Did Imam al-Husayn weep over his enemies?
Question: Some ask about the wisdom for which Imam al-Husayn (a) wept over his enemies, and we see that some writers cite the incident to show that the Imam (a) did not invoke [Allah] against his enemies and did not describe them in bad terms, but rather felt pity for them and wept for their sake. How, then, should we understand the incident in the context of war and enmity?
We will answer this question briefly, and the discussion should proceed along three tracks:
First: Is the incident historically established?
The incident which says that Lady Zaynab (a) saw Imam al-Husayn (a) weeping, and when she asked him the reason for his weeping he said, “I weep for these people who will enter the Fire because of me”—we have not found it in the reliable or well-known Shiʿi or Sunni maqtal works (accounts of the martyrdom). As for the incidents transmitted in those maqtal works, there is an incident that Imam Zayn al-ʿAbidin (a) relates about a conversation that took place between Lady Zaynab (a) and her brother Imam al-Husayn (a), when she heard the Imam (a) reciting, “O Time, fie upon you as a friend…”, while his noble eyes had welled up with tears—perhaps for her state, or for what would befall them after him. This conversation does not contain her asking about the reason for the weeping; rather, the conversation was about consoling Lady Zaynab (a) with patience and preparing her for what would befall them.
However, the incident can be discussed on the basis of the possibility of its having been said; on that basis, its implications should be understood within the values and constants of the religion and the conduct of the Infallibles (a).
Second: The meaning of the text itself.
The expression that is transmitted is: “I weep for these people who will enter the Fire because of me.” It gives the reason for the weeping, that is, the particular state that came over the Imam (a). In the text there is a clear indication that the people are among “the people of the Fire,” and this is a description of their state, as he affirmed that they are wretched through the deed they were committing in confronting and fighting the son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (s).
The word “because of me” does not mean that he is the one who caused it, as is well known; rather, it explains the reason for their entering the Fire, namely, “that they wronged me.”
So the meaning is one of two aspects:
The first: either his (a) weeping was because they had reached this state through wronging the Master of the Youth of the People of Paradise (as he said earlier, to the effect that: I would hate to be the first through whom the House of Allah is violated).
The second: or the reason for the weeping is the state of aggression and loss that the human being had reached, while he (a) wishes guidance for all humankind, yet they lost it—as was the case with his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (s), in the words of Allah the Exalted: “You are liable to imperil your life [out of distress] that they will not have faith. If We wish We will send down to them a sign from the sky before which their heads will remain bowed in humility. There does not come to them any new reminder from the All-beneficent but that they disregard it.” (Qurʾan 26:3–5)
Third: The objective implications
In understanding a text connected to a particular event, the event must be studied objectively so that the true and actual implications of the text become clear to us. When the text is cut off from its historical and objective contexts, it may be misunderstood. We therefore set out some points as pointers toward an objective understanding:
1- The time of the saying is not precisely known, but according to those who relate it, it does not fall outside [the span] between “the Day of the Tenth, at the Imam's farewell” and “the Day of the Tenth, shortly before the Imam was killed.”
2- Before this time, the Imam had sermons, words and descriptions directed at the people, many of which were either invocations against them or descriptions of their evil state. They are very numerous and themselves require study and analysis. Among them, for example: “Woe to you, O partisans of Satan…”; “O Allah, count them in number, kill them dispersed, leave not one of them on the face of the earth, and never forgive them”; “O evil community, how wretchedly you have succeeded Muhammad with regard to his family”; “He will cast your violence among yourselves and shed your blood, then pour upon you a painful punishment”; “O Allah, withhold from them the blessings of the earth, and if You withhold from them, then scatter them utterly”… and so on.
3- Some, when they cut the event (assuming it occurred) off from its context, understood that Imam al-Husayn (a) took pity on them in that he did not curse them, did not describe them in bad terms, and did not invoke [Allah] against them… This is a mistaken understanding, contrary to reality and contrary to the teachings of the religion. Imam al-Husayn (a) feels pity for them by virtue of his risali station, in which he wishes guidance for them; and among the manifestations of that pity is that he addressed them in sermons many times and established the proof against them so that they might choose the right path.
Whoever understands the Imam's weeping as evidence that it is not permissible to describe their state must either delete established history, or believe that it is never valid to describe anyone with anything, however far he has gone in injustice and misguidance—and this contradicts the teachings of the religion.
4- Pity and wishing guidance do not mean laxity of stance. Describing the reality they chose is indispensable, so that they know what position they have taken and what crime they have committed. This does not prevent one who wants guidance from being guided; rather, it may shake his conscience and make him rethink, so that he sees that he belongs to the accursed community and repositions himself (as al-Hurr al-Riyahi did), to whom the Imam had addressed words he would not have wished [to hear]; yet that did not prevent him from repenting. Indeed, his repentance was preceded by descriptions of the army's state from the Imam (a), while al-Hurr was on the other side. Likewise, Imam ʿAli (a) declared at Siffin that the opposing army was the transgressing faction, according to the explicit statement of the Messenger of Allah (s), and that did not prevent many of them from turning back from their position. Whoever turned back, the description no longer applied to him and he entered among the good.
Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
www.mosawy.com