المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

The Second Gathering, of the Third Day
The Prophet's care for Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) and his love for him
In the noble Ziyarat al-Nahiya it is stated: By killing you they have killed Islam, and abolished prayer and fasting, and broken the traditions and the rulings, and demolished the pillars of faith, and distorted the verses of the Quran, and rushed headlong into transgression and aggression. Truly the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) has been left wronged, and the Book of God, mighty and majestic, has been forsaken, and truth was abandoned when you were overcome, conquered. With your loss were lost the takbir and the tahlil, the forbidding and the permitting, the revelation and its interpretation; and after you appeared alteration and substitution, atheism and the suspension of God's laws, vain desires and misguidance, sedition and falsehoods.

So the one who mourned you rose at the grave of your grandfather the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), and announced your death to him with pouring tears, saying: O Messenger of God, your grandson and your young one have been killed, and your family and your sanctuary have been violated, and after you your descendants have been taken captive,

and the dreaded calamity has befallen your kin and your household. So the Messenger was distressed and his terrified heart wept, and the angels and the prophets consoled him over you, and your mother al-Zahra was stricken with grief for you, and the hosts of the nearest angels came in turn, consoling your father, the Commander of the Faithful, and mourning assemblies were held for you in the highest of the high heavens, and the wide-eyed houris struck their cheeks for you, and the heavens and their inhabitants wept, and the gardens and their keepers, and the hills and their regions, and the earth and its quarters, and the seas and their fish, and Mecca and its structures, and the gardens and their youths, and the House and the Station, and the Sacred Monument, and the profane and the consecrated state of pilgrimage(1).

It is narrated from the master of the worshippers, Ali ibn al-Hussein (peace be upon them), who said: There has been no day like the day of Hussein (peace be upon him). Thirty thousand men pressed toward him, claiming to be of this nation, each seeking nearness to God, mighty and majestic, through his blood, while he reminded them of God, yet they took no heed, until they killed him out of transgression, injustice, and aggression(2).

Some of the narrators said: Hussein (peace be upon him) would come to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) while he was prostrating, and he would step through the rows until he reached the Prophet and would climb upon his back. The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) would then rise, having placed one hand on Hussein's back and his other hand on his knee until he finished his prayer. And Hassan (peace be upon him) would come to him while he was on the pulpit giving a sermon, and would climb up to him and ride upon the Prophet's shoulder (peace be upon him and his family), dangling his legs over his chest until the gleam of his anklet could be seen, while the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) was delivering the sermon, and he would hold him thus until he finished his sermon(4).

It is narrated from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Hussein (peace be upon him) was not nursed by Fatima (peace be upon her), nor by any woman. He would be brought to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), who would place his thumb in his mouth, and Hussein would suck from it what sufficed him for two or three days. So Hussein's flesh grew from the flesh and blood of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). And none was born after six months except Jesus son of Mary, and Hussein son of Ali (peace be upon him)(1).

And it is narrated from Salman al-Farisi, who said: I came in to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), and with him were Hassan and Hussein, eating, and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was placing a morsel now in Hassan's mouth and now in Hussein's mouth (peace be upon them). When they had finished eating, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) took Hassan upon his shoulder and Hussein upon his thigh, then said to me: O Salman, do you love them? I said: O Messenger of God, how could I not love them, when their place with you is as it is? He said: O Salman, whoever loves them has loved me, and whoever loves me has loved God. Then he placed his hand on Hussein's shoulder and said: He is the Imam, son of the Imam; from his loins are nine Imams, righteous, trustworthy, infallible, and the ninth of them is their Qa'im(2).

And it is stated in some narrations that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) would come to him every day and place his tongue in Hussein's mouth, and he would suck it until he was satisfied. So God, mighty and majestic, caused his flesh to grow from the flesh of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family)(3).

So may the curse of God, the angels, and all people be upon whoever wronged the household of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) and afflicted him in his child and the delight of his eye. Sheikh Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi said: When al-Abbas was taken captive on the day of Badr, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) heard his groaning and did not sleep that night. So how would it be had he heard the groaning of Hussein (peace be upon him)?

And he said: When Wahshi, the killer of Hamza, embraced Islam, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said to him: Hide your face from me, for I do not love the one who killed the dear ones. He said: And this, while Islam wipes out what came before it—so how could

the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family) bear to see the one who slaughtered Hussein, or who ordered his killing and carried his family upon the bare backs of camels?(1)

So what will this nation say to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) on the Day of Resurrection, when it has shed the blood of his grandson Hussein and his kin? It is for this that even the Christians and the followers of other religions denounced them for the violation they committed against the sanctity of the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family).

It is narrated from Imam Zayn al-Abidin (peace be upon him) that he said: When the head of my father was brought to Yazid, he was holding wine in his gathering, with the head before him in a basin of gold covered by a silk handkerchief. While he was sitting one day, surrounded by the dignitaries of his realm, drinking wine with the head before them, there entered upon them the envoy of the king of the Romans, who was among the noblest and greatest of the Romans, and who used to bring Yazid letters from their king. He greeted Yazid and those around him and handed him a letter he had brought, then sat and conversed with them while they were in that state, the head of Hussein (peace be upon him) among them in the basin. He regarded this as monstrous and said to Yazid: Why do you drink wine while this head is among you? Whose is it? Yazid said: Do not ask about what does not concern you. He said: I wish to inform our king of what you are upon, for he questions me about everything I have seen, and so I wish you to tell me the matter of this head, that I may share with you in joy and gladness. Yazid said to him: This is the head of a rebel who rebelled against my governor in Basra and Iraq. He said to him: And who is this rebel? He said: Hussein son of Ali. He said: Who is his mother? He said: Fatima al-Zahra, daughter of Muhammad. He said: Shame upon you and upon your religion, O Yazid! Now my religion is better than yours. He said: Why so? He said to him: My father was among the disciples of the Prophet David, and between me and him are more than forty ancestors, yet on account of this the Christians honor me and take from

the dust of my feet seeking blessing through me; while you do this to the son of the daughter of your Prophet, between whom and him there is but one ancestor?! What sort of religion is your religion? Then he said: O Yazid, have you heard the tale of the Church of the Hoof? He said: No. He said: Know that between Kaman and China there is a sea a year's journey across, with no settlement in it except a single city in the midst of the water, eighty leagues by eighty—there is none larger upon the face of the earth—and from it are carried rubies and camphor, and its trees are aloeswood and ambergris, and it is in the hands of the Christians. In that city are many churches, the greatest of which is the Church of the Hoof, whose niche is a suspended ring of gold, and within it a hoof studded with pearls and rubies, surrounded by gold and silver, and not the slightest part of it is visible from the abundance of gold, silver, and ornaments down to its base. The veneration of this hoof is on account of their claim that it is the hoof of a donkey that Jesus (peace be upon him) used to ride, and many of them set out to visit it every year, circling around it, kissing it, and raising their needs to God beside it. Such is their manner and their custom with the hoof of a donkey they claim their prophet rode.

And this Prophet of yours is true beyond doubt; he guided you from misguidance to right guidance, and from the darkness of unbelief to the light of Islam, and the father of the slain one is the giver of drink at the Pool on the Day of Resurrection. So may God grant no blessing in you nor in your deed. Yazid grew exceedingly angry and said: Kill him, lest he disgrace us. When he heard that he said: Do you wish to kill me? He said: Yes. He said: Know that I have seen your Prophet in a dream, and he has guaranteed me Paradise. Yazid marveled at his words. Then he said: You kill the son of your Prophet and claim to be upon the religion of Islam—I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Then he approached the head, embraced it, kissed it, and wept; then he was killed, may God have mercy on him, while he was saying:

And may God have mercy on Sheikh Abd al-Husayn al-A'sam, as he says in weeping over Hussein (peace be upon him) and his calamity:

The Third Gathering, of the Third Day
The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) informing Fatima (peace be upon her) of the killing of Hussein (peace be upon him)
In one of the visitations of the Imams (peace be upon them) it is stated: O my masters, had the Chosen One beheld you, with the arrows of the nation embedded in your livers, and their spears leveled at your throats, and their swords plunged in your blood, the sons of harlots quenching the thirst of their iniquity from your piety, and the rage of unbelief from your faith—while you were between one slain in the prayer-niche whose head the sword had split, and a martyr atop the bier whose shroud had been pierced with arrows, and one slain in the open whose head was raised upon the spear-shaft, and one shackled in prison whose limbs were crushed with iron, and one poisoned whose entrails were torn apart by gulps of poison(1)—truly to God we belong and to Him we return, and there is no power nor strength save in God, the Most High, the Most Great. And how excellent are the words of Sheikh Abd al-Husayn al-Hayawi, may mercy be upon him, when he says, calling upon the Imam, the Awaited Proof, may God hasten his noble relief:

Ibn Qulawayh, may mercy be upon him, narrated from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) that Gabriel descended upon Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and said: O Muhammad, God conveys to you His peace and gives you glad tidings of a child to be born from Fatima (peace be upon her), whom your nation will kill after you. He said: O Gabriel, and upon my Lord be peace—I have no need of a child born from Fatima whom my nation will kill after me. So Gabriel ascended, then descended and said the like to him. He said: O Gabriel, and upon my Lord be peace—I have no need of a child whom my nation will kill after me. So Gabriel ascended to heaven, then descended and said to him: O Muhammad, your Lord conveys to you His peace and gives you glad tidings that He will place the Imamate, the guardianship, and the executorship in his progeny. He said: I am pleased. He sent word to Fatima: that God gives me glad tidings of a child to be born from you whom my nation will kill after me. She sent back to him: I have no need of a child born from me whom your nation will kill after you. So he sent to her: that God will place the Imamate, the guardianship, and the executorship in his progeny. She sent back to him: I am pleased. "His mother carried him in hardship and gave birth to him in hardship, and his bearing and weaning is thirty months, until, when he reaches his full strength and reaches forty years, he says: My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteous deeds that please You, and make righteous for me my offspring." Had he said "make my offspring righteous," his offspring would all have been Imams(2).

And it is narrated from Ibn Bukayr, from some of the companions, may God be pleased with them, from Abu

Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Fatima came in to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) while his eyes were shedding tears. She asked him: What ails you? He said: Gabriel has informed me that my nation will kill Hussein. She was distressed and it weighed heavily upon her. Then he told her of those of her offspring who would hold authority, so her soul was set at ease and she was calmed(1).

And from Furat al-Kufi, may mercy be upon him, in the commentary, he said: It is narrated from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Hussein was with his mother, who was carrying him, and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) took him and said: May God curse the one who kills you, and may God curse the one who strips you, and may God destroy those who band together against you, and may God judge between me and whoever aids in your killing. Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her) said: O father, what is this you say? He said: O my daughter, I recalled the harm, injustice, treachery, and transgression that will befall him after me and after you, when he will be in the midst of a band like the stars of heaven, and they will hasten toward death, and it is as though I behold their encampment, and the place of their resting and their burial-ground. She said: O father, and where is this place you describe? He said: A place called Karbala, and it is the abode of distress and affliction for us and for the nation. The worst of my nation will go forth against them, and were one of them to be interceded for by all who are in the heavens and the earths, their intercession would not be accepted for him, and they are the ones eternally in the Fire.

She said: O father, will he be killed? He said: Yes, O my daughter, and none before him was ever slain as he will be slain. The heavens and the earths will weep for him, and the angels, and the wild beasts, and the plants, and the seas, and the mountains, and were they permitted, not a breathing soul would remain upon the earth. And a people of those who love us will come to him; there is none upon the earth more knowing of God nor more upholding of our right than they, and there is no one upon the face of the earth who turns to him but them. They are lamps in the darknesses of oppression, and they are the intercessors, and they will come to my Pool tomorrow. I shall recognize them when they come to me by their marks. Every people of a religion seek their leaders, but these seek us and seek none but us. They are the sustainers of the earth, and through them the rain descends.

Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her) said: O father, truly to God we belong—and she wept. So he said to her: O my daughter! The most excellent of the people of Paradise are the martyrs of this world; they gave their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight

in the path of God, and so they kill and are killed—a promise upon Him, true. What is with God is better than the world and all that is in it. To be killed is easier than to die a natural death, and whoever is destined to be killed will go forth to his resting place, and whoever is not killed will yet die. O Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, would you not love that tomorrow you command a matter and be obeyed concerning this creation at the Reckoning?

Would you not be pleased that your son be among the bearers of the Throne? Would you not be pleased that your father be one to whom they come, seeking his intercession? Would you not be pleased that your husband be the one to drive the people away from the Pool on the day of thirst, giving drink from it to his friends and driving away from it his enemies? Would you not be pleased that your husband be the divider of the Fire: he commands the Fire and it obeys him, bringing forth from it whom he wills and leaving whom he wills?

Would you not be pleased to look upon the angels at the horizons of heaven gazing at you and at what you command, and gazing at your husband when the creatures are gathered and he disputes against them before God? What then do you think God will do with the killer of your son, your killers, and the killer of your husband, when his argument prevails over the creatures, and you command the Fire to obey him? Would you not be pleased that the angels weep for your son, and that every thing grieves for him? Would you not be pleased that whoever comes to him as a visitor be under God's guarantee, and that whoever comes to him be in the standing of one who performed the Hajj to the House of God and the Umrah, and never be deprived of mercy for the blink of an eye, and if he dies, dies a martyr, and if he lives, the guardian angels do not cease to pray for him so long as he lives, and he does not cease to be under God's protection and security until he departs the world? She said: O father, I have submitted and am pleased, and I rely upon God. So he wiped over her heart and wiped her eyes, and said: I, your husband, you, and your two sons will be in a place where your eye will be comforted and your heart will rejoice(1).

So it grieved Fatima al-Zahra, O believers, what befell the delight of her eye, Hussein, grandson of the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), who was slaughtered thirsting, and with him seventeen of his household who had no equal upon the face of the earth. And it also grieved Fatima (peace be upon her) what befell her Fatimid daughters after the killing of Hussein (peace be upon him), when the enemy stormed in upon them while they had no protector and no guardian,

and they came forth from the tents terrified, crying out, despoiled. And how excellent are the words of Sheikh Ja'far al-Khatti, may mercy be upon him, when he says:

The Fourth Gathering, of the Third Day
The lamentation of our mistress Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her)
over Imam Hussein (peace be upon him)
May God grant you a goodly consolation, O you who give allegiance to the pure progeny, may God's blessings be upon them all. For what calamity is greater than the calamity of the Master of Martyrs (peace be upon him), over which al-Zahra the Virgin (peace be upon her) wept and lamented—and it was fitting for her to weep night and day over the stranger, the thirsty one, and over those of his household who were slain (peace be upon them). What an event it was, in which the men were killed, and the children slaughtered, and the women violated, and the womenfolk of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) were carried upon the bare backs of camels, with neither covering nor

saddle-cloth, paraded through the lands. So what eye does not let its tears flow over them, and what heart is not rent by their calamity? Truly to God we belong and to Him we return. "And those who have wronged will come to know by what overturning they will be overturned."

Al-Qadi al-Tanukhi recounted, saying: My father told me, saying: Abu al-Hasan the scribe came out to us one day and said: Do you know in Baghdad a man called Ibn Asdaq? None in the gathering knew him but me, so I said: Yes—why do you ask about him? He said: What does he do? I said: He laments over Hussein (peace be upon him). At that, Abu al-Hasan wept and said: I have an old woman who raised me, from the people of Karkh Judan, of lisping tongue, with Nabataean predominating in her speech, unable to utter a single sound Arabic word, let alone recite poetry, yet she is among the righteous women of the Muslims, much given to fasting and night-vigil. She awoke last night in the dead of night—and her bed is near my place—and called out to me: O Abu al-Hasan! I said: What ails you? She said: Come to me. So I came to her and found her trembling. I said: What has befallen you?

She said: I had prayed my litany and then slept, and just now I saw in my dream as though I were in one of the lanes of Karkh, and there was a clean, white chamber, with fine teak, its door open, and women standing at it. I said to them: Who has died? What is the news? They gestured toward the interior of the house. So I entered, and there was a graceful chamber of the utmost beauty, and in its courtyard a young woman—I had never seen any more beautiful than her, nor more radiant, nor lovelier. She wore fine garments of soft white Marwi cloth, wrapped above them in an exceedingly white mantle, and in her lap was the head of a man gushing with blood. I said: Who are you? She said: Never mind that—I am Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), and this is the head of my son Hussein (peace be upon him). Tell Ibn Asdaq on my behalf to lament:

Then I awoke in terror. He said: And the old woman said "lam umarrit-hu" with a 't', for she was unable to

pronounce the 'd'. So I quieted her until she slept. Then he said to me: O Abu al-Qasim, since you know the man, I have entrusted you with this charge, and it is binding upon you, that you convey it to him. I said: To hear is to obey the command of the mistress of the women of the worlds (peace be upon her).

He said: This was in Sha'ban, and at that time people met with grievous hardship from the Hanbalites when they wished to go out to the Sanctuary [of Hussein]. So I kept maneuvering gently until I went out, and I was at the Sanctuary on the eve of the fifteenth of Sha'ban. I asked about Ibn Asdaq until I saw him, and I said to him: Fatima (peace be upon her) commands you to lament with the ode in which is the verse:

And I had not known the ode before that. He said: He was startled by this, so I recounted to him and to those present the account, and they burst into weeping, and that night he lamented with no ode but this one, whose beginning is:

It is by one of the Kufan poets. And I returned to Abu al-Hasan and told him what had happened.

My father and Ibn Ayyash said: There was in Baghdad an accomplished, skilled mourning-woman, known as Khalb, who used to lament with this ode. We heard her in the houses of some of the chiefs, for people at that time were unable to perform the lamentation except under the protection of authority, or in secret, on account of the Hanbalites, and the lamentation was nothing but the elegies of Hussein and his household (peace be upon them) only. They said: It reached us that al-Barbahari said: It has reached me that a mourning-woman called Khalb laments—seek her out and kill her(1).

And Yaqut al-Hamawi (died in the year 626) recounted in Mu'jam al-Udaba, in the biography of Ali ibn Abdullah ibn Wasif al-Nashi al-Halla' (died in the year 366), saying: Ibn Abd al-Rahim said: al-Khali' told me, saying: I was with my father in the year three hundred and forty-six, and I was a boy, in

the gathering of al-Kabudhi in the mosque between the booksellers and the goldsmiths, and it was packed with people, when a man arrived wearing a patched garment, with a flask and a water-skin in his hand, and a staff with him, disheveled. He greeted the company in a raised voice, then said: I am the messenger of Fatima al-Zahra, may God's blessings be upon her. They said: Welcome and greetings to you, and they raised him up. He said: Do you know for me Ahmad al-Muzawwiq the mourner? They said: There he is, sitting.

He said: I saw our mistress (peace be upon her) in a dream, and she said to me: Go to Baghdad and seek him out, and tell him: Lament over my son with the poetry of al-Nashi in which he says:

He said: al-Nashi was present, and he struck a mighty blow upon his face, and Ahmad al-Muzawwiq followed him, and all the people likewise, and the most intense in this was al-Nashi, then al-Muzawwiq. Then they lamented with this ode that day until the people prayed the noon prayer and the gathering dispersed. They strove with the man to accept something from them, but he refused and said: By God, were I given the world, I would not take it, for I do not see fit that I be the messenger of my mistress (peace be upon her) and then take a recompense for it. Then he departed and accepted nothing.

Yaqut said: This ode is some ten-odd verses, and he mentioned from it his words:

And al-Samawi mentioned that al-Saruri cited some of it, as in al-Manaqib, namely his words:

He said: And I came upon, in one of the books, an addition to the tale, namely that when al-Nashi heard the words of the messenger, he burst into weeping and swore that he had composed it only that very night, and that no one had heard it from him. Then he sent for her [the household] to his house and al-Muzawwiq and those present lamented with it(1).

And al-Hamawi said: al-Khali' told me, saying: I passed by al-Nashi one day while he was sitting among the saddlers, and he said to me: I have composed an ode that has been requested, and I wish you to write it in your hand so that I may bring it out. I said: Let me go on an errand and return. So I went to the place I intended and sat in it, and sleep overcame me, and I saw in my dream Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Aziz al-Shatranji the mourner, who said to me: I would like you to rise and write al-Nashi's ode rhyming in 'b', for we lamented with it last night at the Shrine. Now this man had died while returning from the visitation. So I rose and went back to him and said: Bring forth the 'b' ode that I may write it.

He said: How did you know it rhymes in 'b', when I have mentioned it to no one? So I told him of the dream, and he wept and said: There is no doubt that the time has drawn near. So I wrote it, and its beginning was:

Yaqut said: al-Nashi died in Safar of the year three hundred and sixty-five, and Ibn al-Najjar, on the authority of al-Sabi and others, dated it to the year three hundred and sixty-six, stating that he died suddenly(2).

And the eminent scholar al-Samawi, may mercy be upon him, mentioned that Sayyid Haydar al-Hilli, may mercy be upon him, the well-known poet who died in the year 1306 in al-Hilla and is buried in holy Najaf, said: I saw in a dream one night Fatima al-Zahra, may God's blessings be upon her, and I came to her to greet her. When I drew near to her, she said to me:

He said: Then weeping seized me, and I awoke memorizing the two verses. I began to pace in a hall of mine, repeating them and weeping, and God opened to me so that I said:

He said: Then I completed the ode, and among it are his words, may mercy be upon him:

The eminent scholar Sheikh Muhammad al-Samawi, may God Almighty have mercy on him, said: The virtuous, pious scholar Sheikh Muhammad Rida al-Najafi al-Gharawi informed me, saying: It happened to me in the year 1353 that I composed a muwashshah in mid-Sha'ban congratulating upon the birth of Hussein (peace be upon him) at the beginning of Sha'ban of that year, in fulfillment of a vow that was upon me, its opening being:

So I completed its prelude and began to mention the blessed birth. Then I saw in a dream the lady al-Zahra, may God's blessings be upon her, and before her was a small child clothed in black garments. She said to me: Do not praise my son in congratulation of his birth, but rather elegize him, and say: