By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

 

 “You are Pure and the Purifier of the land where you are buried, and you are on a very high station,

 “I wish I had been with you and under your banner…

 “I beseech Allah, Who blessed me in this world with your pilgrimage, to grant me the blessings of your intercession on the Last Day, and gather me in your company and under your banner, and quench my thirst at your fountain (of Kowsar).”

 It is obvious from the above phrases that the address is to a person who is no longer physically present in the world.

 Yet, the words indicate that physical death has not numbed the senses of the addressee, who seems to be aware of the presence of the addressor; is hearing, is seeing, and might respond.

 The sentences speak of the lofty position of the person addressed as not just personally pure and spotless but a purifier of the land of eternal repose.

 The addressor then wishes if only he/she had been with the object of the address and under the banner of the addressee at crucial junctures, certain benedictions would have been his/her share and some calamities averted.

 The concluding passage proves that the Grace of God is the share of the pilgrim, who yearns for the fresh flowing Fountain of Kowsar, where the true believers quench their thirst, while the angels of wrath drive away the disbelievers and the deviationists who in the mortal life of the transient world had teased, tormented and tortured these heavenly personalities.

 Today happens to be the auspicious 5th of the month of Jamadi al-Awwal, the day on which the addressee was born and whose identity now becomes crystal clear.

 She was the eldest of the two granddaughters of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA); and in turn the daughter of such Immaculate Parents as the Noblest-ever Lady Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) and the Barometer of Faith, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

 She was none other than Zainab (SA), the sister of the Leaders of the Youths of Paradise – Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) the Martyr of Karbala.

 Peace upon you O Seyyedah Zainab (SA) on your blessed birthday, which we celebrate every year this day, whether at your holy shrine in the capital of Syria or afar in lands where your devotees dwell.

 We strive to be among the fortunate ones, who though prevented by the barriers of time from coming to your assistance at the tragedies that struck you in Karbala, Kufa, and Damascus, are now rushing from all over the world, to defend the sanctity of your mausoleum against terrorists of all hue and colour and their cowardly masters.

 You endured the tragedies of the fateful day of Ashura in Karbala and its equally tragic aftermath in the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus, for the sake of the Lord Most High in order to make Islam triumphant, with that immortal phrase on your lips: “I have seen nothing but the Grace (or Beauty of God).”

 Today, when the hordes of Satan in the form of the Zionists, the Wahhabis, the Americans, etc., are threatening the security of the land where you rest in peace, your real followers have volunteered to sacrifice their life and limbs in order to nullify the sinister plots of the modern-day Yazids.

 This is ample proof of the peerless position of Hazrat Zainab (SA). It means, when any conscientious mind turns to the Epic of Ashura and the traumatic aftermath of history’s greatest tragedy, it will acknowledge that Islam and all humanitarian values, without the least doubt, are also indebted forever to the heroic lady,whose indefatigable role earned her the title of “Sharikat al-Husain” or partner in the mission of Imam Husain (AS).

 A proper perspective of the dynamic personality of Hazrat Zainab (SA) reveals that she did not emerge spontaneously in Karbala, or at the scenarios schemed by the avowed enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt in Kufa and Damascus, where the womenfolk and children of the Prophet’s Household were paraded behind the severed heads of their dear ones mounted on lances.

 In fact, Karbala and the two centres of power in Iraq and Syria merely provided the fitting climax to a fruitful life of almost six decades that started with her blessed birth during the days of the Prophet and ended in the mournful martyrdom some four years after the heroic sacrifice of her brother.

Therefore, although it is beyond our ken to fully gauge the pride of place in the history of civilization of a lady, whose real merits are known only to God Almighty, the Prophet of Islam and the Infallible Imams, we could at least have the honour of paying our humble homage to Hazrat Zainab (SA) by studying her eventful life.

 From the day she had opened her eyes in the abode of Divine Revelation till the day she departed from the world, she was surrounded by the aura of spirituality.

 “Peace upon you and upon your Grandfather, your Father, your Mother and Two Brothers,

 “Peace upon you and upon the Infallible Imams of the progeny of your Brother Husain (AS)…”