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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Torch of Perpetual Guidance, an Exposé on Ziyarat Ashura of al-Imam al-Husayn b.

Upon you, from me, is the peace of Allah for eternity, as long as the night and the day remain and please do not make this (Ziyarat) as my last contact with you. Greetings be upon Husayn, and upon ‘Ali the son of Husayn and upon the children of Husayn and upon the companions of Husayn.” This section which is also recited 100 times is one in which we express our love and greetings to the Imam, his family and the companions killed with him.

The first point of importance in this section is that these greetings which we convey to our Imam are perpetual and do not end with the day of ‘Ashura – rather, they continue on until the end of this world. From this, we can understand that even if we are physically dead in our graves, we, the true Shi’a would continue to send our greetings to the Imam even from our station in Barzakh. Who is ‘Ali b. Husayn whom we send our greetings to? Is this the 4th Imam, As-Sajjad, or someone else?

Seeing as how this Ziyarat is in regards to those murdered with the 3rd Imam, we can state that this is none other than ‘Ali b. Husayn whom we refer to as ‘Ali Akbar. As we know, the fourth Imam was protected and saved on the day of ‘Ashura as through him, the remaining eight Imams came forth. Who are the children of Husayn whom we send our greetings upon?

Historians have mentioned that the Imam had four sons: ‘Ali al-Akbar whose mother was Laila; ‘Ali al-Awsat (Imam Zainul Abideen) whose mother was the daughter of Yazdjard the Emperor of Iran; Abillah (‘Ali al-Asghar) whose mother was Rabab; Ja’far b. Husayn who died before the event of Karbala’. As for his daughters, they include: Ruqayyah whose mother was Rabab (also known as Sakinah); Fatimah whose mother was Ummul Ishaq, the daughter of Talhah.