O Abā ʿAbdillāh! I seek nearness to Allah, to His Messenger, to the Commander of the Faithful, to Fāṭimah, to al-Ḥasan, and to you through loyalty to you, and through dissociation from those who fought you and set themselves against you in war, and through dissociation from those who laid the very foundation of oppression and injustice against you. I declare before Allah and His Messenger my innocence from whoever established that foundation, built its edifice upon it, and persisted in their wrongdoing and tyranny toward you and toward your followers.I distance myself before Allah and before you from all of them, and I draw near to Allah, and then to you, by pledging loyalty to you, to your followers, and by disavowing your enemies, those who waged war upon you, and by disavowing their partisans and adherents.I am at peace with whoever is at peace with you, at war with whoever is at war with you, a friend to whoever befriends you, and an enemy to whoever shows you enmity.I ask Allah, who has honoured me with knowledge of you and your friends, and endowed me with dissociation from your enemies, to place me with you in this world and the Hereafter; to establish for me, with you, a firm and truthful footing in this world and the Hereafter; and I ask Him to grant me the praiseworthy station that is yours with Allah, and to grant me the blessing of seeking vengeance for (your) blood alongside a manifest, rightly guided Imām from among you who speaks the truth.I beseech Allah, by your right and by the rank you possess with Him, to bestow upon me, through my affliction over you, the most excellent reward He grants to anyone struck by calamity, for what a calamity this is, how vast and grievous it is in Islam and across all the heavens and the earth!O Allah, make me, in this very place, among those who receive from You blessings, mercy, and forgiveness. O Allah, make my life the life of Muḥammad and the family of Muḥammad, and my death the death of Muḥammad and the family of Muḥammad.
Repetition of Themes for Emphasis
This paragraph reiterates the themes and concepts mentioned in the preceding sections, such as loyalty (wilāyah), dissociation (barāʾah), and the cursing of everyone who played a role in this crime, starting with those who laid its foundation. As well as the plea to Allah that we be with Imām Ḥusayn (a) in this world and the Hereafter and that we be among those who avenge his blood alongside the Awaited Imām (aj). Such repetition follows a Qurʾānic style, meant to underscore these concepts, which lie at the heart of authentic Muhammadan Islam, and to cultivate a nation imbued with a genuine, correct culture of resistance. One that aids it in the struggle between truth and falsehood.
Drawing Near to Allah and the Ahlul Bayt (a) through Allegiance and Dissociation
Emphasis is laid on the fact that wilāyah (allegiance) and barāʾah (dissociation) are among the most important means of drawing close to Allah, for through them acts of devotion are accepted and reach their perfection.
Thus the many, multiply-attested reports from the Ahlul Bayt (a) stress that allegiance is a condition for the acceptance of deeds and entry into Paradise. The Prophet (p) said:
A servant’s feet shall not move on the Day of Resurrection until he is asked about four things: his life, how he spent it; his youth, how he used it; his wealth, from where he earned it and on what he spent it; and about his love for us, the People of the House. 1
It is self-evident that allegiance to the Ahlul Bayt (a) is not genuine without dissociation from their enemies. Moreover, the allegiance and dissociation that bring one near to Allah by securing the acceptance of deeds are those that manifest in a person’s conduct and character, not mere lip-service, and they embrace every dimension of a loyal Shīʿī’s life, not only matters of jihād.
We must adopt the ethics of the Ahlul Bayt (a) in our words, deeds, dealings, and daily decisions, including our stance in the struggle between truth and falsehood, such that the saying “their hearts are with you while their swords are against you” never applies to us. Our allegiance to the Ahlul Bayt (a) must not be confined to times of ease, only to abandon the truth which they all sacrificed for when hardship strikes.
Let us take as an example the stand of Jawn, the dark-skinned servant. When Imām Ḥusayn (a) told him: “You have my permission to leave; you joined us seeking well-being, so do not burden yourself with our fate,” Jawn replied: “O son of the Messenger of Allah! In ease I lick your bowls, yet in hardship I forsake you?” 2 He then entered the fray and was martyred before Imām Ḥusayn (a).
The issue is not the physical presence or absence of an infallible; the fundamental matter is supporting the truth. Whoever supports the truth, at any time and place, has supported the Ahlul Bayt (a); and whoever abandons the truth, at any time and place, has abandoned the Ahlul Bayt (a).
An Ally to Whoever Allies You and an Enemy to Whoever Opposes You
Our decisions in peace and in war (our stance toward people and groups) are governed by their loyalty or hostility to the Ahlul Bayt (a). Whoever allies with the Ahlul Bayt (a), we stand with him, even if it costs us our lives; and whoever opposes the Ahlul Bayt (a), we stand against him, even if that means losing everything we possess.
A Firm Footing of Truth with You
After settling our stance in the struggle between truth and falsehood, on the basis of “a friend to whoever befriends you and an enemy to whoever opposes you,” founded upon the knowledge Allah has inspired in us through the blessings of the Ahlul Bayt (a), we thank Allah for this knowledge and ask Him to establish for us a firm, truthful footing with Imām Ḥusayn (a), the Imām of truth.
That is, we pray to be among the supporters of truth in this world, embodying the Qurʾānic description: “Those who believe and do righteous deeds” 3. For faith without righteous action is profitless, just as knowledge without practice is futile.
Likewise, to possess such a firm footing with Imām Ḥusayn (a) in the Hereafter, we must remain steadfast upon the truth in this life and, if Allah so wills, attain martyrdom in its path. Indeed, the greatest blessing and divine success is to be with Imām Ḥusayn (a), both in this world and in the world to come.
The Praiseworthy Station (al-Maqām al-Maḥmūd)
In the narration, al-Maqām al-Maḥmūd is described as a pulpit of light in the Hereafter comprising one thousand levels. The Prophet (p) stands upon the very top—level, while the believers occupy the remaining tiers according to their deeds and spiritual ranks. We therefore beseech Allah, by the right of the Ahlul Bayt (a), to grant us access to this station. Without doubt, those who tread the path of Imām Ḥusayn (a), champion the truth, and attain martyrdom in Allah’s cause will reach this pulpit; they implore Allah to be placed among the highest ranks, close to the Prophet (p) himself.
Several Further Requests
After imploring Allah to grant us a firm, truthful footing with Imām Ḥusayn (a) in both worlds and to raise us to the Praiseworthy Station, the Infallible Imām (a) asks Allah for several additional matters:
- To be among those who avenge Imām Ḥusayn’s (a) blood alongside the Awaited Imām (aj). Clinging to this supplication shapes our entire outlook on life; our every action and movement should flow from that creed. A telling anecdote illustrates the point. Āyatullāh Golpāygānī (r), who shouldered the burden of marjaʿiyyah after Imām Khomeinī (r) and led his funeral prayer, recalled:
“During our student days in the seminary at Qom, the Imām shared my room. I was eighteen; he was sixteen. Each night, in the qunūt of his Witr prayer, I heard him supplicate: ‘O Allah, make me among those who avenge the blood of my grandfather al-Ḥusayn (a).’” Small wonder, then, that this very man became the forerunner of the Imām of the Age’s state, the one who will indeed avenge Imām Ḥusayn (a). From his youth he lived with that concern and held that conviction, and on that basis he ignited the greatest revolution of the twentieth century, altering history and heralding the dawn of the era of reappearance.
-
A renewed reference to the immensity of the tragedy, its weight upon the People of Islam and upon the heavens, and a plea that Allah grant us a reward commensurate with its magnitude, and even better: the finest reward He bestows on anyone stricken by calamity.
-
A triple gift while reciting the Ziyārah: blessings, wide-ranging mercy, and forgiveness from Allah. Any one of these three would suffice for a person’s success in this world and the next, yet Ziyārat ʿĀshūrāʾ holds the promise of all three. Such is one of its manifold blessings.
Life and Death with Muḥammad (p) and the Family of Muḥammad (p)
Undoubtedly, one of the finest supplications to recite regularly is:
O Allah, grant me the life of Muḥammad and the Family of Muḥammad, and let me die the death of Muḥammad and the Family of Muḥammad.
This is the loftiest wish a believer can cherish in this world. Yet we must realise that the life of Muḥammad (p) and his Family (a) contains no ease or comfort; it is entirely hardship and struggle. For that reason we long for a death that is either by the sword or by poison.
The life of Muḥammad (p) and the Family of Muḥammad (a) is not merely a series of rituals and acts of worship in mosques and ḥusayniyyahs, nor the revival of occasions, nor the setting of tables laden with delicacies, nor even the ḥajj to Allah’s Sacred House and the visitation of the Imāms’ shrines, though all these deeds are praiseworthy. Rather, their life is toil and jihād, both the greater and the lesser, unceasing, tireless labour in obeying Allah and serving His religion and His servants. Allah said to His noble Prophet:
So when you have finished, then stand up, and to your Lord direct your longing. 4
The natural outcome of such a course is martyrdom in the path of Allah. Indeed, when we declare that we desire the life and death of Muḥammad (p) and the Family of Muḥammad (a), our deeds must match our words if we are to be truthful. We must understand that this life entails hardship: striving against the self, observing piety, standing in night prayer, adopting their ethics; it also entails sacrificing wealth and soul, facing restriction, imprisonment, torture, exile, displacement, and, ultimately, death.
In short: the life and death of Muḥammad (p) and the Family of Muḥammad (a) is perpetual jihād, against the self and against tyranny, and, in the end, being slain in Allah’s cause, whether by the sword or by any other means.