We Will Cry

The caravan draws closer,
And the walls of Madinah near.
The caravan has returned, bereft of its master Husayn.
Imam Sajjad stops, burdened by his message
And when his uncle Muhammad asked,
“Where is my brother?”
He could only weep and reply,
I have returned to you an orphan,
I have come back home, only with the women.

The lady of patience has lost her strength,
she can no longer hold up her back.
and she falls off her horse.
She remembers how their caravan left,
and sees how they have returned.
When Ummul Baneen asked her, 
Why has your back become bent,
and your hair grayed, my child?
How will it not, she replied,
When the daughters of the family of the Prophet
were paraded through the markets,
and made to attend the court of Yazeed.
And kept for months in a prison cell,
and witnessed the falling of one after another
of the courageous sons of Bani Hashim.
And heard the cries of Sakinah,
and the chains tearing into the flesh of Sajjad,
As well as the bodies of the martyrs,
scattered on the sands,
And the mutilated body of Abbas at the shore?

Why will I not cry when I have witnessed every atrocity
Till I thought that my grandfather had commanded only torture for his kin?
And she went to the grave of her grandfather, the Prophet
and held the gate to the mosque and proclaimed:
O Grandfather! I am conveying to you the news of my brother Husayn's martyrdom!
And cried for Husayn, and cried for Abbas
Then she turned to her mother,
And poured out her heart
And told her, only I have returned my mother,
I have left the joy of your heart in Nainawah,
I left the light of your eyes in the land of Karb and Balaa.

And the city of Madinah mourned,
And their cries reached the heavens.
For the radiant lady eulogized her brothers and sons,
and army of the men of God,
who stood against the tyrant yazeed.
Till the tears flowed, like rivers from the lovers
And the creatures of the heavens and the earth
joined Zaynab as she cried and she mourned.
And every time she would look at al Sajjad,
the tears would flow, from her noble eyes.

Thus she mourned al Husayn,
to the end of her days,
and the shias joined her, and they cried for Karbalaa.
But who will cry for our lady Zainab?
She who witnessed and saw,
and was our eyes at Karbalaa.
Witnessing every moment, and relating it to us,
and when we heard the tale,
of the injustice and tyranny,
we cried our tears, and we cried our blood.
Again I will ask, who will cry for Zaynab?
We will cry, ya Zahra, for your brave patient daughter,
we will cry to the end of our days.


“Peace be upon her the day she was born, the day she died and the day she will be brought back to life…” Salamullah 3layki ya Ummul masaaib Sayyidatna Zaynab bint Ali bin. Abi Talib.