Does the saying of ʿAbis ibn Shabib, “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad,” have a source, and is its meaning sound when religion calls for rational thinking?

Does the saying of ʿAbis ibn Shabib, “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad,” have a source, and is its meaning sound when religion calls for rational thinking?

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful

And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of all creation, Muhammad and his pure Family.

Regarding the saying “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad,” which is reported on the tongue of the martyr of al-Taff, ʿAbis ibn Shabib: we have searched many of the old maqtal books (accounts of the martyrdom), and we found no trace of it except in the book Adab al-Taff by Sayed Jawad Shubbar, which is a recent book. He said, verbatim:

“The authors of the maqtal books said: ‘Then he—that is, ʿAbis—advanced with his sword drawn towards the opposing host, bearing a wound on his forehead from the day of Siffin, and he called for single combat. Rabiʿ ibn Tamim said: When I saw him advancing, I recognized him, for I had seen him in the raids and wars, and I said: O people, this is the lion of lions; this is Ibn Shabib; let none of you go out to him. So ʿAbis began calling out: Is there not a man? But no one came forward to him. Then ʿUmar ibn Saʿd called out: Woe to you! Stone him from every side! When he saw that, he cast off his armor and his helmet. Someone called out: Have you gone mad, O ʿAbis? He said: Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad:

He meets the thrusting spears with his throat * and sets his head in the helmet's place

He wants, when the spears pierce him, * no coat of mail but the garment of a noble nature

Then he charged at the people, and by Allah, I saw him driving back more than two hundred of Ibn Saʿd's army. Then they closed in on him from every side, killed him and cut off his head. I saw his head in the hands of several men, this one saying: I killed him, and that one saying: I killed him. They came to ʿUmar ibn Saʿd, and he said: Do not dispute; this man was not killed by one person—all of you killed him.

And he separated them with this statement.’” Adab al-Taff, Sayed Jawad Shubbar, vol. 8, p. 172.

What is recorded in the maqtal books, however, is the phrase: “When he saw that, he cast off his armor and his helmet, then charged at the people…”, on which the sources almost agree. This phrase shows that ʿAbis ibn Shabib had a distinguishing feature when he advanced to fight before Imam al-Husayn (a): when he saw the enemies afraid to approach him for single combat, he cast off his armor and his helmet, which protected him from arrows and blows, so as to be like easy prey for the enemies, and this is what tempted them to advance to fight him. So he fought like the others among the companions of Imam al-Husayn (a), killed a number [of them], and then was killed.

A number of scholars have rejected the saying reported on the tongue of ʿAbis, “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad,” on the one hand because it does not occur in the maqtal books, and because it conflicts with religion's call to reason and rational thinking; according to their understanding, this saying does not befit one of the noble heroes of al-Taff.

However, we can understand the saying—whether allowing for the possibility that it was actually said, or even if it was not said and is regarded as one of the sayings of lisan al-hal (the language of the situation)—with an understanding that corrects its intent and does not conflict with what religion has brought of adorning oneself with reason and rational thinking.

Especially since this saying has been well known among the eminent scholars and jurists since long ago, and they used to cite it to show the extent of ʿAbis ibn Shabib's self-sacrifice in love of Imam al-Husayn (a) and his fighting to the death in defense of the sacred household of the Messenger of Allah (s). The book Adab al-Taff recorded it, and perhaps he took it from a source that was in his hands.

So the phrase can easily be understood in a way that does not conflict with the calls of religion and does not diminish the character of ʿAbis, and that from several angles:

Among them: that this courage and daring which ʿAbis undertook appears to others as madness. Whoever does not know what love of al-Husayn (a) does, and what loyalty to him means, calls what ʿAbis undertook madness, while it is the utmost of reason, submission, and fighting to the death for the truth. So his saying “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad” means: that love has called me to what you call madness.

And among them: that this is a simile, which is the simplest of matters; the simile is figurative, not literal, that is, it resembles the act of a madman. A simile is such that there is a shared attribute between the two things from some angle or other, even if only a formal one. The Arabs were known to liken fighting to the death and unconcern to a madman, though he is not so; that is, he performs acts which others, if they see them, regard as madness, though they are not so.

It is stated in al-Muhit fi al-Lugha: “And istamata: it has been said: [the mustamit] is one who acts like a madman but is not mad; and the one who courts death in war.”

And in Lisan al-ʿArab: “The man istamata when he is content to die. And al-mustamit: one who acts like a madman but is not mad.”

So when ʿAbis ibn Shabib fought to the death in the manner on which the maqtal books agree—throwing down his armor and casting off his helmet—it can be likened to madness while it is the utmost of reason, and there is no objection to that.

The Arab poets have likened states that befall them to madness, as a metaphor for states of deep love and the preoccupation of thought with the beloved,

The poet said, in what Shaykh al-Bahaʾi transmitted and al-Majlisi transmitted in al-Bihar:

And Ibn Manzur said: The poet said:

And in the line of verse:

Among the beautiful things said in love of Imam al-Husayn (a) in this regard is the masterpiece of the contemporary poet Jasim al-Sahih, entitled “I Carried the Bier of My Mind with Me,” in which he says:

I carried the bier of my mind with me

and came to you, a lover who does not comprehend.

I sense you as the scale of what I claim,

if what I claim is for the sake of Allah.

By love of you I measure the size of certainty,

for love of you, as I see it, is my reference.

I cast off the legends from myself;

save the legends of my passion for you, I did not cast them off.

I plunged into your wound, where the suns

hasten in that place of rising,

and where “the three-pronged [arrow]” cleaved the road

before me to the loftier world,

and taught me that passion for “al-Husayn”

is an unveiling upon the scalpel's blade.

So I bared my soul before the swords

that devoured you and were not sated,

and I believed in passion, the spring of madness,

for passion has disowned whoever is aware.

And I came to you in the rapture of unreason,

dragging the bier of my mind with me!

This said, there are other angles—some ethical, some epistemic—which there is no room to mention. So I have seen no reason for zealotry in rejecting the saying “Love of al-Husayn has driven me mad” in terms of meaning, as long as it has aspects that can be understood correctly; and this is how many of the scholars and jurists who passed it on generation after generation understood it.

All that we have mentioned does not mean that it is permissible for us, as loyal followers of Imam al-Husayn (a), to transgress the bounds of the Sharia, the light of reason and the insight of wisdom in our conduct. We ask Allah for success and right guidance.

Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi