By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“Indeed the earth laments over the death of a true believer for a period of 40 days.” (Prophet Muhammad – SAWA)
The Seal of Messengers never says anything by himself, and whatever he speaks are Divinely-inspired words, as testified by the Holy Qur’an in the opening Ayahs of Surah Najm.
So, if the earth mourns for forty days for an ordinary believer, then how about the lamentation for the Prophet’s younger grandson and his 3rd Infallible Heir, Imam Husain (AS), who refusing to pay allegiance to a tyrant, courted immortal martyrdom on the battlefield, along his dear and near ones, including sons, brothers, nephews and male companions, in order to keep alive Islam and all humanitarian values?
The answer is provided by the Martyr of Karbala’s grandson, Imam Muhammad Baqer (AS), who as a 4-year boy was present in Karbala on the bloodcurdling day of Ashura (10th Muharram 61 AH). He has informed us of the aggrieved state of the sky as well for this same number of days, following Imam Husain’s (AS) Great Sacrifice (Zibhin Azeem):
“Indeed the sky lamented over the death of al-Husain for a period of 40 days.”
For the skeptics, it should be pointed out that there is Divine Wisdom in the figure of 40, as could be gleaned from the following two Ayahs of the Holy Qur’an, where God Almighty says:
“And when We made an appointment with Moses for forty nights...” (Holy Qur’an 2:51)
“And We made an appointment with Moses for thirty nights, and completed them with ten [more]; thus the tryst of his Lord was completed in forty nights… (Holy Qur’an 7:142)
These Ayahs refer to the Divinely-commanded seclusion in worship on Mount Sinai of Prophet Moses.
Those still in doubt regarding the wordings of the Final and Universal Revelation of God for all mankind (the Holy Qur’an) are advised to browse through the Old Testament, where despite the havoc of interpolation over the past three millenniums, it seems certain facts still remain:
“Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” (Exodus 24:18)
Interestingly, the New Testament also seems to have retained some of the truth in spite of the additions and deletions of the past two millenniums, when it says:
“And when he (Jesus) had fasted forty days and forty nights, he felt hungry.” (Mathew 4:2)
Regardless of the fact that the above sentence from the Gospel is a firm refutation of the Christian claim of Jesus being a godson (who should neither have the human appetite to eat nor the need to fast and feel hungry afterwards), it again proves the dynamism behind the figure of forty.
Peace upon you O Aba Abdullah al-Husain (AS). Peace upon the 20-million odd pilgrims converging on your holy shrine in Karbala from all over the world to commemorate your Arba’een on Safar 20 – the 40th day following the anniversary of your martyrdom on the Day of Ashura (Muharram 10).
At a time, when none of the self-acclaimed followers of the Qur’an, the Evangel, and the Torah, have any idea of the Divine Wisdom behind decreeing a 40-day period for sacred missions, each year your mourners, despite the plots of the US, the poisonous propaganda of the Zionists, the sedition of the traitors, and the threats of the dastardly takfiri terrorists, have kept alive God’s fixing of this specific period.
Your devotees, to whatever creed they belong, are proud to pay homage to you at your Holy Shrine in what could be called the largest assembly on Planet Earth.
So why do the Zionists, the Salafists, the imperialists, and the Takfiri terrorists, are opposed to our commemoration of the tragedy of Karbala, when the earth and the sky lament for the martyrdom of the grandson of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger?
Didn’t Imam Husain (AS) by courting martyrdom, rather than acknowledging the illegal rule of a Godless libertine, taught humanity how to stand firm in the face of injustice, moral decadence, and attempts to distort the laws of God?
Isn’t the 40-day period for Divine causes, specifically mentioned in the heavenly revealed scriptures?
The answers are obvious. The distractors are against truth, justice, peace, moral virtues, and humanitarian values.
A brief newspaper column cannot do justice to Imam Husain (AS), who along with his elder brother, Imam Hasan (AS), was hailed by the Prophet as “The Two Leaders of the Youths of Paradise” – as confirmed by the authoritative works of even our Sunni brethren.
As the Successor of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), of Imam Ali (AS) and of Imam Hasan (AS), the son of the Noblest-ever Lady Fatema Zahra (SA), he could not endorse Yazid’s illegal and ungodly rule, because this would have thrown cold water on not just Islamic teachings but the legacy of the prophets of the past, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
In view of these facts, Imam Husain (AS) had written a lengthy letter to the Omayyad usurper of the caliphate, Mu’awiyyah ibn Abu Sufyan, warning him in advance of the consequences of nominating Yazid as successor in violation of the letter and spirit of the Holy Qur’an and the ethereal teachings of Islam.
Here I cite only one single paragraph from this historic letter that also exposes Mu’awiyyah in his true heathen colours:
“O Mu’awiyyah! Be prepared for Divine retribution and be sure of the accountability before Allah. Know that the scroll of deeds has a record of every small and big sin. Nothing is omitted from it. Allah will never excuse your act of arresting people on mere suspicion. You wrongly accused the saintly people with baseless allegations and slaughtered them. You made them abandon their houses to be homeless in strange lands. You forcibly extracted allegiance from the people for your drunkard and dog-loving son.”
The Day of Arba’een thus refreshes our grief, and renews our aspirations for peace, security, moral virtues and justice when we travel to Karbala, or with faces turned towards this holy city in Iraq, we recite the famous Ziyarah for this day, which is one of the five signs of a true believer. Here is a passage from it.
“And I bear witness that you kept your promise made with Allah, and strived in His way until what was certain came upon you, so curse of Allah be on those who killed you, and curse of Allah be on those who oppressed you, and curse of Allah be on the people who came to know of it and approved (of all of it).”