In His Name, the Most High
اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِاللَّهِ
وَعَلَى الْأَرْوَاحِ الَّتِي حَلَّتْ بِفِنَائِكَ
عَلَيْكُمْ مِنَّا جَمِيعًا سَلاَمُ اللَّهِ أَبَدًا مَا بَقِينَا وَبَقِيَ اللَّيْلُ وَالنَّهَارُ
وَلا جَعَلَهُ اللَّهُ آخِرَ الْعَهْدِ مِنَّا لِزِيَارَتِكُمْ
اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَى الْحُسَيْنِ
وَعَلَى عَلِيِّ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ
وَعَلَى أَوْلَادِ الْحُسَيْنِ
وَعَلَى أَصْحَابِ الْحُسَيْنِPeace be upon you, O Aba Abdillah (O Husayn),
and upon the souls who have gathered in your courtyard.
Upon you, from us all, is the peace of God—forever,
for as long as we remain and as long as night and day endure.
And may God never make this our last pledge to visit you.Peace be upon al-Husayn,
and upon Ali, son of al-Husayn,
and upon the children of al-Husayn,
and upon the companions of al-Husayn.—Adapted from Ziyarat Ashura1
Introduction
This is the companion-piece to the Shahada — The Theology of Witness and the Grades of Martyrdom series: where the fifteen nights walk the road witness by witness — from Abel at the first field to the Master of the Martyrs at the noon of the tenth, and on to Arbaeen — this standalone maqtal stands at the centre of that road and tells it whole.
The write-ups for the Shahada (Witness) series can be found at Reflection313, and the full program breakdown and links to each component of each of the programs (and other programs and events from the Truth Promoters Group) can be found at the Truth Promoters Website Events Page for Muharram 1448
As with the previous maqatil, the voice speaking it is the voice of the Awaited One, the Master of the Age — Imam al-Mahdi, may our souls be his ransom, and may God hasten his return — the living inheritor of Imam Husayn’s stand and sacrifice.
The historical narrative draws directly from four principal sources and others, and all of the source references can be found at the bottom of this write-up, we encourage all to review the sources and further educate themselves on this subject.
The Imam Husayn ibn Ali - the Master of the Martyrs
This is a maqtal — a sacred eulogy — for the Master of the Martyrs, Imam Husayn ibn Ali, who was the embodiment of truth, and those with God, and who was murdered - along with his family and companions - in Karbala, on the noon of Ashura, but the worst of the worst.
As with the previous maqatil, it has been composed in a unique style, as though the voice speaking it is the voice of the Awaited One, the Master of the Age — Imam al-Mahdi, may our souls be his ransom, and may God hasten his return. He is the living inheritor of Imam Husayn’s stand and sacrifice.
The historical narrative within this maqtal draws directly from three principal sources:
Chronicles of the Martyrdom of Imam Husayn6 by Shaykh Muhammad Muhammadi Reyshahri7.
Ziyarat Nahiya al-Muqaddasah8
Important Note: This maqtal draws from the special Ashura Maqtal that we produced for last year (1447/2025); and can be considered a targeted refresh of that.
This maqtal is a companion to the entire Truth Promoters Muharram 1448/2026 Series, titled ‘Shahada (Witness)
Please see the bottom of this post for a detailed changelog, explain what has changed since the 2025/1447 version of this special maqtal for the Day of Ashura.
What is a Maqtal
A Maqtal is, in essence, a sacred eulogy — a remembrance of the epic tragedy of Ashura. It is recited not merely to recount history, but to draw the listener into a living bond with Imam Husayn, to learn from his stand, and to allow his sacrifice to shape the conscience of the heart.
This narration is also meant to educate, to awaken reflection, and to engrave the message of Imam Husayn deep within our souls. It is natural — indeed blessed — to mourn and weep during the Maqtal. For when one truly listens and contemplates the enormity of what befell not only Imam Husayn, but the very spirit of Islam itself, so soon after the passing of the Prophet Muhammad — peace and blessings be upon him and his family — the heart can do nothing but break in sorrow.
Yet this sorrow is not an end in itself. It should inspire the one who listens, watches, or reads to rise above complacency, to purify and strengthen the self, and to strive tirelessly to ensure that such injustice and betrayal can never be repeated. This is the true tribute to Husayn: that every tear becomes a vow, and every mourning heart a fortress against tyranny in every age.
The Special Ashura Maqtal
The Everlasting Cry
O seeker who weeps in a century far from Taff,
know this: there is no grave that can contain Husayn,
nor century that can silence his thirst.I speak to you from the shadows where injustice hides:
I am the son of Husayn — the one promised to rise.
Listen well: the plains still whisper, the blood still calls.
Husayn was slain but not silenced.
And woe to this world if it forgets.
The Plea to Wolves and Stones
When no friend remained but the wind,
he leaned upon his sword, body punctured and weary.He called them, hyenas in iron skins:
“O people! Am I not the son of your Prophet’s daughter?
Have I killed any among you?
Have I seized your wealth unjustly?
Why then do you seek my blood?”A silence deeper than deceit.
Then spears.
Then arrows.
No answer — but death.“If you hate me, let me depart.
Else, fight me as free men, not jackals in the dark.”They proved themselves worse than jackals.
A Rag for the King
He knew these wretches would not spare even cloth.
So he found an old, tattered loincloth, hidden among the ashes.
He tied it beneath his armour, praying:
“O Lord, let my body not shame my mother’s modesty.”But even this, Qays ibn Ash’ath snatched away
from a corpse still warm.The King of Martyrs lay naked
before the Throne of God — clothed only in wounds.
The Last Embrace of Sayyedah Zaynab
He turned to the tents.
Tremors of weeping behind torn veils.
Sayyedah Zaynab ran to him, feet stumbling over children’s cries.
She clung to him — her hair dusted in the desert wind:
“Brother, how can I bear your absence?Who will cradle these orphans?
Who will guard the Quran in flesh?”
He pressed her head to his chest.
She kissed his throat, weeping where the blade would drink.
“Our mother, Sayyedah Fatima al-Zahra, told me in a dream:
‘Zaynab, kiss your brother’s throat —
for that is his covenant with the sword.’”He whispered,
“Do not tear your veil for my sake.
Save your tears for the world that will forget what you bore.”
The Covenant with Imam Sajjad
The tent flap parted —
Ali, the son of Husayn, frail as a reed in a storm,
his fevered eyes two suns dimmed by sorrow.Husayn lifted his chin with a hand still trembling with strength.
“My son — patience, patience.
This Ummah has slain my body,
but you must guard my light.
Your chains will be many,
your words must be few but sharper than swords.
Hold this Wilayah as you hold your breath:
hidden, yet life itself.”Imam Ali Zayn al-Abedeen nodded —
and the chain of the Imams did not break.
The Last Shout to the Age
Then Husayn turned his face to the sun,
to the sky where angels wept blood.He roared:
“Is there anyone to help us?
Is there anyone to come to our aid?”A cry not for the cowards before him —
but for the unborn lovers,
for you and I —
so that every free heart would hear
and never find sleep in a tyrant’s shadow.
The Crown of Arrows, The Throne of Dust
Then they loosed the swarm.
Arrows rooted in his flesh like black branches of a barren tree.
He staggered, each step a sermon.
He fell — yet the earth did not feel his weight:
for the barbs upheld him.He whispered:
“O God! I bear witness You are my Witness.
This people have slain the son of Your Prophet.”Shimr, the hyena crowned with cruelty,
straddled the trembling chest,
broke the ribs beneath his weight.One final breath —
then the blade kissed the throat Sayyedah Zaynab had kissed.
The Head on the Lance, The Cave of Truth
They raised it on a spear, dripping paradise.
The lips moved — terror on the murderers’ tongues:
“Or do you think the Companions of the Cave and the Inscription
were a wonder among Our signs?”
— Qur’an, Surah al-Kahf (the Chapter of the Cave) #18, Verse #9Fools!
The Cave slept centuries yet rose alive —
so too does Husayn.His blood is a sign, his head a sermon
which no sword can silence.
The Horse Without Its Moon
Back galloped Zuljanah, masterless —
its saddle dark with its rider’s life.Children clutched its mane, hoping for the voice that calmed storms.
Sayyedah Ruqayyah fainted at its hooves:
“Where is Baba?
Where is the star upon your back?”Sayyedah Zaynab fell upon its neck, sobbing into its mane:
“O loyal one! You returned,
but my brother will never return —
till the Mahdi lifts his banner again.”
Sayyedah Zaynab’s Thunder to Ibn Sa’ad
Umar ibn Sa’ad, son of Sa’ad the apostate,
watched from his coward’s hill.Sayyedah Zaynab, veilless but more veiled than all modesty,
strode to him like judgment made flesh:
“O son of Sa’ad! May your mother mourn you!
You watch while my brother’s veins feed your swords?
You stand still while the Prophet’s blood is butchered?
May the mercy of God be far from you, to the last trumpet!”He turned his eyes to the sand —
but Hell turned toward him.
The Plunder, The Shame
Then it began:
fires among the tents,
screams of girls whose bracelets were torn with flesh.One brute struck Sayyedah Sukayna across the face — tears in his eyes:
“Why weep while you strike me?”
she sobbed.He spat his shame:
“If I do not, another will.
Forgive me, little one — I am a beast in chains of fear.”Ziyarat al-Nahiya weeps:
“Peace be upon the abandoned body upon the sands,
the thirsty throat that spoke Quran though severed,
the banner that never fell.”
The Mahdi’s Oath: The Tyrants Are On Notice
O my Shia —
O witnesses at my grandfather’s grave —
your tears are not enough if your silence feeds the wolves.When you drink water, remember my father’s thirst.
When you hold your children, remember the children they orphaned.
When you stand beneath roofs they bomb, remember: the blood of Husayn forbids surrender.
Let every tyrant in every palace hear me now:
the brokers of Gaza’s siege,
the vultures circling Yemen’s cradle,
the liars who defame the defenders of Lebanon,
the serpent’s tongue that whispers sedition in Iran,
the merchants who sell death to the old as ‘mercy,’
the butchers of the unborn in hidden clinics,
the poisoners who unravel the family and call it freedom —I see you.
I, the son of Husayn, stand witness before God:
you are on notice.
Where there is a Yazid, there must be a Husayn.
And when no Husayn rises from you,
I shall rise — with the dawn at my back and a sword no lie can dull.
Until I stand revealed,
know this:
among you live hearts loyal to my father’s blood —
they clarify when others confuse,
they speak when others kneel,
they suffer the night of loneliness that is my loneliness.For them, I pray:
O God, Guardian of the truthful, Shelter of the abandoned,
strengthen those who stand for clarification — for tabyeen — when tongues betray them,
protect them when the corrupt gather like wolves,
lighten for them the burden of exile among the heedless.Make their isolation a garden of intimacy with You,
their tears an armour, their truth an arrow.For surely, this path is the Way —
the way of the lonely, the betrayed, the patient —
the way of Husayn, and the way of his hidden son.Swear it with me now, O loyal ones:
never again shall truth be left undefended,
never again shall Husayn be alone.Never again.
Closing Benediction and Curse — The Living Caravan
Peace be upon Husayn,
and upon Ali, the son of Husayn,
and upon the children of Husayn,
and upon the companions of Husayn —
those who fell beside him in Karbala,
and those who rose for him in every century.Peace be upon the Husaynis of our age —
the caravan that has not halted, and will not halt, until I rise:Imam Khomeini, who revived the cry;
Shaheed Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who bled for the truth;
Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Husayn Fadhlullah, the clarifier of veiled sedition;
Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, struck from the sky and not silenced;
Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, who kept the long patience of his jihad for twenty-five hidden years;
Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who fell where his brother fell;
Hajj Qassem Soleimani, commander of love and martyrdom;
Shaheed Mohsen Hojaji, whose neck bore the sword yet whose spirit broke the tyrant.And Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah —
who, when last I came to you, stood as the unbroken lion at the front,
and who has since gone on to the front he never truly left,
taking his place in the caravan he had served with his whole life.And hear this, my beloved — for the year that has passed
has taken from you the one who carried the lamp of the Wilayah in your own time:Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the Guardian.
For a lifetime he refused what Husayn refused.
Eleven days before they took him, with his own tongue, he said it plainly —
that one like him does not give his hand to one like Yazid.And for that refusal he was martyred, in the month of Ramadan, the month of the Book —
and his blood was poured into the same inheritance as the blood of this field.And to the one who carries the trust now, after him —
Imam Sayyed Mujtaba Khamenei, the Guardian of this hour —
may God protect him, and keep him firm,
and guide his steps on the road of the lonely
until the hour I am permitted to stand.May God rest the pure souls of all of them.
And peace upon every martyr who has joined the caravan of love —
from Palestine’s stones to Yemen’s fire,
from Lebanon’s hills to Iran’s shrine-guardians.And may the mercy of God be made distant —
the long, eternal, unappealable distance —
from every Yazid:
from Karbala’s throne of deceit
to every coward king, false scholar, puppet ruler, and seditionist tongue,
and the architects of ruin in every age.May the earth shake under their palaces.
May the blood of Husayn rise against them,
and may my banner end what the swords of Karbala began.Never again shall Husayn be alone.
“And those who have wronged shall soon know the [evil] return to which they shall return.”
— Qur’an, Surah ash-Shu‘ara (the Chapter of the Poets) #26, Verse #227
“Indeed, we belong to God, and indeed to Him we shall return.”
— Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah (the Chapter of the Cow) #2, Verse #156
Sources Cited
The historical narrative draws on:
Luhuf ʿalā Qatlā al-Ṭufūf (Sighs for the Slain of Karbala) — Sayyed Ibn Tawus (1193–1266 CE / 589–664 AH).
Nafas al-Mahmoum fī Muṣībat al-Husayn al-Maẓlūm (The Breath of the Sorrowful in the Tragedy of the Oppressed Husayn) — Shaykh Abbas al-Qummi (1877–1941 CE / 1294–1359 AH), the compiler of Mafatih al-Jinan.
Chronicles of the Martyrdom of Imam Husayn — Ayatollah Muhammad Muhammadi Reyshahri (1945–2022 CE / 1364–1444 AH).
Ziyarat al-Nahiya al-Muqaddasah — the salutation to Imam Husayn and the martyrs of Karbala attributed to the twelfth Imam, Imam al-Mahdi (may God hasten his return); itself a maqtal in the words of the Awaited Imam.
Qays ibn Ashʿath al-Kindī was a chieftain of the Kinda tribe in Kufa who outwardly pledged loyalty to Imam Husayn, peace and blessings be upon him, then betrayed him at Karbala; the classical maqatil record that he stripped the Imam’s shirt (qamīṣ) from his blessed body after the martyrdom.
Refresh Changelog (2026/1448 Refresh)
This section explains what has changed since the previous version of this maqtal last year (2025/1447). You can find the original version over here.
Living Caravan rebuilt.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah moved from the present-tense “unbroken lion at the front” into the caravan of those who have crossed (with the prior framing acknowledged, so the line reads as a knowing update, not an erasure).
Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei added as a weighted new beat — his lifelong refusal (the mithli lā yubāyiʿu mithlahu echo, spoken eleven days before his shahada), his martyrdom in the month of Ramadan, and his entry into the caravan.
Imam Sayyed Mujtaba Khamenei added — the prayer for the living Wali al-Faqih, “may God protect him”.
Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, and Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis folded in to align the caravan with the Shahada series caravan.
A single closing seal — “May God rest the pure souls of all of them” — replaces per-name honorifics.
Link to the series. An opening note and a closing bridge tie this maqtal to Shahada (Witness) — The Theology of Witness and the Grades of Martyrdom as its central companion-piece.
