After 40 rotations of the earth,
40 million leave home and hearth,
Barefoot, running, yearning, chanting,
Labbayka ya Hussain.
The multiverse grieves,
Suns collapse, moons wane and disappear,
Nebulae shift, black holes appear,
Stars fall in deep dolor
Every Muharram, every Safar.
Yet mother Earth is still here,
In extraordinary pain,
In insurmountable shame,
Made to drink the blood of martyrs,
Made to witness, forced to bear,
The fruits of suffering in Karbala.
So now speaks the daughter of Abuturaab (1):
"In the Forty circumambulations I made,
Around Karbala's scorching sun,
Aal Mohammed's worth I saw,
Degraded, impaled, abused and wronged.
Under tents like forest fires, I burned,
Shrieks of wounded innocence, I heard,
Blood and tears, severed limbs,
Beauty everywhere.
I cradle Asghar in my bosom,
I hold together pieces of Qasim,
I nurture Akbar's mangled body,
I bear all this silently.....
while,
Weeping for Abbaas' helplessness,
Filling the Furat with my tears,
Mourning Hussain's loneliness,
Under the tread of zawwar, for years.
And then I bore the weight
of that journey,
From the terrain of distraught,
To the glimmering court of ignominy,
I moaned and lamented shamefully,
While my sister Zainab said,
"I see nothing but beauty".
And then I did echo in grief,
The cries in the dungeons inside of me,
"Baba, abi, ya waaladi,
It hurts everywhere,
Please, put me to sleep". (2)
Another tiny grave was dug,
Sakina’s bed for eternity,
Sajjad's tears soaked through me,
A brother's shattered heart, buried in me.
I'm still here, oh wretched mankind,
Cringing under your myriad sins,
Imprinting every misstep, deed unkind,
On the sands of time, on these lands of mine.
Your secrets, one day, I will reveal,
And shame you, as you have shamed me.
- Abuturaab- father of the earth
- this verse is both Bibi Sakina (a.s) and mother Earth complaining to their respective fathers, Imam Hussain (a.s) and Imam Ali (a.s)
