The weeping of the skies and Jinn for Imam Husayn (a.s)

Ibn al Hashimi in his article ‘Why Sunnis Do Not Comemmorate Ashura’ thought it imperative to search out the opinions of his fellow Naasbi brethren, it is hence not surpising to see that

Ibn al Hashimi cites Sunnipath.com:
Ibn Kathir said in al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya (8:201-202):
Al-Tabarani mentioned in this chapter very strange reports indeed and the Shi`a went overboard concerning the day of Ashura, forging many hadiths that are gross lies such as the sun being eclipsed on that day until the stars appeared, no stone was lifted except blood was seen under it, the celestial region became red, the sun and its rays seemed like blood, the sky seemed like a blood clot, the stars were hurling against one another, the sky rained red blood, there was never redness in the sky before that day, and the like… among other lies and forgeries of which not one report is sound

Reply – Sunni traditions confirm this reality

We would not have expected anything less from Ibn Kathir for his Nasabi bigotry is what compelled him to assert this, that Ibn al Hashimi happily cited without a seconds thought. Had the Nawasib of Sunnipath looked beyond Ibn Kathir they would have realised that the grief of Imam Husayn (as) is the grief on which not only Humans, but even Jinn, angels, animals, birds, the sky and trees, all lament. We read in Yanabi ul Mawwaddah by Allamah Shaykh Sulaiman al-Hanafi al-Qanduzi, page 392:

“The sky wept for forty days on (the martyrdom of) Imam Husayn (as)”.

We read in Tahdib al-Kamal by Jamaluddin al-Mizi, Volume 6 page 433:

وقال أبو الأسود النضر بن عبد الجبار عن بن لهيعة عن أبي قبيل لما قتل الحسين بن علي كسفت الشمس كسفة بدت الكواكب نصف النهار

Abu Qabeel said: ‘When Husayn bin Ali was killed, the sun was eclipsed (so long) so that the stars appeared in the middle of day’

Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi has narrated the lamenting and wailing of Jinn on page number 96 of his book titled “Sirrul Shahdatain”. He has also quoted the verses of the elegy, which was recited by the Jinn while weeping over Imam Husayn (as). Ummul Momineen Um Salma (ra) has also narrated as recorded by Imam Abi Bakar al-Haythami:

عن أم سلمة قالت‏:‏ سمعت الجن تنوح على الحسين بن علي‏.‏ رواه الطبراني ورجاله رجال الصحيح‏.‏

”I heard the jinns mourning for Husayn ibn Ali’.
Tabarani has recorded it and all its narrators are narrators of Sahih’
Majma al-Zawaid, Volume 9 page 199 Tradition 15179

We further read:

وعن ميمونة قالت‏:‏ سمعت الجن تنوح على الحسين بن علي ‏، رواه الطبراني ورجاله رجال الصحيح‏

‘Maymunah (ra) said: ‘I heard the jinns mourning for Husayn ibn Ali’.
Tabarani has recorded it and all its narrators are narrators of Sahih’
Majma al-Zawaid, Volume 9 page 199 Tradition 15180

Abu Naeem al-Asbahani records in Marifat al-Sahaba, Volume 5 page 333 Tradition 1686:

عن حبيب بن أبي ثابت ، قال : « سمعت الجن ، تنوح على الحسين

Habib bin Abi Thabit said: ‘I heard the jinn mourning over al-Hussain’

Then Tradition 1687:

عن أبي جباب الكلبي ، قال : حدثني الجصاصون قالوا : « كنا إذا خرجنا بالليل إلى الجبانة عند مقتل الحسين ، سمعنا الجن ينوحون عليه

Abi Habab al-Kalbi said: ‘Some grave diggers said: ‘Whenever we went out side at night to the cemetery during (the days) of the al-Hussain murder, we heared the jinn mourning over him’

We also read in Tradition 1688:

عن مزيدة بن جابر الحضرمي ، عن أمه ، قالت : سمعت الجن ، تنوح على الحسين

Mazidah bin Jabir al-Hadhrami narrated from his mother that she said: ‘I heard the jinn mourning over al-Hussain’
Marifat al-Sahaba, Volume 5 page 333

These are evidences of natural phenomena that occurred on the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (as) that has been preserved in Sunni works, which proves that every creation in the universe mourned over the martyrs of Karbala. Where there will be intense weeping and wailing, and moaning and lamenting, there will be chest beating and face smiting as well as is seen in daily life.

How does Heaven/Sky cry?

Let us now ascertain how heaven cries, and how we know when it does. Allamah Jalaludin Suyuti records:

وأخرج ابن جرير وابن المنذر عن عطاء – رضي الله عنه – قال : بكاء السماء حمرة أطرافها

“Atta (ra) said: ‘The sky cries in a manner that all of its corners get red’.
Tafseer Dur al-Manthur, Vol 7 page 413 Surah Dakhaan Verse 29

He quotes Imam Hasan Basri to have said:

وأخرج ابن أبي الدنيا عن الحسن – رضي الله عنه – قال : بكاء السماء حمرتها

Al-Hassan (ra) said: “When the sky gets red it weeps.”

Imam Mohammad ibn Jareer Tabari states in Tafseer Tabari, volume 22 page 33:

وقيل: إن بكاء السماء حمرة أطرافها.

“It has been said that the crying of the sky is such that all of its corners turn red.”

Allamah Nizamuddin Nishapuri states in Tafseer Nisahpuri, volume 25, page 73:

“Many Mufassireen are of the view that the sky can cry, so they believe that the solar and the lunar eclipses, the corners of the sky getting red and the blowing of wild and pinching wind are forms of the sky weeping.”

The weeping of the heaven and earth over Imam Husayn (as)

Now let us analyze that who those people are who are cried at by the heaven and the earth.

Allamah Jalaludin Syuti writes that Ibrahim (ra) said:

Since the creation of the world, the heaven and the earth have cried for none else other then two men. The people asked him: “Do not the heaven and the earth cry for the Momineen?” He replied: “When they are virtous his privilege is linked to his status and deeds.” He then asked them if they knew how the heaven and the earth cries. The people replied in the negative, therefore he said: “It becomes fiery and red, just as the red boiling oil. The day when Yahya bin Zakarya was martyred the sky had got red and blood was dripping from it and the sky had also got red the day Husayn was martyred.”
Tafseer Dur al-Manthur, Vol 7 page 413 Surah Dakhaan Verse 29

He further states that Zaid bin Ziyad has reported:

وأخرج ابن أبي حاتم عن زيد بن زياد – رضي الله عنه – قال : لما قتل الحسين احمرت آفاق السماء أربعة أشهر

Zaid bin Zyad (ra) said: ‘When Husayn was martyred, the corners of the sky remained red for a four month period’.

Imam Ibn Jareer Tabari in his Tafsir Tabari , Volume 22 page 33 and Wahabi scholar Nawab Molvi Siddiq Hasan Khan Bhophali in Tafseer Fatah ul-Bayan, volume 8, page 326 stated:

حدثني محمد بن إسماعيل الأحمسيّ، قال: ثنا عبد الرحمن بن أبي حماد، عن الحكم بن ظهير، عن السديّ قال: لما قتل الحسين بن عليّ رضوان الله عليهما بكت السماء عليه، وبكاؤها حمرتها.

Al-Seddi said: ‘When Hussain bin Ali (r) was killed, the sky started weeping for him, the weeping of the sky was by turning red’.

Imam Tabarani records in Mu’ajam Kabir, Volume 3 page 113:

حدثنا زكريا بن يحيى الساجي ثنا محمد بن المثنى ثنا الضحاك بن مخلد عن ابن جريج : عن ابن شهاب قال : ما رفع بالشام حجر يوم قتل الحسين بن علي إلا عن دم رضي الله عنه

Ibn Shehab said: ‘After the martyrdom of Hussain fresh blood started to gush from wherever stones were picked up.’

Imam Abi Bakar al-Haythami records in Majma al-Zawaed, Volume 9 page 316:

عن الزهري قال : ما رفع بالشام حجر يوم قتل الحسين بن علي إلا عن دم
رواه الطبراني ورجاله رجال الصحيح

“Al-Zuhari said: ‘After the martyrdom of Hussain fresh blood started to gush from wherever stones were picked up.’
Tabarani has recorded it and all its narrators are narrators of Sahih”.
Majma al-Zawaed, Volume 9 page 316 Tradition 15160

We further read:

وعن أم حكيم قالت : قتل الحسين وأنا يومئذ جويرية فمكثت السماء أياما مثل العلقة
رواه الطبراني ورجاله إلى أم حكيم رجال الصحيح

“Um Hakim said: ‘I was a young girl on the day al-Hussain was killed and the sky turned into red for days’.
Al-Tabarani recorded it, and the narrators until Um Hakim are the narrators of the Sahih”.
Majma al-Zawaed, Volume 9 page 316 Tradition 15161

Allamah Ibn Hajr Makki al-Haythami writes in his famed anti-Shia book:

“After Imam Husayn’s (a.s) martyrdom the sky kept crying continuously for seven days, the walls seem to be wearing coloured sheets and it is a proven fact that darkness prevailed over the world for three days and then a reddish light was apparent on the sky.”

He further quotes Abu Sa’eed:

“The day Imam Husayn (a.s) was martyred, no stone was picked in the world that did not have blood under it, blood kept oozing from the sky and the affects remained on the clothing for a long time, until the clothes became worn out.

…Sa’lbi has said that the sky kept crying for Imam Husayn’s (a.s) martyrdom and the sky’s crying was its turning red. Besides Sa’lbi a few others have said that the corners of the sky remain red for six months after Imam Husayn’s (a.s) martyrdom and then it started to emerge every now and then.”

…Ibn Seerin has said that they have come to know that this reddish light that emerges with the evening twilight did not exist before Imam Husayn’s (a.s) martyrdom.”

…Ibn Sa’ad has written in his Tabaqaat that that redness was not seen on the skies before Imam Husayn’s (a.s) martyrdom.”
Sawaiqh al Muhriqa, page 623-624 published in Faisalabad

In Arjyah ul-Matalib, page 347-348 Deobandi scholar Maulana Ubaidullah Amritsari states:

“The occurrence of these natural calamities was for the admonition for the masses after the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (r). Basra Adhwiya says that when Imam Husayn (r) was martyred it started to drizzle and by the morning all of their pots and water-drums were filled with blood. Zuhri (r.a) says that on the day of Imam Husayn’s martyrdom no stone was picked in Jerusalem that did not have fresh blood under it. Sufyan Thuri (r.a) narrates that his grand-mother was a young slave-girl at the time of Imam Husayn’s martyrdom; she had said that the sky kept weeping for him for many days. Ammar e Yasir (r) has narrated that the Holy Prophet (s) had said that the heaven had once cried for Yahya bin Zakariya and it will also cry upon the Holy Prophet’s (s) son (Husayn)”.

We share the same faith with the skies and the earth

Just as we believe in the oneness of Allah (swt), the Prophethood of Holy Prophet(s) and the Wilayah (Mastership) of Imam Ali (as), we have faith in all that Allah (swt) has created in the skies and on the earth. We believe that the earth and skies also weep over the hardships that were experienced by the Ahl’ul bayt (as).

Ibn Hajr al Makki in Sawaiqh al Muhriqa records a tradition wherein:

“Ali, while passing through Karbala, stopped at the place where Husayn was going to be buried and said: “Here Husayn and his comrades will be slain and the heavens and the earth shall weep over them”.