In His Name, the Most High
سَلامٌ عَلَى آلِ يس
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا دَاعِيَ اللَّهِ وَرَبَّانِيَّ آيَاتِهِ
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا بَابَ اللَّهِ وَدَيَّانَ دِينِهِ
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا خَلِيفَةَ اللَّهِ وَنَاصِرَ حَقِّهِ
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا حُجَّةَ اللَّهِ وَدَلِيلَ إِرَادَتِهِ
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا تَالِيَ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ وَتَرْجُمَانَهُ
Peace be upon the House of Yā-Sīn.
Peace be upon you, O caller of God, O one made divinely learned in His signs.
Peace be upon you, O gate of God, O judge of His religion.
Peace be upon you, O vicegerent of God, O helper of His truth.
Peace be upon you, O proof of God, O evidence of what He wills.
Peace be upon you, O reciter of the Book of God — and its interpreter.
— Excerpt from Ziyārat Āl-e Yāsīn
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.
The Maqtal — “Bread by Night”
I. The Adornment of the Worshippers
You heard tonight of a teacher who signed his books Hasani, Husayni.
Let me tell you of one of the Husaynis.
My forefather was ‘Ali, the son of al-Husayn.
You call him Zayn al-Abidin — the adornment of the worshippers.
You call him al-Sajjad — the one who prostrates.He was in the tent at Karbala, too sick to stand, when his father fell.
And he lived thirty-five years after that day — under kings who feared him.He could not teach in the open.
So he taught through du’a.
A whole people learned how to speak to God from the words he said to God.And he wrote down the rights — the right of the one who teaches you, and the right of the one you teach — so that no one after him would ever have to guess them.
He was a teacher who could not stand in front of a class.
So he found other ways to teach.
II. The Sack of Bread
His son, my forefather al-Baqir, tells it.
At night, my grandfather would lift a sack of bread onto his own back, and go out into the dark, and give it away.
Charity given in secret, he used to say, puts out the anger of the Lord.
There were families in Medina — a hundred households, it is reported — who lived on what came to them in the night.
And they did not know where their living came from.
They never knew whose back it had been carried on.
They thought it was simply the way the world was — that in the morning, there would be bread.Night after night.
Year after year.A teacher, carrying his lesson on his own back, in the dark, where no one could thank him.
III. The Last Lesson
And then, in the year ninety-five, death came to him.
My forefather al-Baqir was with him.
My father, he says, held me to his chest.And with what strength he had left, he gave his son one lesson.
He said:
My son, I counsel you with what my father counselled me when death came to him — and death came to my grandfather al-Husayn on the plain of Karbala — and with what he told me his own father had counselled him.
And then the counsel itself.
One sentence.
My son — beware of wronging the one who finds no helper against you except God.
From ‘Ali, to al-Husayn. From al-Husayn, to his son ‘Ali.
From ‘Ali, to Muhammad al-Baqir.Hand to hand, at the hour of death — the same sentence.
That is how a teacher gives his last lesson.
The way he received it.
He was fifty-seven years old.
Al-Walid, the son of ‘Abd al-Malik, had poisoned him.
They carried him to al-Baqi’, and laid him beside his uncle, al-Hasan.
IV. One Cry
And that night, nothing came out of the dark.
Nor the night after.
The bread that had come for years did not come.
And the families of Medina understood.
All at once, the whole city understood who it had been.They had never seen his face.
They had never thanked him.
They had never even known.And when they knew, they cried out — the report says — with one cry.
A whole city.
One cry.
That is how they learned what their teacher had been teaching them all along.
On the morning it stopped.
He had a sister, Fatimah.
My grandfather al-Husayn chose her as a bride for his nephew, al-Hasan’s son — because, he said, she most resembles my mother, Fatimah, the daughter of the Messenger of God.
From her came a line of sayyids.
And every sayyid of the house of the teacher you mourned tonight is Husayni through her.
So the man who kept a bottle of perfume closed for his teacher, and the Imam who carried bread in the dark, are family — through a daughter of al-Husayn.
V. What Are You Building?
So — what are you building?
You who teach — at the front of a class, at a madrasa on a Saturday morning, at your own kitchen table.
Do not build to be thanked. Most of what you give, no one will see. Some of it will not be understood for years. Some of it will be understood only on the morning you are gone.
Carry it the way he carried the bread. At night. On your own back. Where no one can see.
And beware of wronging the one who has no helper but God — the child in front of you, the student who cannot answer back. That was his last lesson. Make it yours.
I was not there — but I remember.
And I am not gone.
May our Lord hasten my return.
Pray ardently for my return.
Pray ardently, my dears, pray ardently, for my return,
May God bless and protect you all, always.
Sources Cited
al-Kafi, vol. 1, hadith 1267 (al-Kulayni; from Abu Basir, from Imam al-Sadiq): ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn died at fifty-seven, in the year 95, having lived thirty-five years after al-Husayn.
Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, p. 88, report 77 (al-Majlisi, from Ibn Shahrashub’s al-Manaqib): the sack of bread by night; charity in secret puts out the anger of the Lord; the people who did not know where their living came from; the hundred households; they cried out with one cry.
al-Kafi, vol. 2, hadith 1200 (al-Kulayni; from Imam al-Baqir): he held me to his chest — the counsel handed down from al-Husayn and from Amir al-Mu’minin.
Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, PDF record 18, line 3 (al-Saduq): al-Walid son of ‘Abd al-Malik poisoned him.
I’lam al-Wara, vol. 1, p. 482 (al-Tabrisi): buried in al-Baqi’ with his uncle al-Hasan; died in the reign of al-Walid.
al-Durr al-Nazim, p. 519, line 5 (Ibn Hatim al-Shami): al-Husayn chose Fatimah for al-Hasan son of al-Hasan — she most resembles my mother, Fatimah daughter of Muhammad, the Messenger of God.
Mehr-e Taban, p. 26, line 11 (Allamah Tehrani): the mother of Ibrahim al-Ghamr was Fatimah, daughter of the Master of Martyrs; so the Tabataba’i sayyids are all Husayni through the mother.
Original references (for the reader)
I and III — the thirty-five years, the age and the year.
قُبِضَ عَلِيُّ بن الحسين (عَلَيْهما السَّلام) وَهُوَ ابْنُ سَبْعٍ وَخَمْسِينَ سَنَةً فِي عَامِ خَمْسٍ وَتِسْعِينَ عَاشَ بَعْدَ الْحُسَيْنِ خَمْساً وَثَلاثِينَ سَنَةً.
“’Ali son of al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon them both, was taken at the age of fifty-seven, in the year ninety-five. He lived thirty-five years after al-Husayn.”
— al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. 1, the Book of the Proof, hadith 1267 (the report, without its chain); from Abu Basir, from Imam al-Sadiq; my translation
II and IV — the sack of bread, the hundred households, the one cry.
77 ـ قب : ومما جاء في صدقته عليهالسلام ما روي في الحلية (1) وشرف النبي والاغاني (2) وعن محمد بن إسحاق بالاسناد عن الثمالي ، وعن الباقر عليهالسلام إنه كان علي بن الحسين عليهالسلام يحمل جراب الخبز على ظهره بالليل فيتصدق به ، قال أبو حمزة الثمالي وسيفان الثوري كان عليهالسلام يقول : إن صدقة السر تطفئ غضب الرب. الحلية (3) والاغاني (4) عن محمد بن إسحاق إنه كان ناس من أهل المدينة يعيشون لايدرون من أين معاشهم ، فلما مات علي بن الحسين فقدوا ما كانوا يؤتون به بالليل. وفي رواية أحمد به حنبل عن معمر ، عن شيبة بن نعامة : أنه كان يقوت مائة أهل بيت بالمدينة ، وقيل : كان في كل بيت جماعة من الناس. الحلية (5) قال : إن عائشة سمعت أهل المدينة يقولون : ما فقدنا صدقة السر حتى مات علي بن الحسين عليهماالسلام. وفي رواية محمد بن إسحاق إنه كان في المدينة كذا وكذا بيتا يأتيهم رزقهم وما يحتاجون إليه لايدرون من أين يأتيهم ، فلما مات زين العابدين عليهالسلام فقدوا ذلك فصرخوا صرخة واحدة.
“77 — al-Manaqib: Among what has come down about his charity, peace and blessings be upon him, is what is reported in al-Hilya, Sharaf al-Nabi and al-Aghani, and from Muhammad ibn Ishaq with his chain from al-Thumali, and from al-Baqir, peace and blessings be upon him: that ‘Ali son of al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon him, used to carry the sack of bread on his back by night, and give it away in charity. Abu Hamza al-Thumali and Sufyan al-Thawri said: he, peace and blessings be upon him, used to say: charity given in secret puts out the anger of the Lord. Al-Hilya and al-Aghani, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: there were people of Medina who lived not knowing where their living came from; and when ‘Ali son of al-Husayn died, they lost what used to be brought to them by night. And in the report of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, from Ma’mar, from Shayba ibn Na’ama: he used to feed a hundred households in Medina — and it is said that in every house there was a company of people. Al-Hilya: ‘A’isha heard the people of Medina saying: we did not lose the charity given in secret until ‘Ali son of al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon them both, died. And in the report of Muhammad ibn Ishaq: there were in Medina so many houses to which their provision, and what they needed, came, and they did not know from where it came to them; and when Zayn al-Abidin, peace and blessings be upon him, died, they lost it — and they cried out with one cry.”
— al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, p. 88, report 77, from Ibn Shahrashub’s al-Manaqib; my translation; for the reader only. The page prints Sayfan for Sufyan, and bih for ibn in Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s name — slips of the print, left as they stand.
III — the last lesson.
لَمَّا حَضَرَ عَلِيَّ بْنَ الْحُسَيْنِ (عَلَيهِما السَّلام) الْوَفَاةُ ضَمَّنِي إِلَى صَدْرِهِ ثُمَّ قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ أُوصِيكَ بِمَا أَوْصَانِي بِهِ أَبِي (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) حِينَ حَضَرَتْهُ الْوَفَاةُ وَبِمَا ذَكَرَ أَنَّ أَبَاهُ أَوْصَاهُ بِهِ قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ إِيَّاكَ وَظُلْمَ مَنْ لا يَجِدُ عَلَيْكَ نَاصِراً إِلا الله.
“[Imam al-Baqir:] When death came to ‘Ali son of al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon them both, he held me to his chest, then said: My son, I counsel you with what my father, peace and blessings be upon him, counselled me when death came to him, and with what he told me his own father had counselled him. He said: My son, beware of wronging one who finds no helper against you except God.”
— al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. 2, hadith 1200 (the report, without its chain); from Imam al-Baqir; my translation
III — the poisoning.
وقال أبو جعفر بن بابويه: سَمَّهُ الوليد بن عبد الملك.
“And Abu Ja’far ibn Babawayh [al-Saduq] said: al-Walid son of ‘Abd al-Malik poisoned him.”
— al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, PDF record 18, line 3, sentence 1; my translation; for the reader only
III — the burial.
وتوفّي عليهالسلام يوم السبت لاثنتي عشرة ليلة بقيت من المحرّم سنة خمس وتسعين من الهجرة ، ودفن بالبقيع مع عمّه الحسن عليهماالسلام [٢]. وكانت مدّة إمامته بعد أبيه أربعاً وثلاثين سنة ، وكان في أيّام إمامته بقيّة ملك يزيد بن معاوية ، وملك معاوية بن يزيد ، ومروان بن الحكم ، وعبدالملك بن مروان ، وتوفّي عليهالسلام في ملك الوليد بن عبدالملك [٣].
“He, peace and blessings be upon him, died on a Saturday, with twelve nights of Muharram remaining, in the year ninety-five of the Hijra, and was buried in al-Baqi’ with his uncle al-Hasan, peace and blessings be upon them both. His Imamate after his father lasted thirty-four years; in the days of his Imamate came the rest of the reign of Yazid son of Mu’awiya, and the reigns of Mu’awiya son of Yazid, Marwan son of al-Hakam and ‘Abd al-Malik son of Marwan; and he, peace and blessings be upon him, died in the reign of al-Walid son of ‘Abd al-Malik.”
— al-Tabrisi, I’lam al-Wara bi-A’lam al-Huda, vol. 1, p. 482; my translation. The day and the month are the book’s; the maqtal gives none
IV — she most resembles my mother.
وروي أنّ الحسن بن الحسن خطب الى عمّه الحسين : إحدى ابنتيه ، فقال له الحسين : : اختر يا بنيّ أحبّهما إليك. فاستحى الحسن ولم يحر جوابا. فقال له الحسين 7 : فإنّي قد اخترت لك ابنتي فاطمة وهي أكثر شبها بامّي فاطمة بنت محمّد رسول الله 6 (1).
“It is reported that al-Hasan son of al-Hasan asked his uncle al-Husayn for one of his two daughters. Al-Husayn said to him: Choose, my son, whichever of them you love more. Al-Hasan was too shy, and could find no answer. So al-Husayn, peace and blessings be upon him, said to him: Then I have chosen for you my daughter Fatimah — she most resembles my mother, Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad, the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family.”
— Ibn Hatim al-Shami, al-Durr al-Nazim fi Manaqib al-A’imma al-Lahamim, p. 519 (it is reported); my translation. The 7 and the 6 in the Arabic are the edition’s honorific signs, for al-Husayn and for the Messenger of God.
IV — the Tabataba’i sayyids, Husayni through her.
و چون مادر إبراهیم غَمْر فاطمه دختر حضرت سید الشّهداء علیه السّلام بوده است، لذا سادات طباطبائى كه از إبراهیم طباطبا بوده، و او نوه إبراهیم غمر است، همگى از طرف مادر حسینى هستند.
“And since the mother of Ibrahim al-Ghamr was Fatimah, daughter of the Master of Martyrs, peace and blessings be upon him, the Tabataba’i sayyids — who are from Ibrahim Tabataba, and he is the grandson of Ibrahim al-Ghamr — are all Husayni through the mother.”
— Allamah Tehrani, Mehr-e Taban, p. 26; my translation
