the heavens rain blood

Insisting on accuracy, the engineer takes apart the whole
now only parts remain

the doctor figures all this is mere superstition:
water and clay cannot heal

Karbala a mere historical incident – the modernist critic

A mere cultural event: a topic for a Phd thesis

A subject for a novel examining the “ritual”
for the mass market: Karbala objectified.


Re-member Karbala

Qur’an and hadith:

To Hu belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.

And the sky cried for forty days

And the humans, the jinn, the birds and the wild beasts mourned and wept

and unbearable and great is your tragedy in the heavens and for all of the dwellers of the heavens

Interrogate!

The lie of objectivity

Interrogate!

The secularist separation of body and spirit
The separation of human from sky and earth

Sayida Zainab: Are you then surprised if the heavens rain blood?

Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise

Are you then surprised if the heavens rain blood?

What you have committed is foolishness and degradation
enough to fill the heavens and the earth!

Are you then surprised if the heavens rain blood?