Qais ibne Musheer was a leading member of the Shiah community in Kufa. He had been sent by the people of Kufa to persuade Imaam Hussain to accept the invitation to go to Kufa as their Imaam.

It was upon his arrival in Mecca that Imaam began to seriously consider going to Kufa and sent Hazrat Muslim as his envoy to study the situation there and report to Imaam.He rode to Kufa with Hazrat Muslim and brought back to the Imaam Hazrat Muslim's message of the sincerety of the people of Kufa.

Qais ibne Musheer decided to stay on with Imaam so that he could proudly ride into Kufa with the grand son of the Holy Prophet.Imaam Hussain was, however, forced to leave Mecca before he could perform Hajj. The caravan left Mecca on the eighth Dhul Hajj. When they reached the fourth stop of the journey, a settlement called al-Haajir, Imaam Hussain decided to send a letter to the people of Kufa telling them of his departure from Mecca and that he would shortly arrive in Kufa. He gave this letter to Qais and asked him to take it to Kufa. This was before Imaam had heard of the death of Hazrat Muslim.

Qais was proud to be Imaam's messenger. Indeed he is known in history as SAFEERATUL HUSSAIN IBNE ALI, the ambassador of Imaam Hussain. He galloped towards Kufa. When he reached al-Qadassiya, on the outskirts of Kufa he was astonished to see a large garrison of soldiers guarding the borders of the city. He suspected some thing was wrong. He hid behind the bushes. At night he visited some bedouins who were camping around. From them he learnt of the arrival of Ubaydullah ibne Ziyad as the new Governor, and of the efforts being made by him to capture Hazrat Muslim.

Qais was in a dilemma. Should he rush back to Imaam Hussain to advise him of the danger or should he try to get into Kufa and help Hazrat Muslim? He spent the night trying to gather more information from the bedouins. Qais learnt of how ibne Ziyad had spread terror in the city and how he had isolated Hazrat Muslim. He also learnt that the blockade was being strictly enforced and it was virtually impossible to get into Kufa without being caught. Qais was anxious to learn of how Hazrat Muslim was but the bedouins did not know much about him. In fact it was on that very morning that Hazrat Muslim had been killed.

Thinking that he might be some help to Hazrat Muslim, Qais decided to get into Kufa. He waited until sunset. Carefully, hiding himself from the soldiers posted to guard the borders, Qais tried to make his way into Kufa. He was spotted by some soldiers. Qais fought them bravely. Soon, however, ibne al-Numayr, the commander of al-Qadassiya came to the scene with a large number of soldiers. Qais was captured and chained. In the morning he was taken before ibne Ziyad.

Ibne Ziyad promised Qais to spare his life if he would mount the minbar and curse Imaam Hussain. Qais mounted the minbar and in a loud voice said: "O people of Kufa I am the messenger of Imaam Hussain ibne Ali. I declare before you that Hussain, the grand-son of our Holy Prophet is the best man alive today."

Saying this Qais looked at ibne Ziyad defiantly. He then called for the curse of Allah upon ibne Ziyad and Yezid, and called for Allah's blessings upon Hazrat Ali and Imaam Hussain. Ibne Ziyad was beside himself with anger. He ordered Qais to be taken to the roof of the palace and thrown to the ground. As he mounted the steps, there was a smile on the lips of Qais. As he was being pushed off the roof Qais cried out: "MY salaams to you O my master Hussain ibne Ali!"