Then Zayn al-’Abidin entered Medina accompanied by his family and children.

Then Zayn al-’Abidin entered Medina accompanied by his family and children.”[^2] Ibrahim Ibn Talhah Ibn ‘Ubaydullah came to the Imam (‘a) and asked him, “Who won?” The Imam (‘a), answered, “ When the time for prayers comes, and when the athan and iqama are called, you will know who the winner is .”[^3] As for Zainab, that is, Umm Kulthum, she recited the following verses of poetry: O city of our Grandfather!

Accept us not For with sighs and griefs we come; We left you surrounded by kith and kin And returned with neither sons nor men. Then she took both knobs of the mosque's door and cried out, “O grandfather! I mourn to you my brother al-Husayn!” Sukayna cried out, “O grandfather!

To you do I complain from what we have been through, for by Allah, I never saw anyone more hard-hearted than Yazid, nor have I ever seen anyone, be he an apostate or a polytheist, more evil than him, more rough, or more cruel. He kept hitting my father's lips with his iron bar as he said, ‘How did you find the battle, O Husayn?!'”[^4] The ladies who were born and grew up in the lap of Prophethood held a mourning ceremony for the Master of Martyrs (‘a).

They put on the coarsest of clothes; they shrouded themselves in black, and they continued to weep and wail day and night as Imam al-Sajjad kept cooking for them.[^5] Once Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (‘a) said, “No lady who descended from Hashim used any dye, nor any oil or any kohl , for full five years; it was then that al-Mukhtar sent them the head of ‘Ubaydullah Ibn Ziyad.”[^6] As regarding al-Rubab, she mourned [her husband] Abu ‘Abdullah (‘a) till her eyes were no longer capable of producing tears.

One of her bondmaids told her that using a particular type of herb was a tear stimulant, so she ordered it to be prepared for her in order to induce her tears.[^7] Among the poetry she composed in eulogizing her husband, Abu ‘Abdullah al-Husayn (‘a), is the following:[^8] The one that used to be a lantern Is now at Karbala’, killed, unburied. O grandson of the Prophet! May Allah Reward you on our behalf and may you Never fall short of the Scales.

A great mountain you used to be A shelter, secure, for me, And a companion in family And in faith a surety. Now who shall for the orphans be Of help, and who shall be for the needy? Who shall be the resort of the destitute? By Allah! Never shall I seek For you at all any substitute, Till between the sands and the mud is my abode Wherein I will be hidden from the world.