المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

The Fourth Gathering, of the Fifth Day
What is reported concerning the grave of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) and the land of Karbala
It is reported from Amr ibn Thabit, from his father, from Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him), who said: God, blessed and exalted, created the land of Karbala twenty-four thousand years before He created the Ka'ba. He sanctified it and blessed it, and it remained, before God created creation, sanctified and blessed, and it will continue to be so until God makes it the most excellent land in Paradise, and the finest dwelling and abode in which God will lodge His chosen ones in Paradise(1).

And from Abu al-Jarud, who said: Ali ibn al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said: God made the land of Karbala a secure, blessed sanctuary twenty-four thousand years before He created the land of the Ka'ba and made it a sanctuary. And when God, blessed and exalted, shakes the earth and sets it in motion, it will be raised up just as it is, with its soil, luminous and pure, and placed in the finest garden among the gardens of Paradise, and the finest dwelling in Paradise—none shall inhabit it but the prophets and the messengers, or he said: those of firm resolve among the messengers. It will shine among the gardens of Paradise as the brilliant star shines among the stars for the people of earth. Its light will overwhelm the eyes of all the people of Paradise, and it will call out: I am the sacred, pure, blessed land of God, that held the master of the martyrs and the master of the youths of the people of Paradise(2).

He said: And it is reported that Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) said: Al-Ghadiriyya is the spot where God spoke to Moses son of Imran, and where He communed with Noah. It is the most honored land of God to Him, and were it not for that, God would not have

entrusted His chosen ones and the sons of His Prophet to it. So visit our graves at al-Ghadiriyya(1).

And from Hammad ibn Ayyub, from Abu Abdullah, from his father, from his forefathers, from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon them), who said: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) said: My son will be buried in a land called Karbala. It is the spot where the dome of Islam once stood, upon which God delivered the believers who believed with Noah during the flood(2).

And from al-Fadl ibn Yahya, from his father, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Visit Karbala, and do not abandon it, for the best of the children of the prophets is held within it. Indeed, the angels visited Karbala a thousand years before my grandfather Hussein (peace be upon him) dwelt there, and not a single night passes without Gabriel and Michael visiting it. So strive, O Yahya, not to be absent from that place.

And from Ishaq ibn Ammar, who said: I heard Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) say: The site of the grave of Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon them both) has a known sanctity; whoever recognizes it and seeks refuge in it will be granted refuge. I said: Describe its location to me, may I be your ransom. He said: Measure out from the site of his grave today—measure twenty-five cubits from the direction of his feet, twenty-five cubits from behind him, twenty-five cubits from the direction of his face, and twenty-five cubits from the direction of his head. And the site of his grave, from the day he was buried, is a garden among the gardens of Paradise, and from it there is an ascent by which the deeds of his visitors are carried up to heaven. There is no angel nor prophet in the heavens but that they ask God to grant them permission to visit the grave of Hussein (peace be upon him)—so one group descends while another ascends. And in another narration he (peace be upon him) said: The site of Hussein's grave is a gateway among the gateways of Paradise(3).

And from Mansur ibn al-Abbas, raising it to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: The sacred precinct of the grave

of Hussein (peace be upon him) extends five parasangs on each of the four sides of the grave(1).

And from Abu Hashim al-Ja'fari, who said: I entered upon Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad (peace be upon him) while he was feverish and ill, and he said to me: O Abu Hashim, send one of our followers to the Ha'ir(2) to supplicate God for me. So I left him, and Ali ibn Bilal met me, and I informed him of what he had said to me, and asked that he be the man to go. He said: To hear is to obey, but I say: he himself is more excellent than the Ha'ir if he is of the station of those in the Ha'ir, and his supplication for himself is better than my supplication for him at the Ha'ir. So I informed him (God's blessings be upon him) of what he had said, and he said to me: Tell him: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) was more excellent than the House and the Stone, yet he would circle the House and touch the Stone. And indeed God, blessed and exalted, has spots that He loves to be supplicated in, so that He answers whoever supplicates Him there—and the Ha'ir is among them(3).

And in another narration he (peace be upon him) said: Why did you not tell him: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) used to circle the House and kiss the Stone, yet the sanctity of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and of the believer is greater than the sanctity of the House. And God commanded him to stand at Arafat—these are but places that God loves to be remembered in. So I love that supplication be made for me where God loves supplication to be made, and the Ha'ir is among those places(4).

And in a third wording, from Abu Hashim al-Ja'fari, who said: Muhammad ibn Hamza and I entered upon him to visit him while he was ill, and he said to us: Send some people to the Ha'ir at my expense. When we left him, Muhammad ibn Hamza said to me: He directs us to the Ha'ir while he himself is of the station of those in the Ha'ir. He said: So I returned to him and told him, and he said to me: It is not so. Indeed God has places that He loves to be worshipped in, and the Ha'ir of Hussein (peace be upon him) is among those places.

And it is reported from Imam al-Rida, from his forefathers (peace be upon them), who said: Ali ibn al-Hussein (peace be upon them both) said:

It is as though I see the palaces having been built around the grave of Hussein (peace be upon him), and as though I see the markets surrounding his grave. The days and nights will not pass before pilgrims travel to it from every horizon, and that will be at the ending of the rule of the sons of Marwan.

And how excellent are the words of the scholar Sheikh Faraj al-Imran, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says:

And from Hisham ibn Salim, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), in a lengthy report, who said: I asked him: What is the reward of one who stays beside him—meaning Hussein (peace be upon him)? He said: For each day, the reward of a thousand months. He said: And what is for the one who spends on his journey to him and spends while beside him? He said: A dirham counts as a thousand dirhams(2).

And from Qudama ibn Za'ida, from his father, from Ali ibn al-Hussein (peace be upon him), from Zainab daughter of Ali (peace be upon him), from Umm Ayman, who said in a lengthy report from the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Gabriel came and gestured toward Hussein (peace be upon him) and said: This grandson of yours will be slain among a band of your descendants and the people of your house and the best of your nation, on the bank of the Euphrates, in a land called Karbala. Because of it, grief and affliction will multiply upon your enemies and the enemies of your descendants, on a day whose sorrow shall not end and whose anguish shall not fade. It is the purest of the spots of the earth and the greatest in sanctity, and indeed it is from the lowland of Paradise.

And Muhammad ibn Sinan reported, from one who related to him, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) set out, traveling with the people, until, when he was a mile or two from Karbala, he went ahead of them until he came to the place where the martyrs would fall, and he said: Here two hundred prophets were taken in death, and two hundred

executors of wills, and two hundred grandsons of prophets—martyrs along with their followers. He circled it on his mule with his feet hanging out of the stirrups, and began to say: A resting place for mounts and a falling place for martyrs—none before them can surpass them, and none after them can attain them(1).

And from Abdullah ibn Sinan, who said: I heard Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) say: The grave of Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) is twenty cubits by twenty cubits in area—a garden among the gardens of Paradise, from which there is an ascent to heaven. There is no angel brought near nor messenger-prophet but that he asks God to visit it—one group descends while another ascends(2).

And from Abu al-Jarud, who said: Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) said to me: How far is it between you and the grave of Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him)? I said: A day and a little more. He said to him: Were it as close to us as it is to you, we would have taken it as a place of perpetual sojourn(3). And how excellent are the words of the poet when he says:

And among what is reported concerning the merit of visiting Hussein (peace be upon him) is what is narrated from Imam al-Rida, from his father (peace be upon them both), who said: al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) was asked about visiting the grave of Hussein (peace be upon him), and he said: My father (peace be upon him) informed me that whoever visits the grave of Hussein (peace be upon him), recognizing his right, God writes him among the Illiyyin. Then he said: Around the grave of Hussein (peace be upon him) are seventy thousand angels, disheveled and dust-covered, weeping for him until the Day of Resurrection(4).

And Ibn Qulawayh, may God's mercy be upon him, narrated from al-Hussein ibn Thuwayr ibn Abi Fakhta, who said: Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) said: O Hussein, whoever leaves his home intending to visit the grave of Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him), if he goes on foot, for every step a good deed is written for him and an evil deed is erased from him, until when he reaches

the Ha'ir, God writes him among the successful, the prosperous, until when he has completed his rites, God writes him among the triumphant, until when he intends to depart, an angel comes to him and says: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) sends you his greetings and says to you: Begin your deeds anew, for you have been forgiven what is past.

And it is reported from Abdullah ibn al-Tamhan, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: I heard him say: There is no one on the Day of Resurrection but that he will wish he had been among the visitors of Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him), because of what he sees done for the visitors of Hussein, of their honor before God(1).

And from Abdullah ibn Hammad al-Basri, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: He said to me: Indeed there is with you—or he said: near you—a virtue the like of which has been granted to no one, and I do not think you recognize the full depth of its merit, nor do you guard it, nor undertake to maintain it. It has its own special people who have been named for it and granted it without any power or strength of their own, but only by what God has fashioned for them, and a good fortune that God has bestowed upon them, and mercy and compassion and precedence.

I said: May I be your ransom, what is this that you have described but not named? He said: Visiting my grandfather Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him), for he is a stranger in a foreign land. Whoever visits him weeps for him, whoever does not visit him grieves for him, whoever did not witness him burns with sorrow for him, and whoever looks upon the grave of his son at his feet pities him—in a barren land, with no intimate near him and no kinsman. Then he was denied his right, and the people of apostasy banded together against him until they killed him, abandoned him, exposed him to wild beasts, and denied him a drink of the Euphrates water which dogs drink, and they wasted the right of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) and his charge concerning him and his household. So he passed the night forsaken in his grave, slain among his kin and his followers, beneath the layers of dust, his grave made lonely in solitude and far from his grandfather, a dwelling that none comes to but one whose heart God has tested for faith and made to know our right. So I said to him: May I be your ransom, I used to visit him until I was afflicted with service to the ruler and the safekeeping of their wealth, and I am well-known among them, so I left off visiting him out of dissimulation, though I know the good that lies in visiting him. He said: Do you

know the merit of one who comes to him, and what abundant good he has with us? I said: No. He said: As for the merit, the angels of heaven take pride in him; and as for what he has with us, it is our prayers of mercy for him every morning and evening. My father told me that his place has not, since he was slain, been empty of one praying over him among the angels, or the jinn, or mankind, or the wild beasts. There is nothing but that it envies his visitor, seeks to touch him, and hopes for good in looking upon him because of his looking upon his grave.

Then he said: It has reached me that a people come to him from the regions of Kufa, and others besides them, and women who lament him, and that is in the middle of Sha'ban—among them a reciter who recites, a storyteller who tells the tale, a lamenter who laments, and a speaker who recites the elegies. I said to him: Yes, may I be your ransom, I have witnessed some of what you describe. He said: Praise be to God, who has made among the people some who journey to us, and praise us, and grieve for us, and made of our enemies those who censure them among our kin and others, who revile them and despise what they do(1).

And in al-Amali, from Muhammad ibn Muslim, who said: I heard Abu Ja'far and Ja'far ibn Muhammad (peace be upon them both) say: God Most High recompensed Hussein (peace be upon him) for his slaying by placing the Imamate in his descendants, healing in his soil, and the answering of supplication at his grave, and the days of his visitors—going and returning—are not counted against them. Muhammad ibn Muslim said: I said to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him): These excellences are attained through Hussein (peace be upon him)—but what is for him himself? He said: God Most High joined him to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), so he is with him in his rank and station. Then Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) recited: "And those who believed and whose descendants followed them in faith—We shall join their descendants with them," the verse(2).

And how excellent are the words of Ibn al-Arandas, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says:

And another, may God's mercy be upon him, said:

The Fifth Gathering, of the Fifth Day
The generosity of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him), the nobility
of his honored character, and the merit of visiting him
It is reported in the Ziyara of al-Nahiya, narrated from the Hujja, may God hasten his noble relief: So if the ages have set me back, and what was destined has prevented me from aiding you, and I was not among those who fought against your enemies, nor among those who set up hostility toward those who showed enmity to you, then I shall lament you morning and evening, and I shall weep for you blood instead of tears, in grief over you, and in sorrow and regret over what befell you, until I die from the anguish

of the affliction and the choking of dejection...(1)
And how excellent are the words of Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Ya'qubi, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says, calling for the rising of Imam al-Hujja (peace be upon him):

It is related in the book Uns al-Majalis that al-Farazdaq came to Hussein (peace be upon him) when Marwan had driven him out of Medina, and he (peace be upon him) gave him four hundred dinars. And it is reported that a Bedouin came to Medina and asked about the most generous person there, and he was directed to Hussein (peace be upon him). He entered the mosque and found him praying, so he stood facing him and recited:

He said: So Hussein (peace be upon him) finished his prayer and said: O Qanbar, is there anything left of the wealth of the Hijaz? He said: Yes, four thousand dinars. He said: Bring it, for one more deserving of it than us has come. Then he took off his two cloaks, wrapped the dinars in them, and extended his hand through the crack of the door, out of modesty before the Bedouin, and recited:

He said: So the Bedouin took it and wept, and he said to him: Perhaps you found what we gave you too little? He said: No, but how can the dust ever consume your generosity?(1)

I say: Yet the Bedouin did not know what would befall Hussein (peace be upon him) in the open ground of Karbala. And how would it have been had he seen him—a body without a head, hacked by the swords, his cheek in the dust, his garments stripped away? And how excellent are the words of one of the poets when he says:

And from Shu'ayb ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Khuza'i, who said: A mark was found on the back of Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) on the day of al-Tuff. They asked Zayn al-Abidin (peace be upon him) about it, and he said: This is from his carrying the food sack on his back to the homes of the widows, orphans, and the poor.

And it is said that Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami taught a son of Hussein (peace be upon him) al-Fatiha, and when he recited it before his father, he gave him a thousand dinars, a thousand robes, and filled his mouth with pearls. He was questioned about this, and he said: And where does this stand compared to his gift—meaning his teaching? And Hussein (peace be upon him) recited:

And among his humility (peace be upon him) is that he passed by some poor people who were eating their scraps of bread spread upon a cloak. He greeted them, and they invited him to their food, so he sat with them and said: Were it not that it is charity, I would have eaten with you. Then he said: Come to my home. So he fed them, clothed them, and ordered that they be given dirhams(1).

And it is reported from Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon them both) that he said: There is established for me the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): The best of deeds after the prayer is to bring joy into the heart of the believer in what bears no sin. For I saw a boy sharing food with a dog, and I spoke to him about it, and he said: O son of the Messenger of God, I am grieved, and I seek joy through his joy, for my master is a Jew whom I wish to part from. So Hussein came to his master with two hundred dinars as his price, and the Jew said: The boy is a gift for your steps, and this garden is his too, and I return the money to you. He (peace be upon him) said: And I have gifted the money to you. He said: I accept the money and gift it to the boy. So Hussein (peace be upon him) said: I have freed the boy and gifted it all to him. Then the Jew's wife said: I have accepted Islam and gifted my husband my dowry. The Jew said: And I too have accepted Islam, and I give her this house(2).

And Anas said: I was with Hussein (peace be upon him) when a maidservant came in and greeted him with a sprig of basil. He said to her: You are free for the sake of God. I said: She brings you a sprig of basil of no worth, and you free her? He said: Thus God has trained us. God said: "And when you are greeted with a greeting, then greet with one better than it, or return it."(3) And better than it was her freeing(4).

And from Amr ibn Dinar, who said: Hussein (peace be upon him) entered upon Usama ibn Zayd while he was ill, and he was saying: O my grief! Hussein (peace be upon him) said to him: And what is your grief, O my brother? He said: My debt,

which is sixty thousand dirhams. Hussein said: It is upon me. He said: I fear that I shall die. Hussein (peace be upon him) said: You shall not die until I have paid it on your behalf. He said: So he paid it before his death(1).

And a servant of his committed an offense warranting punishment, so he ordered that he be struck. The servant said: O my master, "and those who restrain their anger." He said: Let him go. The servant said: O my master, "and those who pardon people." He said: I have pardoned you. The servant said: O my master, "and God loves those who do good." He said: You are free for the sake of God, and you shall have double what I used to give you(2).

And in the chains of Akhtab Khwarizm, which he recorded in a book of his on the slaying of the family of the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family): A Bedouin came to Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon them both) and said: O son of the Messenger of God, I have guaranteed a full blood-money payment and am unable to pay it, so I said to myself: I shall ask the most generous of people, and I have seen no one more generous than the household of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). Hussein (peace be upon him) said: O brother Arab, I shall ask you three questions. If you answer one, I shall give you a third of the sum; if you answer two, I shall give you two-thirds; and if you answer them all, I shall give you the whole. The Bedouin said: O son of the Messenger of God, does one like you question one like me, when you are of the people of knowledge and nobility? Hussein (peace be upon him) said: Indeed, I heard my grandfather, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), say: Kindness is in proportion to understanding. The Bedouin said: Ask whatever occurs to you, and if I answer, well and good; otherwise I shall learn from you, and there is no power except through God.

Hussein (peace be upon him) said: Which of deeds is most excellent? The Bedouin said: Faith in God. Hussein (peace be upon him) said: What is the deliverance from destruction? The Bedouin said: Trust in God. Hussein (peace be upon him) said: What adorns a man? The Bedouin said: Knowledge accompanied by forbearance. He said: And if he lacks that? He said: Wealth accompanied by chivalry. He said: And if he lacks that? He said: Poverty accompanied by patience. Hussein (peace be upon him) said: And if he lacks that? The Bedouin said: Then a thunderbolt should descend from heaven and burn him, for he deserves it.

So Hussein (peace be upon him) laughed and tossed to him a purse containing a thousand dinars, and gave him his ring, in which was a gem worth two hundred dirhams, and said: O Bedouin, give the gold to your creditors, and use the ring for your expenses. So the Bedouin took it and said: "God knows best where to place His message,"(1) the verse(2).

And among what is reported concerning the merit of visiting Hussein (peace be upon him) is what Ibn Qulawayh, may God's mercy be upon him, narrated from Mu'awiya ibn Wahb, who said: I sought permission to enter upon Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), and I was told: Enter. So I entered and found him in his prayer-place in his house. I sat until he completed his prayer, and I heard him as he communed with his Lord, saying: O God, O You who singled us out with honor, promised us intercession, distinguished us with the executorship, granted us knowledge of what has passed and knowledge of what remains, and made the hearts of people incline toward us—forgive me and my brethren, and the visitors of the grave of Abu Abdullah al-Hussein, who spent their wealth and exerted their bodies, desiring kindness toward us, hoping for what is with You in joining us, and bringing joy to Your Prophet, and answering our command, and bringing anger upon our enemy. By that they sought Your good pleasure. So reward them on our behalf with Your good pleasure, and guard them by night and by day, and be the best successor to their families and children whom they left behind, and accompany them, and protect them from the evil of every obstinate tyrant, and every weak and strong one of Your creation, and from the evil of the devils among mankind and jinn, and grant them the best of what they have hoped for from You in their estrangement from their homelands, and in what they preferred us over their children, their families, and their kin.

O God, our enemies reproached them for their setting out, yet that did not turn them back from journeying to us, in opposition to those who opposed us. So have mercy upon those faces that the sun has altered, and have mercy upon those cheeks that turn upon the grave of Abu Abdullah al-Hussein (peace be upon him), and have mercy upon those eyes whose tears flowed in mercy for us, and have mercy upon those hearts that grieved and burned for us, and have mercy upon that cry that was raised for us. O God, I entrust to You those bodies and those

souls, until You bring them together (with us)(1).

And how excellent are the words of Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Ya'qubi, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says:

The First Gathering, of the Sixth Day
The converging of horses and men upon Karbala
and Habib's call to the Banu Asad
It is reported in the book al-Mazar by al-Mashhadi, may God's mercy be upon him, in one of the visitations: O my masters, O family of the Messenger of God, through you I draw near to God, mighty and exalted, by opposing those who betrayed you, broke their allegiance to you, denied your guardianship, rejected your station, cast off the yoke of obedience to you, abandoned the means of love for you, drew near to their pharaohs by disavowing you and turning away from you, and prevented you from establishing the divine limits, uprooting denial, mending the breach, gathering the scattered, sealing the rifts, straightening the crookedness, carrying out the rulings, refining Islam, and suppressing sins. They raised against you the dust of wars and turmoil, leveled against you the swords of grudges, tore open your veils, traded your khums for wine, and diverted the alms of the poor to

the jesters and the mockers(1). And how excellent are the words of Sayyid Muhammad Hussein al-Qazwini, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says, calling for the rising of Imam al-Hujja al-Mahdi, may God hasten his noble relief:

The narrator said: Ibn Ziyad, may he be cursed, wrote to Hussein, God's blessings be upon him: To proceed, O Hussein: I have been informed of your alighting at Karbala, and the Commander of the Faithful Yazid has written to me that I should not rest my head on a soft pillow, nor be satisfied with leavened bread, until I either dispatch you to the Subtle, the All-Aware, or you return to my judgment and the judgment of Yazid ibn Mu'awiya. And peace.

When his letter reached Hussein (peace be upon him) and he read it, he cast it from his hand, then said: A people shall not prosper who purchase the pleasure of the created at the wrath of the Creator. Then the messenger said to him: The reply to the letter, O Abu