Now, in the middle of the night we are mourning for them and...

Now, in the middle of the night we are mourning for them and announce the end of their task. And you see, under the shelter of crying for Husayn ('a) and love of Husayn ('a), how we co-operate with Yazid who also wished to see this story end. The martyrs have finish­ed their task and are silent but every one of them played their role perfectly.

The teacher, the person who calls out the time of prayer, young people, children, women, master and servant can all be representatives of a class who select a living death.

These martyrs performed two jobs - from Husayn ('a)'s child to his brother - from his servant to himself - from the reciter of the Quran to the teacher of the Kufa children - from the one who calls out the time of prayer to those related or strangers to one another - from the nobles and respected ones of society to the ordinary man who held no respect in society - all stood as brothers, equal before martyrdom in order to teach all the men, women, children, old and young of history: How they should live if they could and how they should die if they could not.

Any one of these martyrs is a representative of his own class and yet showed another aim. They bore witness with their blood not with their words. They condemned the ruling system in the court of human history which determines the history of man, a system which employs policy, economics, religion, art, philosophy, thought, feelings, ethics and humanity in such a way as to sacrifice its people for the sake of its system.

They condemn, by their martyrdom, all groups of people and human values which are used to build a support system for an oppressive and criminal government. There is one ruler over history, one oppressor who rules history, one executioner who creates martyrs. Throughout history many have been the sacrificed of this executioner. Many women have been silenced by the whips of this executioner. At the price of much blood, desolate places have flourished.

The hungry, the slaves, women and children have been massacred as well as men, heroes, servants, teachers throughout all ages and all generations. Now, Husayn ('a), with everything he owns in the' world, beside the Forat River, has come to bear witness in the presence of history to the oppressed of history, to all of the condemned of this executioner who rules history.

He has come to bear witness with his son, Ali Akbar, as to how this executioner, Zahhak, has eaten the brains of youth throughout history.