 We extend our condolences to you all upon commemorating the murder of Imam al-Hussain and his dear family and companions in the land of Karbala on the day of Ashura. And across these nights, we've also been ensuring that we extend our condolences to the one who will come and avenge this blood, none other than our dear, awaited Saviour, may Allah, hasten his reappearance. We've been covering the Shohadah in the past few nights. And tonight, we dedicate it to an individual whose name in any Shi'a household is called multiple and multiple and multiple times, not just his but his father's too. His sole purpose of creation was to serve on this day and to serve his master who coincided to be his brother. None other than Abu Fadr al-Abbas, alayhi salam, the flag bearer, the one that every single one of the children would look up to, the one that the women would seek refuge in when in fear, and the one that Imam al-Hussain relied upon so much that it was only upon the death of al-Abbas where Imam al-Hussain said, now my back has broken. Such was the important nature and role of Abu Fadr to the event of Karbala and Imam al-Hussain's life. He spent his whole life serving this family and ended it in the service of this family as well, Abu Fadr al-Abbas, alayhi salam. We've been connecting through deriving lessons but also through poetry and my dear brother Ali Fadr al-Hussain has been delivering those words. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you to the dear viewers and the remembrance of Abu Fadr al-Abbas, alayhi salam. And every year that when Muharram Niyaz, everyone tentatively waits for the night of Abu Fadr al-Abbas, to see it for a buildup of needs and hajj and prayers and if they feel like the power of Abu Fadr al-Abbas, alayhi salam and his position amongst Allah, will be able to help them in their cause and in their needs as well. So it's definitely a night that is considered one of the most important in the Shia Islamic calendar. And from an emotional point of view where do you start? I mean is it his relationship with Sayyid Zaynab alayhi salam? Or is it his position amongst the children and how much they relied on him and how much they looked up to him? Or is it him and his brother? Or is there so many different factors that you can consider when it comes to the tragedy of Abu Fadr al-Abbas? Even the way he was martyred as well. That in itself and the words that he recited and his stance there, there's so much you can take from Abu Fadr al-Abbas. And it is no coincidence that there's a shrine as big as Imam Hussain al-Assalam in Karbala al-Muqaddas. And of course we recognize that he wasn't a ma'asum necessarily, but it's someone that we connect with that little bit more to say, okay, well, he wasn't a normal man, but he's someone that we can resonate with and say, you know what, okay, maybe I can get close to those heights. Maybe, you know, this is a man who, yeah, I mean, repeating everything we've just said, a man who even though we commemorate and cry on his martyred in me, he fills us as the Shi'a with pride and a sense of protection and valour that is just within us. And I remember when I was young in our tradition we would wrap a green cloth around our wrists and it would be given out on the night of Abu Fadr al-Muqaddas. My mum would take one and on every exam that I would do, every morning she'd come in before she left for work, wrap it around my wrist, and that's it for Abu Fadr al-Assalam. And even when you go to Karbala and you, insha'Allah, our view is you get the chance to conduct the walk, the walk from Najaf to Karbala. I distinctly remember one moment whereby we're with a very, you know, young group, age 20s to 30s. And you've been walking for two to three days, this build-up of going to Karbala has really been there since months since you booked your tickets. And for many of us it was the first time. And we're going down and you see those signs, welcome to Karbala. It's like a red herring because you're still 40 kilometers away, 30 kilometers away. The anticipation is building, building, building. And eventually I remember we get to a point where there's a slight turn and there was another security checkpoint, very normal, and we're just waiting there. I remember being at the back, okay, this one's taking longer than usual. You know, what's going on? There's a slight turn and you're like, okay, what's the big, oh, and it hits you. And it's Abu Fadr al-Assalam. He's shrined it so far and it's just staring at you. And there were three reactions. Number one, people just stopped, stalled, froze, like just didn't know what to do. Second reaction, the group got split, people started running, just completely irrespective of the distance still left. That's it, they were gone. And the third, people just collapsed and just in admiration and awe, exactly. And this is Abu Fadr al-Assalam, even after his death, he's looking over, can this person enter to come and see my brother? Can you enter and come and see my brother? You must go through me, because I'm still protecting my brother, even though I'm just meters away, you must go through me. And this is, this energy that Abu Fadr gives you in anything that you do is something to hold on to and cling on to, but something that breaks the heart of Abu Fadr al-Assalam and you hear the recitations around his shrine when you go to his shrine and where you hear people lamenting about Sayyid al-Ruqaiy al-Assalam. It's something that was so dear, someone that was so dear to Abu Fadr and it was his mission to bring back that water for the children. And hence, when you drink water, it's so highly recommended to remember Imam Hussein and Abu Fadr al-Abbas al-Assalam. And it's on this note that I wanted to just narrate a hadith from our Holy Sixth Imam al-Assalam, Imam Al-Sadiq al-Assalam. Where a man called Dawood al-Ruqaiy, he says that one day he was with Imam Sadiq and Imam Sadiq asked for some water. Imam Sadiq drank this and after he drank it, his eyes started to fill with tears and he started to cry. And the Imam said, Oh Dawood, may Allah's curse be upon the killers of Hussein. Verily if a slave of Allah drinks water, remembering Hussein al-Assalam and cursing his killers, Allah will register 100,000 good deeds for him. He will wipe 100,000 bad deeds from his book of deeds and will add 100,000 ranks to his status. And it will be as if he has freed 100,000 slaves. And on the day of judgment, Allah will resurrect him with his heart filled with peace. And this was Abu Fadr's mission to bring that water back for the children, for his master, for his Imam. And Imam Sadiq is telling us just remember, remember Imam Hussein at that moment of drinking. And of course there are the famous lines of poetry where Abu Fadr eventually reaches that river. And this lesson is so beautiful. That in such desperation and thirst and difficulty. And we always talk about this, you know, this heat of Karbala. We always, the heat of Karbala, the burning sand. It's the classic phrases. And I remember when I had the opportunity to go for Hajj in Arafah and it's recommended to do a Salah after Lahore and Asr on the actual sand in Arafah. I couldn't even walk four steps before my feet were burning. And then we had a mat and it was burning through the mat. And it was only then I started to appreciate, okay, this burning sand isn't just a metaphor. It's actually, it's a reality. It burns your feet. Abu Fadr has gone through this whole journey to get to the water. He puts his hand into this cold water and he then starts reciting his lines of poetry that how can I take this before my master has seen? And that in itself, if it's not loyalty to your brother, if it's not conviction to go back to the children, if it's not, you know, forget me before anyone else, it's this level of self-discipline more than anything else that he could even be in such desperation and still abstain. And we're not talking about abstaining from a sin. We're talking about abstinence from just drinking water. And that willpower that he had should be something we can learn from to say, you know what, if our father can go through such difficulty and abstain from something so trivial and normal, then when I'm faced with the difficulty, let me seek inspiration from him to abstain from the sin or to abstain from something like that. And this is the first thing we can take. A second thing that of course we always associate with our father is that loyalty, that valor, that, you know, we always, whenever there's pictures, you know, drawn of what our father could have been like, it's a tall man on a horse, he's strong, he's musly. But he held that standard for Imam al-Hussain. He held that flag that represented that army. It was when that flag fell that we knew the time that it was soon for the death of Imam al-Hussain. But what allowed him to carry it wasn't just his physicality, but it was his spiritual strength. It was his mannerism to say that if someone looks up to this flag and associates it with Islam, if the bearer of that flag is not someone who holds the mannerisms of an Akhlaq, of an Islam, of a Hussain, then why are they carrying it? If someone had this responsibility, he had those characteristics and it's something for us to reflect upon. If we are carrying the flag in arba'een, or if we are wearing the badge of Imam al-Hussain on our lapel, or if we're wearing a t-shirt with the name of Hussain with organizations on it, or if we're wearing an Ahl al-Bait society hoodie, we are representing, we are flag bearers of the religion, of those names. And we need to question, do we actually have those merits? Do we have those level of mannerism and Akhlaq to actually hold such important symbols upon us? For if God forbid someone were to see us commit a sin or something unlawful, whilst being a flag bearer of this, then we've done a grave, grave deed, especially if the person that had seen it then associated Islam with such mannerisms. So seek inspiration from upper father than that. If you're going to carry this message, then carry the Akhlaq of a true Hussain. If you want to know a true Hussain, you look to Abbas al-Islam. And of course, after the death of Abbas al-Islam, Sayyid al-Zaynab was one of those that picked up that standard as well. Another true example of a Hussain, someone who had those characteristics and together they were inseparable almost, one relied upon the other. We say that Sayyid al-Zaynab relied upon Abbas al-Islam for so many things, but no doubt he relied upon her. Sayyid al-Zaynab was the sister of Imam Hussain, was the daughter of Imam Ali al-Islam. He would seek inspiration from her as well, the patience that she illustrated. And that relationship of Abbas al-Islam to Sayyid al-Zaynab is one that goes down in history. Yeah, exactly. And it's one of the most emotional tragedies associated with Karbala' is the fact that these two pillars of patience and Sayyid al-Zaynab is actually referred to as the mountain of patience within a small shrine which resembled or highlights the place upon which you would see the massacre of Imam Hussain. Till al-Zaynabiyah, the mountain of al-Zaynabiyah, they call it. And on it says, oh, mountain of patience. These two people who represented so much and had such a massive stake or had a massive influence on the story of Karbala' for them to come together and the discussions that they have together. So before the day of Aashua, the night before, they talk with each other to reminisce the times that they were with their father or the reminisce the time they were with their grandfather. And then both of them know and realise their duty. It's not an issue of one side being very fragile and frail, relying on the other. It's now both of them are... There's an admiration between the both knowing that the day after is going to be a day where they're going to be tested to the maximum limit that they possibly can take. And it's this relationship which I want to really delve into with this poem because it's straight after the martyrdom of Abbas. The really desperate situation that Abbas would be in is that he was... And by the way, Abbas didn't actually go out to fight. And this is the scary thought that he didn't actually go out to fight. He didn't, like every other companion being granted permission to fight the enemy and be martyred. He only went, his sole mission was to get the water for the children. Now of course there was combat, but it wasn't combat like he was full-fledged into the battlefield. He was trying to get the water and on the way back there was enemies and stuff. And to the extent his might and his power was they had to hide behind palm trees in order to dislodge him and take him down. So it's his desperation to say to Zaynab saying in this poem... Just forget me Just forget me And bear my absence O mother of tragedy Just forget me Just forget me Because I know how much you will Every memory It has all passed And in your past You walked away from relying by the river And in your head voices taunting Saying he does not recall you Nor does he care How much it must have hurt you to walk away When you were so used to me crying out Stay How much it must have hurt you to walk away When you were so used to me crying out Stay You were so used to me crying out Stay Don't think of me Don't recall me For I won't be there to ease your calamity Just forget me Just forget me Because I know how much you will Every memory I know your gaze Into my eyes Wanted to soothe every pain and all my woe I know it hurts But you should know That it was only your sight that brought me ease And now I sleep with an arrow in my eye And now hands that will command all your tears drop And now I sleep with an arrow And now hands that will command all your tears drop And now hands that will command all your tears drop Don't expect me Don't await me I have left all that I've loved for the Lord's decree Just forget me Just forget me Because I know Because I know how much you will Every memory Upon my chest You left your tears A place for your tears on my shirt I had promised But this promise I've broken it And left in a moonless night All that I once missed And if you want your two eyes dried When you're alone Forget of my hands and dry them With your hand if you want your two eyes dried Forget my hands and dry them With your Forget my hands and dry them With your own Do not hate Just forgive me Because I won't forgive myself For your heart Just forget me Just forget me Because I know how much you will Every memory Of course, many thanks to the poet, Nouri As-Sallaah. We look up to Abu Fadah, he's an inspiration for us Especially for this concept of loyalty And brotherhood and the close-knit relationship that he had With Imam Hussain, a.s. It's all well and good us saying Ya Abu Fadah, we wish we could be like you Ya Abu Fadah, please let us be like you Please help us to be like you But sometimes we have to take A very very clear reality check And we need to see, okay If we were to almost start to raid ourselves To see how far along the path we are To reaching the level of Abu Fadah, a.s. It paints really grim pictures for us I talk of myself first before anyone And just briefly, I want to see Perhaps introspectively for us all That are watching, where do we actually stand? Where do we stand in terms of this loyalty to our brothers And brothers can extend to your Your blood brothers, your cousins, your friends Or whoever, take it as you will Imam Ali, a.s. He says, let none of you compel his brother to ask If you already know about his needs I.e. don't make your brother ask for something If you already know he needs something If you already know that he needs five pounds to get home Don't make him go through the embarrassment of asking Don't try and hide away from it Just leave him to the side And really hope that he doesn't ask Because you don't want to part away with your money Or your time or whatever Imam Ali is saying, if you know he's in need Just give, that should be the level of your loyalty And your brother to someone It should be to that extent But it begs the question of then saying How forthcoming are we? So many times I know X person needs that or Y person needs that And I'm shying away Or looking away to make sure that He doesn't make eye contact with me He doesn't come to ask me I'm not even at the stage of giving it to him Without him even asking I'm at the stage of trying to ignore And actively ignore and turn away And that's the first step Where do we actually rate ourselves If we want to reach that brotherhood And loyalty of Abu Fadah Enable him to have that brotherhood Where do we stand in that regard? A second hadith from Imam Ali Where he splits it into two parts He says, test your brothers with two things Which they must possess Otherwise So test your brother with two things Which they must possess otherwise And it's very interesting here in the hadith He says test your brothers with two things Which they must possess otherwise Avoid them, avoid them, avoid them He says avoid them three times If they do not hold these characteristics A very clear statement now coming from Imam Ali What are these two things? The first thing is Observing the prayers at their prescribed times 101 Islam Which I'm guilty of for sure How can I be so In love with Abu Fadah And want to reach that loyalty And want to have that brotherhood with people When I can't even upkeep those prayers So no one's really going to want to have that brotherhood with me Those who are off that level Are seeking those who at the time of Salat al-Duhar Salat al-Asr if you split your prayers Whatever it is Am I a person that they can rely on To remind them of their prayers Because if not Imam Ali is saying what? He's not saying, okay put them to the side He's saying avoid them, avoid them, avoid them It's deep It's scary almost And one way in which we can actually try and do this And it's a very practical way to try and emphasize Or try and help yourself to reach a level Of importance with your Salat is this We've mentioned this notion of submission to Allah So at that time of Salat Try and ask yourself that question If I'm on my emails And the time of Salat comes Allah is calling me to pray And I'm on my emails At that point in time If I go and pray I'm submitting to God before anything else But if I continue on my emails Am I submitting to my emails over my Lord And it's a scary, scary thought And it can be applied to anything Whether it's work Whether it's time with your family Whether it's time on the TV Whether it's time, etc, etc At that time of Salat And again I say this to myself for anyone At that time of Salat Try and make that question connect in your head By continuing the action that I am Instead of going there to go and pray Am I now actually submitting to this Rather than my Lord Imam Ali is telling us Those brothers The qualities that you should look for Amongst them Test them in two ways And one of them is Do they offer their prayers on time Otherwise if not Avoid them, avoid them, avoid them And the second part that Imam Ali says About how to test the brother Is helping brothers during hardship As well as ease It's very similar to what we mentioned before About trying to anticipate what they need And giving it to them Helping the brother during hardship and ease And it begs that question of To what mile am I going to go to If, okay, fine, he needs five pounds to get home Yeah, fine, take it, that's fine It's not really difficult for me to part with that But if a brother is actually in a hardship Am I going to travel Two hours, three hours, one hour A hundred pounds, thousand pounds Whatever To what mile am I going to go To actually pass this test Of trying to ensure that when he's in a hardship I'm there So that when he falls into difficulty His family falls into difficulty The first person he calls is me Because if you want to reach that level of loyalty With Abu Fadal, alaihi salam That he had with his brother Imam Hussein, alaihi salam Had no hesitation in calling Abu Fadal at any time Because he was there in hardship He was there in ease He was trained for this So we should train ourselves Will we be there in times of hardship For the closest companions of our holy 12th Imam Or are we going to be the guys at the back Shying away, taking the easier things Imam Ali, again, to remind you Is saying if you do not pass that test Then this sort of brother Avoid them, avoid them, avoid them And of course we know that Abu Fadal Passed this test with flying colours He was a man who responded to that need If Imam Hussein at any time Any day, any moment, any request Anything he was there to respond And Allah then rewards Abu Fadal For gift, Allah rewards Abu Fadal For being there for Imam Hussein And being the responder of his needs To then saying You can now be Bab al-Hawaj A person who will respond To the needs of those who are the lovers of Aba Abdullah So we look to him as this man Who can intercede for us Who can be that accelerator for us towards Allah That can take our prayer for Allah Forgive me for this And I ask you through Abu Fadal A.S It's that vehicle to Allah that gets us There's so much quicker Than what our da'a would go through Barrier after barrier For he earned this station He earned the station through his loyalty That he displayed to his brother Aba Abdullah al-Hussein And it's Bab al-Hawaj I mentioned earlier that That green wristband That it's something that My wife and I now hold very dear to us Having that flag of Abbas in your house It's that source of inspiration That then when you go and visit him You say, yeah, Abu Fadal, thank you Thank you for all those times When I needed something I'd call out to you To take my da'a closer to Allah You'd never turn me away And insha'Allah Long may that continue Ya Aba Abdullah al-Hawaj Aba Abdullah al-Hawaj as well Just to continue from that It's not just one or two stances That gave him this position Of Bab al-Hawaj It's not just Karbala as well That represented his victory In the eyes of Allah, it's As we were mentioning His sole purpose of being alive From when he was a baby Up until his martyrdom Was to serve the holy household And this was fed from none other Than Um Al-Baneen, alaihi salam Who again, sole purpose Was to serve the holy household So it was fed into him By the milk of his mother And so it grew within him He couldn't think of any other way And there was a moment, a stance A couple, there was more than one Stance in Karbala There was a moment as well When Shimmer was to call out And say to him, oh cousin We can give you a pardon Just go against your brother Hussain And then he didn't even Apologize, he said to him I am no one compared to the Grandson of the Prophet Hussain And the grandson of your prophet Not just anyone The grandson of the prophet that you So you believe in, apparently You want to offer me a pardon But not the grandson of the prophet You must be Just one point there, if I may It teaches us something very beautiful There that Abu Fala alaihi salam As we said, there are cousins There are relatives of his in the army That he's about to go and fight Or as he goes to the water And has to kill along the way Yet the point between Haqq and Bata Is so clear for him And again, very applicable to us Today, if our family Or relatives says you must do this Just because it pleases the family If it goes against the Shari'a If it goes against Allah SWT's will Seek inspiration from Al-Abbas alaihi salam Don't be afraid to say no And if that wasn't enough To make us stand and Back Imam Al-Hussain alaihi salam In public, and then in private He goes, as you were saying He goes to the river Or scorching heat And then reaches the water And says, yaan nafs min ba'ad al-Hussain huni Which means oh self annihilate Annihilate yourself Oh self annihilate yourself In front of Hussain alaihi salam So meaning any desire that you have Any desire for indulgence Or whatever it is Any desire that you have Annihilate that feeling When it comes to Imam Hussain alaihi salam And this is the pinnacle Of submission to Allah SWT And the will of Imam Hussain alaihi salam Which was amazing to see And that's why we say in the poem I see you abbas As the crown that sits on my head And your name it flows beautifully In each tear I shed All are in awe of you Abbas, I adore you In each tear I shed I see you abbas As the crown that sits on my head And your name it flows beautifully In each tear I shed All are in awe of you Abbas, I adore you In each tear I shed In each tear I shed Oh immortal flag that's against the wind flies Oh mountain that alone can hold seven skies Oh who could not bear to hear those children's cries I tell you that your name Abbas never dies I tell you that your name Abbas never dies Generations sit and in awe of you they listen And your name sparkles in the tears that on them glisten Watch them, they ache for you Abbas, I adore you In each tear I shed Oh diamond that your virtues found and made rare Oh he who has left souls frozen by his glare Oh he who cares for those that are without care You have hearts knocking on your door everywhere All of your fathers, lovers sharing understanding If they have any that your door they will be standing Knocking, waiting for you Abbas, I adore you In each tear I shed Oh lion that's waiting to serve would kneel Oh volcano that erupts with your zeal For you standing with no water was surreal Oh Abbas we know you and know how you feel Oh Abbas we know you and know how you feel You stood there confused as the water poured to the ground Every drop that falls came for you, a torturing sound Confused, we witness you Abbas, I adore you In each tear I shed You loved them so much it was almost unfair Your eyes would light up and burn with their despair Who hurt them your thunder would burn out their air Bodies for these girls tears to you it was fair Bodies for these girls tears to you it was fair Your heart had a gate and no one would dare open it These girls had a key they'd come and inside your heart sit The touch it comforts you Abbas I adore you In each tear I shed You reshaped love and you called its brother You sift wishes that in Hussein's place he stood Oh flag bearer have you not yet understood Even love would sing your praises if it could Don't you understand oh highest peak of selflessness You are a symbol to oceans of hearts in distress Are you aware of you Abbas I adore you In each tear I shed In each tear I shed In each tear I shed How many thanks to the poet and who decided that? We owe Abbas alaihi salam to levels that each of us have an individual level of love towards him and indeed towards his brother Imam Hussein alaihi salam which creates this yearning for us to conduct their ziyara and his ziyara from Imam Hussein alaihi salam but of course for many of us the distance is great there is a long distance between us being able to reach the holy land of Karbala but do not despair Imam alaihi salam tells us how to conduct the ziyara if you are from far he has a conversation with a man named Sader and he says oh Sader how difficult is it for you to perform the ziyara of the grave of Hussein alaihi salam five times every Friday and once every day so he replies and he says may I sacrifice myself for you there is a great distance between us and his grave Imam alaihi salam replies and he says ascend to the roof of your house look to the right and then look to the left raise your head towards the sky and then try to face the direction of the grave of Hussein and say and by doing so a Zora will be registered for you and Zora is the performance of a Hajj and an Umrah and as a result Sader then added and he said after hearing this there were times when I would perform this ziyara twenty times during the day twenty times inshallah may we be able to conduct this ziyara many times for our own home even though we are at distance inshallah how many years have we wept in the eye your name is kept Hussein will never forget when the month of grief descends the love of your name ascends and with its tears the eye sends hearts were not made to be torn a reason that tears are born but for you hearts break and mourn you died but live in the heart your story tears hearts apart your head from body they part you tied heaven to the earth and you gave heaven its worth Muhammad wept with your birth Muhammad wept with your birth On this night all of our da'az we ask to Allah swt through Bab al-Hawaaj Abu Fadal al-Abbas alayhi salam and amongst those da'az O Abu Fadal allow us to visit you and your dear brother we ask you to take this da'a and take it to the throne of Allah swt and inshallah may it be granted and all of our hajjat on these nights assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh