Karbala

Al-Tabari reports, through Abu Mikhnaf, that on the night before the battle Zaynab heard al-Husayn reciting lines of poetry about the treachery of time, and understood that he expected to die. She was overcome with grief. He comforted her, telling her to fear Allah and take consolation from Him, for everyone on earth dies and only Allah remains, and he asked her not to tear her clothes or strike her face for him when he was gone.

On the tenth of Muharram, al-Husayn was killed with many of his family and companions. The women and children were spared, among them Zaynab and her nephew 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, who was too ill to fight. The historians describe Zaynab gathering and caring for the survivors in the hours that followed.

In one day she had lost her brother, nephews and, according to many historians, at least one of her own sons. Yet the reports present her not as broken, but as the one who held the survivors together.