BOOK TWO

 

TEXTS AND LEGACIES

 

 

These Chapters

Now it is time to present some texts included in many books of history and hadith. Such books contain many texts proving that the house of al-Zahra’ (A.S.), the invasion of her privacy and that she was beaten and harmed.

Apparently, this was repeated as their attacks against the house of Prophethood were repeated, resulting in her miscarriage and her earning the honor of martyrdom. I find the following points to be worthy of being emphasized:

 

1. This case cannot be fully detailed but that we should restrict ourselves to what no fair-minded person can doubt. Otherwise, the written books are counted by the thousands, and we cannot quote them all here.

 

2. Even those who undertook the task of cleaning the legacy from impurities which they saw therein did not consider this event as one of those “impurities.” For example, the detail-oriented `allama Muhsin al-Aman, for example, who undertook the polishing of the text of Majalis al-`Aza’, relying on authentic references, as he puts it, including the book by SALIM ibn Qais, has mentioned these events, verified their authenticity and composed poetic verses about them. Listen to him saying the following:

“When I wrote Al-Majalis al-Saniyya, I polished them from all impurities, Praise be to Allah, distinguishing the peel from the pith, what is wrong from what is right.”^[1]

He also said,

“When I wrote Lawa`ij al-Ashjan, I incorporated in it the recitation of the epic of martyrdom (of Imam Husain [a]), and the text recited by those who conducted such majalis was incorporated in Al-Majalis al-Saniyya. The ahadith, therefore, were sound, and the impurities were left out.”^[2]

But what al-Zahra’ (A.S.) had to put up with is available mostly in books meeting the same criteria which he precondition for his own books for the collection of such majalis and for polishing them. This means that he endorses such criteria and considers them non-negotiable.

 

3. We have included in the part dedicated to the texts many chapters which have to be put together; so, take notice of the following:

 

A. One Chapter contains about forty narratives among which many are authentic and reliable, all detailing what trials and tribulations al-Zahra’ (A.S.) had to endure following the demise of her father (A.S.).

 

B. Another Chapter contains poetry verses. Many of them are included there.

 

C. We also cited many texts in a third Chapter discussing al-Muhassan.

 

D. In addition to the above, there is a Chapter dealing with the sectarian debates regarding this matter during centuries.

 

E. Another Chapter, titled “The Event in the Words of the Narrators and Historians,” contains scores of texts emphasizing the harm suffered by al-Zahra’ (A.S.) after the demise of her father (A.S.).

 

If you put all of these Chapters together, you will get a large number of texts which cannot be all false or fabricated, and this is the meaning of tawatur, that is, consecutive reporting. Were we to convince ourselves of their falsehood, we will never be able to be convinced of any theological or historical fact. Or, say, we would find ourselves incapable of be convinced of many of them.

 

4. It may be noticed that there is some similarity between some texts. This suggests that there is no need to repeat the same text. Yet, we repeated it in order to attract the attention to the existence of a variation or a particularity in the narrative, or in the narrator. This has taken place in just a few places the number of which does not exceed the fingers on one hand; so, take note.

 

5. We mentioned a very small number of texts cited by late authors because we found them containing some particularities which we could not research and verify by comparing them with what early authors had recorded; so, take note of this, too.