Past eventOther · The Lantern of the Path · Session 27

Imam Husayn ibn Ali, The Master of the Martyrs

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

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Imamah, Part 7 Companions who had once fought at Badr were, within a generation, leaving behind inheritances of gold too heavy to divide by hand — bricks that had to be broken apart with axes. That single detail marks the distance travelled between the Prophet's Madinah, where a bride's dowry ran to a few hundred dirhams, and the world Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, was born into, where dowries had climbed to a million dinars. The caliphate itself had mutated from a trust into an inheritance, and by the time it reached its latest holder, the man demanding the community's allegiance drank openly and mocked the very law he claimed to represent. The session sets aside the two easiest readings of what Imam Husayn did next. He did not rise to seize power — his own testament to his brother rules that out. He did not rise to be killed for its own sake either; Islam does not permit throwing oneself deliberately into ruin. What he rose to do, in his own words, was to enjoin good and forbid evil, and walk the path of his grandfather and his father. It was a duty, the session argues, that neither the Prophet nor Imam Ali nor Imam Hasan had been able to enact — not from want of courage, but because the conditions that made it necessary had not yet arrived. Why did this obligation fall to him, and to no one before him? What the evening covers The gold that needed an axe. How dowries rose from a few hundred dirhams to a million dinars within a generation of the Prophet's death. The testament. His own letter to his brother explaining why he left Madinah — not for power, and not for death. A forgotten obligation. Why the Prophet, Imam Ali and Imam Hasan each had reason not to carry out this command before him. Two rejected extremes. Why the session dismisses both the theory that he sought rule and the theory that he sought martyrdom for its own sake.

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السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا ابْنَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا ابْنَ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا ابْنَ الصِّدِّيقَةِ الطَّاهِرَةِ سَيِّدَةِ نِسَاءِ الْعَالَمِينَ السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا مَوْلايَ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ اللَّهِ وَ رَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَ بَرَكَاتُهُ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ قَدْ أَقَمْتَ الصَّلاةَ وَ آتَيْتَ الزَّكَاةَ وَ أَمَرْتَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَ نَهَيْتَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَ تَلَوْتَ الْكِتَابَ حَقَّ تِلاوَتِهِ وَ جَاهَدْتَ فِي اللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ وَ صَبَرْتَ عَلَى الْأَذَى فِي جَنْبِهِ مُحْتَسِباً حَتَّى أَتَاكَ الْيَقِينُ وَ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ الَّذِينَ خَالَفُوكَ وَ حَارَبُوكَ وَ أَنَّ الَّذِينَ خَذَلُوكَ وَ الَّذِينَ قَتَلُوكَ مَلْعُونُونَ عَلَى لِسَانِ النَّبِيِّ الْأُمِّيِّ وَ قَدْ خَابَ مَنِ افْتَرَى لَعَنَ اللَّهُ الظَّالِمِينَ لَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَ الْآخِرِينَ وَ ضَاعَفَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْعَذَابَ الْأَلِيمَ أَتَيْتُكَ يَا مَوْلايَ يَا ابْنَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ زَائِرا عَارِفاً بِحَقِّكَ مُوَالِياً لِأَوْلِيَائِكَ مُعَادِياً لِأَعْدَائِكَ مُسْتَبْصِراً بِالْهُدَى الَّذِي أَنْتَ عَلَيْهِ عَارِفاً بِضَلالَةِ مَنْ خَالَفَكَ فَاشْفَعْ لِي عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ .

Peace be upon you, O son of the Messenger of Allah. Peace be upon you, O son of the Commander of the Faithful. Peace be upon you, O son of the truthful and pure one, the mistress of the women of all the worlds. Peace be upon you, O my master, O Aba Abdillah, and may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you. I bear witness that you established the prayer, and paid the alms-tax, and enjoined what is right, and forbade what is wrong, and recited the Quran giving it its due recitation, and waged jihad in the way of Allah and fulfilled its due, and endured patiently the harm of enemies for the sake of Allah, while entrusting your deeds to the reckoning of the Truth, until death came upon you. And I bear witness that those who opposed you, and those who fought against you, and those who withheld their support from you, and those who slew you, are accursed upon the tongue of the Unlettered Prophet, and ruined is the one who fabricated falsehood. May Allah curse the oppressors against you, from the first to the last of them, and may He double upon them the painful chastisement. O my master, I have come to your presence, O son of the Messenger of Allah, as a visitor, and I am one who recognizes your right, who loves your friends and is hostile to your enemies. I have insight into the guidance upon which you stand, and I am aware of the misguidance of those who opposed you. So intercede for me before your Lord.

Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Ziyarat of the Head of Imam Husayn (AS) near the Grave of Amir al-Mu'minin (AS) and in Masjid Hananah, Line 1