I wish they never called me Ummul Baneen
I raised five sons and not one would remain
Where are her sons? No Abbas and no Hussain
No Abdullah and no Jafar… no Uthman, son of Haider
Not a son beside me, only memories
When I see my shadow, Hussain, my eye, sees
Let me see them just once before I die, please
Let me, just once, sit with them… let a mother see her children
Tell me, how patient can a mother’s heart be?
Ummul Baneen and yet not a son with me
A mother without sons, what a tragedy
A tragedy drenched in my tears… and I live in it for months and years
I see them coming to Medina… just ahead
I see Zainab and Um Kulthoom… just ahead
But Hussain has no body… just a head
And his body lies fallen in Karbala
I’m left complaining to no-one and… nobody
I cry out and comes to help me… nobody
I just see Hussain’s head and… no body
They tell me my son’s head was raised on a spear
I walk to Karbala, me and the Angels side by side
When once it was me and my sons side by side
I saw the bodies, at one I sat and I sighed beside
The one whose flag would no longer flutter
I looked around for my sons… I counted four
But when I looked back at Hussain I couldnt remember what I counted for
So I made sure that my sons were all accounted for
And that their blood flowed for the son of Fatima
And here’s me, not struck by lighting but by awe struck
Thanking God that they were killed or cut or struck
I hold the flag of Abbas as I am left awestruck
And wear it as a hijab as a proud mother
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Ummul Baneen held the hands of Abbas feeling grateful
And wore her hijab using the flag of Abu Fadhil
And with her Lord she’d converse… “thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
When Allah the almighty created the stars
He told Ummul Baneen: “pick four and they are yours”
She would pick three, but in her eye something glitters
He descends and when he does, the sky it shatters
The flag he holds sings her praises when it flutters
And besides his mother’s order, nothing matters
What a sight when Abbas and Ummul Baneen would first meet
The feathers of Abbas’s helmet bow down to her feet
“O’ Lord of the universe… thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
Ummul Baneen was a mother like no other
When she’d walk a moon and three stars would circle her
If she ever wept Abbas’s flag would shudder
If she slept, it stood over her – a protector
Where is the flag that every son gives his mother?
You’ll find it in the hands of Hussain’s flagbearer
Because of Abbas, Ummul Baneen conquered motherhood
And in return, Ummul Baneen taught Abbas brotherhood
She’d say in better or worse… “thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
Testifies God when Abbas’s soul He summons
“Only daughters of lions give birth to lions”
If when Ali was born the House of God opens
What houses open for Ummul Baneen’s four sons?
When Muhammad was attacked, Ali’s skin toughens
And when Hussain’s in fear, Abbas’s blood thickens
Like when all ran away and by Muhammad, Ali stood
Abbas stands guarding his Hussain – a mountain of Uhud
After those who ran she’d curse… “thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
When Abbas with severed hands was struck on his head
Ummul Baneen came and she closed his one eyelid
He’d not fall to the ground, but in her lap instead
She used her tears to wash away the blood he’d bled
She took his flag and placed it over her forehead
“I wish I had ten more to give away”, she said
“I wish I had ten like Abbas who could die on this day
All who, when recalling Hussain, water they’d throw away”
Her prayer a descended verse… “thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
Ummul Baneen had left this world sonless, but proud
That the severed heads of her sons had never bowed
This is the only mother who ever had vowed
That when her son dies, no water he’d be allowed
The gravedigger tries to shroud her, she cries aloud:
“How can I have a shroud when Hussain had no shroud?”
Ummul Baneen is laid to rest, and beside her grave stands
A headless Hussain and her Abbas with two severed hands
And her prayer they would rehearse… “thank you Allah for Abbas”
* * *
(London – 15/03/16)