Why Should Parents Bring up a Girl Like Sayyeda Zainab, the Princess of Karbala? – Karbala’s Heroines, Pt. 6

This is part of a series anonymously submitted by a Lebanese academic. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.

In his book The Golden Style in the Conditions of the Mother of Calamities Zainab, Abbas Ali Khan Sepehr states: “The ranks of Sayyeda Zainab have internal affairs and spiritual stations. She is similar to Asiya, Maryam, and Sarah. She is a scholar [by nature], not a teacher. She is knowledgeable [by nature], not one who is taught. She is a mystic, a thinker, a narrator [i.e. she is familiar with many hadiths]. She is the daughter of infallibility. The orphaned daughter of Al Batul [Sayyeda Fatima]. Her virtues, merits, qualities, majesty, knowledge, work, infallibility, chastity, light, radiance, honor, and splendor make her the next after her mother (peace be upon her) in the ranks of eloquence and rhetoric.”

Over the course of five decades of her honorable life filled with calamities, Sayyeda Zainab (sa) was able to employ her psychological energies in an outstanding way instead of falling into despair.  This positive adaptation is scientifically known as emotional intelligence, which according to Daniel Goleman, is represented in the good direction of one’s own emotions in times of adversity towards important goals. It also includes containing the emotions of others, as Sayyeda Zainab did, especially during and after Ashura.

Indeed, the experiences that Sayyeda Zainab (sa) went through before Ashura developed her awareness and outlook on things. Ibn al-Athir says: “Zainab bint Ali was a wise, intelligent, and eloquent woman.”

Based on what she heard from her grandfather the Prophet Mohammed (S), her mother Sayyeda Fatima al-Zahra (sa), and her father Imam Ali (as), Sayyeda Zainab (sa) was aware of the consequences of these painful ordeals. In that familial environment, she acquired an authentic Basira (deep awareness) that prompted her to support the Imam of her time, her brother Hussain (as).

There is no doubt that this also helped Sayyeda Zainab (peace be upon her) to establish a family overwhelmed with care, love, and giving.  When Abdullah bin Jafar proposed to marry Sayyeda Zainab (sa), Imam Ali (as) stipulated that he allow her to visit her brother Imam al-Hussain (as) daily and not to object accompanying him on his travels if Imam al-Hussain requested that.

When Imam Ali bin Abi Talib settled in Kufa, she had a council in which she taught women the rulings of Islam and the interpretation of the Qur’an.

Sayyeda Zainab’s status was not only framed by her direct affiliation with the Prophet Mohammed (S), but she was also injected with an exceptional and unique emotional and psychological supply by her parents (peace be upon them). She was educated based on the Qur’anic teachings, which strengthen Sayyeda Zainab’s firm faith and helped her achieve the highest levels of servitude and submission to Allah the Almighty, patience in His trials, and contentment with His judgment. On the human level, it helped her to sympathize with others and bear heavy responsibilities.

Psychologists confirm that children have the same religious experiences as adults, such as the sense of Allah and the recognition of sin. They stress that the first thing that distinguishes a child in terms of his adaptation is the intensity of his emotional effectiveness. They have shown that religious education refines normal people, as when belief penetrates the soul, it pushes it towards positive behavior. Religion helps the individual to stabilize during childhood through adolescence, maturity, and old age.

In her childhood, Sayyeda Zainab (sa) was sitting on her father’s lap. Imam Ali (as) said to her: My daughter, say: one. She said: one. He said to her: say two. She was silent. He said to her: Speak, you the apple of my eye. She said: Father, I cannot say two with a tongue [that is accustomed to recognizing the one God]. So Imam Ali hugged her affectionately and kissed her between the eyes.

Sayyeda Zainab was influenced by her mother, Sayyeda Fatima (sa), so she spent most of her nights praying at night and reciting the Qur’an, to the point that she did not miss the night prayers on the tenth and eleventh of Muharram.  It was narrated on the authority of Sayyeda Fatima, the daughter of Imam Hussain (as), that she said: “As for my aunt Zainab, she did not cease standing that night [the tenth of Muharram] in her prayer niche, calling out to her Lord.”

During his journey from Medina to Karbala, Sayyeda Zainabunderstood the meaning of Imam Hussain’s saying: “Death, for the sons of Adam, is as beautiful as a necklace around the neck of a young and beautiful girl. Death is an ornament for mankind. There is no escape from the Day written by the pen of [Divine Will]. Indeed, pleasing Allah is pleasing us, Ahlul Bayt (as). We are patient in the face of His affliction, and He will give us the reward of the patient.”

Sayyeda Zainab (sa) learned the differences between honor and humiliation and the duty of human beings for which they are created, which is to establish the truth and overcome injustice for the sake of Allah, as in the saying of Imam Hussain: “No, by Allah, I will not give you with my hand what the humiliated give, nor will I acknowledge you like the acknowledgment of slaves.”

When Imam Hussain (as) bid his family farewell for the last time, this submission to the will of Allah was his motive for to advise Sayyeda Zainab: “O my sister, do not forget me in the night prayers.”

In his book With the Heroine of Karbala, Sheikh Muhammad Jawad Mughniyah (may God have mercy on him) comments: “What is more indicative of this fact than her standing before Allah to pray on the night of the eleventh of Muharram, while her men were lying on the ground, without heads, and the winds were blowing on them, and around her were women and children screaming and crying. Sayyeda Zainab’s prayer on the night of the eleventh of Muharram was a thanks to Allah for what He had bestowed. She viewed those events as a blessing that Allah had granted specifically to the Household of the Prophet.”

By her faith, Sayyeda Zainab (sa) rose to the level of certainty, which is the best of moral virtues and the most honorable of psychological perfections, as it achieves happiness in the afterlife. She had a unique charisma. Imam Hussain (as) wanted Sayyeda Zainab to arm herself with steadfastness because any temporary shortcoming in her positions might be interpreted by the enemies as a collapse. Thus, it would be used to humiliate her and falsify the facts.

Among what Imam Hussain advised Sayyeda Zainab on the night of the tenth of Muharram: “O my sister, do not let Satan tempt you to lose you forbearance. O my sister, fear Allah. Seek help from Allah. Know that the people of the earth die, and the people of the heavens do not remain, and that everything perishes except the face of Allah who created the earth with His power, and resurrects creation so that they return, and He [Allah] is one. My father is better than me. My mother is better than me. My brother is better than me. For me, for them, and for every Muslim, the Messenger of Allah (S) is an example.”

Imam Hussain provided Sayyedah Zainab with the strength to be patient and to take as an example the death of someone better than him, namely the Prophet Muhammad.

Imam Hussain (as) prepared her psychologically for the role that awaited her and the responsibilities that would be placed upon her, so Sayyeda Zainab was more steadfast and proud after Karbala. She stood patiently; calming the children; comforting the women; treating the sick; and defending Imam Zain al-Abideen (as).

Sayyeda Zainab’s highest level of emotional maturity helped her in this, so she was full of strength in front of the people of Kufa as she explained to them their dark fate after their betrayal of Imam Hussain (as) to the point that she amazed those present in her response to Ibn Ziyad. Her positions before Yazid bin Muawiyah in Damascus were the most daring after an arduous journey of captivity, after she presented the facts and revealed the areas of deception, ideological emptiness, and capricious behavior in him, so she was the supreme model in her patience and endurance.

The observer of the life of Sayyeda Zainab since the death of her grandfather, the Prophet Muhammad (S), and the martyrdom of her mother, Sayyeda Fatima (sa), passing through the events that accompanied the succession and martyrdom of her father, Imam Ali (as), and then her brother, Imam Hassan (as), ending with the terrifying events of Karbala whereby her sons, Aoun and Muhammad, were killed along with her brother and her nephews, despite that, she endured those calamities patiently, saying: “O Allah, accept this sacrifice from us.”

Sayyeda Zainab embodied the highest levels of awareness of the Qur’anic concepts, as it was stated in Verses 155-157 of Surat Al-Baqarah:  “We will surely test you with a measure of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth, lives, and fruits; and give good news to the patient — those who, when an affliction visits them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him do we indeed return.’ It is they who receive the blessings of their Lord and [His] mercy, and it is they who are the [rightly] guided.”

Sayyeda Zainab was able to control her emotions, contain the tragedy, and continue the role assigned to her, until she rose to the level of: “And the pleasure of Allah is greater. That is what is the great success.” In the face of these challenges, Sayyeda Zainab emerged as a pioneering figure among the first generation of orators and historians, rising with the eloquence of her father, the Commander of the Faithful, to be like her name: the ornament of her father, Zainab (an Arabic name combining two words, Zain and Ab: meaning ornament and father).

Despite her brokenness, Sayyeda Zainab (sa) was steadfast in her faith as stipulated in Verse 173 of Surah Al Imran:  “Those to whom the people said, ‘All the people have gathered against you, so fear them.’ That only increased them in faith, and they said, ‘Allah is sufficient for us, and He is an excellent trustee.’”

In light of the above, parents who aspire to raise a daughter who will become like Sayyeda Zainab (sa) in the future must pay the utmost attention to the following matters:

– Preparing the girl on the spiritual and ideological level;

– Nourishing the girl with the knowledge of the Qur’an and the morals of pioneering female figures who preserved the essence of Islam;

– Raising the girl to observe the hijab, modesty, and chastity in all stages of her life;

– Training the girl how to properly worship Allah;

– Deepening the girl’s relationship with the Imam of her time and preparing her to be his servant.