Ashura marks many things: the creation of the world,
Noah's departure from the ark, Moses' flight from Egypt, the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein ibn Ali in 680 A.D.
I have collected a lot of poems and information, read or ignore as you like, here's the zikr details. Hilal
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Join the
Columbus Sufi Circle,
"Strike the sword and take the kingdom of Love,
for Love's kingdom will last forever."
chanted Zikr
Allah, poetry,
followed
by sohbet, sweets.
Saturday, November 24, 7:30 pm
Zawiyya
al Mu'min
1000
Urlin Avenue, # 1507
Columbus,
Ohio 43212
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Poems recited by the Imam
"O Time! Fie on you as a friend!
At the day's dawning and the sun's setting,
How many a companion or seeker of yours will be a corpse!
Time will not be satisfied with any substitute.
Indeed the matter will rest with the Mighty One,
And every living creature will journey on my path."
(from "Kitab-al-Irshad" by Shaik
Mufid)
"I have abandoned the creation in Your love
I have orphaned my children so that I may see You
If the swords were to cut me into pieces in Your love
Even then my heart would not long for other than You"
Supplication of the Imam
"O' God, You are my trust in every sorrow and my hope in every
hardship.
How many a heavy burden which weakens the heart and baffles
the mind
I brought before You with my complaint
and You did relieve me
of it thereof.
You are truly the bestower of every bounty,
the source
of every blessing and the goal of every desire.
You have guided me and
shown me the significance of all matters which I face."
Lamentation of Zainab
"A heart cleft in two with hurtful sorrow,
A ragged wound in my thoughts, these memories painted in blood.
Yet what is this to Zainab’s grief, the bruising pain
Which melts her core, the lamenting tears which flood
O’er the brim, and veil from her sight the bitter strains
And passing shadows of this world.
It holds for her no charm, no desires.
Time’s haze cannot obscure the crimson rain
Of innocent blood - sprinkled death at Kerbala.
O’Husayn, when her heart seeks you, where will she find you?
The cup of compassion, its tempered metal likes crumpled on the sands
And its pure red wine,
Streams from its body to be buried in mud.
And Zainab - her soul cries out for what is lost, she laments that the
lines
Of truth must be written in tears; penned in blood."
- Irshaad Hussain
Husayn is fallen
"O breeze of morning, take to Ali these words....
Say: Husayn is fallen. Rise, then, go and see:
To Kerbala from Najaf, where you lie,
His body in a hundred places pierced by the lance, the dagger, the
sword.
O’Ali! See who was once the light of your eyes,
Now the enemy around him like eyelashes around the eye;
And here you lie, in pleasant repose with Adam and Noah, at rest,
While Husayn has as his resting place the burning sands of Karbala!
Although you were made stranger to yourself by the stroke of the sword,
Around you were both stranger and kin, with refreshments and sweets;
While the body of your Husayn is rent the whole length with wounds.
And would you know the number of those wounds? They are as many as
the stars!
Wherever you turned your gaze, there stood a friend to see,
While Husayn’s eye falls only on the enemy.
Ali, when you gave your life, your family was there beside,
But there on a desert plain far from daughter or sister Husayn dies.
For you the faithful spirit, Gabriel, brought a shroud from heaven,
But Husayn fell there on the earth without ablution, without shroud!
Ali, since Husayn in the last hour took your head on his lap to lie,
As kindness in return, then, lay his head on your lap till he dies.”
(from “Divan-i-Ansari”, translated
by L. Clarke)
Sana'i on Karbala
excerpted from Sana'i's "Garden of Truth":
"How excellent Karbala!
and that honour it received,
Which brought to mankind the scent of Paradise as if
on a breeze;
And that body, headless, lying in clay and dust,
And those precious ones, hearts rent by the sword.
And that elect of all the world, murdered,
His body smeared with earth and blood;
And those great oppressors, those doers of evil,
Persistent in the evil they do.
The sanctity of religion and the Family of the Prophet
Are both borne away, both by ignorance and inanity;
Swords are red like precious ruby with the blood of Husayn
What disgrace in the world worse than this!
And Mustafa, his garments all torn,
And 'Ali, tears of blood raining from his eyes.
A whole world has become insolent in its cruelty;
The cunning fox (Yazid) has become a vain, boastful lion.
But still unbelievers at the start of the battle,
Were reminded of the stroke of Dhu 'l-Fiqar (Ali's sword).
Yes, from Husayn they sought satisfaction for their rancour
But that was not to be;
They had to be content with their own malice and disgrace.
And know that any who speak ill of those (murderous) dogs
Will be kings in the world to come!"
(Garden of Truth by Sana'i - translated by L. Clarke)
Lamentation of Rabab
This poem is attributed to Rabab, the beloved wife of Imam
Husayn:
"He who was a light, shining, is murdered;
Murdered in Karbala, and unburied.
Descendant of the Prophet, may God reward you well;
May you be spared judgement on the day when deeds are weighed:
For you were to me as a mountain, solid, in which I could take
refuge;
And you treated us always with utmost kindness, and according to
religion.
O who shall speak now for the orphans, for the petitioners;
By whom shall all these wretched be protected,
in whom shall they take refuge?
I swear by God, never will I wish to exchange marriage with you for
another;
No, not until I am covered; covered in the grave."
(marthiya attributed to Rabab -
translated by L. Clarke)
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^ ^ ^ ^ ^
from Rumi:
Sama' is only for the restless spirit--so jump up
quickly, why do you wait?
Do not sit here with your own thoughts--if you
are a man, go to the Beloved.
Do not say, "Perhaps He does not want me."
What business has a thirsty man with such words?
Does the moth think about the flames? For
Love's spirit, thought is disgrace.
When the warrior hears the sound of the drum,
at once he is worth ten thousand men!
You have heard the drum, so draw your sword
without delay! Your spirit is the sheath of the all-conquering
Dhu'l-Faqar!*
Strike the sword and take the kingdom of Love,
for Love's kingdom will last forever.
You are Husayn at Karbala, think not of water!
The only "water" you will see today is a sword
of the first
water!**
Rumi -- Ghazal (Ode) 338
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
* Dhu'l-Faqar is the name of Ali's sword.
** "Water" is always called to mind by the
mention of Husayn's death
at Karbala, since the army which surrounded his small
band did not
allow Husayn's followers access to the river in spite of
their great thirst.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
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Ashura, an optional fast day for Muslims that
commemorates different things for Sunnis and Shiites, falls on Dec. 4-5, 2011.
The word itself, ashura, means 10, and the holiday is the 10th day of the
Islamic month of Muharram. The Islamic calendar is lunar, so the date of Ashura
can vary depending on sighting of the moon.
Ashura marks many things: the creation of the world,
Noah's departure from the ark, Moses' flight from Egypt and the martyrdom of
the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein ibn Ali, in 680 A.D.
Sunni Muslims consider Ashura a fast day for two reasons:
Muhammad fasted then and Moses fasted in appreciation of the successful Exodus
for Egypt.
Shiite Muslims mark Ashura as a day of mourning for the Prophet
Muhammad's grandson. In fact, Hussein's martyrdom is one of two major events
that led to the Sunni-Shiite split in Islam. Shiites, who constitute Islam's
second-largest denomination (about 10-15 percent of the world Muslim
population), consider Hussein to be the one true heir of Muhammad's legacy.
Shiite Muslims observe Ashura through mourning rituals
such as self-flagellation and reenactments of the martyrdom. Many travel to
Karbala in Iraq, where Hussein was killed, as a pilgrimage on Ashura. Most
observers wear black and march through the streets chanting and hitting
themselves in the chest. Some use whips and chains -- or cut themselves on the
forehead -- to ritually punish their bodies. This practice has been condemned
by some Shiite leaders, so Ashura blood drives are often organized as a
substitute.
