Is the story of the lion that protected the body of Imam al-Husayn (a) reported from an Imam? And does it conflict with the crushing of the pure body?
In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of creation and the master of the Messengers, our master Muhammad, and his good and pure Household,
The story of the lion which Fiddah informed of the enemies' intention to have the enemies' horses trample the back of Imam al-Husayn (a) has been reported in a source that is among the most reliable of our Shiʿi sources in hadith, namely the book al-Kafi by al-Shaykh al-Kulayni (rh). The story conveys that the lion went toward the pure body, guarding it, so they turned away from it.
ʿAllama al-Majlisi, in Mirʾat al-ʿUqul, took the position of denying the incident of the crushing of the pure body by the horses, considering it part of the enemies' propaganda, saying:
(What is to be relied upon is what al-Kulayni (rh) narrated; and it is possible that what the Sayed (i.e., Ibn Tawus) narrated was a claim by the accursed ones, [made] in order to conceal this miracle; and it is as though it was for this reason that the son of fornication reduced their reward, because he knew). Vol. 5, p. 371
What al-Kulayni narrated is as follows:
Al-Kafi: Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad said: Abu Kurayb and Abu Saʿid al-Ashajj narrated to me; he said: ʿAbd Allah ibn Idris narrated to us, from his father Idris ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Awdi (al-Azdi), who said: When al-Husayn (a) was killed, the people wanted to have the horses trample him. Fiddah said to Zaynab: “O my lady, Safina was shipwrecked at sea and came out onto an island, and there he was before a lion. He said: ‘O Abu al-Harith, I am the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (s).’ So it growled softly before him until it set him on the road. And the lion is lying crouched to one side; so let me go to it and inform it of what they are going to do tomorrow.” He said: So she went to it and said: “O Abu al-Harith,” and it raised its head. Then she said: “Do you know what they want to do tomorrow to Abu ʿAbd Allah (a)? They want to have the horses trample his back.” He said: So it walked until it placed its forepaws on the body of al-Husayn (a). The horses advanced, and when they looked at it, ʿUmar ibn Saʿd, may Allah curse him, said to them: “A tribulation — do not stir it up. Turn away.” So they turned away. Vol. 1, p. 465
Some have taken the position of rejecting the story of Fiddah and the lion in Karbala on the basis of the established occurrence of the crushing in the reliable martyrdom chronicles. However, rejecting it on the grounds that it did not issue from an Infallible is indeed incorrect, because most of the martyrdom chronicles and the events of history were not narrated from Infallibles. There is no doubt that what is narrated from the Infallible takes precedence — indeed, it is the arbiter in cases of disagreement — but it is not justifiable for a researcher to reject a historical narration because it was not narrated from an Infallible.
We should not fail to mention that attention to the incident of Fiddah and the lion must be greater than to other reports, because it is reported in the book al-Kafi, the book to which its author, the eminent Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yaʿqub al-Kulayni, devoted great care, and in which he undertook to narrate the authentic traditions that benefit the one seeking benefit — even if on the consideration of their authenticity according to the principles of al-Shaykh al-Kulayni. So al-Kulayni's great care leads us to raise the degree of reliability to its highest levels. Likewise, the early martyrdom chronicles have importance in terms of their proximity to the date of the event, and al-Kulayni's book precedes most of the chronicles, because it was composed in the era of the Four Deputies.
On the other side, the incident of the crushing of the noble body by the hooves of the horses is among the well-known reports in most of the relied-upon sources: Ibn Tawus cited it in al-Luhuf, al-Khwarizmi cited it in his Maqtal, al-Tabari cited it in his Tarikh, and al-Mufid in his Irshad, and others. Indeed, mention of this painful crime has come in the text of Ziyarat al-Nahiya, as narrated by al-Mashhadi in his al-Mazar al-Kabir, in its wording:
“Until they toppled you from your steed, and you fell to the ground wounded, the horses trampling you with their hooves and the tyrants rising over you with their sharp swords. Your brow sweated for death, and your left and your right alternated between contracting and stretching; you were turning a faint glance toward your encampment and your house, while you were preoccupied with yourself, away from your children and your family. And your horse sped off, running loose, making for your tents, neighing and weeping.” P. 504
So are we in fact faced with a choice between adopting the story of Fiddah and the lion, and thus denying the incident of the crushing, and adopting what the martyrdom chronicles and the text of the ziyarah narrate regarding the incident of the crushing, and thus rejecting the story of the lion?
Some eminent scholars have understood it that way, and perhaps most of those who discussed this matter gave themselves a choice between one of the two views.
But we say that the narration reported in al-Kafi about the story of the lion does not contradict the narrations of the crushing of the noble chest; the narrations of the crushing of the chest can be accepted together with accepting al-Kulayni's narration, since there is no contradiction between the two matters. For the narrations have stated explicitly that the enemies trod upon the pure body with the hooves of the horses immediately upon the killing of Imam al-Husayn (a), and al-Kulayni's narration did not deny that; rather, it denied the crushing of the pure back on the day following the killing.
Let us observe the narration carefully. It says: (When al-Husayn (a) was killed, the people wanted to have the horses trample him, so Fiddah said to Zaynab..). Then she went to the lion, whose kunya is Abu al-Harith, and said: (Do you know what they want to do tomorrow to Abu ʿAbd Allah (a)? They want to have the horses trample his back). That is, Fiddah informed the lion that the enemies' intention on the following day was to have the horses trample the noble back; she did not speak of trampling him on the day of ʿAshura, the day of the killing. The lion walked to protect the pure body; therefore the incident of protection can be understood as being on the following day, since they wanted to go further in the crime than what they had done at the time of the killing, but the lion came between them and what they were aiming at, so they turned away.
Yes, the narration did not mention the time of what came after; it mentioned only the event, namely the lion's walking and guarding, then the coming of the enemies and their turning away. This does not indicate that these events occurred on the same day; it indicates only the event and its sequence. We have inferred that the incident occurred on the day after the killing, from the explicit statement of Fiddah that their intention was for the next day; she informed it some time after the killing, and that is why Fiddah knew of the people's intention.
As for the well-known incident of the crushing, it occurred — as in the text of Ziyarat al-Nahiya — after the Imam fell from the horse; indeed, it states explicitly that the Imam, may my soul be his ransom, still had a last breath of life in him and was turning his eye toward the camp. It appears that this was the incident of the crushing of the chest. As for the incident of the crushing of the back and of the body as a whole, it occurred after his martyrdom (a) at the hands of the enemies, because the narrations state explicitly that ʿUmar ibn Saʿd delegated ten of the soldiers to trample the body of the Imam (a) [with their horses] immediately after the killing, so the horses trod upon it with their hooves on every side. May Allah pour His curses upon them and upon whoever is pleased with their deed until the Day of Judgment.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
Muharram al-Haram 1444 AH