and his adversaries. But by this time the Prophet had gathered around him his followers who were brave, committed to the cause of Islam and had taken upon themselves the responsibility of defending the Holy Prophet and his mission.
The Imam could see through the crowd that many of the opponents were those who were later bracketed as a bunch of dissimulators. The unveiling of their faces began soon after the departure of the Holy Prophet from this world. There were groups that followed the successive caliphs and revered them as the successor of Holy Prophet Muhammad and there were those who discarded all that was left behind as legacy of the Holy Prophet to serve as guiding principles for the believers.
It was after about fifty years' teaching of the Holy Prophet that differences within and outside the Islamic community had begun to crop up with clear messages to their respective followers. The analysis and interpretation of the sayings of the Holy Prophet had begun to tilt in favour of its explicator.
There were people who were Muslims but had begun to question the Holy Quran whether it was a divine revelation? There had begun a well-planned campaign against the Holy Prophet. His adversaries had begun to pollute the teachings of the Holy Quran. It appeared as if whatever the Holy Prophet had done to strengthen Islam, would be discarded and replaced with the old traditions of barbarism where unjust would rule and subject the humanity to ruthlessness of sinning human beings. Had there been no one to take care of this situation there would have been a setback to Islam.
Hazrat Imam Hussein continued to watch the deviations that were defacing and mutilating the Islam that the Holy Prophet had introduced with great care and caution. He resisted deviations and protested against it. He encountered Yazid who wanted Imam's allegiance to his accession to the thrown after the death of his father to which the Imam refused.
The Imam asserted that Yazid was not the true representative of the people and that he was indulging in acts forbidden in Islam. The Imam saw Yazid refusing the legitimacy of Quran as a revealed book. He (Yazid) called Quran as figment of ideas of Prophet's imagination who had compiled it to perpetuate his philosophy of religion and concept of God. Yazid had persistently said that Muhammad wanted to ensure continuation of the superiority of his tribe and followers and to achieve that objective he had created, a Book and a bunch of blind followers.
The flagrant violation of the teachings of Islam, rejection of the authority that Islam wielded and disgrace to the system of governance the Holy Prophet had introduced forced Hazrat Imam Hussein to oppose Yazid. He challenged his authority to change the Sharriah and asked him to limit his temptations to misguide the true followers of Islam and believers in the teachings of the Holy Prophet and the oneness of God. Imam Hussein castigated Yazid and asked him to refrain from using force and threat to subjugate people who defy his sinful claims to authority in Islamic Sharriah. The Imam knew that Yazid wanted only two things to happen; either the Imam should except and bow to his authority as caliph and true leader of the Muslim Ummah or prepare for war.
Agreeing to any one of the two conditions would not bring peace but on the contrary would give Yazid a licence to completely mutilate the face of Islam which teaches tolerance, maintenance of human dignity, scholarship and peaceful coexistence with all religions and races of people. These four basic principles of Islam are enshrined in sermons (Khubaat-e-Imam Hussein) that the Imam had given on several occasions to tell people what Yazid was up to. The Imam could see that his allegiance to the caliphate of Yazid would send a distorted version of Islam to those who were yet to embrace Islam and strengthen their belief in the oneness of God and teachings of Hazrat Muhammad. The Imam was firm. He rejected Yazid as the mutilator of Islam and corrupter of the society.
The Imam knew that Yazid would not agree to any proposal except war to eliminate the entire following of the Holy Prophet. He knew that the bunch of dissimulators and those who were in the state of 'wait-and-see game' had now joined hands to hit hard at Islam and its protectors - Ah-lul-Bait and a few committed companions of Imam Hussein. There had come an opportunity for which many people had waited for years. They were in the disguise of Muslims still believing in the commitment they had made with their elders to avenge the killing of their forefathers.
The Imam chose to leave Madina. He travelled to Karbala where he met the army of Yazid. The entourage of Imam comprised 72 men, women and children who knew their fate. They were committed to embrace martyrdom than to accepting Yazid's offer for reconciliation in lieu of endorsement of haram as halal and halal as haram. Imam Hussein and his companions had made it clear to Yazid that they would prefer to die than to ratifying his desire, which was detrimental to the cause of Islam.
On the tenth of Muharram Yazid's forces surrounded Imam Hussein and his companions' camps. The companions of Hazrat Imam Hussein continued to preach non-violence, non-aggression and non-acceptance of evil to the members of the Yazid's army in the hope that prudence would prevail. The effort bore fruit as Hazrat Hur Commander of the Yazidi forces left the Yazidi camp and joined Hazrat Imam Hussein. Though this is a solitary example that is frequently referred to for the sake of argument in support of Hazrat Imam Hussein convincing religious authority but there were many who defected Yazid and deserted his force and ran away to far off places.
Imam Hussein and his companions were thirsty for three days, as the Yazidi forces had taken control of Euphrates and cordoned off all routes to the banks of the river. In the process Imam Hussein, his companions and 45 children were slain, tents were burnt and women were arrested to be taken to the Court of Yazid. The Imam and his companions laid down their lives to defend Islam and teachings of Prophet Muhammad that were being mutilated at the hands of Yazid. Yazid had come up with two objectives; avenge the killings of his clansmen at Jang-e-Badr, Jang-e-Uhad, Jang-e-Khandak and many other ghazawat that were fought in defence of Islam and against the bunch of dissimulators and, secondly, to eliminate the entire progeny of Prophet Muhammad so that all fears of the take-over by the rightful defenders of the legacy of the Holy Prophet in the future were put to eternal rest.
The desire of Yazid did not bear fruit. Imam and his companions fought the battle, laid down their lives and embraced martyrdom. This was a unique confrontation where the slain emerged as victorious and the victorious as sinners. The conflict that took place at Karbala has, therefore, established the fact that one can win a war through brute force for short-term celebrations but cannot win a cause that lives long and changes the course of history.