المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

The Twenty-Seventh Gathering
On the Guardianship of the People of the House (peace be upon them)
Sheikh al-Saduq, may mercy be upon him, narrated, by his chain from Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, who said: When Abu al-Hassan al-Rida (peace be upon him) arrived at Nishapur, and intended to depart from it to al-Ma'mun, the people of hadith gathered around him and said to him: O son of the Messenger of God! You are leaving us without relating to us a hadith that we might benefit from. He had been seated in the covered howdah, so he put out his head and said: I heard my father Musa ibn Ja'far say: I heard my father Ja'far ibn Muhammad say: I heard my father Muhammad ibn Ali say: I heard my father Ali ibn al-Hussein say: I heard my father al-Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib say: I heard my father, the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon them) say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) say: I heard Gabriel say: I heard God, majestic be His majesty, say: "There is no god but God" is My fortress; whoever enters My fortress is safe from My punishment. He said: When the mount had passed on, he called out to us: With its conditions—and I am one of its conditions.

Sheikh al-Saduq, may God's mercy be upon him, said: Among its conditions is the acknowledgment of al-Rida (peace be upon him) as an Imam appointed by God, mighty and majestic, over the servants, whose obedience is made obligatory upon them.

And al-Saffar narrated, by his chain from Muhammad ibn al-Fudayl, from Abu al-Hassan (peace be upon him), who said: The guardianship of Ali is written in all the scriptures of the prophets, and God shall never send a prophet except with the prophethood of Muhammad and the guardianship of his successor Ali, may God's blessings be upon them both.

And from Abu Basir, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: There is no prophet who was granted prophecy, nor any messenger who was sent, except with our guardianship and our being given precedence over all others. And from Jabir, who said: Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) said:

Our guardianship is the guardianship of God, for which He never sent a prophet except with it(1).

And Sheikh al-Saduq (may God's mercy be upon him) narrated, from Jabir al-Ju'fi, from al-Baqir, may God's blessings be upon him, who said: I asked him about the interpretation of dreams attributed to Daniel—is it authentic? He said: Yes, he received revelation and was a prophet, and among what God taught him was the interpretation of accounts, and he was truthful and wise. And by God, he held to the love of us, the People of the House. Jabir said: To the love of you, the People of the House? He said: Yes, by God, and there is no prophet nor angel but that he held to our love(2). And how excellent are the words of the one who said:

The Twenty-Eighth Gathering
What Has Been Reported in Condemnation of Hatred of the People of the House (peace be upon them)
It is narrated from Ibn Sinan, raising it to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Indeed, our discourse is difficult, exceedingly hard; none can bear it but enlightened breasts, or sound hearts, or noble characters. God took a covenant from our followers just as He took it upon the children of Adam, where He, mighty and majestic, says: "And when your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, [saying]: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes"(3). So whoever is faithful to us, God will fulfill for him with Paradise, and whoever hates us and does not render us our right shall be in the Fire, abiding therein forever(4).

And from Abu al-Jarud, from Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him), who said: Love of us is faith, and hatred of us is disbelief. Then he recited

this verse: "But God has endeared faith to you and has made it pleasing in your hearts"(1)(2).

And from Abu al-Jarud, from Abu Abdullah al-Jadali, who said: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said to me: Shall I tell you of the good deed by which whoever brings it shall be safe from the terror of the Day of Resurrection, and of the evil deed by which whoever brings it shall be cast on his face into the Fire of Hell? I said: Yes, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: The good deed is love of us, the People of the House, and the evil deed is hatred of us, the People of the House(3).

And from Ammar al-Sabati, who said: I said to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him): Abu Umayya Yusuf ibn Thabit related from you, saying: No deed harms one along with faith, and no deed benefits one along with disbelief. He said: Abu Umayya did not ask me about its meaning. By this I meant only that whoever knows the Imam from the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and takes him as guardian, then performs for himself whatever good deeds he wishes, those are accepted from him and multiplied for him many times over, and he benefits from good deeds along with such knowledge—this is what I meant by that. And likewise God does not accept from the servants the righteous deeds they perform if they take as guardian the unjust leader who is not from God Almighty. Abdullah ibn Abi Ya'fur said to him: Did not God Almighty say: "Whoever brings a good deed shall have better than it, and they shall be safe from the terror of that Day"(4)? So how is the righteous deed of no benefit to one who takes the leaders of injustice as guardians? Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) said to him: Do you know what the good deed that God Almighty meant in this verse is? It is the knowledge of the Imam and obedience to him. And God Almighty said: "And whoever brings an evil deed, their faces shall be cast into the Fire: Are you recompensed except for what you used to do?"(5) By the evil deed He meant only the denial of the Imam who is from God Almighty. Then Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) said: Whoever comes on the Day of Resurrection with the guardianship of an unjust leader who is not from God, and comes denying our right, rejecting our guardianship, God

Almighty shall cast him on the Day of Resurrection into the Fire(1).

And from Abu al-Jarud, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), concerning the words of Him, mighty and majestic: "God has not made for any man two hearts within his breast"(2). He said: Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) said: There is no servant of God's servants whose heart has been tested for faith except that he finds our love upon his heart, so he loves us; and there is no servant of God's servants upon whom God is wrathful except that he finds our hatred upon his heart, so he hates us. So we came to rejoice at the love of the one who loves us, and we recognize the hatred of the one who hates us. The one who loves us awaits the mercy of God, mighty and majestic, as though the gates of mercy have been opened for him, while the one who hates us is upon the brink of a crumbling cliff of fire, as though that brink has collapsed with him into the Fire of Hell. So blessed are the people of mercy in their mercy, and woe to the people of the Fire in their abode. God, mighty and majestic, says: "How wretched indeed is the abode of the arrogant"(3). There is no servant of God's servants who falls short in loving us due to some good that God has placed with him, since the one who loves us and the one who hates us are not equal, and the two can never gather in the heart of one man. God has not made for a man two hearts within his breast, loving with one and hating with the other. As for the one who loves us, his love for us is pure, just as gold is purified by fire without any impurity in it; and the one who hates us is at that station. We are the noble ones, and our offspring are the offspring of the prophets, and I am the successor of the successors. The transgressing faction is of the party of Satan, and Satan is among them. So whoever wishes to know our love, let him test his heart; for if he shares in his love of us with our enemy, then he is not of us, and we are not of him, and God is his enemy, and Gabriel and Michael—and God is an enemy to the disbelievers.

And from the book Fada'il al-Shia of al-Saduq, may God's mercy be upon him, by his chain from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, who said: We were seated with the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) when a man approached him and said: O Messenger of God! Tell me about the words of God, mighty and majestic, to Iblis: "Are you arrogant, or are you among the exalted ones?"(4) So who

are they, O Messenger of God, who are higher than the angels? The Messenger of God said: They are I, and Ali, and Fatima, and al-Hassan, and al-Hussein. We were within the canopy of the Throne, glorifying God, and the angels glorified God by our glorification, two thousand years before God, mighty and majestic, created Adam. When God, mighty and majestic, created Adam, He commanded the angels to prostrate to him, but He did not command us to prostrate. So all the angels prostrated except Iblis, for he refused to prostrate. God, blessed and exalted, said: "Are you arrogant, or are you among the exalted ones?"—that is, among these five, whose names are written within the canopy of the Throne. We are the gate of God through which He is approached; through us the rightly guided find guidance. So whoever loves us, God loves him and houses him in His Paradise, and whoever hates us, God hates him and houses him in His Fire; and none loves us but the one of pure birth(1).

And from Sayf ibn Umayra, from al-Sadiq (peace be upon him), who said: The child born of adultery has signs: the first is his hatred of us, the People of the House; the second is that he yearns for the forbidden act from which he was created; the third is contempt for religion; and the fourth is ill conduct toward people. And none conducts himself ill toward his brethren but one born outside his father's bed, or one whose mother conceived him during her menstruation(2).

And it is narrated from the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) that he said: Whoever hates us, the People of the House, God will raise him up as a Jew. And were a servant to worship God between the Corner and the Station for a thousand years, then meet God without our guardianship, God would cast him on his nostrils into the Fire. And whoever dies without knowing the Imam of his age dies the death of ignorance. By God, God has not left the earth, since He took Adam, without an Imam in it by whom guidance is found, a proof over the servants; whoever forsakes him perishes, and whoever clings to him is saved..(3).

And from Ibn Abbas, who said: I said to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Counsel me. He said: Hold fast to the love of Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him). By the One who sent me with the truth as a prophet, God will not accept from a servant any good deed until He asks him

about the love of Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him)—though He, the Exalted, knows best. If he comes with his guardianship, his deeds are accepted from him, whatever they may be; but if he does not come with his guardianship, He will not ask him about anything, then will command that he be sent to the Fire. O Ibn Abbas! By the One who sent me with the truth as a prophet, the Fire is more intensely wrathful against one who hates Ali (peace be upon him) than against one who claims that God has a son. O Ibn Abbas! Were the angels brought near and the prophets sent gathered upon hating him—though they would never do so—God would punish them with the Fire. I said: O Messenger of God! Does anyone hate him? He said: O Ibn Abbas! Yes, a people hate him who claim that they are of my nation, for whom God has made no portion in Islam. O Ibn Abbas! Among the signs of their hatred of him is their preferring over him one who is beneath him. By the One who sent me with the truth, no prophet was sent more honored to Him than I, and no successors were more honored to Him than my successor Ali. Ibn Abbas said: So I never ceased to be toward him as the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) commanded me and counseled me regarding his love, and it is indeed the greatest of my deeds in my estimation..(1).

And from Abu Nu'aym: Umar said: And what is the sign of your love, O Messenger of God? He said: The love of this one—and he placed his hand upon the shoulder of Ali (peace be upon him)—and said: Whoever loves him has loved us, and whoever hates him has hated us(2).

And al-Farazdaq, may God Almighty have mercy on him, said concerning the love of the People of the House (peace be upon them) and holding fast to them:

The Twenty-Ninth Gathering
The Enmity of the Umayyads Toward Islam and Toward the Family of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family)
In one of the visitations of the Imams of the People of the House (peace be upon them) it comes: O my masters! Were the Chosen One to behold you, with the nation's arrows sunk deep in your livers, their spears leveled at your throats, their swords plunged into your blood—the sons of harlots slaking the thirst of their iniquity upon your piety, and the rage of disbelief upon your faith—while you were: one struck down in the prayer-niche, his head split by the sword; one martyred upon the bier, his shroud pierced by arrows; one slain in the open, his head raised upon the spear-point; one shackled in prison, his limbs crushed by iron; and one poisoned, his entrails torn apart by the draughts of poison(2). To God we belong, and to Him we return; and there is no might nor power save in God, the Most High, the Most Great.

It is narrated from al-Sha'bi, who said: When Uthman entered his lodging—after the caliphate had been pledged to him—the Umayyads came in to him until the house was filled with them, then they shut its doors upon themselves. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb said: Is there anyone among you who is not of you? They said: No. He said: O sons of Umayya! Snatch it as one snatches at a ball, for by the One whom Abu Sufyan swears by, there is no punishment nor reckoning, no Paradise nor Fire, no resurrection nor Day of Judgment. He said: Then Uthman rebuked him, and was displeased by what he had said, and ordered that he be put out(3).

And Ibn Asakir reported from Anas: that Abu Sufyan came in to Uthman after he had gone blind, and said: Is anyone here? They said: No. So he said: O God, make the affair an affair of ignorance, and the kingdom a usurpers' kingdom, and make the stakes of the earth belong to the sons of Umayya. Ali (peace be upon him) said to him: You have never ceased to be an enemy to Islam and its people(1).

And by way of Ibn al-Mubarak, from al-Hassan: that Abu Sufyan came in to Uthman when the caliphate had come to him, and said: It has come to you after Taym and Adiyy. Spin it about like a ball, and make its stakes the sons of Umayya, for it is only a kingdom, and I know of no Paradise nor Fire. So Uthman shouted at him: Get up away from me—may God do thus and thus to you(2).

And in the narration of al-Mas'udi, Abu Sufyan said: O sons of Umayya! Snatch it as one snatches at a ball, for by the One whom Abu Sufyan swears by, I have never ceased to hope for it for you, and it shall surely pass on to your children as an inheritance(3).

And al-Tabari said in his history: And among it is what the narrators relate of his saying: O sons of Abd Manaf! Snatch it as one snatches at a ball, for there is no Paradise there nor Fire. This is outright disbelief, by which the curse of God overtakes him, just as it overtook those who disbelieved among the children of Israel by the tongue of David and Jesus son of Mary(4).

Ibn Abi al-Hadid said: And among it is what is narrated of his standing upon the pass of Uhud after the loss of his sight, and his saying to his guide: Here we pelted Muhammad and killed his companions.

And among that also is his saying to al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib before the Conquest—when the troops had been displayed before him: The kingdom of your nephew has become mighty indeed. So al-Abbas said to him: Woe to you! It is not a kingdom—it is prophethood.

And among it is his saying on the Day of the Conquest—when he saw Bilal atop the Kaaba calling the prayer and saying: I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God: How fortunate was Utba ibn Rabia that he did not witness this scene(1).

And it was Abu Sufyan who trod upon the grave of Hamza (peace be upon him) and struck it with his foot, and said: O Abu Umara! The affair over which we fought each other with the sword has fallen into the hands of our boys, who toy with it(2).

And Ibn Hajar said: Abu Sufyan was the head of the polytheists on the Day of Uhud and the Day of the Confederates. And Ibn Sa'd said: When he saw the people treading upon the heels of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), he envied him, and said to himself: Would that I might renew the gathering against this man. So the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) struck him upon his chest and said: Then God would disgrace you. And in another narration: He said to himself: I do not know how Muhammad overcame us. So he struck him upon his back and said: By God, He overcomes you(3).

And it is narrated that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said in a discourse of his concerning Abu Sufyan and Mu'awiya: Mu'awiya is a freed man, son of a freed man, a party of these confederate parties; he and his father never ceased to be enemies to God, mighty and majestic, and to His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), and to the Muslims, until the two entered Islam unwillingly(4).

As for his son Mu'awiya: Ibn Abi al-Hadid mentioned in the Commentary on the Nahj, from a letter of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) that he wrote to Mu'awiya, his (peace be upon him) words to him: For you have trodden the paths of Abu Sufyan your father, and of Utba your grandfather, and the likes of them from your kin, the people of disbelief, dissension, and falsehoods(5).

Moreover, Mu'awiya disclosed to al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba what he used to conceal within himself of rancor, loathing, and grudge toward the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). Ibn Bakkar narrated in al-Muwaffaqiyyat, from Mutarrif ibn al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba al-Thaqafi—Ibn Bakkar said: I heard al-Mada'ini say: Mutarrif

ibn al-Mughira said: I went as a delegate with my father al-Mughira to Mu'awiya. My father would come to him and converse with him, then return to me and speak of Mu'awiya, mentioning his intelligence, marveling at what he saw of him—until one night he came and held back from supper. I saw him grieved, so I waited a while, supposing it was over something that had befallen us, or our affairs. I said to him: Why do I see you grieved this night?

He said: O my son! I have come from the most wicked of people. I said to him: And what is that? He said: I said to him, when I was alone with him: You have reached an age, O Commander of the Faithful! Were you to show justice and spread good—for you have grown old—and were you to look to your brethren of the Banu Hashim and join the ties of their kinship; for by God, they have nothing today that you should fear.

He said to me: Far, far from it! The brother of Taym ruled and was just and did what he did, and by God, no sooner did he perish than his memory perished, except that one might say: Abu Bakr. Then the brother of Adiyy ruled and strove and laboured for ten years, and by God, no sooner did he perish than his memory perished, except that one might say: Umar. Then our brother Uthman ruled—a man whose lineage none could match—and he did what he did and was dealt with as he was dealt with, and by God, no sooner did he perish than his memory perished, along with the memory of what was done to him. Yet the brother of Hashim is proclaimed aloud five times every day: I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). So what deed can endure alongside this, you motherless one? By God, nothing but burial, burial(1).

And Mu'awiya said when he heard the muezzin saying: I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God: God's blessing upon your father, O son of Abdullah! You were indeed lofty in ambition; you were content with nothing for yourself but that your name be paired with the name of the Lord of the Worlds(2).

And among Mu'awiya's rancor is that he remained, during the days of his caliphate, forty Fridays without invoking blessings upon

the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). One of his companions asked him about this, and he said: Nothing keeps me from mentioning him except that certain men would lift up their noses in pride(1). And he is the one who said when he entered Kufa: By God, I did not fight you that you might pray, nor that you might fast, nor that you might perform the pilgrimage, nor that you might give alms—you do that already. I fought you only so that I might rule over you, and God has granted me that, though you are averse to it(2).

And al-Hassan al-Basri said: Four traits were in Mu'awiya, any one of which, had it been the only one in him, would have been ruinous: his leaping upon this nation with the foolish until he seized its authority without consulting them, while among them were the remnants of the Companions and people of merit; his appointing his son after him as successor—a drunkard, a wine-bibber, clad in silk and strumming the lute; his claiming Ziyad as kin, though the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) had said: The child belongs to the bed, and to the fornicator the stone; and his killing of Hujr—woe to him for Hujr!—and the companions of Hujr, twice over.

And the Kindite woman said, lamenting Hujr—and it is said that rather it was this woman of the Ansar who composed it:

The Thirtieth Gathering
From the History of Yazid ibn Mu'awiya and His Grudges of Badr

As for Yazid ibn Mu'awiya, he inherited the loathing and hatred of the People of the House (peace be upon them) from his father and grandfather. Yazid bore enmity to al-Hussein (peace be upon him) until he shed his noble blood; and his father Mu'awiya bore enmity to Ali (peace be upon him), warred against him, incited the people against him, drove them to hate and loathe him, and reviled him from the pulpits; and his grandfather Abu Sufyan warred against the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) and incited the people to fight him. Yazid is one of those whom the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) meant by his words, as narrated: The destruction of my nation shall come at the hands of foolish young men of Quraysh(1).

And among what is reported concerning him is the vision that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) saw, at which he was grieved—and they said: He was never seen laughing thereafter—when he saw a band of the Umayyads leaping upon his pulpit, leaping like apes(2). And Yazid is without doubt one of them. He disclosed his disbelief by his saying:

And can anyone forget the deed of Yazid against al-Hussein (peace be upon him), and his taking captive his women and the people of his house (peace be upon them)?.. and his demolition of the Kaaba.. and his declaring Medina lawful plunder for three days, and his naming it "the Vile" instead of "the Wholesome" in spite toward the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and the People of his House (peace be upon them)?!(4)

And al-Mas'udi said: One day he—Yazid—sat at his drink, with Ibn Ziyad at his right, and that was after the killing of al-Hussein (peace be upon him). He turned to his cupbearer and said:

Then he commanded the singers, and they sang it for him(1).

And all of these are the grudges of Badr and Hunayn; so they uprooted the progeny of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). In the Supplication of Lamentation it comes regarding the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him): And no blame of a blamer in the cause of God could move him. He brought down the champions of the Arabs, slew their heroes, and grappled with their wolves, and so deposited in their hearts grudges of Badr, of Khaybar, of Hunayn, and others, so that they bared their teeth against him in enmity and flung themselves into opposing him, until he slew those who broke their oath, those who deviated, and those who departed from religion. And when he met his appointed end, and the most wretched of the latter-folk slew him—following the most wretched of the former-folk—the command of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) concerning the guides after the guides was not obeyed, while the nation persisted in his loathing, united in severing his kinship-ties and casting out his children—save a few who were faithful in observing the right concerning them. So those who were slain were slain, those who were taken captive were taken captive, and those who were cast out were cast out.

And the Commander of the Faithful, may God's blessings be upon him, alluded to this as well, in his words concerning the reasons for Quraysh's grudge against him. It is narrated that he (peace be upon him) said: O God, I seek Your aid against Quraysh, for they harbored against Your Messenger (peace be upon him and his family) various kinds of evil and treachery, but they were unable to carry them out, and You stood between them and it. So the burden fell upon me, and the turn came round against me. O God, protect al-Hassan and al-Hussein, and do not let the wicked of Quraysh have power over them so long as I live; and when You have taken me, You are the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things(2).

And it is narrated that he (peace be upon him) also said: Every grudge that Quraysh harbored against the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), they have shown against me, and they shall show it against my children after me. What is between me and Quraysh?! I only brought them low by the command of God and the command of His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family). Is this the recompense of one who obeyed God and His Messenger, if they were Muslims?(3)

And likewise the war of Siffin was, too, for the grudges of Badr, as Umm al-Khayr

bint al-Harish said: It was for the malice of Badr, the grudges of ignorance, and the rancor of Uhud, that Mu'awiya pounced with it at the moment of heedlessness, to attain through it the vengeances of the Banu Abd Shams(1).

Al-Qadi al-Nu'man al-Maghribi said: And this pure, deep-rooted enmity, and the seeking of the ancient vengeance of the Days of Ignorance, the accursed Marwan could not conceal—and the joy that came over him at the killing of al-Hussein, may God's blessings be upon him, moved him to take it up in his hand and say what he said.

And Ali (peace be upon him) had taken him captive on the Day of the Camel, then shown him favor and set him free; yet he observed none of that nor kept it in mind. Rather, Marwan counseled the accursed Mu'awiya to dig up the grave of Ali, may God's blessings be upon him, when he had gained the upper hand in the affair, reciting the verse of the ancient poet:

By this he incited him to dig up the grave of Ali (peace be upon him), and reminded him of the slain of Badr from the Banu Abd Shams, and of those of them killed in disbelief, left without pillow nor burial.

Then Mu'awiya consulted Abdullah ibn Amir ibn Kurayz concerning the digging up of the grave of Ali (peace be upon him), and he said: I would not wish you to know the place of his grave, nor to ask about it, nor would I wish this punishment to be between us and our people.

So Mu'awiya accepted from Abdullah the counsel he gave, and turned away from the opinion of the accursed Marwan in what he had counseled regarding the digging up of the grave of Ali (peace be upon him)—the very one who had granted him favor and freed him from captivity. But the accursed one was overcome by his grudge against the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family); because of those of his kin who were slain in disbelief in God and in associating partners with Him, and his cursing of him, and because Ali (peace be upon him) had brought him to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) when he sought to banish him, leading him at his command(2).

And Muhammad ibn Humayd al-Razi said: When the head of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) was brought and placed before