The Communion of Ashura
A Contemporary Poetic Interpretive Translation of Ziyarat Ashura
In His Name, the Most High, the Lord of the Martyrs and the Truthful
Stanza 1
Peace be upon you, O Husayn —
Beloved of the Prophet, lifeblood of his message,
Bearer of sorrow, breaker of chains.
Peace be upon you, O son of the Messenger of God —
Whose footsteps you followed into the fire,
So we might walk free beneath the sky.
Peace be upon you, O son of Ali —
Lion of God, fountain of courage,
You stood as he stood: firm against a world of betrayal.
Peace be upon you, O son of Fatimah —
Light of her eyes, echo of her prayer,
Through your grief, the purity of your mother lives on.
O Husayn...
They gave everything,
So we might remember who we are.
Stanza 2
Peace be upon you —
O one whose blood cries out for divine justice,
O son of the martyrs whose stand still shakes the heavens.
You were the lonely one, unmatched,
A solitary star surrounded by a night of betrayal.
Peace be upon you — and upon the souls who remained beside you,
Those who encamped in your courtyard,
Whose bones became the boundary of your shrine.
O Husayn…
How I long to be among them.
To have knelt in your dust, waiting for your command,
To have fallen with your name on my lips,
To belong to your tent,
To never leave your side — not in this world, nor the next.
Let the peace of God be upon you and them — always.
As long as I breathe, and night and day continue their rhythm,
My soul is yours.
Stanza 3
O Aba Abdillah…
Your tragedy was not only ours —
The skies themselves wept,
The stars dimmed,
And the angels fell silent in horror.
What they did to you…
They do still —
To every free voice,
To every defiant heart that says "no" to tyranny.
They silenced your cry in Karbala,
And echoed it in Gaza, in Kashmir, in the broken streets of Damascus,
And in the gilded rooms of Washington, Tel Aviv, and London —
Where power matters more than people,
Where blood is cheap, and honour is nothing.
And yet the people sleep.
They binge distraction while the earth burns.
They scroll through laughter while the children starve.
They cheer for tyrants masked as leaders —
And do not see the caravan of Husayn,
Still walking, still bleeding,
Still calling us to wake.
O Husayn…
The calamity is great.
But our forgetfulness may be even greater.
Stanza 4
May God distance from His mercy
Those who built the house of tyranny stone by stone,
Calling it governance… calling it religion…
But laying it on the bones of the oppressed.
May He cast far from His mercy
Those who stripped you, O People of the House,
Of the stations that were your divine due,
And gave them to cowards, frauds, and liars in robes.
May He exclude from His mercy
Those who murdered you with steel,
And those who murdered truth with silence.
And may He cast away
All who make room for tyranny,
Who excuse it, who fund it, who defend it in panels and parliaments.
O Husayn…
May He cast away those who smile while others starve,
Who speak of reform while breaking the backs of the weak,
Who let the sick die while guarding the wealth of the rich,
Who kill the unborn in the name of comfort,
And the elderly in the name of mercy.
They are today’s court of Yazid —
Still robed in piety, still drunk on blood.
And I want nothing of them. Nothing.
Stanza 5
I wash my hands before God — and before you, O Husayn —
Of them.
Of their followers.
Of their allies.
Of every voice that justified their crimes,
Every pen that signed their decrees,
Every tongue that stayed silent while they spilled your blood.
O Aba Abdillah…
I am with those who are with you.
My peace is only for those who loved you,
Who lived and died by your name.
And I am at war with those who stood against you —
In every age, in every land, in every disguise.
Whether they wore crowns or turbans,
Held swords or microphones,
Built palaces or platforms.
I am at war with them — until the Day when all masks fall.
Stanza 6
May God cast far from His mercy
The house of Ziyaad — a dynasty of cruelty dressed as order.
And the house of Marwan — masters of deceit, who poisoned revelation with ambition.
May He cast out the Umayyads — all of them —
Every name, every banner, every doctrine of power that drowned prophecy in politics.
May He cast away Ibn Marjanah —
The bureaucrat of blood.
And Umar ibn Saad —
Who traded eternity for a piece of land.
And Shimr —
That beast who laughed at the tears of Zaynab.
And may He reject those who prepared for this slaughter:
Those who saddled their beasts, buckled their weapons, and veiled their faces —
Not in shame, but in resolve.
They marched not by force,
But by choice.
O Husayn…
Their faces change,
But their path remains.
They still ride out today —
In uniforms, in suits, in think tanks and war rooms,
Crushing your name wherever it rises.
And I stand apart from all of them.
And I name them —
So that their silence will never bury your scream.
Stanza 7
May my father be your ransom.
May my mother be your ransom.
O Husayn… what they did to you has broken me.
My heart is heavy with your grief,
My soul aches with the weight of your absence.
And yet…
Even in my mourning, I am honoured —
For God lifted me through you,
He let me know your name,
He made your sorrow my compass.
So I beg Him —
The One who raised your station in the worlds,
And raised my soul through your love —
Let me rise for you.
Let me be among those who avenge your blood,
Not with blind fury —
But under a guided banner,
A victorious Imam,
A descendant of your House,
A voice that carries your cry into the end of time.
Let my hand be with his.
Let my heart be ready.
Let me be worthy of your justice.
Stanza 8
O God…
Make me honoured in Your sight — not because of who I am,
But because I loved Husayn.
Let his name be my key,
His memory my robe,
His cause my shield,
His tears my passport to You.
Let me walk in this world carrying his light,
And let me stand in the next world
With his name upon my lips —
A name that You love,
A soul that You elevated,
A martyr whose blood wrote the meaning of honour.
By Husayn, make me worthy of Your nearness —
In this fleeting world,
And in the world that endures.
Stanza 9
O Aba Abdillah…
I seek nearness to God —
But not through neutrality, not through slogans,
Not through prayers that ignore the oppressed.
I seek nearness through you.
Through the Prophet who kissed you.
Through the father who raised you.
Through the mother who wept for you.
Through the brother who stood beside you.
I draw close to the Divine
By loving you —
And by disavowing those who drew swords against you,
Who declared war on your truth,
Who institutionalised injustice and dressed it in piety.
I disown — before God and His Messenger —
Every hand that laid the first stone of oppression,
Every architect of injustice,
Every regime built on your blood.
I walk away from all of it.
From every path that led to your murder —
Even if it now wears a new name,
A new crown,
A new constitution.
Your cause is my prayer.
Your war is my witness.
Your love is my path to God.
Stanza 10
I renounce them.
Before God — and before you, O Husayn —
I cut all ties with those who wronged you,
And those who walked beside them,
And those who came after them and carried their banners.
I seek nearness to God through your light,
Through loyalty to you and your chosen ones,
To your friend, your witness, your inheritor.
And I distance myself —
From your enemies,
From those who raised armies against you,
From those who plotted in backrooms,
Signed decrees, or stood idly by as your blood flowed.
I distance myself from their shadows —
From their supporters,
From their media machines,
From their apologisers and diplomats,
From all who softened their crimes or mimicked their structures.
O Husayn…
To love you means to oppose what killed you —
Always.
Everywhere.
In every generation.
Stanza 11
I am with those who are with you, O Husayn.
I walk beside the ones who love you —
Who carry your truth in their hearts,
Who defend your memory not only in words, but in action.
And I am against those who stand against you —
No matter their flag, their religion, their language, their disguise.
I am your ally,
And the ally of those who align with your cause —
Those who choose dignity over comfort,
Clarity over compromise,
Blood over betrayal.
And I am an enemy
To your enemies —
To their rhetoric,
To their institutions,
To their logic,
To their entire way of being.
You are the axis.
You are the criterion.
To love you is to take a side —
Forever.
Stanza 12
O God…
You honoured me beyond what I deserve —
You let me know Husayn.
You let me recognise the friends of Husayn.
You opened my eyes to the deceit of his enemies,
And gave me the strength to walk away from them.
So now I beg You:
Let me be amongst your friends,
Not just in love,
But in cause.
Not just in belief,
But in destiny.
Let me live their path,
Let me die upon their path,
Let me rise with them when You raise the dead.
Plant my feet among theirs —
A footing of truth,
That does not shake with fear,
Does not slip in temptation,
Does not bow before oppressors.
Let me be theirs —
In this life,
And in the life that never ends.
Stanza 13
And I ask You, O God —
Let me reach that radiant place,
The honoured station that You have reserved for them.
Let me be drawn near in their light,
Let my name be spoken in the halls of truth —
Not for who I am,
But because I stood for Husayn.
And grant me the honour,
To seek justice not from anger,
But from love.
To rise and answer the call,
To be among the soldiers of Your final proof —
A guiding Imam from their blood,
Visible and unafraid,
Speaking truth in an age of noise.
Let me see him.
Let me serve him.
Let me die at his side,
With the name of Husayn still burning on my lips.
Stanza 14
And I ask You, O God…
By their right —
By the place they hold in Your nearness,
By the rank You gave them above all others…
Let my sorrow not be wasted.
Let these tears be not mere water,
But offerings.
Let my broken heart be a prayer,
My mourning a ladder.
Reward me, through this grief,
With the greatest reward You have ever given to one struck by tragedy.
For what greater loss was there?
What wound ever bled like this one?
What blow shook Islam —
And the very heavens and earth —
As deeply as the slaying of Husayn?
This is not just my sadness.
It is Your grief, O God —
Reflected in my soul.
So let that reflection not fade.
Stanza 15
O God…
Here I stand —
Heart heavy, eyes wet, soul trembling.
I am not worthy.
But I am here.
So in this very moment — in this divine place of mourning,
In this sacred remembrance of Husayn —
Wrap me in Your mercy.
Let Your peace and blessing descend upon me,
Let Your compassion find me,
Let Your forgiveness embrace me.
Let this moment mark me.
Let this grief cleanse me.
Let this loyalty exalt me.
Let me not leave this remembrance
The same as I entered it.
Stanza 16
O God…
Let my life be like theirs —
Not in ease,
But in meaning.
Let me live as Muhammad lived —
In mercy, in truth, in struggle for justice.
Let me walk the path of his family —
With clarity, with courage, with compassion.
And let my death be like theirs —
A testimony.
A stand.
A submission to You alone.
Let me not be remembered for comfort,
But for conviction.
Let me not die in distraction,
But in devotion.
O God,
Write me among those who lived and died
Under the banner of Muhammad and his purified family.
Stanza 17
O God…
This day — the day of mourning,
The day of blood upon sand,
The day when Your Prophet’s family was butchered —
They called it a blessing.
The tyrants rejoiced.
Banu Umayyah celebrated.
Yazid — the son of the liver-eater,
The one whose heart was dark with vengeance —
He danced on the chest of Husayn.
He who was excluded from Your mercy,
And whose mother chewed the flesh of the righteous —
Was praised in the courts of power.
But You cursed them, O God.
And so did Your Prophet —
From every pulpit,
In every stance he ever made for truth.
This is not politics.
This is treason against mercy.
And we remember.
We name them.
We stand apart from their legacy —
Then, now, and forever.
Stanza 18
O God…
Remove from Your mercy the one who plotted,
The one who schemed,
The one who sealed the deal.
Abu Sufyan — the enemy who smiled and waited.
Muawiyah — the serpent in the cloak of unity.
Yazid — the drunken tyrant who trampled prophecy.
May Your distance from them be eternal,
As eternal as their betrayal.
May Your rejection of them never cease.
This is the day they rejoiced —
The day Ziyaad and Marwan raised their glasses,
Laughed while Zaynab wept,
Boasted of killing Husayn as a victory.
O God…
They rejoiced in his death.
Let them not rejoice in Your presence.
Multiply their estrangement.
Amplify their punishment.
Let the pain they inflicted return to them —
Not out of hatred,
But out of divine justice.
Stanza 19
O God…
I am not just remembering history —
I am walking toward You.
This day — this stand — this moment of grief —
Is my offering.
Through my rejection of their killers,
Through my disavowal of their empire,
Through my refusal to forget —
I seek Your nearness.
Let my righteous wrath and supplication, that You exclude them from Your mercy, be a lantern.
Let my sorrow be a stairway.
Let my refusal to compromise be worship.
And through all of this —
I reaffirm my loyalty to Your Prophet,
And to the ones he wept for:
The family he held closest,
The blood he told us never to forget.
But my love is not empty.
It is not ritual, or poetry, or song alone.
To love them is to follow them.
To walk where they walked.
To rise where they rose.
To stand — across generations —
Against the same arrogance,
The same injustice,
The same godless empires in new disguises.
It is to love as they loved,
To resist as they resisted,
To live as they lived —
And to die as they died.
This is not just love.
It is allegiance.
It is a covenant.
And in this moment I renew my vow
In word, in soul, and in stance.
Stanza 20
O God…
Exclude from Your mercy
The first tyrant who trampled upon the right of Muhammad’s family —
The one who planted the seed of betrayal,
Who saw power and chose it over truth.
He opened the gate.
And many rushed through after him.
So exclude also the last one who follows his path —
Every imitator, every modern version,
Every politician or preacher who builds on that first distortion.
O God…
Exclude from Your mercy the clique who rose against Husayn.
They weren’t just soldiers.
They were planners.
They were influencers.
They wrote articles, gave speeches, signed treaties, justified tyranny.
They supported.
They pledged.
They obeyed.
They killed.
And that betrayal continues.
Even today —
There are those who wear black for Husayn
But stand with the very systems that killed him.
They claim to mourn him,
But their silence defends Yazid.
Their fear enables tyranny.
Their alliances stab the heart of his son — the Awaited One.
O God…
How many claim to wait for the Mahdi,
While crushing every cause he would rise for?
So exclude from Your mercy all who inherit this legacy —
Not just in name,
But in action.
Those who held the swords,
Those who carried the ink,
Those who watched and said nothing,
And those who still do —
In robes, in suits, in silence.
This is not hatred.
This is honesty.
This is cleansing the record.
This is standing beside Husayn and saying:
We have not forgotten.
And we have not been deceived.
Stanza 21
Peace be upon you, O Aba Abdillah…
Peace upon your shattered body,
Your thirsty lips,
Your prostration upon the burning earth.
Peace upon the souls that encamped in your courtyard —
Not for shade or safety,
But to die beside truth.
From me, to you —
An unending salaam.
As long as I breathe,
As long as night follows day,
My heart is turned toward Karbala.
And may God never make this the last time I call your name.
Never the last time I whisper your pain,
Or walk the road that leads to your banner.
Peace upon you, O Husayn…
And upon Ali, your son —
The patient one, the broken prisoner, the speaking tongue of grief.
And peace upon your children —
Cut down in bloom,
Buried in blood,
Rising in light.
And peace upon your companions —
Who gave more than words,
Who gave more than tears,
Who gave themselves.
And in this very breath —
As I send salaam to you,
I pledge my soul to your son,
The Qa’im (on who will rise) of your blood,
The Mahdi — the one who will rise to avenge your name.
My allegiance is not in slogans.
It is in obedience.
It is in sacrifice.
It is in unwavering loyalty.
Until he returns,
My allegiance is with his deputy,
The righteous leader who guards his path —
The Wali al-Faqih —
Guardian of your legacy,
Guide of this Ummah.
I follow what they command.
I walk where they lead.
I do not waver.
For we are the children of the covenant.
The ones who said:
“Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with God — some of them have fulfilled their vow, and others still await; but they have never changed in the least.” - Quran, Surah al-Ahzaab (the Confederates) #33, Verse 23
And I say now —
O Husayn…
Count me among them.
Stanza 22
O God…
Begin from me the exclusion from Your mercy
For the first one who violated the right of Muhammad and his family.
Let it begin with him, and extend to the second,
And the third,
And the fourth.
Exclude from Your mercy Yazid —
And Ubaydullah ibn Ziyaad,
And Ibn Marjanah,
And Umar ibn Saad,
And Shimr.
And not just them…
But all those who carry their traits:
Those who betray truth,
Who serve tyranny,
Who give sermons that silence resistance,
Who wear robes while enabling injustice.
The house of Abu Sufyan,
The house of Ziyaad,
The house of Marwan —
Are not just of blood.
They are of action.
And we ask You, O God,
To exclude from Your mercy
Every manifestation of that betrayal —
Past, present, and future —
As long as night follows day.
And now, O God…
We do not ask You for heaven.
We do not ask You for palaces or gardens.
We do not seek reward.
We seek You.
We ask only for Your pleasure.
That You allow us to serve You.
To work in Your path.
To stand for truth,
To live with dignity,
To die with loyalty.
Count us among those who have been true to their covenant —
Those who remembered the pledge made before time began,
And never turned away from it.
“Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with God —some of them have fulfilled their vow, and others still await; but they have never changed in the least.” - Quran, Surah al-Ahzaab (the Confederates) #33, Verse 23
O God…
Let us be of them.
Let us die with Husayn’s name on our tongues,
And rise with the Mahdi’s banner in our hands.
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