Ashura - Lest We Forget

Ashura, then and now

The tenth of Muharram is the day on which, according to some reports, Allah saved Prophet Moses/Musa (pbuh) from the tyrannical Pharaoh, that prototype of despotic authority. There are many pharaoh-like authorities who have appeared through history and there were those incorrigible standard-bearers of justice who opposed them. In the post-Prophetic period, one such person was Imam Husayn who took on the corruption of despotic Yazid and laid down his life on tenth Muharram in 61 AH (680 CE); an event that serves as a milestone in the history of the faithful; the martyrdom of the beloved grandson of the Prophet Muhammad at Karbala in Iraq.Click More

Moses & Pharoah, Husayn & Yazid

The valiant Prophet Moses did not fight Pharaoh to become king, neither did the righteous Imam Husayn take on the army of the corrupt Yazid merely to become caliph. Their effort was in fulfillment of moral obligation which serves as a universal message which has left a lasting legacy of struggle and resistance against corruption and injustice. The lesson is not only in that they were prepared to fight for what is right, but were also willing to die for it; selflessness not selfishness, humility not ego, principle not power.

Such Musawi and Husayn struggle has always raged on in a corrupted world. As 'allama Iqbal said; Musa-o Fira'un Shabbir-o Yazid In do quwwataz hayat amad padid. "Ever since the beginning, two opposing forces have been at war - virtue and vice. Thus, Prophet Musa rose against Pharoah and Shabbir (Imam Husayn) rose against Yazid"

Tragic Event

So cowardly and gruesome was the killing of Imam Husayn that the renowned Arab historian Al-Fakhri wrote: "This is a catastrophe, whereof I care not to speak at length, deeming it a like too grievous and too horrible. For it was indeed a catastrophe so odious that a more shameful incident has not occurred in Muslim history. There occurred such a foul massacre as to cause any person's flesh to creep with horror. Again I have dispensed with my long description of this horrific incident because of its notoriety, for it is the most lamented of all catastrophes. " Western historian, Dr Edward Browne in his 'a Literary History of Persia' writes: "as a reminder, the blood-stained field of Karbala where the grandson of the apostle of God fell at length, tortured by thirst and surrounded by the bodies of his murdered family; has been at any time since then been sufficient to evoke, even in the most lukewarm and heedless, the deepest emotion, the most frantic grief and the exaltation of spirit before which pain, danger, and death shrink to unconsidered trifles." Professor E. Gibbon writes, "In a distant age and clime the tragic scene of the death of Husayn will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader." [Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]

Tragedy Compounded

To compound the tragedy, it was the grandson of the final Messenger (and his close relatives) who were brutally killed. It was a massacre of the progeny of the final Prophet of Allah.

- That family of the prophet of whom Allah invokes us through the Qur'an;

"Say (to the people, O Muhammad)! I ask of you no reward except that you love my family." [Qur'an 42:23].

It was regarding this Qur'anic verse that Imam Shaf'i wrote in his poetry ..

Yaaala-bayti Rasulillahi hubbakum

Fardun minaalhi fil Qur'ani anzalah

Yakfikum min 'azimil fakhri annakum

Man lam yusalli 'alaykum la salata lah

"O Family of the Prophet! Allah has made it obligatory on us in the Qur'an to love you. It is a matter of pride for you that without saluting you our salutations (salawaat) are invalid."

- That Husayn who, together with his brother, is considered by the Prophet as sayyida shababiahlil Jannah "leaders of the youth of Paradise" [Sunanal-Tirmidhi]

- That Husayn who carried the traits of the Prophet and who many companions considered as an image of his grandfather. In the words of the poet Josh Mahalbadi …

Of the attributes of the Prophet, the perceiver was Husayn,

Of the holiness of the Prophet, the inheritor was Husayn.

- That Husayn of whom the Prophet said,

"Husayn is from me and I am from Husayn. Allah loves whoever loves Husayn." [Sunanal-Tirmidhi]

Yet, Imam Husayn was martyred at the hands of those who considered themselves followers of our beloved Prophet Muhammad, those who claimed to act in the name of Islam yet unremorsefully and shamelessly were prepared to obliterate its true exponent; those who (like so many today) are prepared to kill for Islam yet are unable to live by it. Yes, Imam Husayn was martyred at the hands of those who would kiss the Black Stone (because the Prophet kissed it), yet cut off the precious head of that dear grandson of the Prophet, a head which the Prophet so often caressed and kissed with affection