How We Read the Greatness of Umm al-Banin (a)
Knowing the greatness of the personalities connected with authentic Muhammadan Islam is among the necessities of life, because they are the supply from which we draw the stances and historical lessons that build the present for us, and with them the chapters of the historical experience are completed, in which the line of submissiveness turned against the line of the Message, so that there came to be two camps: a camp nourished by the unjust rulers throughout the ages, and a camp in which the revolutionaries spend their blood and their efforts to establish religion in human life.
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Because of the political interferences and the complexity of the multifaceted influences on the movement of history, we cannot limit ourselves, in understanding the greatness of personalities, to direct understanding, which awaits clear, explicit texts from the historical documents that historians wrote. We are before two observations that should be taken up with the seriousness of the judicious researcher, and they are:
1/ The existence of the line of submissiveness nourished by the unjust rulers, as they patronized historians, distorted history, prevented the recording of its points of light, and stuffed its pages with the minute details of the daily life of extravagance and debauchery.
2/ Regarding the personality as an element in a large, living society, interwoven in its formations, its interests, its facets and its currents; the individual cannot be isolated from the great movement of the nation and the composition of the far-flung society.
Between this and that, the researcher should hunt for the indications and gather the beams of light by observing what we have mentioned. History tells us of the greatness of ladies such as Zaynab (a) and Fatimah al-Maʿsumah (a), and of masters such as al-ʿAbbas (a), ʿAli al-Akbar (a) and Salman (a), through direct texts that are testimonies of greatness engraved in the pages of history. But you stop at some personalities for whom history has not recorded direct testimonies, such as Umm al-Banin, the wife of the Commander of the Faithful (a) and the mother of al-ʿAbbas (a). With such a model, we should observe the general movement of her personality, in addition to the particular luminous indications, and combine this and that in a combination consistent with the concepts of religion and the spirit of the Shariʿa, so as to arrive at the beam of light and the features of greatness.
Among the most important things that should be dug into, and whose treasure should be extracted, is the span of time from the Commander of the Faithful (a) choosing Umm al-Banin as a wife to bear him a knight, to the time when the daughter of the Commander of the Faithful, Zaynab (a), met her after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (a). The historical period most painful for the Ahl al-Bayt (a) was lived through by Umm al-Banin, (and by observing the beginning and the end) it emerges before us that she stood in the ranks of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) in all the challenges that befell them, and was as steadfast as a lofty mountain with the Ahl al-Bayt (a). That period was nothing but a series of the pains of Imam ʿAli (a) until his martyrdom, a series of the griefs of Imam al-Hasan (a) until his martyrdom, and a series of the wrongs done to Imam al-Husayn (a) until his martyrdom. Yet history has established for us an unparalleled steadfastness on the part of this noble lady: she remained a widow all her life and did not marry anyone other than Imam ʿAli (a), in times when widows were accustomed to marry and complete their lives with another man.
In a conceptual reading of personalities, we find that humanity extols the generous for (his generosity), the almsgiver (for his almsgiving), the truthful (for his truthfulness) and the just (for his justice). It is the movement of concepts that elevates personalities and reveals to us the places of greatness. If we borrow from the religious store concepts such as (love of the Ahl al-Bayt), (support of the Ahl al-Bayt), (service of the Ahl al-Bayt) and (consoling the Ahl al-Bayt), we find nothing but history bowing before the one who invested his life in them. Umm al-Banin, between (her being chosen as a wife) and (the committing of her body to the earth), recorded a human being whose clay was kneaded and whose blood was mixed with these concepts, and thereby she clung to the very essence of greatness and strode gracefully in its fields.
The whole world knew that she was chosen from among the ladies of the world (to bear the knight) who would support the Ahl al-Bayt (a), and she was the most entitled to that knowledge; yet she offered four knights, whom she took care of and raised with full awareness, to be sacrificial rams for their master Imam al-Husayn (a). She lived to see the fruit of her effort and to be assured that the task had been completed, through the call of her son al-ʿAbbas (a) to his brothers on the Day of the Tenth: (O sons of my mother, advance to fight, may my soul be your ransom, and defend your master until you are martyred before him...). This is an example of invoking the concept of (support of the Ahl al-Bayt) in reading the history of Umm al-Banin (a), so that we may grasp the degree of greatness she reached, especially at a time when helpers were rare and loyal followers scarce.
Likewise, innate nature (fiṭra) is fully aware of the love for her children that a mother's tenderness carries, especially if they are dutiful children whose hearts virtue has touched, like the sons of Umm al-Banin (a). History presents to us the stance of Umm al-Banin (a) in receiving the news of their martyrdom, cut to pieces by swords, and how her greatest concern was pursuing the news of what had befallen Imam al-Husayn (a), so she grieved and lamented over him. This stance invokes for us the concept of (love of the Ahl al-Bayt) and of putting them before oneself and one's children, even if the price is the loss of the lives of all the children of a tender mother.
Invoking the conceptual reading of history, and appreciating personalities for the share in those concepts that has been established for them, even if the lines of history are few, can inform us of an everlasting greatness, such as the greatness of Lady Umm al-Banin (a). After that, it will not be surprising that people gather around her table, seeking intercession (tawassul) through a greatness that embodied, toward the Ahl al-Bayt (a), steadfastness on the path, support, love, consolation and service, in the most splendid embodiment, so that they put her forward before their needs, as one who holds high standing with Allah through the Ahl al-Bayt (a).
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
www.mosawy.com
