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Editorial: 8.1 1431

During the historical Kun Safar last year, Aqa MaulaTUS composed the marsiya of “Mulk ul Husain”, a marsiya that embodies buka and tafadi. One can only begin to comprehend the depth, intensity and significance of these Fifty-Two stanzas.Each line of the opening stanza ends with the heart-rending word Kerbala, suggestive of the karb and bala that Imam HusainSA and his Ahl e Bayt faced in the scorching desert sands. The fulk (ship) and the mulk (kingdom) of Islam were threatened by the enemy, but the shahadat of Imam HusainSA warranted that the fulk would never sink and the mulk would reign supreme until the day of Qayamat. The marsiya moves on to describe the shahadat of Aun and Mohammed, Abdullah the newly-wed groom, Ali Akber the 18-year old son, Abbas the flag-bearer, Aliasger the six-month old shehzada and finally the shahadat of Imam HusainSA himself. Each stanza ends in the chorus, “I will weep for you, my Maula Husain. I shall sacrifice myself for you, O my Maula Husain. My Maula, My Maula Husain.” With the tafadi of every shaheed, Maula (TUS) expresses his own grief and fervor for tafadi. Fifty-Two times over, MaulaTUS sacrifices himself for Imam HusainSA. And the climax of this tafadi lies in the stanza, “O day of Ashura, how did you witness what you did? If you were a human, you would have sacrificed yourself for your Maula. If you were a spring of water, you would have quenched the thirst of the Ahl e Bayt. I wish I were with you so that I could have sacrificed myself for my Maula HusainSA.”