In His Name, the Most High
1. يَا مُمْتَحَنَةُ
2. امْتَحَنَكِ اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَكِ
3. فَوَجَدَكِ لِمَا امْتَحَنَكِ صَابِرَةً
4. وَ زَعَمْنَا أَنَّا لَكِ أَوْلِيَاءُ
5. وَ مُصَدِّقُونَ وَ صَابِرُونَ
6. لِكُلِّ مَا أَتَانَا بِهِ أَبُوكِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ آلِهِ
7. وَ أَتَى [أَتَانَا] بِهِ وَصِيُّهُ
8. فَإِنَّا نَسْأَلُكِ إِنْ كُنَّا صَدَّقْنَاكِ
9. إِلا أَلْحَقْتِنَا بِتَصْدِيقِنَا لَهُمَا
10. لِنُبَشِّرَ أَنْفُسَنَا بِأَنَّا قَدْ طَهُرْنَا بِوِلايَتِكِ.
O you who were tested —
God, who created you, tested you before He created you,
and found you, in all that He tested you with, patient.
And we have claimed that we are your friends,
and that we hold you true, and are patient
with all that your father brought us — God bless him and his family —
and all that his successor brought.
So we ask you — if we have held you true —
for nothing but this: that, for our holding the two of them true, you join us to them;
so that we may bring our own souls the glad news that we have become pure, through belonging to you.
From the Ziyarah (Visitation) of Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra
The Voice of the Awaited One
This maqtal is spoken, as every maqtal of various is spoken, in the voice of the Awaited Imam — the Mahdi, the son of Hasan, may our souls be his ransom and may God hasten his return — looking back across the veils of his long absence.
And he is not negligent of attending to us, and he is not forgetful of remembering him, therefore we too should not forget him.
Voiced in the series’ Mahdi-Maqtal-Voice — an imagining of the Awaited Imam’s voice, rendered in clear English by the means of our age, belonging to no living man.
Fatimiyyah Maqtal — “By Night or by Day”
I. She Walked His Walk
I was not there — but I remember.
I remember the day my grandmother, Fatimah al-Zahra, peace and blessings be upon her, wound her head-covering about her head, and drew her cloak around her, and went out.
My grandfather, the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, his family, and his righteous companions, was in his grave.
And what he had given her was being taken from her.
She went out among her attendants, and the women of her people.
The hem of her garment trailed in the dust.
And her walk was his walk.
Not near it.
His.
She came in upon the gathering where the man who now held the seat was sitting, with the Emigrants and the Helpers around him.
A curtain was hung.
She sat behind it.
And she let out one sound.
One moan.
And the whole gathering wept.
The room shook with it.
She waited until they were quiet.
Then she praised God.
And the room wept again.
And she waited again.
And then she spoke.
II. The Call That No One Answered
She spoke to them of God, and of her father, and of the Book that was still in their hands.
She asked the man in the seat whether it was in the Book of God that he should inherit from his father, and she should not inherit from hers.
And she read them the Book:
that Solomon inherited from David;
that Zechariah prayed for a son who would inherit from him — peace and blessings be upon them all.And then she turned to the Helpers.
The people of the city that had taken her father in.
And she called them by their mother’s name, the way you call your own kin.
She asked them how her father’s inheritance could be taken from her while they sat there and saw it, and heard it.
She told them they were many, and armed.
That the call had reached them, and they had not answered.
That the cry had come to them, and they had not come.
And they did not come.
I remember that silence.
It was the silence of strong men, sitting still.
III. As the Earth Loses Its Rain
And before she went home, she turned to her father’s grave, and she spoke to him in verse.
This is some of what she said.
She told him that after he had gone there had been news, and turmoil — and that if he had been there to see it, the trouble would never have grown so great.
She told him that we had lost him as the earth loses its rain.
She told him that men had shown us what they had kept in their hearts, the moment he was gone and the earth came between us.
That men had frowned on us, and made light of us.
She told him he had been a full moon to us, and a light to see by.
That Gabriel used to keep us company with the verses.
And now he was gone, and every good thing was veiled.
And she told him she wished that death had come to us before him.
IV. God Is Enough
She went home.
My forefather Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, peace and blessings be upon him, had been waiting for her, watching for her to come back.
And she spoke to him of all that had been done.
And he answered her.
He told her there was no woe upon her — the woe was upon the one who hated her.
He called her the daughter of the Chosen One, and what was left of prophethood, and asked her to hold back her grief.
He told her that her provision was guaranteed, and the One who stood surety for it could be trusted, and that what was kept for her was better than what had been cut off from her.
And he told her to leave it with God.
And she said that God was enough for her.
And she said nothing more.
My grandmother had spoken.
And now she was silent.
Not because she had lost.
Because she had said it all.
And what was left, she left with God.
V. You Trouble Us with Your Weeping
And she wept.
For her father.
She wept for him until the city was troubled by it.
And the people of Medina came to her and said:
You trouble us with how much you weep.
I remember that sentence.
They had sat silent while her right was taken.
And now they could not bear the sound of her grief.
So she would go out of the city, to the graves of the martyrs, and weep there until she had wept enough — and then she would come home.
VI. By Night or by Day
And as it has come down to us, the elders of Medina came to my forefather Ali.
Abu al-Hasan, they said, Fatimah weeps night and day.
Not one of us finds ease in sleep in his bed at night.
By day we have no rest at our work, or in seeking our living.
Ask her to weep by night — or by day.And he went in to her.
She could not stop weeping, and no consolation reached her.
But when she saw him, she grew still, for a little while, for his sake.
And he told her what the elders had asked.And she answered him.
How short, she said, was her stay among them.
How near she was to leaving them.
By God, she would not be silent — not by night, and not by day — until she was with her father.And he told her to do as she saw fit — she, the daughter of the Messenger of God.
And then my forefather Ali built her a house.
Out in al-Baqi’, away from the city.
They called it the House of Sorrows.And every morning, she sent al-Hasan and my forefather al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon them, ahead of her.
Two little boys, walking in front of their mother, out of the city, to the graves. And she followed them, weeping.And when night came, my forefather Ali came out and brought her home.
So it was, until twenty-seven days had passed since her father died.
And then she fell ill.
VII. Two Daughters
So I remember two daughters, and two crowds.
One — the Blessed Saint Mary — was told to be silent, and her child spoke for her, and the crowd was answered.
One spoke for herself, and the crowd was silent — and when her grief came, the crowd found its voice at last, and used it to ask her to weep less.
She would not be silent.
She gave her grief to God.
My brothers.
My sisters.
I was not there.
But I remember — because she is my grandmother, and those two little boys walking ahead of her to the graves are my own.
You have children who walk ahead of you.
You have sons and daughters who come home carrying a grief you do not understand.
Do not tell them: by night, or by day.
Do not ration it.
Do not ask them to be quiet so that you can sleep.
Sit with them in it.
Build them a house for it, if you have to.
And bring them home at night.
But I am not gone.
And wait for me with the lamp lit.
Weep for her, by night and by day, until I come.
May our Lord hasten my return.
Pray ardently for my return, pray ardently for my return.
May the mercy of God be upon all of you, and may He bless each and every one of you abundantly.
Sources Cited
al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 29, pages 220 to 235 — Sayyedah Fatimah’s sermon, from al-Tabrisi’s al-Ihtijaj: her coming out among the women of her family, her walk her father’s walk, the curtain, the moan and the weeping (page 220); her question to the man in authority, and the Book she read them — Solomon inherited from David; Zechariah’s prayer for an heir (page 226); her call to the Helpers by their mother’s name, numerous and armed, the call not answered and the cry not come to (page 228); her elegy at her father’s grave (page 233); the Commander of the Faithful watching for her return (page 234, the narrator’s line only); his answer — no woe upon her, woe to the one who hates her; the daughter of the Chosen One, and what is left of prophethood; her provision is guaranteed; leave it with God — and her God is enough for me, and her silence (page 235).
Shaykh al-Saduq, al-Amali, hadith 241, from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq — she wept over the Messenger of God until the people of Medina were troubled, and they said you have troubled us with how much you weep; she would go out to the graves of the martyrs, weep until she had done, and come back. The same report in al-Khisal, Volume 1, hadith 676.
al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 43, page 174 — his caution, that he found the account in some books and did not take it from a source that can be relied upon; the account is Fidda’s, Sayyedah Fatimah’s maidservant, as Waraqa ibn Abd Allah al-Azdi reports it; pages 177 and 178 — the elders of Medina and their request, by night or by day; her answer; the House of Sorrows in al-Baqi’, away from the city; al-Hasan and al-Husayn sent ahead of her each morning; the Commander of the Faithful bringing her home at night; until twenty-seven days had passed since her father’s death, and the illness in which she died.
