AZADARI 1. God says in Qur'an about Pharaoh and his army "neither the sky nor the earth wept for them and they were not given chance " (Ad-Dukhan). Imam Muslim records in Tafsir of this Ayat, "When Husain was martyred, the Sky as well as the Earth wept on him and weepinq of the sky is its being red." (Sahih Muslim).   2. Some 50 years before the event of Karbala, the Prophet wept when he was told by the Angel that Husain would be killed by the army of Yezid in Karbala. Then Gabriel asked, "O Prophet of God, do you want me to give you some earth from his place of martyrdom?" The Prophet said,"Yes". Gabriel gave a handful of earth of Karbala and the Prophet began weeping uncontrollably. This tradition is recorded in Mishkat,Musnad Ahmed bin Hanbal, As-Sawaiqul-Muhriqa of Allama Ibn Hajar Makki and Sirrul Alamin of Imam Ghazali; and has been narrated by Imam Sha'abi, Imam Baihaqi, Imam Hakim and scroes of other traditionalists. The Prophet gave that earth to his wife, Ummul Mu'mineen, Umme Salma, and told her, "When you see this earth turned into blood, know that Husain has been martyred."   3. On the 10th Muharram, 61 A.H., Umme Salma was asleep in the afternoon when she saw the Prophet in her dream: He stood in tragic condition and his hair was dusty and disarranged and in his hand was a bottle full of blood. Umme Salma asked what it was. The Prophet said, "This is the blood of Husain and his companions. I was collecting it since this morning." Umme Salma woke up and ran towards the bottle which contained the earth of Karbala and saw red blood flowing from it. Then she cried and called her relatives and started mourning for Husain.This tradition is in Musnad of Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal, As-Sawaiqul-Muhriqa, Mishkatul Masabih, Tirmidhi and other books.   4. Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani writes in his book "Ghunyatut-Talebeen", Vol. II page 62; "70,000 angels came on the grave of Husain bin Ali after his martyrdom and they are weeping on him and will remain weeping upto the Day of Judgment."   6. When the Second Caliph was informed of the death of ibne Muqrim, he put his hand to his head and cried. (Iqdul-Farid, Vol. II, page 4).   7. When Imam Zainul Abedeen came back from Damascus, and people of Madina were informed that the family of the Prophet was outside Medina, the Madinites rushed to meet them and they were weeping, beating their heads, chests and faces.It should be mentioned that the practice of Madinites is one of basic laws in some sects of Ahlus-Sunna. Actually, the notion that mourning on Husain and his companions or weeping, crying, beating of chests, etc. is unlawful, is based on misinformation. People are misled by a tradition of Abdullah bin Umar, in which he alleges that the Prophet said that "dead man is punished if people weep for him." But wherever this tradition is recorded its correction and contradition by Ummul Mu'mineen, Ayesha is also recorded. When she was told of this alleged reporting of Abdullah bin Umar, she said that "May God forgive him, he did not tell wrong (intentionally) but he has forgotten or is mistaken. The fact is that the Prophet passed by a cropse of a Jewess and people were crying for her. The Prophet said that they are weeping over her while she is punished." You see the difference. The Prophet did not say that dead man is junished because of the action of weeping of people, and he could not have said it because Qur'an says, "Nobodywill carry weight of others", and it would be a gross injustice to punish the dead man for the action of he living relatives. What the Prophet meant was that a kafir cannot gain anything through the weeping of his relatives. Unfortunatley, misunderstanding of Abdullah bin Umar gave a chance to mischief mongers to make a stand against the family of the Prophet, and against the natural human feelings.What makes me wonder is the fact that they do not pay any heed to he correction by hazrat Ayesha which is recorded side by side in every book of tradition. Does it not show that these people who raise objection against the mourning of Imam Husain, do not want to seek the truth. They just want to further their own interest at the cost of Islamic truth. Of course, there may be some excesses in some places in the customs of mourning but it does not justify an all-out attack upon the basic principles of Islamic mourning. These are only a few of the traditions of the Prophet regarding propriety of mourning on Husain. As you have asked to know custom and rulings of our Imams, I would like to quote here a few of the traditions of our Imams. 5. Matam (Beating of chests and Face): It is recorded in Madarij-un-Nubuwwat (Vol. II, page 163) that when Shaitan announced a lie that the Prophet was killed (in the Battle of Uhud), the Hashimite women, including the Lady of Paradise - Fatima Zahra (a.s.) - came out weeping, beating their chests and faces. The same book also records that after the death of Prophet, some of the companions wept and cried so much that they lost their eyesight. This is also recorded in "Kitab Mathabata-Bis-Sunnah". (Page 119).