Feeding by Imam Husain (a.s.) on the Night and Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ

اطعام دادن آن حضرت در شب و روز عاشورا

[باب الاطعام] اطعام نمودن در وقت تنگي به يتيم و مسكين از افضل اعمال است، [ صفحه 120] و موجب خلاص از عقبه دشوار، و آنجناب از اين عمل متمكن نشد در روز عاشورا، با اينكه روزي بود كه بر ايشان از هر جهت تنگ بود، زيرا كه طعام بالمره در نزد ايشان مفقود بود، از اين جهت حضرت سجاد (عليه‌السلام) مي‌فرمود كه فرزند رسول‌خدا شهيد گرديد گرسنه و تشنه. [254] .ولي چون گرسنگي و تشنگي را شدت زياده بود مكرر ذكر شده، و آن حضرت طلب آب نمود و طلب طعام نكرد، چون در آن ذلتي است كه اصحاب غيرت، از آن امتناع دارند، بلكه اگر كسي بدون سؤال هم ميداد نميگرفتند، و از اين جهت است كه چون اهل كوفه خرما و گردو به اطفال اسير مي‌دادند، ام‌كلثوم صيحه‌اي زد بر ايشان كه صدقه بر ما حرامست، و مي‌گرفتند از دهان اطفال و مي‌انداختند [255] ، زيرا كه اطعام در اين حال صدقه‌اي است كه مشتمل است بر اهانت و ذلت و قبول از براي ايشان حرام بوده هر چند به عنوان زكات نباشد.

Feeding by Imam Husain (a.s.) on the Night and Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ

[baab al-at'aam] - Chapter of Food

Feeding an orphan and a needy person during a time of hardship is among the most excellent of deeds,

[ صفحه 120]

and it is a cause of deliverance from the difficult passage (ʿAqabah).

Imam Husain (a.s.) was not able to perform this act on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, although it was a day in which hardship surrounded them from every direction, because food was completely unavailable to them.

For this reason, Imam al-Sajjād (a.s.) would say that the son of the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) was martyred while hungry and thirsty. [254]

However, because the thirst and hunger were so severe, they have been mentioned repeatedly. Imam Husain (a.s.) asked for water, but he did not ask for food, because there is a humiliation in asking for food which people of honour and dignity refuse to accept.

Rather, even if someone had offered it without being asked, they would not have taken it.

For this reason, when the people of Kūfah gave dates and walnuts to the captive children, Umm Kulthūm (a.s.) cried out to them:

“Charity is forbidden for us.”

She would take the food from the mouths of the children and throw it away. [255]

This was because, in such a situation, feeding them was a form of charity that carried humiliation and degradation, and accepting it was forbidden for them, even if it was not formally given under the title of zakāt.