Ya Imam Huseyn! O Martyrs of Karbala! O Humanity!

In Allah’s Tender Compassion and Victorious Love

Ya Imam Huseyn! Ya Shahid!
O Zainab! O Zain al Abidin!
O holy family of intimacy in the desert of supreme love!
O Martyrs of Karbala!
O exalted companions!
O noble sacrifice!
O Truth manifest dispelling error and transgression and ignorance!
O victory of the divine human heart against the forces of negation!
O Imam Huseyn and Martyrs of Karbala! May we stand with you! - unable to offer your sacrifice but with you in the heart of love, with you in the pre-eternal bond.

O Martyrs of Karbala! Your sacrifice helps us to go through our own suffering and to understand that it is part of our human condition, a part of our journey in the Truth. Laughter and tears are together in our breast and in our breath.

O Martyrs of Karbala! Your sacrifice brings light to all human suffering.
Your story is the explication and balm for the tragedies we see in front of us, in large, in small. A child with cancer. An island population in devastation without the help they desperately need. A country in the throes of earthquakes, having to uncover the beloved ones crushed by their own dwellings. People unjustly imprisoned. People whose livelihood is taken by others. People who are driven off their own land and slaughtered. People enslaved. People ridiculed and denied. People forgotten. People tortured. People in the devastation of war.

O Martyrs of Karbala! In you we witness the Divine drama of love and sacrifice manifest.
In contemplation of you we are able to comprehend that this same movement of Love and sacrifice is happening in all of the tragedies on earth.
Through you we are given the eyes to see the nobility of our earthly life, particularly in its suffering.
We are led to understand that as human souls we are both burdened and exalted.
We are given the great relief to know that nothing is in vain - no bead of sweat, no drop of blood, no pang of hunger or thirst, no pain, no sigh, no cry goes unrewarded.
All human life, all life, is moving and transforming in the birth pangs of suffering, and joy of release.

O Imam Huseyn and Martyrs of Karbala! May every breath you took, every sacrifice you made, every tear you shed, every pain you suffered, every prayer you cried become a shower of grace and healing in our hearts and a restoration for all suffering experienced on earth.

O majestic mother of Imam Hasan and Imam Huseyn and Imam Zaynab! Ya Fatima! O mother of the Martyrs. O tear-filled Mother. May you always be a vessel of mercy and healing balm for tear-filled hearts.

O sublime grandfather of Imam Hasan and Imam Huseyn and Imam Zaynab! Ya Muhammad Mustafa, O beloved of Allah, peace be upon you! We send you and your noble family and truthful companions our greetings of peace and great love! May you forever be praised as the exalted heart of creation!

O lovers of Love, O dervish souls, may we honor this day together through prayer and contemplation and noble deeds.