That Friday In Bangla Sang the Paradise-Bird

Mujeeb Jaihoon’s poetic tribute to Hosna Ara Parvin, the brave Bangladeshi lady martyr of ChristChurch terrorist attack, New Zealand, on Mar 15 2019.

The Daring Daughter
Of the Lion of God
And Umm Ammara,
The heroine of Uhud

Assembled near the gate
of ‘the Abode’
To welcome
The ‘Beautiful many-Starred’

A fairy was she
In the tigress form
Leaped had she
To save her man, wheel-borne

Embracing the dark venom
Of the white-zealous
Eclipsed she the courage
of thousand warriors

River Turag began
To dance in ways wild
Baitul Makarrum yearned
For her selfless sujud
Boasted Hazrat Jalal
About this pori child
That Friday, in Bangla sang
The paradise bird

March 17 2019. Edit 2024

Notes

Daring Daughter: Zaynab, the grand-daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and daughter of Lady Fāṭima and Alī, known as the lion of Allah. She was a prominent member of Ahl al-Bayt (Family of the Prophet), especially during the Kerbala tragedy where she was taken captive by the then Umayyid regime. Her ardent and fearless speech in defense of the Kerbala victims is popular across the Muslim world.

Umm Ammara: Nusayba b. Ka‘b al-Anṣārīyya, a lady companion of the Prophet, is celebrated for her remarkable role in the Battle of Uhud, in which she sustained several wounds while protecting the Messenger of God.

Beautiful many-Starred: Hosna, or the beautiful, and Parvin, referring to cluster of stars. One of the several martyrs who died in the white-supremacist terrorist attack in Christchurch shooting. She had been attending the prayers along with her physically challenged husband, Faird, whom she had brought to the masjid on a wheelchair. . “Hosna saved his life on the day of the ChristChurch massacre by jumping in front of him, and taking the bullets, …The Bangladeshi couple had moved to New Zealand sometime after 1994.”

River Turag: The river in the outskirts of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, around which the second-largest Muslim gathering, the Bishwa Ijtema, organized by the Tableegh Jamaat, is held.

Baytul Mukarrum: The 10th largest mosque in the world, capable of accommodating more than thirty thousand people, located in Bangladesh.

Hazrat Jalal: Prominent Sufi mystic, Hazrat Shah Jalal, widely known for the propagation of Islam in Hindustan and Bengal.

Pori: The Bengali equivalent for Pari, or fairy.