He sent a message out to explain to them that a boy had...

He sent a message out to explain to them that a boy had fainted and that was the reason for the women screaming.[^8] * * * The Imams of the Holy Family honoured the poets who composed this kind of poetry in lamentation and praise of the Holy Family and of al-Husayn, in particular. An example of that is the words of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir to al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi when the latter had recited an ode to him about his love for the Hashimites as the noblest of men.

Imam al-Baqir said, 'You will continue to be supported by the Holy Spirit as long as you defend us, the members of the Holy Family.'[^9] During the days of tashriq immediately after the great pilgrimage ( hajj ), al-Kumayt asked for permission to visit Imam al-Sadiq and wanted to recite an ode to him. It troubled the Imam that they should be reminding themselves of poetry during the great days of the pilgrimage.

However, when al-Kumayt said that it was about the Holy Family, the Imam was satisfied. He called some of his family and brought them near. Then al-Kumayt began to recite and the tears flowed.

When he reached the words about the archers firing on al-Husayn, Imam al-Sadiq raised his hands and said, 'O God, forgive al-Kumayt for his past and future offenses, whether secret or public, and give him what will please him.' The poetry which the Sh'ia recite in lamentation for al-Husayn and the Holy Family is not, in the majority of cases, poetry for special occasions. Rather it is an activity which emotion and religion brings forth.

Emotion brings it forth through the close relationship between the Shi'ite individual and his Imam who led a revolution and was wickedly oppressed. Religion brings it forth as represented in some of the texts which we mentioned which urge the recitation of poetry about the Holy Family and which awaken a desire for it. It is also represented in the personal attitudes which the Imams of the Holy Family adopted towards the poets who wrote about al-Husayn.

We have already dealt with some of this earlier. For this reason and that, the composing and recitation of poetry became a religious act which entered into the glorification of the rites of God. Al-Husayn had not striven for personal glory through his revolution. He had undertaken it to serve the people on the basis of the guidance of Islam.

Therefore, to make the revolution live on in his person and to spread its slogans and influence in society through poetry and other things is an act of piety.