LESSON OF PATIENCE

(Irshad) Imam Ali Zainul Abedeen (a.s.) says that on the night preceding the martyrdom of my father, I was awake while my aunt Hazrat Zaynab (a.s.) was attending to me. My father was alone in his tent, while Jaun, the retainer of Abu Zarr Ghifari, was with him and was preparing his sword and putting it right. My father was reciting the following couplets:
“Time, shame on you as a friend, at the day’s dawning and the sun’s setting, how many a companion or seeker will be a corpse, time will not be satisfied with any substitute, the matter will rest with the Mighty One, and every living creature will have to journey along my path.”
He repeated it twice or thrice and I understood what he meant and sorrow befell me but I bore it silently and realised that a calamity had befallen us. My aunt Zaynab (a.s.) heard it too, sensitiveness and anxiety being the qualities of women, she could not control herself and tearing her clothes ran bareheaded towards my father and said, “Woe unto this tragedy! I wish death overtakes me. Today my mother Fatemah (a.s.), my father Ali (a.s.) and my brother Hasan (a.s.) have departed from me. O successor of the departed ones! O source of hope for the alive ones!”
Imam turned towards his sister and said,
“O dear sister! Do not let shaitan take away your forebearence.”
His eyes became full of tears and then he said,
“If a sandgrouse (a type of a bird) is freed at night, it will sleep in peace.”
Then she said, “Woe! Then will you be violently and helplessly killed? While this hurts my heart and is severe upon my life.” Then she started beating her face and tore off her collar and fell unconscious. Then Imam arose and sprinkled water [refer Note No. 50] over her face and said,
“O dear sister! Control yourself and desire consolation from Allah alone. And know that everyone upon the earth shall die, while the dwellers of the heavens too shall perish, except the Face (Self) of Allah. Allah who has created with His power, and will make them alive again, and they shall all return to Him, while Allah is Unique. My grandfather was better than me, my father was better than me, and my mother was better than me. It is obligatory upon me and all Muslims to follow the example of the Prophet of Allah (s.a.w.s.).”
Then he consoled her with similar words and said,
“O dear sister! I request you on oath that when I am martyred, do not tear off your collar, nor beat your face or lament upon me.”
Then he brought Hazrat Zaynab (a.s.) and made her sit near me and then went to his companions.¹
Zaynab did not break this promise at all moments of Ashura and after that day.A lesson which Zaynab learned from school of her brother in short times, made indebted the Shia history to it for always. Husain with this short words made the most important base of Shia thoughts, of talented student like Zaynab. As if Zaynab and her fired speeches did not revealed the oppression of Bany Umayyaa, the revolution of Imam Husain would lost and forgot in propagandas of enemy.²

1.Source:Nafasul Mahmoom
by:Sheikh Abbas Qumm
2.Translated by, Ms. Ebrahimi