A cry she let out when the horsemen assaulted Her...

A cry she let out when the horsemen assaulted Her, though orphaned, so she now is more startled, And to the one lying on the burning sands she went Pouring over him from her eyes a river she wept. She fell upon al-Husayn's body so he kept To his chest taking her between a right and a left.

She seeks refuge with him, having lost her headscarf, And it was hard for him to see her without it; He would not have left their whips cause her to seek help With her father's body when, from him, She was forcibly removed.[^20] When ‘Ali son of al-Husayn (‘a) looked at his slaughtered family and noticed how al-Zahra’ was in a condition which the heavens deplored and for which the earth would split and the mountains crumble, he felt greatly grieved and worried.

When Zainab al-Kubra, daughter of ‘Ali (‘a),[^21] read his face, she felt upset on his account and took to consoling him and admonishing him to be patient although even the mountains could not match him in his patience and fortitude. Among what she said to him is the following: “Why do I see you pleading for death, O the legacy of my grandfather, of my father and brothers? By Allah, this is something which Allah had divulged to your grandfather (S) and to your father (‘a).

Allah took a covenant from people whom you do not know, the mighty ones on this land, and who are known to the people of the heavens, that they would gather these severed parts and wounded corpses and bury them, then shall they set up on this Taff a banner for the grave of your father, the Master of Martyrs (‘a), the traces of which shall never be obliterated, nor shall it ever be wiped out so long as there is day and night.

And the leaders of apostasy and the promoters of misguidance shall try their best to obliterate and efface it, yet it shall get more and more lofty instead.”[^22] To Allah do I complain about the patience of Zainab the pure How many a tribulation did she have to endure? From the calamities and from the pain From pains, from which death is welcome, she did suffer.

She witnessed the men of dignity from her people of honour On the ground slaughtered in a row without cover: The winds on their corpses freely blow, The beasts over their bodies come and go. Her people's chief lying slain she saw, To them did the folks’ swords deal many a blow. She saw heads on the lances carried And corpses with only sands shrouded. She saw an infant with an arrow waned And children after their father orphaned.