A Unique Elegy: Standing Up Right

By Omar L Rashed

History repeats. Looking at ours, that's a tragedy. But it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to if we, as individuals, don't let it.

A Unique Elegy is about a man who stopped history in its tracks. Across the sands of time, the prince stood up to the tyrant of his time. He paid, and got the greatest return imaginable.

It was the most atrocious cri

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rashed Lights Ways
• Release date: Nov 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781943740031

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Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Omar L. Rashed

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Dedication

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

— Isaac Newton

To the Giants who came before us, and those who stand up to bring their efforts forward.

Introduction

I will never forget when I read what happened – the most atrocious crime imaginable. An army of tens of thousands of troops committed war crimes of the highest order, including targeting children, attacking innocent women, and plundering the property of women and young girls by force. Outnumbered more than one hundred times, this massacre was instigated because the arrogant tyrant demanded allegiance – or else.

The crime itself was horrible enough – but considering the victim of this crime was the most honorable, noble, and dignified man and his family, magnified how reprehensible an act it was.

Yet there was a principle behind his story, so crystal clear. He summed it up himself: Death with dignity is better than life with humiliation. Imam Hussayn (upon him be peace) spoke this timeless gem.

This is a story with principles which had to be captured in words. In English.

While I read the historical accounts in vivid detail (in English), there have been poems and remembrances of this tragic event for more than a thousand years – just not in English. Being a native English speaker, connecting to the elegies of other tongues has been difficult for me. I thought it time, as a poet, to attempt to use whatever talent I may have to communicate the story.

The first thing that opened my heart to the Ahlul Bayt (family of the