Salaam dear young friends, how are you today? Hope you are all fine by the Grace of Almighty Lord.
Today we meet you in the first week of Safar, the second month of mourning for the martyrs of the heart-wrenching tragedy of Karbala. We are still clad in black and will continue to commemorate the life-inspiring death of Imam Husain (AS) till the end of Safar, the climax being Arba’een or anniversary of the traditional 40th after the epic of Ashura.
By the way, today, the 3rd of Safar, according to an account, is the birth anniversary of Imam Muhammad Baqer (AS), who as a 4-year old was an innocent prisoner in Karbala, along with his parents, aunts, and grand-aunts, especially the Prophet’s granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA) by the Omayyad hordes to the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus
He witnessed the tragic martyrdom of his grandfather, Imam Husain (AS), and in the aftermath of the heartrending tragedy.
Despite his tender age, he carried himself with dignity, and release from the dungeons of the Godless Yazid, he along with his father, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), rebuilt from shreds the tattered fabric of Islam by reviving the pure and pristine Sunnah (practice) and Seerah (behaviour) of his ancestor, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), at a time when the ungodly Omayyad caliphs were terrorizing the Muslim World.
As you know, the famous Ziyarat-e Ashura that the faithful recite on the anniversary of the tragic 10th of Muharram for the Immortal Martyr of Karbala, is narrated on his authority.
Well friends, Friday will be the 5th of Safar and is the tragic martyrdom anniversary of Imam Husain’s (AS) less than 4-year old daughter, Hazrat Ruqa’iyya (SA), who succumbed to her grief during imprisonment in Damascus in Syria.
The little girl, who had suffered three days of thirst in Karbala, witnessed the gory scene of the severing of the head of her father while he was in the state of prostration to God during the ritual prayer. Next she saw the mounting of his head and those of other male relatives on lances, as the ungodly Omayyad hordes bound the orphans of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWA) family in ropes and took them Kufa and thence to Damascus.
She was a picture of innocence, yet this did not prevent the heartless perpetrators of the tragedy of Karbala from scolding, whipping and tormenting this great-grand daughter of the Prophet of Islam.
She endured the arduous journey as a captive bound in ropes from Kufa in Iraq to Damascus in Syria, where she breathed her last by putting her head on the severed head of her dear father.
Today, a grand mausoleum houses her blessed grave, and pilgrims from all over the world, flock to pay homage to her.
God bless you all; take care and goodbye till next week.