On the 13th of Muharram, Imam al-Sajjad (peace be upon him) buried the holy corpses of his father, his family and companions (peace be upon them).

On this day women from the tribe of Bani Asad were drawing water from the Euphrates River, and they found corpses scattered in the desert, covered with their blood like if they were killed on the same day. The women came back to their tribe groaning and crying and then said: You are sitting in your houses, and this is Imam Al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) son of the Messenger of Allah (Allah's prayers be upon him and his holy Household), members of his family and companions massacred like sacrificed sheep on the sand, how would you apologize to the Messenger of Allah, the Commander of the Faithful and Fatima Az-Zahra, when you will meet them? If you have missed giving support to Imam Al-Hussayn (peace be upon him), stand up now them to the pure bodies and bury them, as if you don't bury them, we will handle burying them ourselves. So men of Bani Asad came to bury the pure bodies, but they did not identify to whom belong each body.

Suddenly, they saw a man on a horse coming their direction weeping and said: O Bani Asad, I will guide you to identify them, he came down from his horse, and walked between the corpses and stopped at the body of his father Al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) and hugged him, and started smelling and kissing him, crying out loudly, saying: "O dear father! After you, our distress is long. O dear father! After you, our sorrow is long.." Then he came to the gravesite and lifted a handful of its soil. A grave already dug appeared, and so did a pre-constructed shrine... He placed his hands under the Imam's back and said, “In the Name of Allah, and according to the creed of the Messenger of Allah, Allah has said the truth, and so has His Messenger (Allah's prayers be upon him and his holy Household). The will of Allah be done; there is no power nor might except in Allah, the Great.”

Then he took it and went down without being assisted by anyone from among the Banu Asad to whom he said, “I have with me who will assist me.”

Once he laid it down in the grave, he put his cheek on his father's sacred neck and said, “Congratulations to the land that contains your pure body, for the world after you is dark whereas the hereafter in your light shall shine. As to the night, it is the harbinger of sleep, while grief remains forever, for Allah shall choose for your Ahl al-Bayt (Allah's prayers be upon them)) your abode wherein you shall abide. From me to you is Salam, O son of the Messenger of Allah, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.”

On the grave he wrote: “This is the grave of Al-Hussayn son of ‘Ali son of Abu Talib, the one whom they killed even as he was a thirsty stranger.”

Then he walked to the body of his uncle, Al-Abbas (peace be upon him), and he saw him in a condition that had left the angels in the heavens' strata baffled and caused the huris to weep even as they were in the chambers of Paradise. He fell upon it kissing his sacred neck and saying, “May the world after you be obliterated, O moon of Banu Hashim, and peace from me to you, O martyr, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.” He dug a grave for him and took him down in it by himself just as he had done to the corpse of his martyred father (peace be upon him). He said to Banu Asad, “There is someone with me to help me.”

Yes, he gave the opportunity to Banu Asad to participate in burying the martyrs, and he assigned for them two places, ordering them to dig two pits in the first of which he buried those slain from Banu Hashim and in the second those slain from among their companions. As regarding al-Hurr al-Riyahi, his corpse was taken away by his tribe that buried it where it now stands.

When the Imam (peace be upon him) finished from burying the pure bodies, he rode his horse to leave, Banu Asad then asked him: We ask by the right of those you have buried, who are you? He told them: I am the argument [Hujjat] of Allah on you, I am Ali son of Al-Hussayn (peace be upon him), then he went back to Al-Kufa to join the caravan of captives.

It is to note that through his chain of authorities from Hammad al-Basri, that Imam as-Sadeq (peace be upon him) told me: “There exists an excellence close to you, the similitude of which has not been bestowed upon anyone else, and I presume that you are unaware of its essence. You do not defend it genuinely nor do you arise for it, and there are ones specialized for it who have been chosen for it, and that has not been bestowed upon them due to their own might and power, except whatever Allah had bestowed upon them. While this felicity has been bestowed upon them by Allah through His Grace and Benevolence”.

I asked, “May I be your ransom! What is that, the attributes of which you have narrated? And why have you not named it?”

Imam (peace be upon him) replied, “It is none other than the pilgrimage (to the grave) of my grandfather al-Hussayn (peace be upon him), who is far away from his home-town and upon an alien land. Then the one who visits him and weeps upon him, as also the one who does not visit him but remains grief-stricken for him. And the one who was not available for him and his heart burns for him, he sends blessings upon him. The one who beholds the grave of his son (buried) at his feet upon the barren earth, where he had no relatives and family and was deprived of his rights. The apostates united until they killed him and wasted him and exposed him to the wild beasts, and they blocked access to the water of Euphrates, which was available for the dogs. They dishonored the right of the Prophet of Allah (Allah’s prayers be upon him and upon his holy household) and did not consider his testimony regarding himself and his Progeny (peace be upon them). Then he lay in his grave in a persecuted state and he fell upon the earth along with his family and Shi’ah, and he entered the earth of an alien and dreadful desert, upon the land where none goes to him except those whose hearts have been tested with belief by Allah”.

I said, “May I be your ransom! I would go for his pilgrimage until I got involved in the matters of the sovereign and was handed over the charge to safeguard their wealth. I have become quite renowned among them and have therefore abandoned the pilgrimage due to dissimulation (Taqiyyah), but am aware of the virtue involved”. Imam (peace be upon him) said,

“Do you know what are the merits of those who visit his grave and what abundant fairness do they possess near us?”

I replied in the negative, and Imam (peace be upon him) continued,

“Their merit is that the heavenly Angels glorify them, while the goodness near us is that every morning and evening we pray for blessings to be descended upon them. And my father has related to me, that from the time he (Imam al-Hussayn) was martyred, his grave has never been vacant of those offering Prayers, be it from the Angels, genie or men and beasts. There is none who does not envy his pilgrims or touches them, and everything looks at him with hope of virtue, for he has beholded his grave”.