---
title: "The Head of the Body"
event: "Patience"
session_number: 3
published_at: "2024-10-16"
canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-head-of-the-body"
event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/patience"
type: "event-session"
---

# The Head of the Body

*Session 3 of [Patience](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/patience) — 16 October 2024*

A person can survive without hands, without eyes, without legs — but never without a head, and that is exactly why patience holds the position it does in faith.

This session works through one image from the traditions: patience is to religion what the head is to the body. Every limb can perform brilliantly, but only because a head directs it; remove it and the strongest body is a corpse. That, the session argues, is why an attack on a revolution so often targets the person at its centre, a pattern traced to the aftermath of Karbala.

From here it turns to Imam Ali's sermon on the deprived of history overturning their oppressors once God recognises their patience, and to Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, telling his enemies that the choice offered him was really between salvation and humiliation — and humiliation would never be accepted.

Its most striking case study is a senior commander sent against Imam Husayn, who had already blocked the Imam's caravan from water, but who, watching from the enemy camp, recognised he stood on the wrong side of Truth. He crossed the field alone, begged forgiveness, and was martyred fighting the man he had been sent to stop. Fourteen hundred years on, his name, Hurr ibn Yazid al-Riyahi, is remembered as one of Karbala's lights.

What actually breaks first when a person or a cause is destroyed — the body, or the will behind it?

What the evening covers

The image of the head. Why the traditions call patience "the head of the body" for religion.
Imam Ali's sermon. The deprived of history overturning their oppressors once God recognises their patience.
The commander who crossed the field. Hurr ibn Yazid al-Riyahi's decision to change sides at Karbala.
"Between salvation and humiliation." Imam Husayn's answer when given an ultimatum.

## Programme

- [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/8pnt_9TpL3U)
- [Sermon: The Head of the Body](https://youtu.be/8pnt_9TpL3U)

## Other sessions in this event

- [Session 8 — Burn the Ships](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/burn-the-ships) — 20 November 2024
- [Session 7 — The Gardener Who Never Saw the Fruit](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-gardener-who-never-saw-the-fruit) — 13 November 2024
- [Session 6 — The Man Who Shut His Door](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-man-who-shut-his-door) — 6 November 2024
- [Session 5 — The Rope Around His Neck](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-rope-around-his-neck) — 30 October 2024
- [Session 4 — Oh Bilal, Make My Heart and Soul Peaceful](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/oh-bilal-make-my-heart-and-soul-peaceful) — 23 October 2024
- [Session 2 — Stand for the Truth, Even If It Is Bitter](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/stand-for-the-truth-even-if-it-is-bitter) — 9 October 2024
- [Session 1 — Nothing But Beauty](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/nothing-but-beauty) — 1 October 2024

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_Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-head-of-the-body_