|
Contents: Chapter 1: An Ode’s to Man’s Inspiration Chapter 2: Sleeping with Ignorance Chapter 3: A Perfect Reflection of Perfection Chapter 4: The Hardest Times Chapter 5: Power of Pain in Action Chapter 6: The Zenith of Humanity Chapter 7: A Salute for the Essential She The author has written this book
after being overwhelmed by the lives of the two most remarkable women the world
will ever know, Lady Fatima and Lady Zaynab. She publishes The Essential Woman
independently, without recourse to any kind of financial assistance whatsoever.
It is her Hadiya to Lady Fatima and Lady Zaynab, that for as long as she lives,
God Willing, she will publish it herself and distribute it for free. The
Essential Woman does not belong to her. Lady Zaynab has the sole ownership and
it is her Grace and Power that runs this title. Anita Rai is just an instrument
of Her Holiness, and she intends to publish and distribute at least 72,000
copies of this book in her lifetime. After her death, her progeny will continue
to pay this homage. The
Essential Woman is not and will never be for sale. All
rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without prior written permission of Anita Rai. Published
by: ANITA RAI The Essential Woman by Anita Rai The Author’s Note My
dear ones, I have been asked to introduce The Essential Woman with some
information about how I came to write this book. The story really has its
beginnings in a serial of dreams. As I am writing this note, the days have
begun to grow longer and warmer here in London. It means that now we have more
light than in the cold, dark, foggy, and indifferent months of an English
winter. And light is the driving force in my book. I know what you are
thinking. No, it is not a coincidence. There is no such thing as coincidence
and nothing happens by accident. All is as it must be. Every author is at some point asked,
“Where did you get your ideas for this book?” Well, I got mine the very moment
I knew I will never recover from the sheer impact of one look at the face of
Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. He looked at me and I could not help but
respond to the immense grace with as much grace as I could muster up. He came
to me on more than a few occasions, and even spoke to me. And in every single
of these visitations and many others, in which his household members too have visited
me, my soul has experienced a deluge of Light.
These singularly powerful images of embodied peace and commitment are the
sources of ‘my ideas’. I started working on two books
simultaneously. While the other was equally busy spinning enlightening ideas
through my mind, I settled for this one to be completed first. Now, to know the
why of it, you have to read the other one as well. However, I am not inclined
to leave your curiosity completely unappeased. I want you to know that while my
whole being was whole-heartedly engrossed in the making of the other book, I
was simply overtaken by the two most remarkable women the world will ever know.
My heart knew that Muhammad would be nothing, but pleased with my decision to
write the book meant as a dedication to these two women, only to be followed by
‘An Affair of the Heart’, in
dedication to his gracious self. The
Essential Woman and An Affair of the
Heart are not fictions. They are literature, shaking hands with history.
Without the wish to sound pedantic, this powerful combination, quite often than
not results in creating very interesting prose. Such works are incomplete
without their heroes or heroines. I found my heroines. And I have written this
book as a humble tribute to their spirit. I can only hope that you will enjoy
it as much as I enjoyed writing it. One
last word. Look out for my third book called, ‘Kurukshetra, Calvary. And Karbala. Dates with Destiny’ and
my fourth book called, ‘Ghadeer. Government of the people, for the people, by
God’. Please visit my official website www.anitarai.com. And needless to say, I
need your prayers. God
bless. ANITA RAI “They
talk about a woman’s sphere, as though it had a limit. There’s not a place in earth or heaven, there’s not a
task to mankind given… without a woman in it.” Kate
Field INTRODUCTION An Ode to Man’s
Inspiration Kathleen Krull’s ‘Lives of
Extraordinary Women’ (2000) makes an effort to turn the spotlight on twenty
most influential women in history, from queens to warriors. The book covers
Cleopatra to Isabella I and Tz’u-hsi to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joan of Arc to
Cherokee leader Wilma Mankiller, Elizabeth I, Victoria, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Golda Meir, Nzingha, Eva Peron and more. However, though she talks about female
rulers and female rebels, the well behaved and the not so well behaved, the
beloved and the notorious, the book’s greatest weakness is the lack of
presenting any appropriate role-model material. There is no single example in
this book, which shows that women’s potential is unlimited. My limited
knowledge tells me that there are so many women to honour - women whose
contributions have touched every aspect of life, making it meaningful,
rewarding, safer, freer, beautiful and worth living. As a child I was terribly impressed
by Mary - the mother of Christ, Florence Nightingale, Lakshmibai - the Queen of
Jhansi, Khhana - the brilliant astronomer of the Later Vedic age of India,
Gargei-the exceptional scholar belonging to the Vedic Age, who put to shame
those of the other sex on numerous occasions by her incredible learning, (those
were the times when knowledge flourished in India and was patronised, and
polytheism was less rampant) Sister Nivedita - the American Hindu missionary,
Queen Razia Sultana, Elizabeth I of England, Jahanara - the beloved and brave
daughter of Shah Jahan, Mother Teresa, Mrs Annie Besant, Joan of Arc and those
many women unknown to history but known to me intuitively - women who have
always contributed in a very big way to the achievements of human-kind.
Probably they are the ones Virginia Woolf was implying when she said, “I would
venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without singing them, was
often a woman”. Anon is short for ‘anonymous’.
Hundreds of proverbs that have come down to us today, pearls of wisdom,
wit, and dazzling insight, are mostly attributed to someone anonymous, that ‘anonymous’ is often a woman. I was eleven when I saw the play
called Anne Frank’s Diary. I was so moved by it that I started to read the book
almost immediately. She said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a
single moment before starting to improve the world.” What an absolutely delightful
thought! Almost fifteen years after watching the play, I intend to write this
book in order to make a modest attempt at improving the world. I want to talk
to mothers and I want to talk to sisters, who are my contemporaries, friends,
and companions of fate. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “When I think of talking,
it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it
wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find
this but in a woman?” Thank you Mr. Holmes for such a thoughtful compliment. Our quality of receptiveness is
indeed a divine gift. That is why we are mothers. We receive and we give so
much more. A new bride simmers with hopes and dreams, and her thoughtless
husband marauds everything under the zeal of lust; she receives pain and
humiliation, but ends up giving pleasure to her uncouth possessor. We receive
the pains of labour, new life is born. We receive with complete understanding
and compassion what our children have to say. We always listen, our children
talk to us. Most of the time we receive no approval - not even mere
acknowledgement - from our fathers, our husbands, our brothers, even our
children, but still we keep the hearth and the home safe and warm. But once in
a long while a man comes along who gives compliment to the women. Compliments
are accidental, as we hardly get any. Holmes is such a man. So, as one of this
wonderfully complimented sex, how can I not hold the same opinion as he, and
maybe even a notch higher. I want to talk to the women. But I also want to talk
to my brothers because it was one of them who said, “There’s a woman at the
beginning of all great things” (Alphonse de Lamartine). Eve. Remember? However,
this book is not meant in the least to be, a lecture, a discourse, cold
theorising, vain preaching, or in today’s consumerist culture, selling. I just
wish to share my feelings, perceptions, ideas, and thoughts with you. This is
just… you know, a heart to heart. When you teach a man, you teach an
individual, but when you teach a woman, you teach a family, you teach a nation,
you teach the world. In his essay called ‘On the Education of Women’, Daniel
Defoe writes, “The whole sex is generally quick and sharp. I believe, I may be
allowed to say, generally so: for you rarely see them lumpish and heavy, when
they are children; as boys will often be. If a woman be well bred, and taught
the proper management of her natural wit, she proves generally very sensible
and retentive. And, without partiality, a woman of
sense and manners is the finest and most delicate part of God’s creation, the
glory of her Maker, and the great instance of His singular regard to man. His
daring creature: to whom He gave the best gift either God could bestow or man
receive. And 'tis the sordidest piece of folly and ingratitude in the world, to
withhold from the sex the due lustre which the advantages of education gives to
the natural beauty of their minds. A woman well bred and well taught,
furnished with the additional accomplishment of knowledge and behaviour, is a
creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments,
her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and
sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the
sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to
do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful.” (This paragraph is significant as
it describes beautifully the person this book is all about. She is much more
than this. But for the start the reader is invited to etch a woman with the
above characteristics in their minds in order to enable themselves to begin
thinking of her.) Defoe
continues, “On the other hand, suppose her to be the very same woman, and rob
her of the benefit of education, and it follows: If her temper be good, want of
education makes her soft and easy. Her wit, for want of teaching, makes
her impertinent and talkative. Her knowledge, for want of judgment
and experience, makes her fanciful and whimsical. If her temper be bad, want of
breeding makes her worse; and she grows haughty, insolent, and loud. If she be passionate, want of
manners makes her a termagant and a scold, which is much at one with Lunatic. If she be proud, want of discretion
(which still is breeding) makes her conceited, fantastic, and ridiculous. And from these she degenerates to be
turbulent, clamorous, noisy, nasty, the devil!” Sounds familiar? We all have seen
both the types. While we have a love-hate relationship with the former, we have done hardly anything proactive
regarding the reformation of the latter. Till now both the male and the
female reader is confused as to the orientation of my temperament in this book.
They are not sure what to call me - a feminist, a liberal, a radical, a traditionalist, an oppressor, or an
oppressed? Well what can I say? I’m just a woman. And I am happy that way. Why
won’t the world let us be just ourselves? I have had my fill of all the
extinct, dormant and active theories, idiosyncrasies, and junks on the status
of women and the hype surrounding the women’s rights and liberation and
emancipation and finally empowerment. The other day, one of my friends told me,
“You know, my fiancé is such a strong feminist.” I just stared at her while she
kept mouthing her misgivings about the consequences, if her feminist fiancé
happened to dislike her new hairstyle. She robbed me of my power of speech.
Lord. Women! That brings me back to my subject. Marx said, “Anyone who knows
anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without
feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social
position of the fair sex.” And Lady Jane Wilde said, “We have now traced the
history of women from Paradise to the nineteenth century and have heard nothing
through the long roll of the ages but the clank of their fetters.” These two
quotations as a matter of fact will help initiate the personality I wish to
talk about mostly during the course of this book. The reader’s mind has already
started to sketch an outline of this woman from the paragraph of Defoe’s essay,
quoted earlier. Now, the woman I will specifically talk about makes both the
above said quotations true. And while talking about her we indeed do hear the
loud ‘clank of her fetters’. But there is a big difference between Lady Wilde’s
fettered women and this woman. Lady Wilde’s women are the scores of those who
have never been independent, who have always been oppressed, who have never
tasted freedom, who are eternally persecuted and doomed. Through the long roll
of the ages and till date women are the only exploited group to have been
idealized into powerlessness. Most of them have never woken up into the
uninhibited dawn from under the painful burden of their shackles. The continual
nerve-gritting sound of their chains dragging along with their tired feet is
the utmost evidence of how shallow and crippled our civilization really is. We
should be mortally ashamed. The woman of my book was born
gloriously free, her birth welcomed, celebrated and cherished by her joyous
parents, grandfather, brothers, the whole family, and the whole community
actually. She enjoyed an equal upbringing in terms of education, attention,
love, affection, respect and status with her brothers. Her father took her
consent before she got married. She led an independent and powerful life, free
in her speech, expression, thoughts, choices, opinions, and decisions.
Throughout her life she had the enormously enviable privilege of having,
keeping and using her maiden name, i.e., her real name all through her life - a
phenomenon very rare even today, and if found anywhere is a matter of endless
discussions. All this, a millennium and a half ago. No, don’t pinch yourself.
It is as true as the fact that the day follows the night. The March 1972 Equal Rights
Amendment reads thus: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” This Amendment
was passed in Congress but has since failed to be ratified by the June 30, 1982
deadline. It had only been ratified by 35 of the 38 necessary states required
by law. Consequently it has yet to become an Amendment to the American
Constitution. So, while women in the western world (i.e. in the USA and Canada
and Great Britain) had still not achieved the right to vote or obtain the
ownership of property even up to World War I, this woman grew up enjoying all
the rights mentioned above and more, which is not surprising given the fact
that her maternal grandmother was the most prominent business magnate of her
time in Arabia. I feel deep sorrow for those of my
sex who have been bound and are still being bound by fetters. I sympathise with
them completely. I try to do everything in my power to alleviate their misery
and sadness. And this makes me even
more thankful to the Lord Almighty that although I did not escape my share of
discouragement, deprecation, discrimination, betrayal and other related
depressant situations inevitable in any society and the Hindu brahmanical
society is no different, today I am what I have always wanted to be. A female.
I would not be otherwise even if I had a choice. I am an individual in my own
right. It has been a long and hard up-hill climb. I am not saying I have
reached my destination, but I have found my way and I am pursuing it with
everything I have. I hope it is worth the tears, the heartache, the
difficulties and the struggle. But when I think of this woman, who was chained
and fettered by a so very cruel nation and in a so very unfortunate age, I feel
devastated. Sleeping with Ignorance Our greatest fear is not that we are
inadequate, but that we are powerful
beyond measure. It
is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We
ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually,
who are you not to be? You
are a child of God. Your
playing small does not serve the world. There
is nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the
glory of God within us. It
is not just in some; it is in everyone. And,
as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to
do the same. As
we are liberated from our fear, our
presence automatically liberates others. [Our
Greatest Fear from Marianne Williams’
‘A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” ’,
1992.]. Before revisiting a few well-known
wounds from the worn out pages of history, which is necessary for the logical
progression of the book, I wanted to share the predominant message of this poem
with my friends, which is that we are sadly unaware of how powerful we really
are. I hope, as we move ahead we will gain this crucial awareness and by the
time we turn the final page we will know exactly how powerful we can be, and
how much might the Almighty has meant for us. Encyclopaedia Britannica - ‘The very
word “woman” etymologically meaning a wife (or the wife division of the human
race, the female of the species Homo), sums up a long history of dependence and
subordination, from which the women of to-day have only gradually emancipated
themselves in such parts of the world as come under “Western civilization.” Though
married life and its duties necessarily form a predominant element in the
woman’s sphere, they are not necessarily the whole of it; and the “woman’s
movement” is essentially a struggle for the recognition of equality of
opportunity with men, and for equal rights of sex, even if special relations
and conditions are willingly incurred under the form of partnership involved in
marriage. The difficulties of obtaining this recognition are obviously due to
historical causes combined with the habits and customs which history has
produced.’ So, the story of women is essentially one of discrimination,
oppression, and injustice. The Britannica also says, ‘In the
Mosaic law divorce was a privilege of the husband only, the vow of a woman
might be disallowed by her father or husband, and daughters could inherit only
in the absence of sons, and then must marry in their tribe. The guilt or
innocence of a wife accused of adultery might be tried by the ordeal of the
bitter water. Besides these instances, which illustrate the subordination of
women, there was much legislation dealing with, inter alia, offences against
chastity, and marriage of a man with a captive heathen woman or with a
purchased slave. So far from second marriages being restrained, as they were by
Christian legislation, it was the duty of a childless widow to marry her
deceased husband’s brother. In India subjection was a cardinal principle. “Day
and night must women be held by their protectors in a state of dependence,”
says Manu. The rule of inheritance was agnatic, that is, descent traced through
males to the exclusion of females.
The gradual growth of strtd/iana (STREEDHANA), female wealth or property
of a woman given by the husband before or after marriage, or by the wife’s
family, may have led to the suttee, for both the family of the widow and the
Brahmans had an interest in getting the life estate of a woman out of the way.
Women in Hindu law had only limited rights of inheritance, and were
disqualified as witnesses.’ I am sure Moses being a prophet of
God, could never have made such mean and unfair laws. This is not an uncommon
case of innovations in the original religion.
And of Manu, if ever any lawmaker of this name at all existed, he
disgusts me, because he is responsible to a large extent for the torture and
persecution the Hindu women go through and have had to suffer for millennia. If
he were alive now, he would have been tried in the International Court of Law
for crimes and conspiracies against human rights. The following reference is a
crucially decisive element in the chosen orientation of this book. Catherine Beecher said “…Woman has been
but little aware of the high incitements which should stimulate to the
cultivation of her noblest powers. The world is no longer to be governed by
physical force, but by the influence which mind exerts over mind…Woman has
never wakened to her highest destinies and holiest hopes. The time is coming
when educated females will not be satisfied with the present objects of their
low ambition. When a woman now leaves the immediate business of her own
education, how often, how generally do we find her, sinking down into almost
useless inactivity. To enjoy the social circle, to accomplish a little sewing,
a little reading, a little domestic duty, to while away her hours in
self-indulgence, or to enjoy the pleasures of domestic life - these are the
highest objects at which many a woman of elevated mind, and accomplished
education aims. And what does she find of sufficient interest to call forth her
cultivated energies, and warm affections? But when the cultivation and
development of the immortal mind shall be presented to woman, as her especial
and delightful duty, and that too whatever be her relations in life; when by
example and experience she shall have learned her power over the intellect and
the affections, …then we shall not find woman, returning from the precincts of
learning and wisdom, to pass lightly away the bright hours of her maturing
youth. We shall not so often see her, seeking the light device to embroider on
muslin and lace… but we shall see her, with the delighted glow of benevolence,
seeking for immortal minds, whereon she may fasten durable and holy
impressions, that shall never be effaced or wear away.” (Lucretia Mott,
Discourse on Women, 17 December, 1849.). For the moment I would concentrate
on a particular extract from the above quotation “Woman has been but little
aware of the high incitements which should stimulate to the cultivation of her
noblest powers. The world is no longer to be governed by physical force, but by
the influence which mind exerts over mind…Woman has never wakened to her
highest destinies and holiest hopes.” Throughout the history recorded by
human prejudice and humane flaws, we have had to look hard to find female role
models who made an impressive dent in the contours of the world. It is not so
much that history has been unable to produce exemplary women, as wisely said by
Robert Graves, “If I were a girl, I’d despair. The supply of good women far
exceeds that of the men who deserve them”, but they have been so slimly
recognised or remembered. This is somehow an echo of Virginia Woolf’s comment,
quoted earlier. The woman of my
book was not only aware of, but lived the high incitements, which should stimulate
to the cultivation of her noblest powers. She particularly emphasised and
ensured that the world is no longer to be governed by physical force, but by
the influence which mind exerts over mind. As soon her slowly unfolding story
will show, how much she has contributed to this factor of the influence which
mind exerts over mind, and how dearly she paid for bequeathing this gift of
refinement and elevation of the human mind to us. Here is a woman who was
wide-awake to her highest destinies and holiest hopes. Beecher’s quote shows
that she was unfortunately unaware of the existence of this woman. Otherwise,
the knowledge that one such preceded her long before the dark middle ages would
not only have delighted her enormously, but would also have made her immensely
proud of her sex and its potential power. This again goes to prove the nepotism
of history, which in this case is not only sexual and political, but also
ideological. A
Perfect Reflection of Perfection Approximately seven kilometres to
the southeast of the capital of Syria, Damascus, there is a shrine. And its
minarets, which are visible from a long distance, tell us that this is where
rests Zaynab, daughter of Fatima and Ali, and the eldest of the two
granddaughters of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. We must bear in mind an unalterable
fact: that is, despite the efforts of numerous biographers, very little actual
recorded historical fact is available about Zaynab. Even the exact dates of her
birth, death, marriage, or number of children, cannot be ascertained with
complete certainty. The reader most certainly is recollecting what I’ve said
earlier about the recorded history of man. After Fadaq (the land gifted to her
by her father, the Prophet) was seized from her by the people in power at that
time, Fatima, accompanied by a group of women, went to the Mosque and delivered
a speech there. I would like to start the remembrance of Zaynab’s life with the
following extracts from her mother’s speech, the only daughter of Prophet
Muhammad, and the wife of Ali, the vicegerent and successor of the Prophet of
Islam. Extracts of this speech has been obtained from Odeh A. Muhawesh’s ‘Fatima the Gracious.’ “Praise be to Allah for that which
He bestowed (upon us); and thanks be to Him for all that which He provided;
from prevalent favors which He created, and abundant benefactions which He
offered and perfect grants which He presented; (such benefactions) that their
number is too much too plentiful to compute; bounties too vast to measure…I too
bear witness that my Father, Muhammad, is His slave and Messenger, whom He
chose prior to sending him, named him before selecting him, and selected him
before sending him; when creatures were still concealed in that which was
transcendental, guarded from that which was appalling, and associated with the
termination and non-existence. For Allah the Exalted knew that which was to
follow, comprehended that which will come pass, and realized the place of every
Event. Allah has sent him (Muhammad)
(P.B.U.H) as perfection for His commands, a resolution to accomplish His rule,
and an implementation of the decrees of His Mercy. So he found the nations to
vary in their faiths, obsessed by their fires, worshipping their idols, and
denying Allah despite their knowledge of Him. Therefore, Allah illuminated
their darkness with my father, Muhammad (P.B.U.H), uncovered obscurity from
their hearts, and cleared the clouds from their insights. He revealed guidance among the
people; so he delivered them from being led astray, led them away from
misguidance, guided them to the proper religion, and called them to the
straight path. Allah then chose to recall him back
in mercy, love and preference. So
Muhammad (P.B.U.H) is in comfort from the burden of this world, he is
surrounded with devoted angels, the satisfaction of the Merciful Lord, and the
nearness of the Powerful King. So may the praise of Allah be upon my father,
His prophet, trusted one, the chosen one from among His creatures, and His
sincere friend, and may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. After saying so, Fatima turned
towards the crowd and said: Surely you are Allah’s slaves at His
command and prohibition; you are the bearers of His religion and revelation;
you are Allah’s trusted ones with yourselves; and His messengers to the
nations. Amongst you does He have righteous authority; a covenant He brought
unto you, and an heir He left to guard you; That is the eloquent book of Allah;
The truthful Quran; The brilliant light; The shinning beam; Its insights are
indisputable, its secrets are revealed; Its indications are manifest; and its
followers are blessed by it. (The Quran) leads its adherents to goodwill; and
hearing it leads to salvation; with it are the bright divine authorities
achieved, His manifest determination acquired, His prohibited decrees avoided;
His manifest evidence recognized; His satisfying proofs made apparent, His
permissions granted, and His laws written. So Allah made belief to be purification
for you from polytheism. He made: Prayer an exaltation for
you from conceit. Alms a purification for the soul and a (cause of) growth in
subsistence. Fasting an implantation of devotion. Pilgrimage a construction of
religion. Justice a harmony of the hearts. Obeying us (Ahlul Bayt) management
of the nation. Our leadership (Ahlul Bayt) safeguard from disunity. Jihad
(struggle) A strengthening of Islam… O People! Be informed that I am
Fatima, and my father is Muhammad (P.B.U.H). I say that repeatedly and
initiated it continually; I say not what I say mistakenly, nor do I do what I do aimlessly. Now hath
come unto you an Apostle from amongst yourselves; it grieves him that you
should perish; ardently anxious is he over you; to the believers he is most
kind and merciful. Thus, if you identify and recognize him, you shall realize
that he is my father and not the father of any of your women, the brother of my
cousin* [Ali (P.B.U.H)]. Thus, he propagated the Message, by
coming out openly with the warning, and while inclined away from the path of
the polytheists, struck their strengths and seized their throats, while he
invited (all) to the way of his Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; He
destroyed idols, and defeated heroes, until their group fled and turned their
backs. So night revealed its dawn; righteousness uncovered its genuineness; the
voice of the religious authority spoke out loud; the evil discords were
silenced; The crown of the hypocrisy was diminished; the tightening of infidelity
and desertion were united, so you spoke the statement of devotion amongst a
band of starved ones; and you were on the edge of a hole of fire; (you were)
the drink of the thirsty one; the opportunity of the desiring one; the fire
brand of him who passes in haste; the step for feet; you used to drink from the
water gathered on roads; eat jerked meat. You were despised outcasts always in
fear of abduction from those around you. Yet, Allah rescued you through my
father, Muhammad (P.B.U.H); after much ado, and after he was confronted by
mighty men the Arab beasts, and the demons of the people of the Book, who,
whenever they ignited the fire of war, Allah extinguished it; and whenever the
thorn of the devil appeared, or the mouth of the polytheists opened wide in
defiance, he (P.B.U.H) would strike its discords with his brother (Ali,
P.B.U.H) who comes not back until he treads its wing with the sole of his feet,
and extinguishes its flames with his sword. Ali is diligent in Allah’s affairs,
near to the Messenger of Allah. A master among Allah’s worshipers, setting to
work briskly, sincere in his advice, earnest and exerting himself (in service
of Islam); while you are calm, gay, and feeling safe in your comfortable lives,
waiting for us to meet disasters, awaiting the spread of news, you fell back
during every battle, and took to your heels at times of fighting. Yet, when
Allah chose His prophet from the dwell of His prophets, and the abode of His
sincere (servants); The thorns of hypocrisy appeared on you, the garments of
faith became worn out, the misguided ignorant(s) spoke out, the sluggish
ignorant came to the front and brayed. The he camel of the vain wiggled his
tail in your courtyards and the Devil stuck his head from its place of hiding
and called upon you, he found you responsive to his invitation, and observing
his deceits. He then aroused you and found you quick (to answer him), and
invited you to wrath, therefore; you branded other than your camels and
proceeded to other than your drinking places. Then while the era of the prophet
was still near, the gash was still wide, the scar had not yet healed, and the
messenger was not yet buried. A quick undertaking as you claimed,
aimed at preventing discord (trial); surely they have fallen into trial already!
And indeed Hell surrounds the unbelievers. How preposterous! What an idea! What
a falsehood! For Allah’s Book is still amongst you, its affairs are still
apparent; its rules are manifest; its signs are dazzling; its restrictions are
visible, and its commands are evident. Yet, indeed you have cast it behind your
backs! What! Do you detest it? Or according
to something else you wish to rule? Evil would be the exchange for the
wrongdoers! And if anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to
Allah) it never will be accepted from him; and in the hereafter he will be in
ranks of those who have lost. Surely you have not waited until its stampede
seized, and it became obedient. You then started arousing its flames,
instigating its coal, complying with the call of the misled devil, quenching
the light of the manifest religion, and extinguished the light of the sincere
prophet. You concealed sips on forth and proceeded towards his (the prophet’s)
kin and children in swamps and forests (you plot against them in deceitful
ways), but we are patient with you as is we are notched with knives and stung
by spearheads in our abdomens. Yet - now you claim - that there is not
inheritance for us! What! Do they then seek after a
judgment of the days of ignorance? But how, for a people whose faith is
assured, can give better judgment than Allah? Don’t you know? Yes, indeed it is
obvious to you that I am his daughter. O Muslims! Will my inheritance be
usurped? O son of Abu Quhafeh! Where is it in the Book of Allah that you
inherit your father and I do not inherit mine? Surely you have come up with an
unprecedented thing. Do you intentionally abandon the Book of Allah and cast it
behind your back? Do you not read where it says: “And Sulaiman inherited
Dawood”? And when it narrates the story of Zakaria and says: “So give me an
heir as from thyself; (One that) will inherit me, and inherit the posterity of
Yaqoob” And: “But kindred by blood have prior rights against each other in the
Book of Allah” And: “Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children’s
(inheritance) to the male, a portion equal to that of two females” And: “…If he
leaves any goods, that he make a bequest to parents and next of kin, according
to reasonable usage; this is due from the pious ones.” You claim that I have no
share! And that I do not inherit my father! What! Did Allah reveal a (Quranic)
verse regarding you, from which He excluded my father? Or do you say? These
(Fatima and her father) are the people of two faiths; they do not inherit each
other? Are we not, me and my father, a people adhering to one faith? Or is it
that you have more knowledge about the specifications and generalizations of
the Quran than my father and my cousin* (Imam Ali)? So, here you are! Take it!
(ready with) its nose roped and saddled! But it shall encounter you on the Day
of Gathering; (thus) What a wonderful judge is Allah, a claimant is Muhammad,
and a day is the day of Rising. At the time of the Hour shall the
wrongdoers lose; and it shall not benefit you to regret (your actions) then!
For every message there is a time limit, and soon shall ye know who will be
inflicted with torture that will humiliate him, and who will be confronted by
an everlasting punishment. Fatima then turned towards the
Ansars and said: O you people of
intellect! The strong supporters of the nation! And those who embraced Islam;
What is this shortcoming in defending my right? And what is this slumber (while
you see) injustice (being done towards me)? Did not the messenger of Allah
(P.B.U.H), my father, used to say: “A man is upheld (remembered) by his
children”? O how quick have you violated (his orders)! How soon have you
plotted against us? But you still are capable (of helping me in my attempt),
and powerful (to help me in that which I request and in my pursuit of it). Or
do you say: Muhammad (P.B.U.H) has perished; surely this is a great calamity;
Its damage is excessive, its injury is great, Its wound is much too deep to
heal, The earth became darkened with his departure; the stars eclipsed for his
calamity; hopes were seized; mountains submitted; sanctity was violated, and
holiness was encroached upon after his death. Therefore, this, by Allah, is the
great affliction which is the like of
it; nor will there be sudden misfortune (as surprising as this). The Book of
Allah, excellent in praising him -
announced in the courtyards (of your houses) in the place where you spend your
evenings and mornings; A call, A cry, A recitation, and (verses) in order: It
had previously come upon His (Allah’s) Prophets and Messengers; (for it is) a
decree final, and a predestination fulfilled; “Muhammad is not but an Apostle:
Many were the apostles that passed away before him. If he died or was slain
will ye then turn back on your heels? If any did turn back on his heels, not
the least harm will he do to Allah; but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly
reward those who (serve Him) with gratitude.” O you people of reflection; will I
be usurped the inheritance of my father while you hear and see me? (and while) You are sitting and gathered around me? You hear my call, and are included in the
(news of the) affair? You are numerous and well equipped! (You have) the means
and the power, and the weapons and the shields. Yet, the call reaches you but you
do not answer; the cry comes to you but you do not come to help? (This) While
you are characterized by struggle, known for goodness and welfare, the selected
group (which was chosen), and the best ones chosen by the Messenger (P.B.U.H)
for us, Ahlul-Bayt. You fought the Arabs,
bore with pain and exhaustion, struggled against the nations, and
resisted their heroes. We were still, so were you, in ordering you, and you in
obeying us. So that Islam became triumphant, the accomplishment of the days came
near, the fort of polytheism was subjected, the outburst of fabrication
subsided, the flames of infidelity calmed down, and the system of religion was
well ordered. Thus, (why have you) become confused after clearness? Conceal
matters after announcing them? Turned on your heels after daring? Associated
(others with Allah) after believing? Will you not fight people who violated
their oaths? Plotted to expel the Apostle and became aggressive by being the
first to assault you? Do ye fear them? Nay, it is Allah Whom ye should more
justly fear, if you believe? Nevertheless, I see that you are
inclined to easy living; dismissed he who is more worthy of guardianship (Ali,
P.B.U.H.); you secluded yourselves with meekness and dismissed that which you
accepted. Yet, if you show ingratitude, ye and all on earth together - yet,
Allah free of all wants, worthy of all praise. Surely, I have said all that I
have said with full knowledge that you intend to forsake me, and knowing the
betrayal, which your hearts sensed. But, it is the state of the soul, the
effusion of fury, the dissemination of (what is) the chest and the presentation
of the proof. Hence, here it is! Bag it (leadership and) put it on the back of
an ill she camel, which has a thin hump, with everlasting grace, marked with
the wrath of Allah, and the blame of ever (which leads to) the Fire of (the
wrath of) Allah kindled (to a blaze), that which doth mount (right) to the
hearts. For, Allah witnesses what you do, and soon will the unjust assailants
know what vicissitudes their affairs will take!! And I am the daughter of a
Warner (the Prophet, P.B.U.H) to you against a severe punishment. So, act and
so will we, and wait, and we shall wait.” Does this speech in any way seem,
relative, incomprehensible, distant, irrelevant or foreign, given a gap of
almost fifteen hundred years? Does the fact that it was delivered by a woman in
any way diminish the intensity, the charisma, the passion, the pain, the power,
the inspiration, the honesty, the integrity, the eloquence, the dignity and the
substance of a person who has been wronged beyond measure? Undoubtedly, the
most tragic event of Fatima’s life was the demise of her father. She was very
concerned about the future of the society, and the direction the Islamic affairs
were taking after this incident. Fatima began a campaign of political activism
and advocacy, because on one hand the question of leadership and the future of
Islam and on the other, the unity of the Islamic society were at stake. This
speech is, in spirit and content, a political lecture. Fatima determinedly
adopted a strategy of promoting awareness in order to inform the people of her
concerns, as the daughter of the Prophet. This speech shows that Fatima
displayed her political insight and concern. It is evident that she fulfilled
her role in the highest level of decision making in the society of her time.
She was an independent individual in her own right, not just the wife of Ali,
who himself is an unquestionable authority on Islam. Both were extremely
worried given the immediate political trends in Islam, and opposed this trend,
which began after the demise of Muhammad. Fatima believed in decisive advocacy
and open opposition. Fatima used to allocate the income
of Fadaq to poor and downtrodden families. The way Fatima managed Fadaq, it
became a major economic resource. Fatima and Ali spent the income from Fadaq
for the welfare of the society. So, in effect, they introduced the system of
welfare in the economy. Fatima was summoned to the court within the mosque to
justify her claims to Fadaq. For Fatima, Fadaq symbolised her economic rights
and the economic rights of women in Islam. Her lecture comprises of the
remembrance and the unity of God; the role of the Prophet; principles of
Islamic edicts; an intensive analysis of the current trends and developments in
the Islamic society; her right of inheritance to her father’s property,
including Fadaq; the responsibilities and commitments of a true Muslim. Fatima
obviously sought to revive the ideals and fundamentals of Islam, which she
found to be distorted and manhandled. Therefore, this speech is much more than
a philosophical discourse in defending her rights to inheritance. The speech is
emblematic of women’s rights of political freedom, their rights of freedom of
expression for personal and social well being, and most importantly their
economic rights. This speech not only gives us a taste of the depth and
vastness of her knowledge, but also is a witness of her analytical capabilities
in exposing the then political undercurrents and in proving and confirming the
correctness of her position. Fatima’s speech transcends the constrictions of
time, place, and context, and appears as vibrant and as moving as when actually
delivered. In Fatima is Fatima, Dr. Ali
Shariati writes, “There is only one person buried in the Ka’ba, the ‘House of
God’ and that is a woman, a slave Hajra, the second wife of Abraham and the
mother of Ismail. Fatima spent her life in struggle, resisting poverty and
difficulties. Her father was forced to spend three years in a valley with his
family when his tribe imposed economic and social sanctions against his message
of Islam. After the migration to Medina, her new life as a married woman begins
but she continues to face the same hardships and difficulties that she
encountered since childhood. We learn of Fatima as a Muslim female child who
defends her father against the elders of her tribe. Fatima is the one who,
holding her fathers’ hand, accompanies him into the bazaar, listens to his
debates and walks with him to her home; Fatima, the Muslim woman, who stands at
the door and defends her husband and her home when usurpers try to burn it
down. Fatima tells the newly elected Caliph that he has displeased God and
God’s Prophet by not listening to the Prophet’s advice and taking his own
interests to heart. Fatima, who when she finds injustice and oppression speaks
out with the totality of her being, not fearing the outcome of her words for
she knows she speaks with the tongue of Truth.” The woman of my book, Zaynab, is the
daughter of this Fatima. It is not difficult to comprehend the kind of cradle
Zaynab grew up in, which was rocked by the hands of Fatima; what Zaynab must
have absorbed into her being and her veins, when the milk of Fatima nursed her;
what Zaynab’s soul was imprinted with, when Fatima looked lovingly into her
eyes; what Zaynab’s mind was affected with, when the voice of Fatima spoke to
her, caressed her, taught her, lulled her to sleep, prayed for her. Zaynab -
the daughter of such a mother, such a woman, such a wife, such a daughter, such
an educator, and such an activist! Someone of our generation would think that
it is incredibly hard and threatening to grow up in the shadow of such a
mother. Well, for Zaynab it was different. She thought herself to be extremely
fortunate that she grew up looking up to such high standards set for her by
Fatima and that she successfully measured up to them, matched them in her own
distinctive way and excelled herself in meeting the expectations her family,
and especially her mother, had of her. What she has done has surpassed every
other woman known to man, from before the dawn of civilization to this very
day, and till the moment of time when nothing will be. Zaynab - the reflection
of Fatima. Zaynab - the mirror image of Fatima. Zaynab - the woman with the
soul of Fatima. The beauty of Fatima blooms in Zaynab. Or one can say, the
essence of Fatima breathes in Zaynab. The
Hardest Times I wanted to quote Fatima before I
would actually start to narrate the information on Zaynab’s life that I have so
far come across, because there are another two speeches at the heart of this
book, which were delivered by Zaynab. What Zaynab has managed to accomplish is
incredible and wonderful. Now, that you know what and how could Fatima speak,
you would find it very natural and believable when you find Zaynab speak. It
runs in their genes. But you would not believe when you see what preceded the
speech of Zaynab. Before I go further, I wish to the Almighty that no one
should go through what Zaynab went through, and that no one should be put
through what she was put through, especially a woman, the most sublime of His
creation. In 5 A.H (after hijrat - after the
year of migration from Mecca to Medina) Zaynab was born. Hussain, her brother
who was three years old then, was delighted and said to Ali, “O father, God has
given me a sister.” His father started crying, and when asked by Hussain for its
reason, was told that he would soon come to know of it. Zaynab’s parents did
not name her immediately as they wanted Muhammad to name her and he was away
from the city. At his return, the Prophet held his
eldest granddaughter in his lap and kissed her. Gabriel, the angel, came to him
and conveyed the name that was to be Zaynab and began weeping. Muhammad asked
him of the reason of his crying, and was told, “O Prophet of God, from early on
in life this girl will remain entangled in tribulations and trials in this
world. First she will weep over your separation (from this world); thereafter
she will bemoan the loss of her mother, then her father, and then her brother
Hassan. After all this she will be confronted with the trials of the land of
Karbala and the tribulations of that lonely desert, as a result of which her
hair will turn grey and her back will be bent.” When Muhammad’s family heard of this
prophecy, they burst into tears. Now Hussain understood the reason why his
father wept earlier. Muhammad named his granddaughter Zaynab. One day, when she
was about five years old, Zaynab saw a strange dream. She saw that a turbulent
storm rose in the city and it cast the earth and the sky into darkness. And the
little Zaynab was tossed from place to place, and suddenly she found herself
stuck in the branches of a huge tree. But the storm uprooted the tree. Zaynab
caught hold of a branch. It broke. She caught hold of another. It broke. In
panic she grabbed two twigs. These two broke. Zaynab started falling. There was
no support. She woke up. When Muhammad heard
this from her, he wept bitterly. He said, “O my daughter, that tree is me who
is shortly going to leave this world. The branches are your father Ali and your
mother Fatima, and the twigs are your brothers Hassan and Hussain. They will
all depart this world before you do, and you will suffer their separation and
loss.” Zaynab was barely seven years old
when Fatima passed away, soon after the Prophet himself. While still a young
girl, Zaynab was fully capable of running her father’s household. She cared
more for the comforts of her brothers and sisters than herself. She was
extremely generous to the poor, the orphans and the needy. After her marriage,
her husband is reported to have said, “Zaynab is the best housewife.” From very early in her life, Zaynab
had an unusually strong bond with her brother, Hussain. Sometimes while as a
baby her mother would not be able to pacify Zaynab, she would be so immediately
if Hussain would hold her. Zaynab would look at Hussain’s face before she
prayed. Fatima spoke to Muhammad about Zaynab’s intense love for Hussain. The
Prophet sighed deeply and with moist eyes said, “My dear child, this child of
mine, Zaynab, would be confronted with a thousand and one calamities and face
serious hardships in Karbala.” Zaynab married her first cousin,
Abdullah, the son of Ali’s brother, Jafar. After the death of Jafar, as long as
Muhammad was alive, Abdullah grew up under his personal supervision, and
afterwards Ali became his guardian and supporter. Zaynab’s husband was a
handsome young man of knowledge, courage, generosity, and pleasant manners.
Zaynab and Abdullah had five children; four sons - Ali, Aun, Muhammad, and
Abbas; one daughter, Umm Kulthum. Zaynab held regular classes, where
she shared her knowledge with other women, and taught them her grandfather’s
religion, Islam. Her meetings were well attended by the women. Zaynab soon came
to be known as Fasihah (skilfully fluent) and Balighah (intensely eloquent) for
her quality to impart knowledge with exceptional clarity and eloquence. In 37
A.H. Ali moved the government seat from Medina to Kufa, when he finally became
the fourth Caliph. Zaynab and Abdullah also accompanied him. Her reputation, as
an inspiring teacher had preceded her. And women of Kufa started benefiting
from Zaynab’s erudition, wisdom, and scholarship in the exegesis of the Quran.
It was this depth and accuracy of knowledge, which earned her the name Alimah
Ghayr Mu’allamah (she who has knowledge without being taught), given to her by
her nephew, Ali Zayn-ul-Abidin, the eldest son and successor of Hussain. On 19 Ramadan in 40 A.H. Ali went to
the central mosque of Kufa for prayers. Soon after the call to prayers, Zaynab
heard a heart-rending cry. The noise and cries were coming nearer to her home
and she knew that they were bringing her the news of her father’s
assassination. The assassin was Ibn Muljim who struck Ali a fatal blow deep in
his head while he was in the state of devotional prostration. His followers
carried him home on their shoulders wrapped in a blanket. On 21 Ramadan, just
after two days of the attack, Ali breathed his last. Hassan, his eldest child
said, “Tonight such a great man has died with whose good conduct no one in the
past or in the future can compare. He fought holy wars side by side with the
Holy Prophet, and made his life a shield for him. The Prophet used to make him
a standard bearer of the army while the angels Jibra’il walked on his right and
Mika’il on his left. He never came back from any war without victory. At the
time of his death he left nothing save seven hundred dirhams with which he had
intended to provide the people of his house a servant.” Even after being the brother and the
vicegerent of the Prophet, the only son-in-law of the Prophet, and the Caliph
of the Islamic world for almost five years, Ali’s household remained incapable
of securing the service of a domestic servant, which even a common citizen can
afford. There is a lot in this house that would seem otherwise strange, if not
properly studied and understood. A bereaved Zaynab returned with her husband to
Medina. Approximately ten years later, she lost Hassan, who was another victim
of the greedy and power-lusty Umayyads. Muawiya was determined to convert the
Caliphate into hereditary kingship, which would facilitate in retaining the
seat of power within the Umayyads. He could only achieve this by securing
allegiance of the Muslims for Yazid, his son. Hence, he eliminated Hassan by
feeding him poison from the hands of one of Hassan’s wives. The responsibility and the right of
leadership of the nation passed on to Hussain, the younger brother of Hassan.
But everything was done to hamper the situation. Within six years of Hassan’s
death, Muawiya started to persuade, cajole, tempt, bribe, threatens, and even
eliminate people to compel them to swear allegiance to Yazid. The people did so
willingly or unwillingly. Only five men refused to give allegiance to Yazid.
Hussain was one of them. Muawiya failed to pressurise Hussain, who opposed the
oppressive and unethical regime of the Umayyads. If the rule of Mu’awiya, the
son of Abu Sufian, the Prophet Muhammad’s most bitterly adamant enemy in Mecca,
had been offensive to some good Mulims, the accession of Yazid, a drunkard and
a lecher who openly ridiculed and flouted the fundamentals of Islam, was an
outrage. In Kufa the people began to stir once more and soon letters and
messengers were arriving in Medina, urging Hussain to come to Kufa and assume
leadership there. In 60 A.H. the Bani Hashim (the clan of Abu Talib, Muhammad,
Ali, Hassan and Hussain, descendants of Hashim) were confronted with the issue
of Yazid’s Caliphate. Yazid refused to be as patient as Muawiya. The day after
his father died, Yazid wrote to Walid ibn Utha ibn Abu Sufian, the governor of
Medina, instructing him to pursue Hussain, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Abdullah ibn
Zubair, and force them to swear allegiance to him. Hussain refused. At the
behest of the oppressed people of Kufa, who led him to believe that there were
many of them who wanted to oppose the tyranny of the transgressing Umayyads, he
decided to go to Kufa. Because of the pressure from Walid,
Hussain moved from Medina to Mecca. He sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil as his
emissary to Kufa to assess the situation. Despite some encouraging reports from
Muslim, Hussain was warned by some of his followers against going to Kufa as
the Kufians had earlier proved to be weak and fickle in their support for Ali
and Hassan. But Hussain decided to leave for
Kufa with his family. Zaynab learnt of Hussain’s decision and requested her
husband to allow her to accompany him in his proposed journey. Abdullah
apprised Zaynab of the danger and hardships associated with this journey.
Zaynab told him, “My mother did not leave me behind to watch from afar as
recreation the day when my brother is all alone, surrounded by enemies with no
friend or supporter. You know that for fifty-five years my brother and I have
never been separated. Now it is the time of our old age and the closing period
of our lives. If I leave him now, how shall I be able to face my mother, who at
the time of her death had willed, ‘Zaynab, after me you are both mother and
sister for Hussain’? It is obligatory for me to stay with you, but if I do not
go with him at this time, I shall not be able to bear the pain of separation.”
Abdullah who, because of his illness, was unable to accompany Hussain, gave
Zaynab his permission to do so. He sent two of his sons, Aun and Muhammad, with
her. Zaynab left with Hussain and his family for Kufa. After the first day of
their journey, they camped at Khuzaymiyyah to spend the night. As Zaynab was
taking care of Hussain’s comforts, he said to her, “What will come to pass has
long since been decreed.” After they resumed their journey, they found their
way obstructed by Hur ibn Yazid Riahi at Ruhayma. Sakina, the youngest daughter
of Hussain saw this and informed Zaynab of the situation. Zaynab wept and said,
“Would that the enemy killed all of us rather than slay my brother.” Hussain
came to know of Zaynab’s distress and went to see her in her tent. She told
him, “O my brother, talk to them. Tell them about your closeness to the Holy
Prophet and of your kinship with him.” Hussain replied, “O sister, I spoke to
them at length. I tried to convince
them but they are so immersed in misguidance and obsessed with greed that they
cannot set aside their evil intentions. They will not rest till they have
killed me and seen me rolling around in my blood. O sister, I advise you to
patiently endure the forthcoming troubles. My grandfather, the Holy Prophet had
told me of my martyrdom, and his foretelling cannot be untrue.” On the 2nd of Muharram, Hussain’s
party reached Karbala. But the people who had originally invited and begged him
to come to Kufa were no longer standing by him. Yazid appointed Ibn Ziyad, the
governor of Kufa for the task of subverting the plans of the Kufians and to
cunningly eliminate any one showing support for Hussain. When the task was
successfully done, troops were sent to meet Hussain at Karbala. Hussain’s side had their tents
pitched. At night, while cleaning his sword, Hussain was reciting couplets
foretelling his martyrdom. His son Zayn-ul-Abidin listened to him in sorrowful
silence. Zaynab heard Hussain’s recitation. She went to his tent and prayed
that death would overtake her. Zaynab asked Hussain, whether she might be
killed in his place. When she heard him say ‘no’, she lost consciousness. When
she regained it, Hussain said, “Everything is mortal. The final word lies with
God and to Him is the return. My father and grandfather were better men than I
but where are they now? Their example is the standard for me and for all
Muslims.” After saying this Hussain tried to console her and took her to the
tent of Zayn-ul-Abidin. Zaynab was however, unable to find any solace. Hence,
she came to be known as Baakiyah (the one who weeps). On the eve of 10th of Muharram,
Hussain addressed his followers, who comprised of both friends and family - the
Ansar and the Bani Hashim. He knew that this was going to be a battle unto
death. Therefore, he relieved them of all obligations to remain by his side. He
told them that, were they to avoid getting involved in this battle and return
to safety, their decision would not be grudged. There was not any doubt in anyone’s mind of the impending
slaughter. How hard it is to remain calm and engage one’s thoughts only in
prayers, all the while knowing that one is to loose inevitably everyone and
everything in the monstrous hands of one’s own people? Zaynab has shown the
world that this crisis too can be surmounted by sheer faith in the Power of
God, and in total submission to His Will for the establishment of truth. Umar ibn Sa’d, on the insistence of
Shimr, prepared to attack the handful of Hussain’s men. As soon as Zaynab heard
the battle cries of the approaching enemy troops, she ran to Hussain’s tent.
There, she found that he had fallen asleep while cleaning his sword. She stood
there watching him. Hussain woke up. He saw that Zaynab was watching him
silently. He told her that he just had a dream and he saw his grandfather, his
father, his mother, and his elder brother telling him that he would soon join
them. When he saw that this has distressed Zaynab very much, he said to her,
“The blessings of God are upon you. Do not worry about the troubles these
wretched people will cause.” The sun of the 10th of Muharram came
up to attest the truth in Margaret Mead’s saying, “Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the
only thing that ever has.” Hussain went into the tent of his successor Ali
Zayn-ul-Abidin, who was lying ill, as he was too weak to join his father in his
battle. Zaynab was looking after him. Hussain bade him goodbye and said, “My
son, you are the best and purest of my children. After me you will be my
successor and deputy. Take care of these women and children during captivity
and the rigours of travel. Console them. My son, convey to my friends my Salaam
and tell them their Imam has been killed away from his home, who was thirsty
and hungry, and that they should mourn for me.” He told Zaynab and the other
women that, “Take heed and remember that this my son is my successor and Imam
and is to be obeyed by everyone.” He turned to Zaynab, and said, “After killing
me my enemies would take off the clothes from my body. Therefore, please bring
me some old and tattered garment to wear so that they might not undress me and
leave me naked.” Zaynab did what was asked of her. Zaynab brought her sons, Aun and
Muhammad to Hussain and said to him, “O my dear brother, if women were
permitted to fight I would have courted death to save you. But it is not
allowed. Therefore, please accept the sacrifice of my two sons.” The mindless
massacre raged on the whole day. One by one, Hussain’s sons, brothers, kinsmen,
friends, and supporters were martyred on the battlefield. None died an easy
death. They were all practically butchered. Zaynab’s sons met with the same fate.
She accepted it with absolute fortitude. Neither did Zaynab come out of her
tent, nor did she loudly lament as she did not want to cause grief or
embarrassment to her brother. But when the corpse of Ali Akbar, the second son
of Hussain was brought in the tent of the women, Zaynab was in deep
anguish. She rushed out of her tent and
clasped his body crying, “O my son, would that I had become blind, or had been
buried beneath the ground so as not to have seen this day.” As the enemies stopped Muhammad’s
family’s access to water, the water store had finished almost four days ago.
Usually it is said that Hussain and his party did not have any water to drink
for three days. But I would like to correct this as the water reserve finished
on the 6th of Muharram, and from the 7th of Muharram any possible supply was
stopped. So, as the battle took place on the 10th of Muharram and went on till
sunset, Hussain and his people were thirsty for more than four days. When
Hussain was taking his final leave from the women, Zaynab asked whether he
could try to get a little water for his dehydrated six-month old son Ali
Ashgar, as his mother’s milk had also dried up. Hussain took the baby in his
arms and went to request Umar ibn Sa’d for a little water for him. But Umar- ibn-Sa’d
and his troops gave much more than that to the baby. They shot an arrow that
pierced the child’s neck and Hussain’s shoulder. Hussain came back to the tent
with the body of his dead son. Zaynab wept as she pressed the tiny body to her
chest. The last person to go out in the
battlefield was Hussain. This means, Hussain was thirstier than any of his
warriors. He kept the extreme of pain and discomfort for himself. He was so
heavily and numerously wounded that there was not a part of his body that remained
unscathed. He stopped his sword because it was time for him to pray. His
enemies attacked him from all sides with swords and spears. When Zaynab saw
this from her tent, she went out on the battlefield, and said to Hussain, “O my
brother, my master, would that the sky fell down on the earth and the mountains
toppled to the ground.” Then she turned to Umar ibn Sa’d and said, “O Sa’d, Hussain is being butchered and you
are only watching.” Hearing this his eyes filled with tears but he made no
reply. Zaynab addressed the others in the enemy army: “Is there no Muslim among
you who could help the grandson of the Prophet of God?” Hussain bent his head on the ground
in prostration. Shimr lifted his severed head. There was no fight left. The
troops had only one thing to do trample and mince Hussain’s body under the
hooves of their horses, and loot him so much so that even the tattered piece of
cloth, which he hoped would preserve his modesty was snatched away. When
Hussain’s head was cut off, Zaynab heard Gabriel proclaim: “Beware, Hussain has
been murdered in Karbala.” She rushed to Zayn-ul-Abidin and
told him of the tragedy that had just occurred. At his asking Zaynab raised the
curtain of the tent for him to look towards the battlefield. When he saw that
his father’s head was held on the point of a spear, he started crying and
exclaimed, “My aunt, my father has been killed, and with him the spring of
generosity and honour too has come to an end. Inform the women and ask them to
conduct themselves with patience and forbearance. Let them be prepared for
plunder and captivity.” The enemy stormed into the women’s
tents and Umar ibne Sa’d ordered them to loot. They stole what they could and
set the tents on fire. They beat the women with their swords and whips and
snatched away their shawls (chadar). Zayn-ul-Abidin’s bedding was ripped from
beneath his body and he was left lying weak and shaking. Sakina’s and Fatima’s
earrings were wrenched from their ears, causing them to bleed profusely. They
were slapped so hard and so often by Shimr, that their cheeks started to bleed.
After the battle there were more than one hundred children and almost fifty
women present in Karbala. And amidst this carnage Zaynab was the only one to
take care of all of them, including her ill nephew. While the tents were being devoured
by fire, Zaynab gathered the women and
went to get Hussain’s ill son. Shimr had come to kill him after finding that
there was still one man alive on Hussain’s side. Zaynab threw herself on
Zayn-ul-Abidin’s body to protect him. Thus, she stopped Shimr from carrying out
his satanic intentions. Zayn-ul-Abidin was too weak to move. His tent was
burning. Zaynab lifted him in her arms and carried him out. Out of sheer terror
most of the women and children had fled here and there into the open desert.
Zaynab started looking for them amidst the slaughterhouse of dead bodies,
chopped limbs, streaming blood,
severed heads, raging fire, choking smoke, scalding tears, benumbing grief, and
hostile darkness. As night fell Zaynab gradually collected them all and
assembled them in one place. But she could not find Sakina, the youngest
daughter of Hussain. Distraught with worries Zaynab went where Hussains’
beheaded and trampled body was lying in the dark battlefield. Sakina was lying
on Hussain’s chest, clinging to his body. Power
of Pain in Action The day after the infamous slaughter
took place in Karbala, the members of Muhammad’s family were made to leave for
Kufa to be presented to Ibn Ziyad. Among the captives, were Zaynab, her younger
sister Umm Kulthum, other women of the Bani Hashim, Zayn-ul-Abidin, three young
sons of Hassan, the daughters of Hussain, and the female friends and followers.
When on their way, they reached the battlefield of Karbala, they saw that the
bodies of the martyrs lay naked on the burning sand, covered with blood and
dust. The enemy did not bury them, while they buried their own dead. Seeing
this Zayn-ul-Abidin was so traumatised that he appeared on the verge of death
himself. On observing this, Zaynab said to him, “O you who are reminder of my
grandfather and father. What has happened to you for I see that you are about
to lose your life.” He replied, “Dear Aunt, how can I be otherwise when I see
that the bodies of my father, uncles, brothers and cousins are lying on the
ground neglected while their clothes have been removed and there is no
arrangement for shrouding and burying them?” Then Zaynab could not hold back
her cries and lamentation at the murder of Hussain and their captivity. Umar ibn Sa’d had entrusted the
severed heads of Hussain, his sons, and the other martyrs, to different tribal
chiefs so that on the way people would see that various tribes had taken part
in the battle and none would dare to interrupt their victory march. The
captives were made to ride on camels without saddles, without any shawl or
veil, while ahead of them the captors carried the chopped off heads of the
martyrs hoisted on spears. They arrived in Kufa at night. They
were made to camp outside as the palace of Ibn Ziyad was shut. In the morning
he was informed of the arrival of the victors and the prisoners. He ordered for
the arrangement of a big function of celebration to be held, to which all and
sundry were to be invited. The head of Hussain was to be placed on a gold tray
near the court chair, and the heads of the other martyrs were to be displayed
as well. The Kufians were told
that some tribe had committed aggression against the Muslims, but the latter
had won. The function was being held to celebrate this victory. Everyone
arrived in festive clothes. In joyful anticipation, the crowd poured into the
streets, and bazaars. The music of victory was played when the captives were
being brought there. A few among the crowd guessed otherwise and they had their
eyes cast down. There was one woman there who recognised Zaynab, and her
retinue of women. She ran into her house and brought them all shawls and sheets
with which to cover their bodies. But the guards snatched them away. Zaynab saw this. She saw that some
of the men and women who finally realised what had happened were crying and
wailing. She bade them to be quiet with a single regal gesture of her hand. And
then she spoke. Zaynab spoke with the flame of Fatima and the eloquence of Ali.
You can see for yourself the resemblance of Zaynab’s speech to that of
Fatima’s, quoted earlier in Chapter 3. Zaynab’s speech is a rational and
political follow-up of Fatima’s. The things, which displeased and hurt Fatima,
the very things of which she warned the Muslims - her contemporaries and their
progeny, and the things she vehemently objected to, the things which she
protested against fervently; they all took place heedless of her caution, resulting
in the holocaust - Karbala and its aftermath. “Praise be to Allah”, she began,
“and blessings be on my grandfather Muhammad and his purified and chosen
progeny. So now, O people who deceive, forsake and contrive, it is you who
weep. May Allah not stop your tears and may your chests burn incessantly with
the fire of grief and sorrow. Your example is that of a woman who assiduously
prepares a strong rope and then untwines it herself, wasting her own hard
labour. You swear such false oaths, which bear no truthfulness at all. Beware
that you have nothing except vain talk, false pride, mischief, malice, evil,
rancour, falsehood, and sycophancy. Beware that your position is that of
slave-maids and purchased girls who are but the meanest beings. Your hearts are
full of enmity and rancour. You are like the vegetation that grows on filthy
soil and is yet green, or like the mortar applied unto graves.” “You should know that you have
perpetrated a very morbid deed and that have prepared evil provision for your next
life, because of which Allah’s anger is against you and His wrath would fall
upon you. Now you are crying aloud and wailing over my brother! Yes, cry,
because it behoves you to cry. Yes, weep profusely and laugh less, because you
have earned the shame of killing the Imam of your age. The stain of his blood
is now on your clothes and you cannot remove it, nor can you secure acquittal
from the charge of killing the son of the last Prophet of Allah, the Chief of
the youths of Paradise. You have killed a person who was your support, the
knower of the Sunnah and the ultimate arbitrator at the time of your mutual
disputations. He was the basis of your talks and actions. He was your place of
refuge in the event of hardship. Know that you have been guilty of the most
heinous of crimes in the world and have prepared the worst provision for the
Day of Judgement. Curses be upon you and may destruction overtake you. Your
efforts have gone wasted and you have been ruined. You have transacted a losing
trade. You have become the victim of Allah’s wrath and have fallen into
ignominy and degradation.” “O people of Kufa, woe upon you. Do
you realise which piece of Muhammad’s heart you have severed, which pledge you
have broken, whose blood you have shed and whose honour you have desecrated?
You have certainly committed such a crime because of which the sky may fall
down on the earth, the earth may crack and mountains crumble to pieces. By
killing your Imam you have committed a singularly evil act of rebellious
behaviour and heedlessness towards dignity. In view of all these acts would you
wonder if blood should rain down from the sky?” Here it must be noted that the
incident of Karbala took place in 685 AD of the Christian Calendar. And it is
recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles: “685. This year there was in Britain a
bloody rain, and milk and butter were turned into blood.” Zaynab continued, “In any case you
should mind that the chastisement of the Next World will be severe. At that juncture there will be no one to help
you. Do not regard the time and opportunity given to you by Allah as small and
unimportant, and do not be satisfied with it because if Allah is not quick in
acting it does not simply imply that He is unable. For Him there is no fear
that the time of vengeance is passing away. Allah is certainly keeping watch
over you.” The crowd gathered all around her and wept with remorse. Zaynab had no wish to appeal to
their petty sentiments of pity. Rather she exposed to them their own selves and
their misdeeds. Zaynab’s firebrand speech made the people so ashamed of
themselves that all the prior sense of fun and joyous celebrations was now the
farthest from their minds. Zaynab entered the government
palace, which was so familiar to her. It was here that she saw her father mete
out justice during his Caliphate. It was here that she saw her sons and the
other children of the household play. It was here that she saw her brothers and
the rest of the family being held in great regard by the people. But the
circumstances have changed so much. Her present condition was a world apart
from the ones she could hardly ever forget. Although she was shabbily dressed,
her constitution undergoing hunger, physical exhaustion and pain, not to
mention the furnace of agony and sorrow in her heart, and her head was
uncovered, Zaynab entered with awe-inspiring dignity and quietly took her
place. Ibn Ziyad was amazed at her bold personality and enquired who she was.
Zaynab did not think it was necessary to reply to his question. It was left to
one of her slaves to inform Ibn Ziyad of her identity. Enraged because of her
apparently haughty behaviour, Ibn Ziyad said to her, “Allah be praised! Your
brother and your kinsmen are dead and their false claims have come to naught.”
Zaynab replied, “It was Allah’s wish that they should be martyred, and they met
their deaths bravely. If this was your heart’s desire then you must indeed be
content today. But you have killed those whom the Holy Prophet held upon his
knees when they were children, and, whose play filled him with joy. Soon you
will stand with them before Allah and they will demand justice. Beware the day
of reckoning.” And it seemed to all that heard her
speak that she was speaking with the voice and in the style of her father.
Angrily, Ibn Ziyad turned to a young man among the prisoners and enquired of
him. The youth replied, “I am Ali,
son of Hussain.” Ibn Ziyad was taken aback by the fact that he was still alive,
and ordered his execution. But Zaynab intervened and said that if the man was
to be killed then she should be killed with him. Ibn Ziyad was shamed by her
love and the order was not carried out. Hussain’s son was bound with chains,
and an iron ring was fastened around his neck. After this he was permitted to
remain with the women. The family of Muhammad was then
imprisoned in a house near the central mosque. They were locked in and strictly
guarded, and none except slave-maids were able to visit them. The day after
their arrival Ibn Ziyad wrote to Yazid informing him about the killing of
Hussain and the capture of his womenfolk. Yazid replied that the captives be
sent to him in Damascus along with the heads of the martyrs. After about a
month and seven days in Kufa they were made to set off for Damascus with a
large escort of horsemen and footmen of the army so that none should intercept
their journey. On the 18 of Safar the caravan left Kufa with its stonehearted
escorts. The women suffered untold hardships on their journey to Damascus,
which was no less than six hundred miles away. Their journey took them through
many villages and towns, among them Karbala, Ba’albeck, Musal and Hums. They
were made to travel unveiled, on unsaddled camels like slaves, and the heads of
the martyrs were carried on spears before them. In some of the towns, crowds
flocked to jeer at them, but if it happened that they were to pass through some
place where the people were loyal towards the family of the Prophet, they came
out to fight the Yazidites. They therefore, were very often forced to take other
routes involving long diversions, and the camels were made to run faster so as
to cover the extra distance. The captives were treated very cruelly. Many of
the children perished from the rigours of the journey. When we are talking
about captives you have to always remember that they consisted of women, small
children and only one man, the eldest son of Hussain, who was not only chained
and fettered but was being cruelly beaten up and whipped. After about twenty-eight days, on
the sixteenth of Rabi-ul-Awwal, the caravan reached Damascus. When they reached
the outskirts of Damascus they were made to halt. Yazid was informed of their
arrival and he fixed a date for their entry into the city. On the morning of
the appointed day, the members of the family of Muhammad were led into
Damascus. They were tied with ropes and herded together like cattle. If anyone
stumbled she was whipped. The city streets had been decorated and the sound of
music filled the air. How must have these decorations, laughter, and fun-filled
music pained Zaynab! One cannot even begin to imagine. People came out in
throngs wearing festive clothes and rejoiced when they saw the procession,
preceded as always by the heads of the martyrs. The prisoners bore themselves
with dignity and self-respect, when they were paraded through Damascus. Zaynab
rejected even the offerings of food that some of the people offered the
prisoners out of compassion. The son of an enemy of the Prophet
who had waged war with Ali was among the crowds. When he saw Zayn-ul-Abidin, he
jeeringly asked him who was now victorious. In reply Zayn-ul-Abidin said: “If
you wish to find out who has been victorious, do so when it is time for prayer
and the Adhan and Iqamat are recited.” In this manner the captives were paraded
in the bazaars and amidst the crowd from morning to afternoon and then they
reached the palace of Yazid. He was seated on a throne and was very happy when
he saw the forty-four bound captives arrive. The head of Hussain was then
brought to him on a gold tray. He struck Hussain’s teeth with his stick and
said: “O Hussain! You have paid the price of your revolt.” When Zaynab and her
companions saw this barbarously insensitive action they burst into tears and
many present in the court felt genuinely ashamed. The prisoners were tied up in
a single rope. All the while outside and inside Yazid’s palace, Zaynab could
not stand straight as whenever she would try to do so, the rope would pull and
strain around Sakina’s neck, causing her enormous pain. Sakina’s neck was at
the level with Zaynab’s tied arms. She kept herself bent. It was the only way
she could reduce the degree of pain on the little girl’s neck. And till the day
she died, Zaynab could never straighten her back. Indifferent to the pain, suffering,
sorrow, guilt, and uneasiness in the atmosphere, Yazid carried on gloating over
his victory. He said to his subjects: “My ancestors who were killed at Badr
have been avenged today. Now it is clear that the Bani Hashim had just staged a
play to gain power and there was never any divine revelation.” Yazid wanted to
frighten the prisoners. Yazid did not know Zaynab. The
Zenith of Humanity This was the moment Zaynab had been
reared, geared, and prepared for, all through her life. The entity of her being
was anchored on this moment of Time.
This was the moment of Truth. Only through truth can untruth be
vanquished. I would urge my readers to recollect the saying of Lady Jane Wilde
quoted earlier in Chapter 1. I am going to rearrange and reshape it in the
following manner: We have now traced the history of women from Paradise to the
21st century and despite the clank of their fetters, have heard and seen on a
few remarkable occasions through the long roll of the ages, absolutely
magnificent celebration of truth, emblazoned with faith and sincerity of
purpose. This was the moment Eve had waited
for, this was the moment Adam had waited for; this was the moment Heger had
waited for, this was the moment Abraham had waited for; this was the moment
Mary had waited for, this was the moment Jesus had waited for; this was the
moment Amina had waited for, this was the moment Abdullah had waited for; this
was the moment Fatima- bint-Asad had waited for, this was the moment Abu Talib
had waited for; this was the moment Fatima-bint-Muhammad had waited for, this
was the moment Ali-ibn-Abu Talib had waited for; this was the moment Khadija
had waited for, this was the moment Muhammad (P.B.U.H) had waited for, this was
the moment Zaynab had waited for, this was the moment Abdullah ibn Jafar had
waited for. And this was the moment Hussain was waiting for. Zaynab was ready
to fulfil her end of the Hussain-Zaynab partnership deal. Zaynab drew herself up bravely in
front of the most notorious man of all time, who puts to shame even the likes
of Nero and Hitler. She delivered her speech in front of the greatest terrorist
the world will ever see. Zaynab began boldly and loudly for all to hear (I am
at my wit’s end in trying to understand that after all she has undergone how in
the name of God, did she have the stamina to remain bold and composed?):
“Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds and blessings on my grandfather,
the Chief of divine prophets. O Yazid, Allah says, and his word is true, that:
‘Then evil was the end of those who did evil because they rejected the
communications of Allah and used to mock them’ [30:10].” “O Yazid, do you believe that you
have succeeded in closing the sky and the earth for us and that we have become
your captives just because we have been brought before you in a row and that
you have secured control over us? Do you believe that we have been afflicted
with insult and dishonour by Allah and that you have been given honour and
respect by Him? You have become boastful of this apparent victory that you have
secured and you have started feeling jubilant and proud over this prestige and
honour. You think that you have achieved worldly good and that your affairs
have become stable and our rule has fallen into your hands. Wait for a while.
Do not be so joyful. Have you forgotten Allah’s saying: ‘The unbelievers should
not carry the impression that the time allowed to them by us is good for them. Surely
we give them time so that they may increase their evil deeds, and eventually
they will be given insulting chastisement’ [3:178].” “O son of freed slaves, is this your
justice that you keep your own daughters and slave maids veiled while the
daughters of the Prophet of Allah are being paraded from place to place
exposed.” You have dishonoured us by unveiling our faces. Your men take us from
town to town where all sorts of people, whether they be residents of the hills
or of riversides have been looking at us. The near as well as the remote ones,
the poor as well as the rich, the low as well as the high all casting their glances at us while our
position is such that there is no male relative of ours to render us help or
support.” “O Yazid, whatever you have done
proves your revolt against Allah and your denial of His Prophet, of the Book
and Sunnah that the Holy Prophet brought from Allah. Your deeds should not
cause amazement because one whose ancestors chewed the livers of the martyrs,
whose flesh grew up on virtuous people, who fought against the Chief of divine
prophets, who mobilized parties for fighting against him and drew swords
against him, should conspicuously excel all Arabs in unbelief, sinfulness,
excesses, and enmity against Allah and His Prophet (P.B.U.H). Remember that the
evil deeds and sinful actions that you have committed are the result of
unbelief and old rancour you bear because of your ancestors who were killed in
Badr.” “One who cast his glance of enmity,
malice and rancour upon us does not lag behind in practicing enmity against us.
He proves his unbelief, declares it with his tongue and jubilantly proclaims:
‘I have killed the sons of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) of Allah and made his progeny
captive,’ and wishes that his ancestors had lived to see his achievement and to
have exclaimed, ‘O Yazid, may your hands not lose their strength, you have
wreaked good vengeance on our behalf’. O Yazid, you are striking the lips of
Imam Hussain with your stick in front of this crowd while these very lips used
to be kissed by the Prophet (P.B.U.H) of Allah, and yet your face reflects
pleasure and happiness.” “By my life, by killing the chief of
youths of Paradise, the son of the chief of Arabs, Ali and the shining sun of
the progeny of Abd-ul-Muttalib, you have deepened our wound and uprooted us
completely. By killing Hussain ibne Ali you have gained nearness to the state
of your unbelieving ancestors. You proclaim your deed with pride and if they
were to see you they would approve of your action and pray that Allah may not
paralyse your arms.” “O Yazid! If you had heart enough to
take account of your nefarious deeds, you yourself would surely wish your arms
to be paralysed and severed from your elbow and you would wish that your
parents had not given birth to you because you would know that Allah has become
displeased with you. Allah, Grant us our rights. Punish those who have
oppressed us.” “O Yazid! You did what you wished,
but remember that you have cut your own skin and your own flesh to pieces. Soon
you will be brought before the Holy Prophet. You will be overburdened with the
weight of your sins committed by shedding the blood of his progeny and by
dishonouring his family. The place to which you will be taken will be before
all the members of his family. The oppressed will be avenged and the enemies
will be punished.” “O Yazid! It is not seeming for you
to swell with joy after slaying the Prophet’s progeny. ‘Reckon not those who
are killed in Allah’s way as dead; nay, they are alive and are provided
sustenance from their Lord; rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His
grace’ [3:169-170]. Allah is sufficient to deal with you. The Messenger of
Allah is your antagonist and Hadrat Jibra’il is our support and help against
you.” “Those who have made you the head of
state and burdened the Muslims with your leadership will soon find out what
awaits them. The end of all tyrants is agony.” “O Yazid. I speak not to you thus to
warn you of the severe chastisement in store for you so that you should be
regretful; for you are one of those whose hearts are hardened, souls are
rebellious and whose bodies are busy in Allah’s disobedience while they are
under the curse of the Prophet of Allah. You are from among those in whose
heart Satan has made his abode and has been breeding young ones.” “How amazing it is that the virtuous
people, sons of the divine prophets and vicegerents are killed at the hands of
liberated slaves, evil-doers and sinners. Our blood is shed by their hands and
our flesh serves as food for them. We feel grieved for those whose bodies are
lying un-shrouded and unburied in the battlefield, wounded with arrows.” “O Yazid, if you consider our defeat
as your achievement then you will have to pay its price. “ Allah commits no
injustice to His servants. Our reliance is on Allah. He alone is our Relief and
place of Protection, and in Him alone do we repose our hope.” “You may contrive and try however
much you can. By Him who honoured us with revelation, the Book and Prophethood,
you cannot achieve our status, nor reach our position, nor can you affect our
mention, nor remove from yourself that shame and dishonour that is now your lot
because of perpetrating excess and oppression on us. Your word now is weak and
your days are counted. Beware of the day when the announcer would announce the
curse of Allah on the oppressors and the unjust.” “Praise be to Allah who gave good
end to His friends and granted them success in their aims, and thereafter
called them back to His mercy, pleasure and bliss, while you hurled yourself
into evil and mischief by committing injustice against them. We pray to Allah
to favour us with full recompense through them and grant us the good of Khilafat and Imamat. Surely
Allah is Kind and the Most Merciful over His creatures.” Among the gathering was a red haired
Syrian who saw Fatima Kubra, daughter of Hussain and asked Yazid to give her to
him. When the girl heard this she clung to Zaynab and started to weep. She
feared that now after the loss of her father she was to be made a slave girl. Zaynab turned to Yazid and told him
that he had neither right nor authority to give the young girl away like
that, at which he bristled,
retorting that he could do so. Zaynab riposted, “You are abusing me because of
your authority and power.” This silenced Yazid. To the Syrian she said: “May
the curse of Allah be upon you. May hell be your eternal abode. May your eyes
be blinded and your limbs paralysed.” Immediately paralysis gripped the man and
he fell to the ground dead. Yazid was so enraged with Zaynab’s
brave defiance of his authority that he might have ordered her killed if it had
not been for Abdullah ibn Umar ibn Aas intervention who begged Yazid that no
notice be taken of her words since she had suffered much grief and hardship and
was heart broken. Zayn-ul-Abidin would also have suffered death at the hands of
Yazid on account of his fearless speech, had not Zaynab saved his life by
asking Yazid to slay her along with him. Yazid was moved by her love for
Hussain’s son and spared his life. Death nevertheless knocked. Sakina who was
four at that time, died in captivity in Damascus and was buried there. By Zaynab’s bold demeanour
throughout this tormenting phase and through her soul-stirring fervent
speeches, whenever possible in their journey, people came to know of the true
events of Karbala. The continued captivity and persecution of the family of the
Prophet was bringing their cause to the attention of an increasing number of
people. Yazid was getting information that there was turmoil and unrest in the
realm. So, he had no choice but to release the captives. He sent for
Zayn-ul-Abidin. He informed him of his impending release and asked if he wished
for anything. The youth said he would have to consult Zaynab. Arrangements were
made and she arrived, properly veiled. She asked, “O Yazid, since the day our
leader and our chief Hussain was killed, we have not had any opportunity to
mourn for him.” A large house was provided for them
in the residential area of Damascus and here Zaynab held her very first
majlis-e-aza (gathering to remember and mourn Hussain). The women of Bani
Hashim arrived clad in black, with their heads uncovered, weeping.
Zayn-ul-Abidin sat on the carpet of Hussain. Zaynab told the women of Syria
what had befallen them. They shed tears and mourned. They had not known about
the events of Karbala and Kufa, but when they went home they told the men. It
was the fear of revolt and possible civil war that caused Yazid to release the
members of the family of the Prophet. Yazid gave them the choice of
remaining in Damascus or returning to Medina. When Zaynab decided to return to
Medina he called Nu’man ibn Bashir, who had been a companion of Muhammad, and
ordered him to make suitable arrangements for their journey. A contingent of
horsemen, cavalry and adequate provisions were made available. Gaily decorated
litters with velvet seats were provided. But Zaynab ordered that these should
all be covered in black so that people would know the travellers were in
mourning. When the citizens of Damascus came
to know that the members of the Prophet’s family were leaving, the women came
to the house they were staying in for final farewell. Many people accompanied
the caravan for part of the journey and then returned to their homes with heavy
hearts. During the journey, Nu’man ibn
Bashir showed the travellers every consideration and respect. Whenever they
stopped, the tents of the men were pitched a mile away from those of the women
so that the women could move unhindered and unobserved by strangers. Gatherings
of mourners were held wherever they stopped and many people came, listened and
learned the truth. The travellers returned to Medina via Karbala. When they
reached Karbala they found Jabir ibn Abdullah Ansari and some of the chiefs of
Bani Hashim were already there for they had come to pay homage at the grave of
Hussain. It is told that the journeyers had brought the severed head of Hussain
with them from Damascus and that in Karbala it was joined with his body by his
son. A great majlis was held before they resumed their journey. When the time
came to leave Karbala, Zaynab wanted to remain near Hussain’s grave till the
day of her death. But Zayn-ul-Abidin pleaded with her not to leave them. Zaynab
gave in with reluctance. Wherever the caravan stopped on its
way to Medina, a majlis-e-aza was held. When the city was in sight Zaynab bade
the women alight from their camels and pitch their tents. Black flags were
raised. On learning of their arrival the people of Medina came out in droves,
and once again Zaynab recounted to them the events at Karbala and the hardships
of their subsequent captivity. After some time Zayn-ul-Abidin asked the women
to prepare themselves for entering Medina. They entered the city on foot, with
black flags raised aloft. Zaynab went straight to the grave of the Prophet,
where she prayed and told him of the massacre. Zaynab came back to Medina as an
altered woman, physically and emotionally. Her hair had turned white, and her
back was bent. I do not have the audacity or the words to describe her altered
emotional state. Although upon her return, she had
been reunited with her husband, she did not live long after the tortuous trials
she had to bear. The exact date and place of her death is not clear but it is
probable that she died in the year 62 A.H. some six months after her return. A
Salute for The Essential
She Rabindranath
Tagore wrote: In anger we slew him, With love let us
embrace him now, For in death he lives
again amongst us, The mighty conqueror
of death. The world came to know of Hussain,
his sacrifice and his mission through his spokeswoman, Zaynab. In Zaynab,
Hussain had a perfect comrade. It was Zaynab who established Hussain’s ideals
drenched with his blood, forging a new bond between the brave and the
conscientious of all races and all nations. It was Zaynab who exposed the evil
deeds of criminals like Ibn Ziyad, Shimr, and Yazid with courage and
fearlessness. Had it not been for Zaynab, the Message of Karbala and Islam
itself would have been wiped away by the evil designs of politics and greed.
Zaynab endured physical pain and mental torture with unforeseen fortitude and
was a constant source of strength and succour to everyone around her. Every
time there is a call for prayer from any mosque anywhere in the world, the
Muslims should remember this unparallel woman and bow down in gratitude. Shariati says, “We see a dream
appeared to Joan of Arc, a sensitive and imaginative girl, for her to fight in
order to have the king returned. For centuries, her dream has given the
inspiration of freedom, sacrifice, and the sense of revolution and courage to
the enlightened, aware and progressive French people. Whereas Zainab, the
sister of Imam Hosein, who takes a heavier mandate, the mandate of Hosein in
her Ali-like hands, continues the movement of Karbala, which opposed murders,
lying, terror, and hysterics. She continues the movement at a time when all of
the heroes of the revolution are dead and the breath of the forerunners of
Islam has ceased in the midst of our people, when commanders of the Islam of
Muhammad … are gone. But she has been turned into ‘a sister who mourns’.” The perception of Zaynab as a woman,
who only mourns, is such an incomplete and unfair profile - one hugely
deficient in substance. Zaynab is the woman who pre-demonstrated the saying of
Eleanor Roosevelt: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every
experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the
thing which you think you cannot do.” Only that Zaynab did the things, which
she knew she could do. Events like Karbala and Zaynab’s trials remain as wounds
in our consciousness, reminding us of battles, yet to be fought and tasks still
to be accomplished. This book salutes a woman who wept, but who made sure that
the work would go on - a woman who is courage personified - a woman who is
tenderness personified - a woman who mourns but has mastered the discipline
necessary for the accomplishment of any task, for the attainment of any goal -
a complete woman whose strength lies in her gentleness, presence of mind,
forbearance, essential sensitivity, determination, intellectual integrity, and
compassion. Friends, while there is bondage
anywhere, we ourselves cannot be free. While there is oppression anywhere, we
cannot sit back. While there is rampant discrimination on grounds of sex,
religion, and ethnic origins, we cannot afford to stop and stare.
Everyday, in every country, in
every continent, women become victims of all kinds of exploitation. These women
do not lose their dignity, though. A woman and her dignity are inseparable. One
dies with the other. What these women really lose are their minds. What these
women feel is inexplicable. One has to suffer likewise to know how terrible it
is. What can you possibly say to these women? How do you suppose you can
penetrate the impregnable darkness of their bruised psyche? What words of
comfort can you aspire to choose for them? What can you say or do to them so
that their pain, their hurt, their frustration and their shame at being
exploited, become barely bearable? Shame, unfortunately and inevitably,
is the first emotion to surge in a woman’s mind after being victimized. This
particular nature of emotion should be assigned to the lot of the oppressor and
not the oppressed. But this is a natural consequence of being ‘pushed back into
the veil’ or of being ‘obstructed from coming out of the veil’. A woman’s
integrity, chastity, and modesty are her invaluable assets. These are her
divinely endowed ornaments. These are the elements that nourish the strength of
character - her pride and joy. No wonder, she is so beautiful. And it is
equally beautifully expressed in the following words by Karl Wilhelm Von
Humboldt: “If it were not somewhat fanciful to suppose that every human
excellence is presented, as it were, in one kind of being, we might believe
that the whole treasury of morality and order is enshrined in the female
character”. Understandably Von Humboldt is in awe of the beauty of a woman. But
I will differ with him by a few few degrees. It is not at all fanciful to
suppose that every human excellence is presented in the female being, and that
the whole treasury of morality and order is enshrined in the female character.
Mr. Von Humboldt would you persist in disagreeing with me if I show you the
realization of your ‘fanciful’ supposition in the form and person of Zaynab? It
is true that we are the best listeners, but we sometimes tend to have the knack
for rendering people speechless. We have inherited this, even if in a small
percentage, from Zaynab, though a lot of us are not aware of her life and
contribution. It is therefore vitally important that we start questioning
ourselves why do we then lack the urge to practice it more often. Of course a woman should in no way
jeopardize her beauty. As Janis Joplin says, “Don’t compromise yourself. You
are all you’ve got.” Nevertheless, this does not justify in any conceivable way
the transfer of ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ from the oppressor to the oppressed. The
concept of ‘pushed back into the veil’ puts the total burden of moral and
ethical liabilities on the shoulder of the woman. This goes to prove that man
is a weak creature who hardly has any control or command over his ‘hunter’
instincts, and has yet to develop and polish his mental faculties. So, a woman
who is a fine creature has to pay for the crudeness and clumsiness of man and
has to indefinitely wait behind the superficial refuge of a veil, to enable him
to evolve into the creature as originally intended by the Almighty. By doing
this she is not only fooling herself with the notion that her waiting will bear
fruits, but she is keeping man from even making the efforts to be a better,
wiser, and finer creature, and is encouraging him to maintain the status quo.
In fact, a stubbornly rigid imposition of a veil code reconfirms the mistaken
and perverse notion of man that the body of a woman is temptation incarnate and
not much more than an object for fulfilment of the same. It pampers his twisted
thoughts and paints the woman permanently with the wrong colour. All the moral
jargon and sense of modesty injected into the system of the woman since her
childhood do not form even a preliminary part of the man’s educational
curriculum. Moreover, her training is so overdone that she grows up to be the
guilty victim. In the essay, ‘ Social degradation
of women - a crime and a libel on Islam: The un-Islamic Indian-style Purdah
System (hijab) is a case of Religious Overkill!’ by Marmaduke Pickthall in
1927, it says: “Women have equal rights with men before the Shari’ah, and the
Qur'an proclaims that they are equal with men in the sight of God. In the Holy
Qur'an, God says: “I suffer not the work of any one among you, whether male or
female, to be lost. One is from the other.” [Qur'an 3:195] The heathen Arabs thought women were
a separate and inferior race. The Qur'an reminds them that they are all one
race, one proceeding from the other, the man from the woman and the woman from
the man. There is no text in the Qur'an, no
saying of our Prophet, which can possibly be held to justify the practice of
depriving women of the natural benefits which Allah has decreed for all mankind
(i.e. sunshine, fresh air and healthy movement). And there is no text in the
Qur'an, or saying of our Prophet which justifies her life-long imprisonment in
her home. This imprisonment, in turn, has lead to death by consumption or
anaemia to thousands of women…the veiling of the face by women was not
originally an Islamic custom…” ‘Veil’ is the symbol of the dignity
of a woman. It is not merely a piece of cloth to cover her head or face. A
woman does not need to hide behind a veil, in order to get respect from the
opposite sex. She is not a criminal or a coward. And she has nothing to be
ashamed of. Veil is the philosophy of dignity. A woman’s clothing, her dress,
her style, her poise, her smile, her words, her laughter, her sense of humour,
her sense of compassion, her grace, her gait, and her attitude only makes her
what she essentially is - beautiful. A right-minded, educated, well-mannered,
well-behaved, well-spoken, and enlightened woman cannot be other than well
dressed or properly dressed. A respectful woman neither can and nor will ever do
anything to mar or damage her essence. A true lady cannot compromise her lofty
stature by clothing herself disrespectfully or in such ways that do not become
her position as the daughter of Eve. Breeding is all that counts. A
well-bred woman is bound to think well. Her words, her knowledge, her deeds,
her disposition, her clarity, her carriage, her sincerity, her talents, and not
her veil, speak for her. A veil can easily and conveniently cover one who is
illiterate, ignorant, and weak - one who lacks confidence to face the world -
one, who is essentially flawed. What is important is the qualification of the
mind, and the influence, which mind exerts over mind. Those systems that make a
fuss about the veil are chauvinistically programmed by patriarchy, and
psychologically enslaved by pre-Islamic Arabic tradition, unaware of real
Islam. It is the prerogative of a woman to decide when, where and how will she
wear ‘her’ veil. She can go for the spiritual veil, which protects her pure and
good heart by repelling any misguided invasion of her ideals and principles.
Her luminous face itself tells you what a good heart she possesses. The physical wearing of the veil
does in no way protect the woman who wears it as a shield from wrong or evil
influence. For, from behind the veil she can see and observe everything and she
is the one in control of the activities in the recesses of her mind. So, whom
does the veil protect? As the woman is able to see everything, it is the man
who cannot see her. So whose protection are we talking about and concerned with
here? Man? Hence, he can enjoy not only God’s gifts like fresh air, sunshine,
raindrops, mist, and fog, on his face, and his head but he has the added bonus
of protection from the woman. Therefore, we can infer that the woman is the
real danger in a man’s world, the sight of whose head and face will irrevocably
corrupt the mind and soul of a man. The woman wears a veil to protect man from
himself and not from her. Restricting the idea of the veil into mere physicality
is in fact degrading the very concept of the veil. So, are we supposed to
understand that a man needs to avoid a woman’s countenance in order to keep the
society, in truth himself clean and sinless? Why is he never told to confront
rather than avoid? Rationality says that avoiding is not a solution or an end
in itself. It is just a cowardly and apparently easier way of stalling things
while confrontation needs courage, righteousness, honesty, and integrity. Man
has had his ways for far too long, while the weight of the veil grows heavier
on the woman. He has to accept and shoulder his responsibilities. He has to
defeat his baser instincts and stop burdening the woman not only with his
callousness but his unfair demands on her to carry the load of his fickleness
and weakness. Just by burdening the other sex he cannot hope to have dealt with
the persistent problem and wash his hands off. He has a problem, and it is he
who has to deal with it. And as always, we are there to help, support, soothe,
and suggest. Zaynab tells us that the greater
part of a woman’s success or failure depends on her disposition and not her
circumstances. Zaynab’s veil was snatched away by a bunch of kids of Satan. Her
circumstances changed, deteriorated. Her disposition remained unchanged, rather
strengthened. Snatching of a woman’s veil constitutes of an attack on her
rights and her freedom. It is a mean way of demeaning her and trying to ‘put
her in her place’. Snatching of a woman’s veil does not simply constitute of a
physical action of taking away a clothing accessory, but it constitutes of
insulting the essential woman - of attempting to degrade womanhood. And such
hands should be exemplarily punished as shown by Mukhtar, who made a superb
effort of avenging Hussain’s martyrdom and the consequential sufferings of the
members of the Prophet’s family. What can we possibly tell the
abused, the beaten, the wronged, the exploited, the molested, the
discriminated, the bargained, the bartered, the genitally mutilated, the
betrayed, the burnt alive, the raped, the ravaged, the broken and the hurt so
as to ensure that the cinder of hope does not die away? Is it enough or morally
right to tell them that they are no exception, that life and fate have always
raped women, that our civilization is a sham in which the predator-prey factor
is still not prehistoric? I’m afraid not. We have to stop eluding ourselves
with the ‘oppressed’ mindset. We have to stop our sisters from seeing
themselves as ‘damaged goods’. We have to make them understand that no one can
make us feel inferior without our consent. We have to abandon the feeling of
‘abandonment’. So, how do we do this? We tell them of Zaynab. They need to know Zaynab - her
circumstances, her pain, her torment, her grief, her sorrows, her determination,
her fortitude, her willpower, and her ultimate victory despite Karbala-the
event and the place where the term ‘holocaust’ in its truest meaning was
coined. Zaynab walked on red-hot charcoals of barbarism in its worst form - one
in which men took off their masks of civilization and played havoc in naked
frenzy - one that makes human flesh creep with horror and disgust. And Zaynab
emerged stronger and indomitable; so strong that she can inspire all of us
irrespective of our stations and situations in life. Only the story of Zaynab
can give all our sisters consolation and if I may say it, the hope and the will
to carry on. In her, they can find a kindred spirit. In her, they can see a
guiding angel. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the U.S. to become a
physician said, “For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by
virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.” Zaynab’s
qualities and achievements are ours. We cannot instil courage, uprightness,
fearlessness, determination, and fortitude in a few days. It takes years to
achieve a small percentage of it. But we have to start it at some point,
somewhere. And if a girl is armed with all these forces, her life will become a
little less harsh. What we need to do is to arrange for the right way of
thinking from early childhood. Because right thinking leads to right action.
And right thinking can only emerge from emotionally uncluttered, realistically
unprejudiced and psychologically liberated environment. Zaynab proves another common
perception wrong, which says that women embarrassingly lack the quality of unity. After the massacre at
Karbala, Zaynab led single-handedly led, the one-hearted and one-spirited front
of women through the thick of tribulations to victory. Zaynab also proves wrong
the fact that men have the power to dominate women. Neither Ibn Ziyad nor Yazid
was man enough to discourage, dominate or overpower Zaynab. She was simply not
to be cowered or dominated. One wonders, why the hell then do we succumb to
these conventional flaws and submit to all sorts of humiliation. The answer
lies in the psychology of second-classness. We accept without much fight what
society says about us. Even when some of us come to understand that we women,
as individuals, are not second-class, we still accept society’s assessment of
our kind - a phenomenon psychologists refer to as internalised aggression. From
this stems the desire to be the only woman in the board, in the executive
committee, in a research team, in the judges panel, in an academic department
or any other part of the so-called ‘man’s world’. From this also stems the
inclination to put down our sisters - a crisis - a curse - a catastrophe. Today, women are in need of
spiritual cohesion. With souls, minds and psyches eroded by the shifting sands
of unreliable trends of modern culture, now more than ever, women need one
another. It is such a shame that women are underestimated and misunderstood,
especially by other women. Because of the role of women over so many centuries
in so many different cultures, they have been excluded from what have been
called public affairs; for that very reason they have concentrated much more on
things close to home and they have kept far more in touch with the true
realities, the realities of giving birth and love. To begin to have that kind
of real courage being realized into the bigger world scenario, women must begin
to breach the barriers, which divide them. We have the power to rule the world.
Why don’t we do it? Perhaps we are afraid. Perhaps division in our ranks or
classes, competition for available men, or striving for an impossible standard
of external beauty ignoring the one that really matters, that of the heart and
the mind, have worn our sisterhood thin. We are divided on the surface of this
planet, by physical barriers, emotional barriers, ideological barriers,
barriers of prejudice and hatreds of every kind. It is feasible that what we
have undergone down the ages has programmed us to unnecessarily compete with each
other. This is why even when we admit that we are oppressed, one insists that
she is more oppressed than the rest. Such indulgence provides nothing but an
empty ego-boost, and that too at the cost of real solutions, growth, and
development. So, what can we do to simplify the ego drives and re-empower
ourselves? I say re-empower as now we have the example of a powerful woman like
Zaynab. I would not call her empowered, as none had to empower her, or for that
matter she did not need or wait for anyone to empower her. She simply unlocked
her potential power. I cannot help but quote Dr. Shariati
here: “If an ordinary person mourns for Imam Hosein on the anniversary of his
death (ashura) … and still knows Hosein in an oblique way and misunderstands
Karbala, who is responsible? If a woman cries with her whole being, if the
recollection of the name of Fatima and Zainab burns her to her bones … and yet,
if she does not thoroughly know Fatima and Zainab, who is responsible? Neither
this man nor this woman knows one line of their words. None of them have read
one line about their lives. They can only recall Fatima beside her house at the
moment when her side was struck and they only know Zainab from the moment when
she leaves the tents to go gather the bodies of the martyrs. They only know her
from the morning of the day of Ashura up until noon, from then on they lose
her. Their awareness of Zainab ends the day when her work and great mandate,
the legacy of Hosein, just begins. Their knowledge of Zainab ends here.” The
fact that we have ‘pushed back’ the contexts, the circumstances, the hardships,
the struggles, and their overcoming these into ignorance, is responsible for
our ignorance. Therefore, we must learn to connect
with the past events. Zaynab abides where there is a fight against wrong. We
must connect with Zaynab, the essential Fatima. In that we will have our
answers. In ‘Who is the Enemy?’ Roxanne Dunbar writes: ‘Women have every
‘right’ to be completely outraged when they become aware of the kind of outright
and subtle oppression they suffer and that their sisters throughout the world
suffer. They have every ‘right’ to be outraged at the indifference of men at
their plight, their willingness to reap advantages until it is no longer
possible. But just as might does not make right, nor does right make right.
That is, one does not then have the right to play the same game with the tables
turned. If one does this, one is playing society’s game, for that is what this
society is all about: absorption is its game. It seems to me that we have grossly
misunderstood revolutionary philosophy. We have extracted what is ‘useful’ to
our preconceived notions of revolution, and left the basis, the way of
thinking, behind. What does Mao mean when he says, “To get rid of the gun, one
must pick up the gun?” He is speaking to people (a peasantry) who have attained
a revolutionary consciousness to some degree; a revolutionary war was being
fought. Obviously the context to such a statement is the key, yet the command
is extracted and misused. Society (Western) programs us to
linear thinking. We can choose between its way or the opposite (Mary McCarthy
said we have the choice in an American hotel to have the airconditioning on or
off, but we cannot open the window). And we fall right into the trap. Within
that linear logic, we misinterpret every valuable bit of information that may
come our way, not to speak of whole ideologies.’ So, how can we women, interpret
‘correct’ thinking as an internalised, creative, knowledge-based, and
dialectical analysis of every aspect of reality, including ourselves? The voice
of women, the voice of those most closely involved in bringing forth new life,
has not always been listened to when it pleaded and implored against injustice
and oppression. So, how can we make ourselves heard? We have Zaynab to show us
that we can do this by joining compassion with intellect. Because compassion
recognises human rights automatically, it does not need a charter. Compassion
won’t let us be oppressed or endure the oppression of any of our sisters. When
we will connect with each other through Zaynab, we will unite. When we will let ourselves be joined
through the common spirit, the common power point of the Essential Fatima,
women all over the world will form circles of power and strength. The resulting
spiritual and emotional fabric is multicoloured, multi-textured, vibrant and
alive. Each one of us will make and contribute a strand, which when joined
together will produce an immensely powerful network capable of withstanding the
storms and earthquakes, the starvation and calamities, that the heaves and the
moves, the seizures and the shakes, the hits and the hurts, but will never be
able to destroy the essential woman. I have said in the introductory
chapter, that I am talking not only to my sisters, but also my brothers,
fathers, and friends. I hope that I have held your attention till now. You have
seen how Zaynab and Hussain formed the perfect comradeship and achieved what
they initially set for. Here, I will borrow Susan B. Anthony’s words to
underline this fact of utmost significance: “The day will come when men will
recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the
nations. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the
ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of
the race.” You have watched Hussain do so.
Hussain has already launched this comradeship in the most brilliant way on the
platform of his Mission, Karbala, that shall God Willing, result in the highest
development of the race. Zaynab has already established the firm foundations in
an impossibly powerful way. They have managed to do this a millennium and half
ago, you guys just have to take it from there. In between them, Zaynab and
Hussain have ignited the torch of the ideal union between the sexes for all
posterity to light their candles with. Dear
Anita, This is Fatima. I am
Fareeda’s daughter. This
morning my mother received two copies of your first published book, ‘The
Essential Woman’, which she is very grateful for. She is in the process of
still reading it, whereas
i have already finished reading it! i loved it! I just couldn’t put it
down until i had read it all. I realised so much after i read your book, for
example, that in Islam woman do actually have completely equal rights as men do
in every day life and that woman can stand up to men and not be scared or afraid
of them, just like Bibi Zaynab showed. And also that there is such a big lesson
that we can learn from her and what she went through. I was amazed that even
though i go to many majaalis regularly, the knowledge that i aquired from your
book i have never obtained from any majlis! Thank you so much for
sending this book to my mother. I definitely benefited from it as I’m sure my
mother will too. Thank
you Take
care Fatima
from UK RESPECTED
ANITA, Salaam, Last night i finished your first
book which my aunt got from one of her friends. I was so moved that I cried all
night. My own sorrows died down. I was a brave girl in the morning. Keep it up
and please write more books. The
cover page is perfect and your command on English is superb. How come being a
Muslim girl (not Shia) i did not know all this. Love, Sabiha
from Pakistan My
dear Anita, When I was a young girl
the majaalis I attended always
portrayed Fatima and Zaynab - their lives, how they treated their slaves, how
much respect their men folk showed them, how the Prophet gave Fatima the
freedom to choose her life partner, etc. I was very lucky to have the privilege
of attending those majaalis. These ladies were homely women, not university
graduates, but they realized that telling the young audience about the life and
character of these remarkable women would leave an impact upon our young
impressionable minds. I am very pleased that
you are getting a very good response. I was greatly impressed by your research
and the fluency of your language. You have great command over this language.
What has really touched my soul is the love you have for the Prophet’s family. I would like to wish you
great success for this book and the next one. Love
you, Mahe'
Talat Abidi. from
UK Dear
Anita,
I have just completed your book “The Essential Woman” and must say it
was a commendable job. Though being a Shia Muslim, who
frequently attends majalis, and religious discourses, which dwell on the life
of Bibi Zaynab (s.a.), I had never thought of her from the viewpoint revealed
by you. Our perception of Zaynab (s.a.) as a woman who mourned and bore the
trails and tortures of the brutal event of Karbala, was indeed an incomplete
one. She as projected by you is the
Sublime woman who with huge amount of
determination, sensitivity, intellectual strength, presence of mind, and
fortitude exposed the satanic and evil deeds of the oppressive notorious rulers
of her time. Her soul stirring fervent speeches served the flame to keep the
light of true Islam alight. I now know Bibi Zaynab (s.a.) as an
activist, a crusader, and an
extremely strong woman. You have set for us an ideal in
Zaynab. Thank you tremendously for broadening our horizons and enabling us to
understand this great personality. You have indeed presented our beloved and
courageous Zaynab as a model for humanity. May Allah reward you for this
invaluable effort and may He give you the Taufeeq to continue this work. Lastly
I wish you great success for your forthcoming book too. Yasmin
Virani Mumbai,
India 30
July 2003. Dear
Anita,
My name is Hoda Bazargan. I am originally from Iran, but I live in the
States. I received your book “The Essential
Woman” which totally touched my heart and made me e-mail you. Before I carry on
writing I would like to thank you for sending me the book and also for writing
such a wonderful book. Reading such things from a non muslim was something
unique for me that shook me inside and outside. I envy you for the fact that your
are so special that you got to dream about Ahlul Bayt, and me a muslim, born shia athna ashari, who lived her life
as a muslimah never got to dream about them. One thing that I am curious about is
what made you write such a book about Hazrat Zaynab (sa)? In shia-press article
where I actually read about you writing this book, I figured that you are not a
muslim. But when I received
your book I started crying for the fact I found you are a true muslim even though
I don’t know who exactly you are but your words spoke for you. Wallah I envy
you and love you truly for speaking the truth, and I wish I could do the same. May Allah’s blessing be upon your
soul and may Lady Fatima and Ahlul bayt reward you in Yom-al-Qayamah. Truly
yours Hoda
Bazargan US 13
July 2003. Hi
Anita,
Wanted to tell you that a few days ago I finally got down to read your
book. Then I could not wait to finish it in one go. It is an amazing book! it is the
first time I have read in detail about the incidents of Karbala and understood
the Shias' point of view of mourning on the 9th and 10th of Muharram. I wish I could personally meet you
and congratulate you on your efforts put into writing this book. Well, your
book has given me a new and better understanding of women, of a woman having
her own identity. Thanks for the book. Best
regards Abdullah
Akhtar. Karachi,
Pakistan 12
October 2003. Dear
Anita,
I finished reading your book yesterday. In fact, I couldn’t put it down once I started it.
What an inspiration! I felt so empowered. This is the
book I have been waiting for. Finally A
book written by a woman about the two greatest women of our time. I had read
Ali Shariati’s Fatima is Fatima in my teens but this is the book for women of
my generation set in our times. Thank you for your work. Your points are
salient and a reawakening. I cannot but tell you how thirsty the youth of my
generation is for literature like this. keep it up. Sincerely
Zainab USA
5
August 2003. Dear
Anita, Salaam Alaikum! I have been reading “The Essential Woman” and have learnt
so much from the book. I have been
listening to majlises for the past 35 years of my life and haven’t heard anything
like this. Only of late our young Maulanas are trying to change the traditional
Muharram majlises by including other topics. It is absolutely true what
Shariati says that we only know the life of Lady Zaynab on the fields of
Kerbala to Damascus, nothing more, nothing less. I have always wanted to read
the actual speech by Bibi Zaynab in the courts of Yazid and I got it from this
book. Thanks
Anita. With
my sincere duas Ismat
Abdulla UK 24
November 2003. |