The Zaynabi woman.. the most dangerous use We state with certainty that attributing a believer to one of the personages of the Family of Muhammad is a great honor, as when we say: a Husayni young man, to indicate that he is a lover of al-Husayn or one working to raise the name of al-Husayn; and we say an ʿAlawi man, in reference to his intense loyalty to Imam ʿAli (a); and a Zaynabi woman, to indicate her chastity or her steadfastness..etc. .
That, without doubt, is something beautiful and desirable; but for slogans to become pretentious and for trends to be attributed to the Ahl al-Bayt—that is the dangerous use among all the mistaken uses, and I think it the most dangerous use, because it wraps the correct in error and, to put it gently, wraps the dubious in the appearance of truth.
The biggest of the prevalent uses is “the Zaynabi woman.” This name in itself—as has passed—is something good, but probing the depths of that use requires pauses from those concerned, and more particularly from those influential in the arena, to curb some conduct that carries within its folds much negativity, even if it springs from good intentions.
Recently, in one of the conservative areas, a women's play was staged before a male audience, and some justified it by saying that those women carry a “Zaynabi” spirit that wants to convey lofty meanings, as Lady Zaynab (a) did before Yazid and, before that, before the army of ʿUmar ibn Saʿd.
This talk takes in a superficial reading of the subject, but in depth you see that the thread of the rosary has become weak, and if it breaks, we will not be able to catch its beads together and quickly. The story of Yaʿuq, Yaghuth and Nasr is but a witness to that.. For these names mentioned in the Noble Qurʾan were names of righteous people before they were names of idols. Satan came after their death and whispered to their people that statues of them should be erected (not so that they would be worshipped), but so that the people—especially those who had not lived in their time—would see them and become like them in righteousness and piety. And so what Iblis wanted happened, and when a generation of time had passed, the second whispering came: that your forefathers worshipped them only because they were a source of good, blessing and righteousness.. So some fell into polytheism when they saw that this whispering was almost correct, given what they witnessed of the long lifespan of these statues and the firm veneration from their fathers and forefathers...
We say: it is indeed a dangerous sequence, repeated in all human errors: no one does what is disliked (makrūh) except one who has gone deep into the permissible, and no one does what is forbidden (ḥarām) except one who has gone deep into the disliked. And if one barrier is broken and mutual acceptance is established upon that breaking, the second and the third will break, and the “clips” of the raduds are not far from that.
______________
· A writer from Bahrain
