opinion of Sayyid Ja’far Murtada al-’Amili regarding the authenticity of ‘Darb al-Zaynab(‘a)’
A short summary of Sayyid Ja’far Murtada al-’Amili’s — God’s mercy be upon him — opinion regarding the authenticity of the narration regarding Zaynab(‘a)’s self flagellation
Q : In the name of Allah, the most merciful and the most beneficent
May Allah increase our reward and yours amist the tragedy of Sayyid al-Shuhada’ (‘a). What is your eminence’s view regarding the report of Zaynab(‘a) beating her own head to the pole (on which was held the head of Imam al-Husayn(‘a))? Do you think such an action could be carried on by her?
A : In the name of Allah, the most merciful and the most beneficent. Praise be upon Allah, and His salutation and peace be upon Muhammad and his purified household.
Peace and Allah’s mercy and blessing be upon you.
We’ve presented an answer to the aforementioned question in our book “The biography of Imam Husayn(‘a) throughout the hadith literature and history” as following :
Majlisi — may God’s mercy be upon him — did say : I saw in some reliable books a report with a broken chain from Muslim al-Jassas, in which he said, ‘When accursed Ibn Ziyad possessed the throne of Kufa, I was plastering the gates surrounding the city.’ Then he mentioned about the children (of Banu Hashim) entering the city, and then the heads of the martyrs, then continued ‘Then we saw ‘Ali b. al-Husayn entering the city, riding a camel without a saddle, bleeding severely, crying and condemning the betrayal and oppression of muslims against the prophet’s progeny.’
‘Oh you evil nation who doesn’t even quench the thirst of her own brethren,
who has been disloyal to the command of my grandfather regarding us
When we and the prophet gather on the day of judgment, what are you going to tell us?
You are keeping us as captives under scorching sunlight, as if we’ve never preached faith.
You didn’t answer our call against the plunder of the Umayyads
Rather slandering us, clapping your hand out of joy, insulting us in broad daylight.
Oh battle of Karbala’ you’ve given us a sorrow, by Allah the abusers are slandering the luminaries’
‘And then we saw Zaynab turning her head up, staring at the head of her brother, and then crushed her forehead with the pole which was holding his head, until we could see the blood coming out of her veil. Then she looked at the head of al-Husayn with an utmost grief (it is originally written as ‘wa Awma’at ilaihi bikhirqah(with dusted cloth or robe)’ which doesn’t make a lot of sense, and Majlisi suspected it would be ‘Hirqah(sorrow and grief with extreme distress)’ without a dot on ‘kha’), and then commemorated her brother.’
‘Oh moon that once was so bright and now is fallen apart and set
Oh my dear brother, Never have I imagined this to be your destiny
Oh my brother, the words of little Fatimah has broken my heart into pieces
Oh my brother who is so dear to us, what has made you in this state, crucified lifelessly
Oh brother, if you have seen ‘Ali carried as a captive helplessly along with the orphans
Him calling you with misery, whenever they’re beating him, with heart wrenching tears overflowing
Please comfort him and put his exhausted heart close to you
How humiliating it is for an orphan, to remain unanswered no matter how much he calls out his father’
We need to take the following points in our mind
- Majlisi himself said this tradition to be void of a connected chain of transmission. An apparent fact is that the reliance of a certain book or manuscript is not an indication of its every single content being reliable. And for us, it seems that Majlisi was not aware of the author, rather he found other traditions recorded in the book in other multiple reliable sources.
2. Moreover, we have to pay attention to the two pieces of poem attributed to Imam al-Sajjad and Sayyidah Zaynab respectively.
a) Lack of eloquence
First of all, the second half of the first line ‘who has been disloyal to…(Lam Tura’..)’, should be written as ‘Lam Tura’i’ as the ‘Ummah’ is feminine and the verb, which has to be in the form of Majzum, needs only the letter ‘Nun’ to be omitted, not the letter ‘Ya’.
Moreover, the third verse ‘you are keeping us as captives.. (Tusiruna…)’ should have been written as ‘Tusirunana’ without Nun being omitted as it is from al-Af’al al-Khamsah, which is also an indication for another grammatical mistake
Thirdly, the fourth verse ‘You didn’t answer our call against the plunder of the Umayyads… (Bani Umayyah Ma Hadha al-Wuqufu ‘ala Tilka al-Masa’ib La Tulbunu Da’ina)’ is not abided by the rule of poetic scale(Wazn).
b) Inconsistency with historical background
In the verse ‘Oh my brother, the words of little Fatimah…’ doesn’t make a lot of sense considering historical context when this verse is recited, as Fatimah the daughter of Imam al-Husayn(‘a) was not a little child then, rather she was a matured married woman to al-Hasan al-Muthanna(the son of Imam al-Hasan)
It is reported in historical sources that al-Hasan asked his uncle one of his daughters (for marriage), to which Imam(‘a) replied, ‘My son, choose one who is more beloved to you among these two.’. As Hasan remained silent out of shyness, Imam al-Husayn said ‘Then I would like to choose my daughter Fatimah for you, as she is more resembling my mother Fatimah the prophet(S)’s daughter. (Kitab al-Irshad, Vol. 02, pg. 25/ al-’Adad al-Qawiyyah, pg. 355/ al-Aghali, (Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-’Arabi), Vol. 21, pg. 79/ Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 44, pg. 167)
And there’s a report from al-Zubayr b. Bakkar, that Imam al-Husayn(‘a) decided to marry off his nephew al-Hasan, so he chose his daughter Fatimah for him. (Maqatil al-Talibi’in, (al-Maktabah al-Haydariyyah) pg. 122/ Kitab al-Aghani, (Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-’Arabi), Vol. 16, pg. 362)
c) The expressions which are not appropriate regarding the virtues of Imam
In the second poetry, it is reported that Zaynab(s) expressed Imam Zayn al-’Abidin(‘a) as ‘an orphan’, when Imam was around the age of twenty three when his father(‘a) was martyred in the plain of Karbala’.
Furthermore, considering Imam Zayn al-’Abidin’s virtues, courage, and status, it does not make sense that he ‘miserably cried out calling his father’s name whenever beaten by the enemies’ as mentioned in the second poem.
