[The stage is a battlefield. The sounds of combat. ABBAS fights valiantly but falls.]
HUSSAIN: (kneeling beside Abbas) My brother, my lion.
ABBAS: (dying) I only regret... I could not bring water... for the children...
HUSSAIN: You brought something more precious. You brought honor.
[ABBAS dies. HUSSAIN stands alone. SHIMR enters with soldiers.]
SHIMR: It is over, Hussain. Surrender and you may yet live.
HUSSAIN: (laughing bitterly) You offer me life without honor? That is not life—that is slow death. No, Shimr, I will die as I lived—standing.
SHIMR: Then die you shall.
HUSSAIN: (to the audience) Let those who witness remember. Let them tell their children, and their children's children. There was a day when a small band refused to submit to wrong. They had no hope of victory, no chance of survival. But they stood anyway. And their standing changed the world.
[He raises his arms in prayer as the soldiers advance. The lights turn red, then black.]
End of Play
"Every day is Ashura and every land is Karbala."