Shaffaf had published the Arabic version of this article, by Yemeni writer Hussein Al-Wadi‘i,
on November 22, 2025. Today, we had the nice surprise of receiving the following translation from a Muslim friend who requested not to diclose his name. May this encourage other readers to do the same!
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If we accept the common narratives about Ashura, Karbala, and Hussein!
If we accept these narratives, then by Islamic legal standards—Sunni and Shia—Hussein was a man who rebelled against the ruler.
In classical Islamic law, rebelling against a ruler, even an unjust one, is punishable by death. So he received what the law prescribed.
By political standards, he was an aging and naïve man.
He failed to read power realities.
He believed emotions and loyalty were enough to seize power from an empire whose forces stretched across three continents.
By human standards, he had a narrow outlook.
He believed power was a hereditary right of one family because of its kinship to the Prophet.
His view of authority was priestly and sanctified rulers.
From a religious perspective, he was not especially pious, ascetic, or devout.
Like his father, his brother, and many senior companions, he married often, loved wealth and status, lived comfortably from public funds, and treated Muslim blood lightly in pursuit of power.
If history is read objectively and rationally, there is no real difference between Hussein and Yazid.
Hussein was neither an angel nor a devil.
He was an ordinary man, shaped by his environment, its simplicity, and its ambitions.
Even the idealized image—if we accept it—does not meet today’s standards of virtue.
Any primary-school child today has more knowledge and moral awareness than Hussein’s basic, narcissistic belief in inherited rule.
The romantic image was created by literature, even by prominent Arab leftists and Marxists.
Ashura and Karbala were no more than a minor incident.
Ideological and political propaganda turned it into a river of blood and chaos.
Arabic Source:
حسين الوادعي: لو صدّقنا المَرويات حول عاشوراء وكربلاء والحسين
It’s a great piece. The author made a complex topic easy to understand.