1.
Forty days of grief follow Imam Hussain’s ten
Forty days of grief to teach the soul revolution
Lighting the spark of love deep within
2.
For forty days the blood of Heavens wept upon Hussain’s
The Earth in darkness, in distress tearing up mountains
As eclipsed would be the sun
3.
It was at the age of forty Ahmed was told ‘read’
And revelation descended that would one day bleed
And from his Hashemi’ite skin
4.
The forty days of Moses was decreed by Allah
At Sinai the Ark settled, before in Karbala
It was left to die all alone
5.
At forty I memorised like a true believer
Forty hadith on mourning the master of martyrs
A scholar on Resurrection
6.
At forty came wisdom, after forty days of reflection
Forty days kept away from all sources of deflection
From the very spirit of Hussain
7.
It was 40 days after Ashura, give or take a year
I saw silhouettes on Karbala’s horizon appear
Who had aged a generation
8.
Widows and orphans, like stars against the sky
With heads once upon spears to torment the bodies that lie
Deep beneath the desert dune
9.
To Karbala they return, but without their souls
Taken from them by Ashura till they all grow old
From the journey weak and thin
10.
Zainab’s eyes carried torment and had become grey
And the orphans left alive from their grief would sway
Left clinging onto their queen
11.
As they reapproach the land conquered that was by death
Forty days after the day where all breathed their last breath
The dead return, what a scene
12.
And all gather around the grave of the Master of martyrs
Orphans quenching his thirst using an abundance of tears
He has not been thirsty ever since
13.
While Zainab leaves the children and heads toward the river
To seek out the scent of her fallen half-brother
She rediscovers it therein
14.
She sees not dust, but a mighty dome paved with gold
Shaped like a teardrop with minarets than stand tall
Instead of hands, two mighty wings
15.
And in the world of souls, the Ansar circle the camp
Holding their swords high, yearning life once again
If only it could have been
16.
But for the bodies that remain, there is only silence
Everything else broken, burnt and lost ever since
Replies to their cries the sound of wind
17.
At least there is now peace, after the day the sky fell
Flowers bloomed where blood fell, as was the Lord’s will
It brings peace to men and Jinn
18.
But peace could not mend the heart of the mighty Zainab
From a strike upon the head to a mother’s broken rib
The world’s most broken orphan
19.
Whose tongue was a sword welded by the Creator
Twinned with the Tholfiqar, she was Haidera
Born again as a woman
20.
Unarmed, she shook an empire and broke Yazid’s throne
For she is of light and he was of mere flesh and bone
No match for the believer
21.
Her sermon altered time and changed the course of history
The Ummayads were no match for the daughter of Ali
Who conquered her own Khaybar
22.
And what can Zainab be but a mountain of might
To bear the child’s screams in the dead of the night
“I want my father to return”
23.
When they brought out Hussain’s head and Ruqaya met her Lord
Zainab would wash her body with the tears that poured
For there was no shortage of them
24.
It is from these captives that we take this tradition
One of Jaber Al-Ansari, for when the news reached him
There was no hesitation
25.
It was on the Arbaeen that he arrived in Taf
And if only he arrived, that would have been enough
To inspire our millions
26.
He bathed in the Euphrates and turned toward the grave
In the centuries that followed, so many more would crave
Hussain’s undying scent
27.
Much like Hajar’s run between Safa and Marwa
Which then became a ritual for Hajj and for Umrah
Until the day of Judgement
28.
Our Safa is Hussain and our Marwa is Abbas
And between the two is the flow of every beating heart
And the soul of every pilgrim
29.
And to our Safa we walk the distance and give it our all
And if our legs fail us then to your grave we’d crawl
That is love in its essence
30.
We salute Jafar Al-Sadiq for emphasising that our faith
Is incomplete unless we visit you, be it if once in our lives
Such the stature of Ahmed’s grandson
31.
Each step is not like others for it is heard by heavens
With every step toward your shrine we see fall do our sins
Of past, future and present
32.
Even when walking his road meant nothing but death and harm
Be it under Al Mutawakil or under Saddam
We still came, risking execution
33.
And when visiting Hussain meant losing their left hand
You’d find those offering their right, in belief that they’d stand
Beside Abbas in salvation
34.
Nowhere else on Earth do you find millions walking
In serenity, in peace, while their hearts are all chanting
For the fall of all oppression
35.
The world’s eye can turn away and the news can still ignore
But into the old city, millions from all over Earth still pour
And somehow it accommodates them
36.
The lovers of death can continue to lose their minds
And detonate their bombs for they shall continue to find
Above their bodies walking pilgrims
37.
Because death cannot challenge love, because love is the essence
Love is what keeps us walking, love is our existence
For his love has always been
38.
And when we reach his grave, there we extend our hands
An unanswered wish uttered by any woman or man
Karbala has never seen
39.
And when we die, when graves are dark, when shake do our remains
Hussain will visit us just like we visited Hussain
Bringing salaam and ameen
40.
And Zainab and Hussain shall stand beside us on Judgement
As the angels call out: “where are those who would once lament?
Where are the visitors of Arbaeen?”