Chapter Three

The Heir to His Mother’s Loneliness in Syria -- Lady Ruqayyah (p)

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكِ يَا شَهِيدَةَ الْحُزْنِ وَالْبُكَاءِ

Peace be upon that noble Lady who gave her life and attained martyrdom through grief and weeping for her noble father.

The tears of Lady Ruqayyah (p) were such intense tears of mourning that they caused the Family of Allah to weep and lament, renewing the commemoration of the tragedy of Imam Hussein (p).

This demonstrates that she herself was among those who established the mourning.

Her unceasing tears, day and night, in lamentation for Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ (p) and his immeasurable tragedy, are the very inspiration behind the morning-and-evening weeping of the Imam of the Time (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance), just as he declares:

فَلَأَنْدُبَنَّكَ صَبَاحًا وَمَسَاءً

وَلَأَبْكِيَنَّ لَكَ بَدَلَ الدُّمُوعِ دَمًا

“Surely I shall mourn you every morning and every evening, and I shall weep blood for you instead of tears.”

Wherever the name of beloved Ruqayyah is mentioned,

the sweet fragrance of Ṣāḥib al-Zamān accompanies it.

The Journey of Captivity

وَصُفِّدُوا فِي الْحَدِيدِ فَوْقَ أَقْتَابِ الْمَطِيَّاتِ

“And they were bound in iron shackles and chains upon the saddles of the camels.”

— A passage from Ziyarat al-Nāḥiyah al-Muqaddasah

Lady Ruqayyah (p) did not simply fall from the camel.

Rather...

Throughout the journey of captivity, the beloved daughter of the Master (p) continually remembered her father and wept.

One of the guards in Yazid’s army (may Allah’s curse be upon him) became enraged by the child’s crying and threw her from the back of the camel.

The little girl lost consciousness when she struck the ground.

At that very moment, the caravan noticed the spear upon which the blessed head of Imam Hussein (p) was raised.

The spear had become embedded in the ground, and no matter how hard the enemy tried, they were unable to pull it out.

Lady ʿAqīlah of Banu Hashim, Lady Zaynab (p), realized that one of the children was missing.

In great distress, she searched through the night, weeping as she looked for the beloved little girl.

Finally, after returning some distance behind the caravan in the darkness of the night, she saw a noble lady seated upon the ground, holding the child tenderly in her arms.

The little girl was peacefully asleep in her lap.

As Lady Zaynab approached, she asked:

“Who are you?”

The noble lady replied:

أَنَا أُمُّكِ فَاطِمَةُ الزَّهْرَاءُ،

أَظَنَنْتِ أَنِّي أَغْفُلُ عَنْ أَيْتَامِ وَلَدِي؟

“I am your mother, Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ.

Do you think I could ever be heedless of the orphaned children of my son?”

“The Moment I Fell from the Camel”

“The moment I fell from the camel and lost consciousness—

Father, where were you?

Why were you separated from us?”

“The moment you fell from the camel and lost consciousness,

I was upon the spear.

How could I ever have been separated from you?”

السَّلَامُ عَلَى مَنْ غَابَ عَنْهَا الْحَامِي وَالْكَفِيلُ

Peace be upon the one whose protector and guardian was taken away from her!

السَّلَامُ عَلَى صَاحِبَةِ الْحُزْنِ الْعَظِيمِ

لِفَقْدِهَا مَنْ هُوَ بِهَا وَدُودٌ رَحِيمٌ

Peace be upon the one who bore an immeasurable sorrow

through the loss of the one who had shown her boundless tenderness and affection!

The Thirst of the Children

Neither the children, the noble ladies, nor the men drank even a single drop of water from the time the water was withheld until the Day of Ashura.

With every passing moment, their thirst grew more severe.

It is not even known whether they were ever able to quench their thirst.

The scorching heat of the day was intensified by the flames burning in the trench surrounding the tents.

Their thirst reached such an unbearable degree that the skin of the elders became dry and shriveled, and some of the young children perished from thirst.

تَلْفَحُ وُجُوهَهُمْ حَرُّ الْهَاجِرَاتِ

“The burning heat of the midday sun scorched their faces.”

Imam Hussein (p) had entrusted Lady Zaynab (p), the Heavenly Ḥawrāʾ, with the care of the children, instructing her to gather and look after them.

After the tents had been plundered, Lady Zaynab (p) set out to gather the children of the Household, who had become scattered across the desert.

During her search, she came upon two children lying beneath a tree.

Overcome by fear and unbearable thirst, they had departed this world.

The Two Children Beneath the Tree

Likewise, Fāḍil Basṭāmī, in his book Tuḥfat al-Ḥusayniyyah, narrates from Manbaʿ al-Dumūʿ a report attributed to the Imam of the Age (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance):

When the time came to mount the members of the Household (p) upon the camels, the soldiers searched in every direction but could not find them.

The accursed Shimr himself began searching, riding from place to place until he came upon a tamarisk tree.

There, beneath its shade, he found the two children lying motionless.

The accursed one leaned down from his horse and struck them several times with his whip, but they did not move.

He then dismounted and slapped their faces repeatedly, yet they still showed no sign of life.

Only then did he realize that both children had already departed from this world.

I do not think anyone buried them, for they were not dearer than Hussein (p), whose blessed body remained upon the earth for three days and three nights without burial.

Yet it is certain that no horse trampled over their bodies.

That particular atrocity was reserved for him alone, as he himself declares:

كَمَا قَالَ: وَأَنَا السِّبْطُ الَّذِي...

The Children Emerging from the Burning Tents

Fāḍil Niẓāmī also writes in Tuḥfat al-Ḥusayniyyah:

What is understood from Shaykh Abū al-Futūḥ’s Mukhtāriyyah is that two young girls—

one the daughter of Imam Hasan (p) and the other the daughter of Imam Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ, Imam Hussein (p)—

passed away upon seeing the blood-soaked body of Imam Hussein (p).

He then goes on to describe the details of their passing...

When the tents were set ablaze, twenty-three young children emerged from among the burning tents, trembling from intense thirst and overwhelming fear.

One of the commanders in the army said to ʿUmar ibn Saʿd (may Allah’s curse be upon him):

“O Commander!

If you intend to take these children to Yazid, not a single one of them will reach Syria alive.

Order that they be given some water, for they are perishing from thirst.”

ʿUmar ibn Saʿd (may Allah’s curse be upon him) replied:

“Go and give them water.”

The water carriers filled their waterskins and brought them to the women and children of the Household.

The First Cup of Water

The first cup of water was given to Lady Ruqayyah (p), for she was the youngest among them.

She took the cup of water and began walking toward the battlefield.

They asked her:

“Where are you going?”

She replied:

“When my father went out to the battlefield, his blessed lips were parched with thirst.

I want to take this water to him.”

It seems that the greatest sorrow weighing upon the hearts of the women and children of the Household was the thirst endured by Imam Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ, Hussein (p).

Thereafter, ʿUmar ibn Saʿd (may Allah’s curse be upon him) ordered that the noble ladies, the children, and Imam al-Sajjad (p) be mounted upon unsaddled camels and taken as captives to Kufa.

Iron shackles and chains were fastened upon all of them, and they were led past the battlefield.

The Captivity

يُسَاقُونَ فِي الْبَرَارِي وَالْفَلَوَاتِ،

أَيْدِيهِمْ مَغْلُولَةٌ إِلَى الْأَعْنَاقِ،

يُطَافُ بِهِمْ فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ

They were driven through the deserts and wilderness,

their hands chained to their necks,

and they were paraded through the marketplaces.

— A passage from Ziyarat al-Nāḥiyah al-Muqaddasah

السَّلَامُ عَلَى جَوَارِحِكِ الذَّابِلَةِ مِنَ السَّيْرِ الْحَثِيثِ

Peace be upon your body, worn and weakened by the relentless journeys of captivity.

السَّلَامُ عَلَى مَنْ بِالسِّيَاطِ لُذِعُوهَا

Peace be upon that blessed soul

who endured the blows of the whip.