24 June 2025 / 27. Zil-Hajj 1446
Updated 13 November 2013
Dedicated to the victims of the Gaza Massacre - 2008/2009
As we commemorate Imam Husayn's revolution of truth and justice, this poem considers our role as Hussaynis in a world wracked by oppression.
Muharram arrived with piercing screams
Playing children bombed to smithereens
Torn limbs shrouded in ash
Lost in the deafening blitz, blinding flash
I heard the echoes fade
As I sat in the mosque and prayed
Safe in His house of peace
Far from the blood and screams
Clearing my heart and mind
Of haunting images and cries
I willed myself to concentrate
On the tragedy of the Ahul Bayt
I wept for my Imam’s compassion
His sacrifice for justice, his passion
I heard his call to follow, to rise
Reject apathy, inertia, and strive
And in that moment, I cried,
‘Labbaka Ya Husayn, I’ll try!’
And so I strove, week upon week
To don black and mourn and weep
To hear the lamentations,
Attend commemorations
Join the processions
To fulfil my promise and pledge
Yet, as I sat longer and cried harder
My tears did not douse the flames in Gaza
Nor did they cool the burning, searing pain
Of lives destroyed and children slain
I tried to be a Husayni, I did truly
I loved and mourned my Imam duly
Yet love without vision, action - is weak
A candle without a wick
It does not burn, nor serve, nor give
How much more slaughter, oppression
From Palestine to Bahrain, Pakistan to Yemen
Before my tears smoulder and ignite
A burning love that acts, resists, fights?
Will I be a moth to Husayn’s flame
Subsumed by the justice, light of Husayn
Or will I coldly turn away
And let humanity bleed and burn and decay??
By Fatema Valji - UK
Updated 30 October 2013
The World Federation’s India Office and Mumbai Jamaat jointly organised a workshop for the pre-marriage age youth of the community in Mumbai. This workshop was a part of 4 workshops organised to cover all age groups from teens to the elders.
Br. Abbas Merali of London and Sr. Fatima Somji of Dares Salaam facilitated the workshops. Maulana Sayyed Ehsan Haider Jawadi sahab also shared lots of information from the Islamic point of view.
No words or phrases can ever give justice to the experience felt in Iran. Each experience, each moment and each second deserves a written biography, while still leaving you in frustration for not explaining it well enough.
The World Federation’s India Office partners with Khoja Shia Isna Ashari Jamaat Mumbai to announce IQRA: The vacation petition.
The competition is being organised keeping in mind the Summer Vacation to make the participants make best use of their free time.
