Ashura Poems in English Explained and Annotated (volume 1)

Foreword

Praise is all to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Praise and salaams are to the Prophet Muhammad b. Abdullah and his noble and infallible Ahl al-Bayt. Denunciation and curse are to their foes forever until the Judgment Day. Amen!

Elegy is a literary technique which enables the poet to compose fine pieces of poetry. In elegy, the mind and soul of the poet get elevated, for he finds himself confronted with the mysterious phenomenon of death.

Faced with the mysteries of life and the vicissitudes of times and fate, he tries to find a justification for that eternal silence.

As is well known, elegy is an important element in the literature of the adherents of the Ahl al-Bayt school of thought. It is here that in elegy deep sorrow gets commingled with fierce wrath, leading to a type of sentimental literature. In like manner, it may also be regarded as a type of political literature, because this wrath, sometimes discernible therein, is indicative of political thought which has found expression in this manner.

It can hardly be forgotten that beyond the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn b. Ali there were political reasons which can never be severed from the incentives and the bloodshed in favor of the religious convictions.

Here, the relation signifies the same firm relation which ties the hearts of the staunch believers with the holy Prophet Muhammad and his honorable Ahl al-Bayt.

Among the first who elegized Imam al-Husayn was Bishr b. Hidhlam. It happened when Imam Ali Zayn al-Abidin, then the leader of the caravan of the survivors of the Karbala massacre, en route home, sent him on a mission to hasten toward the city and inform the inhabitants of Medina of the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn.

Wearing a black turban and pulling his horse with a piece of black rope, he entered the city and imparted to them the ominous news of the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn. There he composed an elegy of which the following lines are famous:

O Inhabitants of Yathrib! Why are you sitting still, While [Imam] al-Husayn was martyred, Hence I am shedding tears.

May God not take me away from those homes and their inhabitants, While they have turned uninhabited, despite my desire. The Martyr of Taff belongs to the Bani Hashim,

8 Though his martyrdom causes Muslims to be ashamed.

Elsewhere, it is reported that the first elegy on Imam al- Husayn was composed by Bahil al-Jumhi, who expressed himself as follows:

Drowsy and drunkard are the Umayyads' eyes, While the Taff incident never lets the friends sleep a wink.

Ever since the Karbala tragedy, there have been innumerable poets who gained the grace of composing an elegy in praise of and in memory of Imam al-Husayn b. Ali, or the heartbreaking and woeful Karbala tragedy and its mournful consequences. Such a line of devotional literature has never stopped and will never cease.

The tradition of elegizing Imam al-Husayn and the Karbala tragedy has by no means been confined to the Arab or Arabic-speaking, poets; poets of other languages have also made significant contributions as well.

In the Urdu language, there is a long list of poets who gained fame and reputation for their elegies on Imam al- Husayn. Among them are Mir Babar Ali Anis (1801-1874), Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir (1803-75), Muhammad Baqir, the founding father of Urdu journalism (d. 1857), Shams al-Ulama Mawlana Muhammad Husayn Azad Dihlawi (d. 1910), the

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poet Mawlana Hasan Raza Khan (d. A.H. 1326/ 1908) and the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz (d. 1984).

In Persian, a great host of poets are known for their poetry and elegies on Imam al-Husayn. Mulla Husayn Vaez Kashefi Sabsevari (d. A.H. 910/1532) included many such poems in his work Rawzat al-Shohada.

Of Persian poets who elegized Imam al-Husayn, the most well-known is Muhtasham Kashani (d. A.H. 996/1588), who used to serve at the court of Shah Tahmasb the Safavid. Others in the same line include Abulmajd Majdud Sanayie (d. A.H. 1131/1719),

Adibulmamalek (d. A.H. 1308), Mahmoud Khan Malek al-Shoara (d. A.H. 1311), Safi Ali Shah (d. A.H. 1316/1890), the author of Erfan al-Haq, Bahr al-Haqaeq, and Mizan al-Ma`refah, and Yaghmayie, a professor of Persian literature at Dar al-Fonoun College in Tehran.

In Turkish, quite a good number of great poets have composed poems in memoriam Imam al-Husayn b. Ali and the heartbreaking incidents of the Ashura tragedy. Among them, mention must be made of the following: Lameie (d. 1531), Hairati (d. 1535), Fuzuli Baghdadi (d. 1555), Abidi (d. 1572), Safi (d. in the 16th century), Shamsi Pasha (d. 1580), and Sabouhi (d. 1647).

In line with the above, English-speaking poets, whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, etc., have also made significant

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contributions to produce elegies for Imam al-Husayn and the Karbala tragic incidents.

It has been the grace of the Almighty to our friend and brother Dr. Muhammad-Reza Fakhr-Rohani, presently professor of English at the University of Qom, that he has anthologized a fine collection of such English poems in the present book, titled Ashura Poems in English.

He showed interest and an inclination to have his book published in the series of the books published by, and with the emblem of, the Library of Imam al-Husayn's Sacred Sanctuary; the curatorial council of the Library consented to this request.

With the publication of this book, we wish Dr. Fakhr-Rohani more success and graceful opportunities to render services to the Ahl al-Bayt and to throw light on the afflictions they endured throughout history.

Muhammad al-Hassoun 1st Ramadan 1427/25th September 2006