Since the beginning of humanity, examples of revolutionary beliefs of remarkable men and women have been repeated throughout history. They were evident in the early days of Islam , when the Prophet Muhammad s.a and his wife Khadija a.s together contributed to Islam. Imam Ali a.s with wife Fatima sa , Imam Hussain a.s and his sister Lady Zainab a,s are shining examples of devoted men and women in Islam. Revolutionary Muslim women are alongside Muslim men , promoting Islam side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
Recently, these examples have been repeated in Iraq. Muslim women have participated along side their men. In the recent victories of our Muslim combatants , Muslim women have played an important role ,they worked and prayed together with men in the name of Allah s.w.t to be delivered from the tyrannical ruler Saddam in order to free the Muslim nation of Iraq .
Amina Haider Al – Sadr , the famous Muslim author also known as Bint Al – Huda, the daughter who guides, played a significant role in creating Islamic awareness among the muslim women of Iraq.
Bint Al- Huda grew up with a serious love of learning. She became aware of the Muslim women ‘s sufferings and the great disasters that were damaging Islamic ideology in her country. She grew up in a cultural environment where if a person’s roots were not firmly and decisively planted within the principals and percepts of Islam , they would have to empty the self and leave the traditional mould, put aside human values and all the traditions which kept them rooted . Then, empty headed , with an impotent spirit , crippled and without content, they would become like garbage cans which are constantly filled and emptied of dirty useless things. This was the fate of those exploited by colonialists who act through the Saddam takrity type leaders . Their point of view which seeks to undermine and poison cultural roots and plant their own instead ,so that they may plunder the natural resources which were beneficial to their own economics interests.
Bint Al –Huda saw the damaging conditions in the Islamic society, she withstood and spent her life struggling against the poisonous atmosphere around her. She emphasized traditional values , human values, religion and its wondrous principles and percepts . With her roots firm she chose to close the way to despotism, exploitation and colonialism and guard Islam, with a strong spirit full of courage and love. She saw the soul of her fellow countrymen attacked by the colonialist termites. She saw people become exactly as Saddam had willed them to be. She defended this attack upon Islam, worked for freedom – the freedom to practise what she believed in Islam, the finest gift which she had inherited from her ancestors.
At the age of 14 she recited her first poem at the funeral of her uncle {the father of Musa Sadr}. At that early age she began her social work as an exact reflection of Islamic precepts. She began a girl’s school in Kazmain, Iraq where Islamic teachings were personally supervised by her. It was named Maktab –e- Zahra . {after Fatima Zahra s.a, the daughter of the Prophet of Islam}. Her sensitivity and feelings, like those of her brother {Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir As Sadr} under whose guidance she received her knowledge, were sensed in all her actions whether in the framework of the sweet words of a tireless teacher or in the moments when she took pen in her hands and spread forth her jewel like words upon the receptive paper. In her short – lived life ,she inspired an entire generation of men and women to do the same. Amina al Sadr was born in Kadhimiya, Baghdad in 1937. Being the only girl in her family, she was too young to remember her father, the scholar Haider Al Sadr, who died during her childhood. She was primarily educated by her mother at home , and then later by her brother Muhammad Baqir. She developed a talent for reading and writing at a very young age, which later made her the women’s branch of the Islamic Dawa party. She also played an instrumental role in the publication of the party. In 1966, she began writing in Al-Adhwaa magazine, and was one of its main contributors. Amina Al –Sadr’s ability to eloquently articulate the concerns of the masses made her an influential women in Iraq . Her prolific writing’s made her very popular, particularly among women who were unable to express their sentiments in such a way. As well as this she was readily available to help solve women’s family problems and to answer a variety of religious questions. She authored many books, many of which were fictional stories that dealt with the social problems of her time. Many of her themes were directly relevant to the struggles that women were facing in Iraq. Her purpose in writing these stories was to express Islamic point of view about various issues in life in the form of images. She believed that a concept which remains as a theory does not have a great deal of effect , but when it is put into the form of images and expressed within the framework of events of life , it will have a worthwhile effect…… because of this , the Holy Quran expresses the value and precepts of Islam through stories of Prophets and the recollection of their particularities.
At all times she wished to remain a modest profile, and was reluctant to thrust herself into the limelight. For that reason ,she refrained from using her real name in her books, instead adopting the pseudonym “ Bint al – Huda.”
When her brother , Sayyid Muhammad Baqir As- Sadr was arrested four months before she was, she , like Zainab s.a spoke out against injustice in the tomb of Hazrat Ali a.s in Najaf, Iraq. Her words held such truth and were so powerful that people of Najaf and neighbouring cities went to strike because of the unjust arrest of his brother . The atheist forces of Saddam takrity were forced to release him.
Saddam decided to initiate a program to eliminate the Islamic movement altogether. In March 1980, the revolutionary command council passed a law sentencing all past and present members of Al- Da’awah to death, including any affiliates. As- Sadr responded by issuing an ultimatum to his followers- topple the regime and establish an Islamic government in its place.
The security forces arrested Baqir as Sadr , on 5th April 1980. The next night they returned and arrested her. She said to the security officers, “it’s an great honour that you have arrested me.”And then, in harsher terms , she continued , “you cowardly bullies who follow that which is vain and useless, if you had any courage at all you would have come in the light of the day and not in the middle of the night.”
The real love of Fatima , her uncle’s daughter and her brother’s wife reflected from the endless goodness sensed in Bint al Huda . It was manifest in self- sacrifice .There were a few moments of exchange between these two women, each seeking captivity to spare the other. Finally , the reasoning that the children needed their mother made Fatima agree to stay. The final words of Bint al Huda to her were , “If I do not return by tomorrow, take yourself and the children to Kazmain. Know that I will never return.
The agents of of Saddam transferred Ayatullah Baqir As Sadr and his sister Bintul Huda to the ministry of defence in Ar Rasheed street where they were put into prison. When the news of his arrest and the danger to his life was spread over the world , prominent Muslims from different countries went to Iraq, to ascertain the truth about the matter . Two of them were important personalities from the united Arab Emirates. They contacted the close relatives of Ayatullah As Sadr and a prominent Alim from among them in Najaf said, “ at 12 O’ clock midnight on Wednesday , 8th April , 1980 , a group of the special police came to his house in three cars and asked him to accompany them in one of the cars , and on the way they warned him not to disclose the facts , they were going to tell him . He was informed that the dead bodies of Ayatullah As Sadr and his sister were with them in one of the cars , and they took him to Wadi as Salam {the cementry } in Najaf, and he buried the Martyr Baqir As Sadr and his Martyr sister Bint al Huda and conducted burial ceremony himself. The dead bodies of Ayatullah Baqir As Sadr and his sister Bintul Huda bore signs of brutal torture . The face and beard of the Ayatollah was burned and charred, and there were stab wounds and bruises on many parts of his body. His sister’s hand was burnt and her scalp peeled. The hands and feet of both brother and sister were crushed and badly lacerated , and there was dried blood on them.
Bint Al Huda was brutally martyred by Saddam takrity’s security forces , her only sin was that she showed resistance to the enemy , she wanted freedom , independence and Islam. She chose to walk on the path paved by Lady Zainab sa . She died serving these ideals as she had lived defending them. When Saddam was asked why he also killed As Sadr’s sister, in his reply he said , “I did not want to commit the blunder which Yazid did by sparing Husain’s sister Zainab’’. Even the enemy knew her potential which would topple his tyrannical, anti-Islamic regime, ………..
Bint Al Huda, through her martyrdom, became a symbol of loyalty and endless struggle with despotic colonialist forces of Saddam . She was filled with virtue and the concept of jihad.
Endless greetings to you, Oh Bint Al Huda , daughter of the virgin Mary, Fatima, Khadija, blessings upon your day of birth and the day you shall stand before Allah S.W.T.