Al-Thaʿlabiyya

Al-Thaʿlabiyya (Arabic:الثَعلَبیَّة) is a station on the way between Mecca and Kufa where Imam Hussain stayed for a rest before continuing his journey to Shuquq.

Location

Al-Tha’labiyya was named after a man from Banu Asad named Tha’labah who had been there and who was able to dig a well in it. It is one stage after al-Shuquq for one travelling from Kufa to Mecca as we are told by Mu’jam al-Buldan. In Wafa’ al-Wafa’ , it is an area located near a watering place called al-Tha’labiyya. In al-Ya’qubi's book Al-Buldan, and also according to the offset edition of Ibn Rastah's book Al-A’laq al-Nafisa, it is a city surrounded by a bulwark.

Events

At al-Tha’labiyya, a man came to Imam Al-Hussain and asked him about the meaning of the verse saying,

“(Remember) the Day when We will call every people by their Imam” (Qur’an, 17:71). Imam Hussain said to him,

“An Imam calls others for guidance and is answered positively, while another imam calls others to misguidance and is also answered positively: this group shall be in Paradise, and that shall be in hell, and it is the explanation of the verse saying,

"A party shall be in Paradise, and another shall be in the burning fire' (Qur’an, 42:7).”

At the same place, a man from Kufa met him. The Imam said to him, “By Allah! Had I met you in Medina, I would have showed you the marks Gabriel had left in our house and the place where he used to descend with revelation to my grandfather, O brother of Kufa! It is from us that knowledge initiates. Have they become learned while we became ignorant? This shall never be.”

Bajir, of al-Tha’labiyya, narrates saying, “Al-Hussain passed by us when I was a young lad. My brother said to him, ‘O son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah! I see your followers to be very small in number.' With his whip he pointed to a saddlebag a man was carrying [for him] and said, ‘This is full of letters.”

Source

• Abd al Razzaq al-Muqarram, Maqtal al-Hussain: Martyrdom Epic of Imam al-Hussain