ZAINEB’S
SPEECH
The daughter of commander of the Faithful (a.s)
explained to people Ibn ziyad’s villainy and meanness in a speech that
she delivered to them. When she signaled to them to clam down, they did.
They stood and motionless, and even the bells of their animals stopped
ringing. It was then that she, calm and composed and with courage
reminiscent of that of her father Haider (a.s) addressed them saying:
All praise due to Allah.
Peace and blessing be upon my father Muhammad and upon his good and
right progeny. May the resounding (of his calamity) never stop. Your
similitude is one who unpins what is already spun out of the desire to
violate (a trust). You make religion a source of your income… is there
any one among you who is not boaster of what he does not have, a charger
of debauchery, a conceited lair, a man grudge without any justification,
one submissive like bondmaids, an instigator, a pasture of what is not
wholesome, a reciter of a story to some one buried? Truly bad is that
which your souls have committed. You have reaped that Wrath of Allah,
remaining in the chastisement for eternity. Do you really cry and sob?
By Allah, you should then cry a great deal and laugh very little, for
you have earned nothing but shame and infamy, and you shall never be
able to wash it a way, and how could you do so? The descendant of the
bearer of the Last Message, the very essence of the message, the source
of you security and the beacon of your guidance, the refuge of righteous
from among you, the one who saves you from calamity, the master of youth
of paradise… is killed. O how horrible is the sin that you bear …!
Miserable you are and renegade from the path of righteousness; may you
be distanced and crushed. The effort is rendered futile, the toil is
ruined, the deal is lost, and you earned nothing but Wrath from Allah
and His Messenger, you are doomed with servitude and humiliation. Woe
unto you, O Kufians! Do you know whose heart you have burned, what a
“feat” you have laboured, what blood you have shed, and what
sanctity you have violated you have done a most monstrous deed,
something for which the heaven are about to split asunder and so is the
earth, and for which the mountain crumble. You have done something most
uncanny. Most defaced, as much as the fill of the earth and of the sky.
Do you wonder why the sky rains blood? Surely the torment of the
hereafter is a greater chastisement, and they shall not be helped. Let
no respite elate you, for rushing does not speed it up, nor does it fear
the loss of the opportunity for revenge. Your Lord is waiting in ambush
for you.
This
speech is compiled from the writing of Sheikh al Tusi in his Aamali as
well as that of his son, from Al-luhuf .
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