Ummul Baneen… without Hussain’s… like a shadow with no body
Can the eye see… if from its sight… it’s beloved’s taken away?
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
Like when without sunlight flowers shrink and wither
Without him, she grows old and her grey hairs gather
Ummul Baneen without Hussain’s not a mother
Hussain her only son and she has no other
Has the eye seen… a mother that… does not care for her own children?
Has the eye seen… a mother that… became mother of an orphan
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
Does a lioness forget about her own cubs?
Holding Hussain, she’d forget to sway her son’s cribs
The love of Hussain made her forget her Abbas
She forgot his hands and wept over Hussain’s ribs
Does a lion… forget its pride… and lament over another?
Does a lion… gather her cubs… and prepare them to be martyred?
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
She sought not the hands of Abbas for comfort
When hearing Hussain’s neck was cut left her distraught
She wondered just how well her four children had fought
Did they lay down they lives for him like they were taught?
If she had been… in Karbala… she’d watch them twirl their swords in pride
If she had been… watching them fight… she’d have prostrated when they died
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
Every child is given milk by their mother
Ummul Baneen fed her sons dust of Karbala
She’d bake it in the bread she’d feed them for dinner
And say, this is the scent of your end and honour
Karbala’s dust… was sprinkled in… both their graves and in their cradles
Karbala’s dust… the medicine… that makes anything possible
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
Zainab enters her house, her wrists cut from the chains
Sorrow flows through the daughter of Fatima’s veins
Ummul Baneen and Zainab, no-one else remains
Zainab laments Abbas and she laments Hussain
Wa Hussainah… heard everywhere… from the voice of Ummul Baneen
Wa Hussainah… were it not for… this lady it may not have been
Ummul Baneen… Ummul Baneen
* * *
(London – 03/02/19)