Soon I saw a clean room...

Soon I saw a clean room, white and beautiful, decorated with teak wood, and its door was open. There were women standing in it whom I asked about who had died and about what the matter was. They pointed to the interior of the house, so I entered and found a clean and most beautiful room. In its courtyard stood a young woman who was the best, the most radiating, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She was wrapped in white clothes, and in her lap there was a head bleeding.

I asked her, ‘Who are you?' She said, ‘Never mind..., I am Fatima daughter of the Messenger of Allah (S), and this is the head of my son al-Husayn (‘a). Tell Ibn Asda’ on my behalf to euologize him with this verse: I did not dress his wound, No, nor was he sick at all.' I, therefore, woke up frightened.'” She was calmed down by the old lady in the house [apparently the mother of the narrator] till she was able to sleep. Abul-Hasa, the scribe, said to ‘Ali al-Tanukhi, “O father of al-Qasim!

Since you yourself know Ibn Asda’, you are now morally obligated to convey the message to him.” Al-Tanukhi agreed saying, “I hear and I obey the order of the Lady of all the Women of the World, peace be upon her.” All this happened during the month of Sha’ban when people were suffering a great deal from the persecution of the Hanbalis who resisted their going to al-Ha'ir. I kept pleading to them till I was permitted to go. I reached al-Ha'ir in the eve of the middle of Sha’ban.

I kept inquiring about the whereabouts of Ibn Asda’ till I was able to see him. I said to him, “Fatima, peace be upon her, orders you to mourn the martyrdom of her son with the poem starting with: I did not dress his wound, No, nor was he sick at all. ... and I was at that time unfamiliar with that poem. He felt very vexed, so I narrated to him and to those in his company the incident above. They all burst in tears, and everyone who mourned al-Husayn (‘a) that night used this poem as a eulogy.

It starts with O eyes! Overflow and do not dry And do over the one killed at Taff cry. It is written by a poet from Kufa. I went back to Abul-Hasan and told him.”[^7] [^1]: On p. 282, Vol. 2, of his book Tahthib al-Tahthib, at the end of a chapter dealing with nathrs, Shaikh al-Tusi quotes Imam as-Sadiq (‘a) saying, “The ladies who descended from Fatima (‘a) tore their pockets as they grieved and beat their cheeks.

It is for al-Husayn (‘a) that the cheeks should be beaten and the pockets torn.” [^2]: Ibn Qawlawayh, Kamil al-Ziyarat, p.