المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

your walking barefoot, and you pronounced 'God is greatest' seventy times, and you lay down in her grave, and your shirt was upon her, and your saying to her: Your son, your son — not Ja'far, nor Aqil.

He (peace be upon him and his family) said: As for my deliberateness in placing and raising my feet during the escorting of the funeral, it was because of the great throng of angels. As for my pronouncing 'God is greatest' seventy times, it was because seventy ranks of angels prayed over her. As for my lying down in her grave, I had mentioned to her during her life the squeezing of the grave, and she said: O my weakness! So I lay down in her grave because of that, until I had spared her it. As for my shrouding her in my shirt, I had mentioned to her during her life the Resurrection and the gathering of people naked, and she said: O what disgrace! So I shrouded her in it, that she might rise on the Day of Resurrection covered. As for my saying to her: Your son, your son — not Ja'far, nor Aqil — when the two angels descended upon her and asked her about her Lord, she said: God is my Lord; and they said: Who is your prophet? She said: Muhammad is my prophet; and they said: Who is your guardian and your imam? She was ashamed to say 'my son,' so I said to her: Say: Your son, Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him). And by this God comforted her eye. (1)

And know, O you who are loyal — may God keep us and you steadfast in loyalty to them and in renunciation of their enemies — that some of the noble reports state that the Family of the House (peace be upon them) attended some of the funerals of their devoted, sincere, loyal followers. Among them was Shatita, may God be pleased with her. It is narrated that she was a believing woman who loved the Family of the House (peace be upon them), and she lived in Nishapur. When the followers in Nishapur sent funds to Imam Musa ibn Ja'far (peace be upon him), she sent a single dirham and a piece of raw cloth spun by her own hand worth four dirhams. The Imam (peace be upon him) accepted what she had sent, and not the rest of the funds, and said to the bearer: Convey my greetings to Shatita, and give her this purse — it was forty dirhams — then he said: And I have gifted her a piece of my own shroud, of cotton from our village Sayda, the village of Fatima (peace be upon her), spun by my sister Halima, may God be pleased with her. (2)

And in the narration of Ibn Hamza al-Tusi, may God's mercy be upon him, in al-Thaqib, he said: Shatita lived nineteen days, then died, may God have mercy on her. The followers crowded to pray over her, and I saw Abu al-Hasan (peace be upon him) upon a fine she-camel. He dismounted from it and took its halter, and stood praying over her along with the people, and was present when she was lowered into her grave, and scattered into her grave some of the dust of the grave of Abu Abdullah al-Hussein (peace be upon him). When he had finished with her affair, he mounted the camel and turned his head toward the wilderness and said: Inform your companions and convey my greetings to them, and say to them: Surely I, and those of the Family of the House who follow my path, must attend your funerals in whatever land you may be. So fear God in yourselves, and do good deeds that you may help us toward your deliverance and the freeing of your necks from the Fire.

Abu Ja'far said: When he (peace be upon him) turned away, I informed the company, and they saw him already gone far, the she-camel running with him, and their souls nearly poured forth from grief, for they were not able to look upon him. (1)

And among them was Salman al-Farisi, may God's pleasure be upon him, whom the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) attended — and this is a well-known report. It is narrated that the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir went out one day to visit the grave of Salman al-Farisi, peace of God be upon him, and with him was Sayyid Izz al-Din ibn al-Aqsasi. The Caliph said to him along the way: Among the falsehoods is what the extremists of the Shia narrate, about Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) coming from Medina to al-Mada'in when Salman died, and washing him, and returning that same night to Medina. So Ibn al-Aqsasi answered him spontaneously, saying:

And al-Uzri, may God's mercy be upon him, said:

Ibn Shahr Ashub, may God's mercy be upon him, narrated from Jabir al-Ansari, who said: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) led us in the dawn prayer, then turned to us and said: O people, may God make great your reward in your brother Salman. They said something about that, then he donned the turban of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) and his cloak, and took his staff and his sword, and rode upon al-Adba', and said to Qanbar: Count to ten. He said: I did so, and behold, we were at Salman's door. Zadan said: When death came to Salman, I said to him: Who will wash you? He said: He who washed the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). I said: You are in al-Mada'in and he is in Medina. He said: O Zadan, when you bind my jaw you will hear the thud. So when I bound his jaw, I heard the thud, and reached the door, and behold, there was the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him). He said: O Zadan, has Abu Abdullah Salman passed away? I said: Yes, my master. He entered and uncovered the cloak from his face, and Salman smiled at the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), and he said to him: Welcome, O Abu Abdullah. When you meet the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), tell him what has befallen your brother from his people. Then he undertook his preparation. When he prayed over him, we used to hear from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) intense pronouncements of 'God is greatest,' and I had seen with him two men. He said: One of them is my brother Ja'far, and the other is al-Khidr (peace be upon them), and with each of them were seventy ranks of angels, in each rank a thousand thousand angels. (3)

And it came in the narration of Shadhan ibn Jibra'il al-Qummi, may God's mercy be upon him, concerning the death of Salman (may God be pleased with him):

He said: al-Asbagh ibn Nubata said: While we were thus, a man came upon a grayish-white mule, his face veiled, and greeted us, and we returned the greeting to him. He said: O Asbagh, hasten in the affair of Salman. So we took up his affair, and he had brought with him embalming herbs and a shroud, and said: Come, for I have with me what will suffice in his place. We brought him water and a washing-bench, and he kept washing him with his own hand until he finished, and shrouded him, and we prayed over him and buried him, and he laid him in his grave with his own hand. When he had finished his burial and was about to depart, we clung to him and said to him: Who are you? He uncovered his face for us (peace be upon him), and light shone from his front teeth like flashing lightning, and behold, it was the Commander of the Faithful. I said to him: O Commander of the Faithful, how was your coming? And who informed you of Salman's death?

He said: He (peace be upon him) turned to me and said: I take from you, O Asbagh, God's covenant and pledge that you will not tell anyone of it as long as you remain in the abode of this world. I said: O Commander of the Faithful, will I die before you? He (peace be upon him) said: No, O Asbagh, rather your life will be long. I said to him: O Commander of the Faithful, take from me a covenant and a pledge — for I am to you a hearing and obedient one — that I will not tell anyone of it until God decrees concerning your affair what He decrees, and He has power over all things.

He said: O Asbagh, with this the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) entrusted me. I had prayed this very hour in Kufa, and gone out heading for my home. When I reached my home I lay down, and one came to me in my sleep and said: O Ali, Salman has passed away. So I mounted my mule and took with me what is fitting for the dead, and set out traveling, and God drew near for me the far distance, and I came as you see me. With this the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) informed me. Then he buried him and concealed him — and I knew not whether he ascended to heaven or descended into the earth — and he came to Medina while the caller was calling for the sunset prayer, and Ali was present among them in the mosque. (1)

O Commander of the Faithful! It grieves us — we who love you — that you should come to Salman from Medina to al-Mada'in, and wash him with your own hand and embalm him and shroud him and bury him, while your son al-Hussein remains cast down and wounded, thrown upon the scorching sands without washing or shroud for three days. And one might say: If

the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) did not attend him, then his son al-Sajjad Zayn al-Abidin (peace be upon him) did attend him — but he did not wash him, nor shroud him, nor embalm him; rather he made do, in place of that, with a reed mat upon which the body of his father al-Hussein (peace be upon him) was carried. (1) How excellent the words of al-Shafhini, may God's mercy be upon him, when he says:

The Fifth Gathering, of the thirteenth day
The special merits of burial concerning the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him)
Sheikh Ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Daylami said in the book Irshad al-Qulub: It is narrated from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) that he said: al-Ghari is a piece of the mountain upon which God spoke to Moses a speaking, and sanctified Jesus upon it a sanctifying, and took Abraham upon it as an intimate friend, and Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) as a beloved, and made it a dwelling for the prophets.

And it is narrated that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) looked toward the outskirts of Kufa and said: How beautiful is your prospect! And how pleasant your depths! O God, make my grave there. (1)

And it is narrated from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) that he said: Between his grave and Kufa is the Abode of Peace, the gathering-place of the souls of the believers, and it is as though I see people of them upon pulpits of light, enjoying bliss until the Day of Resurrection. (2)

And Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Thaqafi narrated, from Abdullah ibn Hazim, who said: We went out one day with al-Rashid from Kufa as he was hunting, and we came to the region of al-Ghariyyayn and al-Thawiyya, and we saw gazelles, so we loosed the falcons and the dogs upon them. The falcons attacked them for a while, then the gazelles took refuge upon a hill and stood upon it. The falcons withdrew to one side of the hill, and the dogs withdrew, and al-Rashid was astonished.

Then the gazelles descended from the hill, and the falcons and dogs swooped down, so the gazelles returned to the hill, and the dogs and falcons withdrew from them. They did this three times, so Harun said: Ride out, and whomever you meet, bring him to me. So we brought him an old man of the Banu Asad, and al-Rashid said to him: What

is this hill? He said: If you grant me safety, I will tell you. So he gave him safety. He said: My father related to me, from his forefathers, that this hill is the grave of Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), which God made a sanctuary — nothing takes refuge in it except that it is granted safety. (1)

And concerning that, one of the poets says:

al-Daylami, may God's mercy be upon him, said: And among the special merits of his soil (peace be upon him) is the dropping of the punishment of the grave, and the relinquishing of the questioning by Munkar and Nakir of the one buried there, as the authentic reports from the Family of the House (peace be upon them) have stated. (3)

Sheikh Muhammad Hasan al-Jawahiri, may God's mercy be upon him, said after relating the aforementioned report: And it is in my mind that I heard from one of my teachers relating it from al-Miqdad, that he said: The reports have come in mass transmission that burial in any of the shrines of the Imams (peace be upon them) causes the questioning of Munkar

and Nakir to drop. (1)

Sheikh al-Kulayni, may God's mercy be upon him, narrated from Habba al-Urani, who said: I went out with the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) to the outskirts — that is, the outskirts of Kufa — and he stopped at the Valley of Peace as though he were addressing peoples. I stood as long as he stood until I was wearied, then I sat until I grew bored, then I stood until there befell me the like of what befell me at first, then I sat until I grew bored, then I stood and gathered my cloak, and I said: O Commander of the Faithful, I have grown anxious for you from the length of standing; so rest an hour.

Then I cast down the cloak for him to sit upon, and he said to me: O Habba, this is nothing but the conversing of a believer or his keeping company. He said: I said: O Commander of the Faithful, and are they truly so? He said: Yes, and if it were unveiled for you, you would see them in circles upon circles, sitting wrapped in their garments, conversing. I said: Bodies or souls? He said: Souls. And there is no believer who dies in any spot of the spots of the earth except that it is said to his soul: Join the Valley of Peace, for it is indeed a spot of the Garden of Eden.

And from Ahmad ibn Umar, who raised it, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), he said: I said to him: My brother is in Baghdad, and I fear that he may die there. He said: It does not matter where he dies. Indeed, there does not remain a believer in the east of the earth or its west except that God gathers his soul to the Valley of Peace. I said to him: And where is the Valley of Peace? He said: The outskirts of Kufa. Indeed, it is as though I see them in circles upon circles, seated, conversing. (2)

al-Bursi, may God's mercy be upon him, said: al-Asbagh ibn Nubata narrated that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) used to sit for the people in the Najaf of Kufa, and he said one day to those around him: Who sees what I see? They said: And what do you see, O eye of God watching over His servants? He said: I see a camel carrying a bier, and a man driving it, and a man leading it, and it will come to you after three days. When the third day came, the camel arrived, the bier bound upon it, and the two men with it. He greeted the company, and the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said to them, after

greeting them: Who are you? Who are you? And from where have you come? And whose is this bier? And why have you come? They said: We are from Yemen, and as for the dead one, he is our father. At the time of his death he charged us, saying: When you have washed me and shrouded me and prayed over me, carry me upon this camel of mine to Iraq, and bury me there in the Najaf of the people of Kufa.

So the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said to them: Did you ask him why? They said: Yes, we asked him, and he said: A man is buried there who, if he were to intercede on the Day of Presentation for the people of the standing-place, his intercession would be accepted. So the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) rose and said: He spoke the truth. By God, I am that man. By God, I am that man. (1)

And it is narrated from al-Qadi ibn Badr al-Hamadani al-Kufi — and he was a righteous man — who said: I was in the Grand Mosque of Kufa one night, and it was a rainy night, when a group knocked at the door of Muslim ibn Aqil (peace be upon him), and it was opened for them, and some of them mentioned that they had a bier with them. They brought it in and placed it on the platform facing Muslim ibn Aqil (peace be upon him). Then one of them dozed off and saw in his sleep one saying to another: Do not look at him until we see whether we have any reckoning with him. And we ought to take him from him quickly before he crosses al-Rusafa, for then no path to him will remain for us. So he awoke and recounted the dream to them, and said: Take him quickly. So they took him and carried him at once to the noble shrine.

And a group of the righteous ones of the noble shrine of al-Gharawi narrated that each one of them saw that from the graves which are within the noble shrine and outside it, there had come out an extended rope connected to the noble dome — may God's blessings be upon the one who ennobles it. (2) And how excellent the words of the poet who said:

Part Two:
The General Gatherings for the Ten Days of Muharram
And they are also recited throughout the days of the year
It contains several gatherings
Concerning the afflictions of Imam al-Hussein and his Family (peace be upon them)

The First Gathering
The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) informing Fatima (peace be upon her) of the martyrdom of al-Hassan (peace be upon him)
by poison, and of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) by slaughter, and his consoling of her
It came in the Ziyarat al-Nahiya narrated from Imam al-Hujja (peace be upon him), who said: With your killing they killed Islam, and they suspended the prayer and the fast, and they undid the practices and the rulings, and they demolished the foundations of faith, and they distorted the verses of the Qur'an, and they galloped on in transgression and enmity.

Indeed, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) became one whose blood was unavenged, and the Book of God, mighty and majestic, became forsaken, and the truth was abandoned when, overpowered, you were overcome; and with your loss the pronouncing of 'God is greatest' and the declaring of His oneness were lost... until he said: And your mother al-Zahra was stricken with grief over you, and the hosts of the nearest angels were thrown into confusion, consoling your father the Commander of the Faithful; and mourning gatherings were held for you in the highest of the high; and the wide-eyed houris struck their faces in grief over you; and the heaven and its dwellers wept, and the Gardens and their keepers, and the highlands and their regions, and the earth and its regions,

and the seas and their fish, and Mecca and its buildings, and the Gardens and their children, and the House and the Station, and the Sacred Sanctuary, and the permitted and the consecrated. (1)

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari narrated by his chain from Musa ibn Ja'far, from his father, from his grandfather (peace be upon them), from Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, and he carried on the report concerning the marriage of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and the wedding night, until he said: Ali (peace be upon him) said: I passed a night the like of which no one of the Arabs had passed. When it was the last part of the night, I sensed the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) with us, so I went to rise, but he said to me: Stay where you are, O Ali; I have come to you in your bed — may God have mercy on you. And the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) put his feet in under the cover with us, then took a garment that was beneath the head of Fatima (peace be upon her). Fatima awoke, and he wept and she wept, and I wept at their weeping. He said to me: What makes you weep, O Ali? I said: May my father and mother be your ransom; you wept and Fatima wept, so I wept at your weeping.

He said: Yes, Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to me and gave me glad tidings of two noble offspring who will be yours, then he consoled me concerning one of them, and I knew that he would be killed as a stranger, thirsty. So Fatima wept until her weeping grew loud. Then she said: O father, why will they kill him, while you are his grandfather, and Ali his father, and I his mother? He said: O my daughter, in seeking dominion. Yet there will be drawn against them a sword that will not be sheathed except by the hand of the Mahdi from your offspring. O Ali, whoever loves you and loves your descendants has loved me, and whoever loves me, God loves him; and whoever hates you and hates your descendants has hated me, and whoever hates me, God hates him and admits him to the Fire. (2)

And al-Saduq, may God's mercy be upon him, narrated by his chain from Ibn Abbas — and he carried on the report concerning the birth of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) until he said: Gabriel descended upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and congratulated him as God, mighty and majestic, had commanded him, and consoled him. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: Will my nation kill him? He said: Yes. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: These are not my nation; I am free of them, and God is free of them. Gabriel said: And I am free of them, O Muhammad.

Then the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) went in to Fatima and congratulated her and consoled her. Fatima (peace be upon her) wept and said: Would that I had not borne him — the killer of al-Hussein is in the Fire. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: I bear witness to that, O Fatima; but he will not be killed until there comes from him an imam from whom the rightly-guiding imams will come after him... He said: So Fatima ceased weeping. (1)

And Abu al-Arab Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Tamimi narrated, by his chain from al-Haytham al-Bakka, who said: Gabriel descended upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) while Fatima was in the chamber — or he said: Fatima went out to the chamber, and with her was al-Hussein that day, going to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family); and his weeping used to distress him. So she sent him forth and he crawled — or walked — until he reached the door of the house. She feared that he would come in upon them, so she drew near and took him, and he fell silent. She brought him back to her place, and he wept, so she sent him forth, and he fell silent until he reached the door. She drew near until she took him, and he fell silent, so she brought him back to her place, and he wept, so she sent him forth until he reached the door. She drew near and took him, and she did that several times. Then he entered, and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) took him and placed him in his lap, and Gabriel said to him: Do you love your son, O Muhammad? He said: Yes. He said: Indeed, your nation will kill him. Then he inclined with his wings toward the land of Karbala and said: In a land whose soil is this.

Then Gabriel ascended, and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) came out of the house carrying al-Hussein upon his shoulder, and in his hand the handful of soil, and he was weeping. Fatima said: What makes you weep, O Messenger of God? He said: My nation will kill my son in a land whose soil is this; Gabriel has informed me of it. (2)

And Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Kufi narrated, by the chain from Anas ibn Malik, in a report of his concerning the vision of Fatima (peace be upon her) in her sleep, that al-Hassan and al-Hussein had died, and Fatima informed her father, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), of that. He said: The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) turned to Fatima (peace be upon her) and said: Were you distressed when you saw their death? Then how would it be if you saw the elder made to drink poison, and the younger smeared with his blood in an open expanse

of the earth, the wild beasts taking turns upon him?!

He said: So Fatima wept, and Ali wept, and al-Hassan and al-Hussein wept, and Fatima, may God's blessings be upon her, said: O father, are they disbelievers who do that, or hypocrites? He said: Rather, the hypocrites of this nation, who claim that they are believers!!! She said: O father, then shall we not call upon God against them? The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: Yes indeed.

So he stood toward the qibla, and Ali and al-Hassan and al-Hussein stood, and Fatima stood behind them. Then he made the supplication-prayer with them and said in his supplication: O God, forsake the Pharaohs and the iniquitous and the renegades and the covenant-breakers, then gather them all together in Your painful punishment. Then God revealed: "And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied." (1) (2)

And it came in the report which Sa'd ibn Abdullah narrated from al-Qa'im (peace be upon him), that Zechariah said: And when I mention al-Hussein (peace be upon him), my eye sheds tears and my sigh rises up. So God, exalted, informed him of the story of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) and his affliction. When he came to know of that, (he did not leave his sanctuary for three days, and during them he forbade the people from entering upon him, and gave himself over to weeping and wailing, and he would lament him: My God, do You afflict the best of all Your creation with the loss of his son? My God, do You bring down the trial of this calamity upon his courtyard? My God, do You clothe Ali and Fatima in the garments of this affliction? My God, do You let loose the anguish of this calamity in their household?) (3)

And Sheikh Abd al-Husayn al-A'sam, may God Almighty's mercy be upon him, says concerning the affliction of al-Hussein (peace be upon him):

The Second Gathering
Reviving the cause of the Family of the House (peace be upon them) and holding mourning
for them and weeping over al-Hussein (peace be upon him)
It came in some of the visitations of the Imams (peace be upon them): O my masters, were al-Mustafa to behold you, with the arrows of the nation sunk into your livers, and their spears aimed at your throats, and their swords lapping at your blood — the sons of harlots quenching the burning thirst of debauchery from your piety, and the rage of disbelief from your faith — and you between one slain in the prayer-niche whose head the sword has split, and a martyr upon the bier whose shroud the arrows have pierced, and one slain in the open whose head has been raised upon the spear-shaft, and one fettered in prison whose limbs have been crushed with iron, and one poisoned whose entrails have been cut to pieces by the draughts of poison — then surely we belong to God, and to Him we return, and there is no power and no strength save in God, the Most High, the Most Great.

And one of the poets said, lamenting al-Hussein (peace be upon him):