13. Sayyid Baqir al-Hindi (d. 1329 A.H.)
The great scholar and the prominent poet, Sayyid Baqir son of Sayyid Muhammed al-Hindi, has said,
You don’t know with fire they burned the door,
Thus they hoped to put out, with fire, the noor.
You don’t know what nail had to do
With Fatima’s chest, if you only knew
In what condition her broken rib was
What miscarriage, why red were her eyes,
Why her ear-rings on the ground did scatter,
Unveiled was she when her house they did enter,
As Ali looked on, the man of manliness
The honorable, the fearless.
The Lion of Allah did they harass,
Like a camel did they lead him in duress.
The Batal behind them stumbled
On the tail of her robe which they pulled
With moaning that in the hearts did it ignite
The fire, and in anxiety that melted the stones of height.
She called upon them: Let my cousin Ali alone or I
To the Hearing One, the Seeing, shall I cry.
They paid her no heed,
By them she was scared indeed,
So they took Ali as a captive away,
He goes on till he says the following:
Ali sees and hears, and the sword is sharp
And Ali’s might is not to be taken lightly
But his Brother’s will restricted what he could
Which was more than one really would,
So patience, O one entrusted with the affair
One whose judgment is wise and fair
One with a calamity that is on and on
One that melts one whose heart is stone.
How many calamities my narration of them to prolong
Wherein purity was stripped in time not so long?
How, eyes being quite red, can thee control,
O Son of Taha, a sweet slumber at all?
So weep and sigh for her foes
Did not let her weep and wail her woes.
As if I can see him saying, as he does weep,
With little solace but with tears high and deep:
May I after her never take for my relief
A home of happiness after her “house of grief.”
So when, O son of Fatima, you will bring to life in a way
The tyrants and the oppressors even before the Judgment Day?[11]
14. `Allama al-Qazwini (d. 1335 A.H.)
The virtuous `allama, Sayyid Muhammed son of Sayyid Mehdi al-Qazwini al-Hilli al-Najafi, has said,
SALIM said something, said I: O Salman!
Did they really enter without permission?!
Said he: Yes, by the Glory of the Great One
While al-Zahra’ had no veil at all.
But she behind the door sought refuge,
Observing the rules of veil.
When they saw her, they did squeeze
Her, almost killing her, may my life
Be her ransom. Said she; O Fidda!
Support me, for surely have they
Killed my fetus this very day.
She miscarried, the Daughter of Guidance, O Grief!
Miscarried her son,
The one called Muhassan.[12]
15. Hafiz Ibrahim (d. 1351 A.H.)
Hafiz Ibrahim, Poet of the Nile, has said,
A statement to Ali said by `Omer,
How great the one who heard it is,
How respectful the one who said it is!
“To burn your home shall I
“Leave none in it if you
“Do not swear fealty,” though
The Daughter of the Chosen one still inside.
Only Aba Hafs could thus say
To `Adnan’s knight and protector.[13]
Commenting on the above-cited verses, Grand Ayatullah `allama al-Muzaffar, may Allah have mercy on his soul, has said, “This poet mistakenly thought that the said statement was indicative of the courage of `Omer who demonstrated no courage at all during famous battles, nor did he record any feats of valor during the many wars waged by the Prophet (A.S.)! This was only due to a trust entrusted to him by the Prophet (A.S.) who admonished him to be patient. Had he (Ali [a]) confronted `Omer, the latter would surely have fled away.”[14]
16. Al-Isfahani, the Critic (d. 1361 A.H.)
The grand philosopher and the religious authority and the mentor/critic, said the following in a poetic urjaza in his dawan known as Al-Anwar al-Qudsiyya:
Her calamity, the opening to all calamities,
Was what she went through at the door,
For the talk about that door is surely grievous
Due to what the hands of betrayal committed.
Did the foes really assault
The House of Guidance,
The landing place of Revelation,
The center of all bliss?
Was the fire they did ignite
At her house’s door
And the Sign of Noor
Overwhelms it with light?
Her door is the door of the Prophet
Of mercy, the Prophet of salvation
Of this very Nation.
Nay! Her door is the door of
The most High, the most Exalted.
As though Allah’s Countenance was manifested.
With that fire they gained nothing but shame
After which there will be that of the Fire of Hell.
How ignorant some people are!
The fire burns not the Noor of Allah!
The most Exalted, the most Sublime!
But the breaking of the rib has none to repair
Except with the sword of one of might and power.
What wrenched those sacred ribs was a calamity
None like it in all eternity.
From the spring of blood that gushed out of her chest
Can one tell what she suffered, through what she went.
They transgressed all limits when they
On the cheek slapped her, may
The hand of oppression God paralyze.
And still remains the redness of her eyes
Of the eyes of knowledge can only remedied
By white swords when the banner is spread.
And the whips have a sound of dreariness
Hear by Time, lacking any happiness.
Remains, like a bracelet, the mark
On the wrist of al-Zahra’ that was so dark
A most strong of any argument.
From the blackness of her arm the cosmos
Was blackened, O Arm of Allah! O Imam al-Murtada!
How the sword’s scabbard was on her side planted
Bringing to memory all what to her happened.
I know not the story of the nail,
So ask the Custodian of all secrets.
In the womb of glory things that
Cause the inside to bleed.
Can they really hide
What is known and wide?
What about the door, the wall, the blood?
True witnesses which none can hide.
The criminal committed against her son
His crime the like of which is none.
So mountains were crushed
Upon hearing her wailing, though hushed.
Is this how the Prophet’s Daughter should be treated
Running after power, how wondrous it is!
Should one a grieved, saddened woman keep,
For fear of slander, forbidding her to weep?
By Allah! She ought to shed tears of blood
As long as the earth remains and the world
For having lost the dear one, her great father
For her oppression and for insulting her protector.
Should the inheritance of the Truthful One
Become free for all and her legacy
From the very best of creation?
How could one call her statement a lie
For it will be one’s answer to the verse
Of Purification...?
Should the faith be learned from a bedouin
Leaving aside the one referred to in the Book?
Thus they confiscated what she did own
Committing the extreme in calamity.
Woe upon them! They asked for a proof
Contrary to the clearly defined Sunnah!
And their rejection of those who did testify
Is the greatest testimony to what we clarify.
Filling the gaps was not coincidental
Nay! They closed hers and the Murtada’s door.
They turned away from the truth and did close
Its door, as though they were secure against its retribution.
Should part of the Greatly Purified one
Be buried at night, her grave unknown to man?
She was not buried at night and secretly
except because she was with the oppressors angry.
Nobody heard that she could ever thus be
In esteem unrecognized, her grave unknown to you and me.
Woe unto them from the Wrath of the Great One
For having oppressed the flower of the Chosen One.[15]
17. KASHIFAL-GHITA’ (d. 1373)
The renown scholar and the authority and mentor Muhammed Husain KASHIFAL-GHITA’, may Allah have mercy on him, said the following in one of his poems:
At the Taffs did a wounded hero fall as did one
Behind the door fall named al-Muhassan,
And in every tent
A fire was set
From the very flame
That did burn in shame
The door of the house where did reside
The daughter of the Prophet sent to guide.[16]
There are other renown poets whom we cannot cite here hoping this much should suffice to make our point clear, and we seek help from none but Allah.
This is an article taken from the book -
TRAGEDY OF AL-ZAHRA’ (A.S.). DOUBTS CAST AND REBUTTALS
By: Ayatullah `Allama Sayyid Ja’far Murtada al-`Amili
Translated from the Arabic By: Yasin T. al-Jibouri
Published By: Imam Hussain Foundation
READ THIS BOOK ONLINE HERE
[11]Riyad al-Madh wal Ratha’, pp. 197-98.
[13]Hafz Ibrahim, Dawan, Vol. 1, p. 75 (published by Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Egypt).
[16]Al-Muqarram, Maqtal al-Husain (A), p. 389.
