Sermon of Imam Ali bin Husain (as) on returning to Medina
فقال: الحمد لله رب العالمين مالك يوم الدين بارئ الخلائق أجمعين الذى بعد فارتفع في السموات العلى وقرب فشهد النجوى نحمده على عظائم الامور وفجائع الدهور وألم الفجائع ومضاضة اللواذع وجليل الرزء وعظيم المصائب الفاظعة الكاظة الفادحة الجائحة أيها القوم ان الله وله الحمد إبتلانا بمصائب جليلة وثلمة في الاسلام عظيمة قتل أبو عبد الله الحسين عليه السلام وعترته وسبى نسائه وصبيته وداروا برأسه في البلدان من فوق عامل السنان وهذه الرزية التى لا مثلها رزية، أيها الناس فأى رجالات منكم يسرون بعد قتله أم أي فؤاد لا يحزن من أجله، أم أيه عين منكم تحبس دمعها وتضن عن أنهما لها فلقد بكت السبع الشداد لقتله وبكت البحار بأمواجها والسموات بأركانها، والارض بأرجانها والسموات بأركانها، البحار والملائكة المقربون وأهل السموات أجمعون. يا أيها الناس أي قلب لا ينصدع لقتله أم أي فؤاد لا يحن إليه أم أي سمع لا يسمع هذه الثلمة التى ثلمت في الاسلام ولا يصم، أيها الناس أصبحنا مطرودين مشردين مذودين وشاسعين عن الامصار كأنا أولاد ترك وكابل من غير جرم إجترمناه ولا مكروه إرتكبناه ولا ثلمة في الاسلام ثلمناها ما سمعنا بهذا في آبائنا الاولين إن هذا إلا اختلاق والله لو ان النبي تقدم إليهم في قتالنا كما تقدم إليهم في الوصاية بنا لما زادوا على ما فعلوا بنا فإنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون من مصيبة ما أعظمها وأوجعها وأفجعها وأكظها وأمرها وأفدحها، فعند الله نحتسب فيما أصابنا وأبلغ بنا فإنه عزيز ذو إنتقام
Imam Ali bin Husain (ع) gave the below sermon after returning to Medina:
"All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the King of the Day of Judgment, Creator of all creation Who is Exalted in the high heavens, Who is so near, He hears even the silent speech. We praise Him on the grave events, on time's tragedies, on the pain inflicted by such tragedies, on the crushing of calamities, on the greatness of our catastrophe, on our great, monstrous, magnanimous and afflicting hardships.
Allah, for whom is all praise, tried Us with a severe calamity, and an irreparable loss in Islam.
Aba Abdillah al-Husain (عليه السلام) and His family were killed, and His women and children were taken captive. They displayed His head in the towns from the top of a spear. This is a calamity such that no other calamity is similar/equivalent to it.
O people! Which men among you are happy after him, or which heart is not grieved on his account? Which eye among you withholds its tears and is too miser with its tears? The seven great heavens wept over his killing; the seas wept with their waves, and so did the heavens with their corners and the earth with its expanse; so did the trees with their branches and the fish in the depths of the seas. So did the angels who are close to their Lord. So did all those in the heavens. O people! Which heart is not grieved by his killing? Which heart does not yearn for him? Which hearing hears such a calamity that has befallen Islam without becoming deaf?
O people! We have become homeless, exiles, outcasts, shunned, distanced from all countries as though we were the offspring of the Turks or of Kabul without having committed a crime, nor an abomination, nor afflicted a calamity on Islam! Never did we ever hear such thing from our fathers of old. This is something new.
By Allah! Had the Prophet (ص) required them to fight us just as he had required them to be good to us, they would not have done to us any more than what they already have. So we belong to Allah, and to Him is our return from this calamity, and what a great, painful, hard, cruel, and catastrophic calamity it is! With Allah we hope for reward for what has happened to us, from the suffering we have endured, for He is the Omnipotent, the Vengeful."
[Source: al-Lahoof, Sayed ibn Taoos, Pg. 117-118]
(English translation is taken from the translation of Maqtal al-Husain by Abdul Razzaq al-Muqarram)