Ziyarah al-Shuhada'

Priority: c, Quality: b
From wikishia
Ziyarah al-Shuhada'
Other namesZiyarah al-Nahiya Ghayr al-Mashhūua
SubjectZiyara-text for martyrs of Karbala
Issued byAttributed to al-Nahiya al-Muqaddasa
Shi'a sourcesAl-Mazar al-kabirIqbal al-a'mal
TimeDay of 'Ashura


Prayer

Ziyārah al-Shuhadāʾ (Arabic:زيارة الشهداء) or Ziyārah al-Nāḥiya Ghayr al-Mashhūra (زيارة الناحية غير المشهورة) is among ziyaratnamas which al-Sayyid b. Tawus has mentioned in Iqbal al-a'mal among recommended practices for the Day of 'Ashura'. This ziyarah contains the names of the martyrs of Karbala and begins with, "Peace be upon the first one martyred from the best of descendants".[1] Before al-Sayyid b. Tawus, this ziyarah was mentioned in al-Shaykh al-Mufid's al-Mazar[2] and Ibn al-Mashhadi's al-Mazar al-kabir.[3]

Content

In this ziyarah, after a brief greeting to Imam al-Husayn (a), the names of all martyrs of Karbala are mentioned and greetings are sent, then their killers are mentioned and curses are sent to them.

This ziyarah, including some additions such as the ziyarah of Imam al-Husayn (a), Ali Akbar (a) and some other martyrs, is mentioned among recommended practices for the first day of Rajab and the eve of Sha'ban 15th as al-Ziyarah al-Rajabiyya of Imam al-Husayn (a). Al-Ziyarah al-Rajabiyya may be an independent ziyarah.

Chain of Transmission

This ziyarah is mentioned in al-Sayyid b. Tawus's Iqbal al-a'mal, al-Mazar al-kabir and Misbah al-za'ir, but it is not mentioned in old references such as Kamil al-ziyarat and Misbah al-mutahajjid.[4]

Al-Sayyid b. Tawus quoted from his grandfather, al-Shaykh al-Tusi from Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Ahmad b. al-'Ayyash from Abu Mansur b. 'Abd al-Mun'im b. Nu'man al-Baghdadi that this ziyarah was given by Imam (a) to al-Shaykh Muhammad b. Ghalib al-Isfahani in 252/866-7. Since only two transmitters are mentioned between the time of al-Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 460/1067-8) and the time of the Minor Occultation (260/874-329/940-1), it is possible that some transmitters of this hadith have been missed. The names of seventy-two martyrs of Karbala and 8 other martyred companions of Imam (a) such as Muslim b. 'Aqil and the names of their killers are mentioned in this ziyarah. Al-'Allama al-Majlisi has mentioned this ziyarah in Bihar al-anwar.[5] In Ansar al-Husayn (a), Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din has not considered the chain of transmission of this ziyarah in al-Sayyid b. Tawus's Iqbal valid due to transmission of two unknown persons and a weak person. The chain of transmission of this ziyarah in Bihar al-anwar quoted from Ibn al-Mashhadi's al-Mazar al-kabir has the same problem.[6]

With regards to the date of issuance of this ziyarah in 252/866-7,[7] it must have been issued either by Imam al-Hadi (a) (martyred in 254/868) or Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari (a), not Imam al-Mahdi (a), because that time, he (a) was not born yet.[8]

Notes

  1. Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 98, p. 269-274.
  2. Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 98, p. 274.
  3. Ibn Mashhadī, al-Mazār al-kabīr, p. 485.
  4. Riyshahrī, Dānishnāmah-yi Imām Ḥusayn (a), vol. 12, p. 274.
  5. Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 45, p. 64.
  6. Shams al-Dīn, Anṣār al-Ḥusayn (a), p. 194.
  7. Shams al-Dīn, Anṣār al-Ḥusayn (a), p. 194.
  8. Āyatī, Barrasī-yi tārīkh-i Āshurā, p. 123.

References

  • Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
  • Shams al-Dīn, Muḥammad Mahdī. Anṣār al-Ḥusayn (a). Translated by Hūshang Ojāqī. Tehran: Nashr-i Āfāq, 1406 AH.