By: M.M. Hassan Abdulhadi Al-Lami – College of Islamic Sciences – Karbala University
Islamic Rituals Revitalization Committee
It is well-established in specialized studies that the environment has an impact on humans, as well as the reverse effect, where there is mutual nourishment that never ceases. Wherever humans are, they attract those around them, and they interact with what surrounds them. Perhaps the simplest form of interaction with the environment is the act of breathing, taking in fresh air and exhaling the oxygenated one! How much more so for one who inhales the fragrance of Prophethood and Imamate, raised under the care of the Seal of the Prophets, nourished from the milk of the Lady of the Women, surrounded by the care of the Master of the Successors, and growing up alongside the two Imams, Hasan and Husayn!
This pure and purified family, which God speaks of in various passages of His glorious Book, revealing their luminous secrets and their spiritual ranks that made them Imams guiding towards good, unafraid in delivering the message of their Lord and undeterred by the blame of the blamers.
God Almighty said:
{In houses which God has permitted to be raised and that His name is mentioned therein, exalting Him therein in the mornings and the evenings. * Men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from the remembrance of God and the establishment of prayer and the giving of zakah, fearing a Day when the hearts and eyes will turn about.} [Quran 24:36-37]
Yes, they are divine houses, not made of stones and reeds, as Imam Al-Baqir – Peace Be Upon Him – says.
Lady Zaynab, the daughter of Imam Ali – Peace Be Upon Them – was born in the purified house of Prophethood in Medina on the 5th of Jumada al-Awwal in the 5th or 6th year of the Hijrah.
She was nurtured by her Lord in a beautiful manner under the luminous canopy of the People of the Cloak, the five purified members of the Ahlul Bayt, whom God cleansed from all impurity and purified them thoroughly.
Zaynab, the Aqilah (noble lady), the mistress of the women of her people, was known for her nobility, refinement, modesty, and knowledge that was not taught by others.
From a young age, she was overwhelmed with divine love and drawn to the beauty of the Creator – Blessed is His Name. It is narrated that one day she asked her father, Imam Ali: “Do you love us, O Father?”
The Imam replied, “How could I not love you, for you are the fruit of my heart!”
She responded, “O Father, love is for Allah, and mercy is for us!”
This distinction in the boundaries of concepts is one of the most important things that knowledge and understanding frameworks depend on. The clarity of concepts reveals their true meanings.
A student might show some of their abilities which they have gained from their teacher in their presence; thus, Lady Zaynab revealed some of her intellectual capabilities before her father, “The Imam of the Gnostics, the Unifiers, and the Lovers, the Commander of the Faithful.” She established a clear distinction between love and mercy.
The heart is the sanctuary of God, and emotions and feelings should be directed solely towards Him based on the principles of true monotheism. Children should exist outside this sanctuary, and they receive from the heart compassion, which includes affection, tenderness, and care – a unique form of love that emanates from the hearts of parents for their children.
From those moving scenes in the life of the Lady of the Hashemite family, I will take you to that fateful gathering where Aqilah Zaynab was brought in as a captive, having lost her loved ones and children. Surrounded by enemies in the calamity of captivity after the martyrdom of her brother Imam Husayn and the rest of the Ahlul Bayt and their companions at the hands of the criminal Yazid and his tyrant soldiers. In the midst of the gathering, the head of the Prophet’s grandson was placed before her. Ibn Ziyad, mocking her, turned to Lady Zaynab and asked: “How did you see what God did to your brother and your family?”
He said it arrogantly and mockingly, but he did not know that he was speaking to someone who had been nurtured in the house of Prophethood and looked upon the acts of God through the eyes of her pure heart, witnessing the manifestations of divine beauty and majesty, raising her soul towards sacred realms of love and spiritual attraction.
Never in history has a woman who has lost her loved ones and protectors stood up with such strength, composure, and unwavering courage without a tear or plea, to say her immortal words:
“I have seen nothing but beauty.”
She revealed the truth of her soul and spoke from deep spiritual insights. Indeed, seeing beauty requires a pure heart, a clean mind, and annihilation in the beautiful attributes of the Beloved, while observing the manifestations of His Majesty in His divine governance. Lady Zaynab’s response revealed her spiritual state with God, filled with a mixture of attraction, awe, expansion, contraction, fear, and hope. She said to the mocking criminal:
“I have seen nothing but beauty; these are a people upon whom God has decreed death, and they have met their end in their beds. God will gather you and them together, and you will argue and dispute; so watch who triumphs on that day. May your mother mourn you, O son of Marjanah.”
If you speak of God’s actions against us, we only see the manifestations of the Absolute Beauty.
The heart’s vision of Lady Zaynab cannot be witnessed by the likes of this wicked, hired criminal, Ibn Ziyad. He is one of the veiled ones, distant from the truth, deluded in his conception of victory. The true victory will be revealed on the Day of Judgment when it becomes clear who the real victor is!
She unveils the true source of victory, as if standing on a high pinnacle of light, looking down on this mercenary with contempt, rebuking him, and exposing his real stature. The true victory of the allies of God will be on the Day when the scales of justice are set, and those whose scales are heavy will be rejoicing, while those whose scales are light will be left in regret, with their mothers mourning over them, invoking woe and destruction upon them.
