Muharram

Ya Hussein! Ya Hussein!

The month of Muharram!

The first month of the Islamic Calendar! Considered very pious and divine!

The 10th day of Muharram, Ashura, has its own importance for the Shia Muslims… At the same time it’s a day of fasting for Sunni Muslims…

Before the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussein, it was celebrated as a day of atonement by Jews cause it is believed that Moses delivered His people (Children of God) from the hands of the Egyptian Pharaoh on this day. Till date Sunni Muslim brethren observe it and fast on this day…

But am writing this blog for the history better known and associated with martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandchild of His Holiness, The Prophet, Muhammad… From my early childhood was attracted towards the taziya procession taking place near Byculla and other places in Mumbai… Faintly recollect my grandfather taking me around to see them…

Many years later, got a chance to listen to the stories of the martyrdom from a local cleric in Dadar (east) in the nights… What impressed me was the story telling… The way he was explaining the events and mourning the loss… It is for a few days when this story telling happens, which I could attend only for a day… Clearly remember the moist eyes of every man and woman listening to them… And the kid asking questions to their grandfather who was so engrossed in listening that didn’t even listen to those questions…

Still remember the people in Dadar (east) offering water to the people passing by with such warmth and affection… Always wondered why so? Maybe they take utmost care for humanity…

But let’s come back to our blog… The grandchild of His Holiness, The Prophet, Muhammad was the third Imam of the Islamic world… He too faced prosecution from his own Muslim brethren and had to fight all his life… (Why fight? Is another topic and another blog someday)…

Hussein and his 72 followers have entered Karabala in the 1st Day of Muharram and the King Yazid, his opponent is already there as if waiting for him to arrive… Hussein and his followers are surrounded and asked to surrender… To which Hussein denies… And the seige begins…

As the seige drags on, Yazdi stops all the water from reaching the Hussein camp on the 7th day… There are small children who thirst for water… Seeing this some people try to break the seige and reach the river, which is nearby, for water… But as soon as they turn around with their pots filled, they are attacked and killed and the pots fail to reach the Hussein camp… This leads to death of kids due to lack of water… (This is the reason that water is offered to every passerby during these days)

The killing which started on the 7th day itself turned to a full fledged war on the 10th in which Imam Hussain attains martyrdom… He died for a cause… He died for Humanity… He fought the evil…

Many a poet have written about and described the whole story at length which is worth listening too if one cares for Humanity…

And so it is not only a day to remember, it is a day to mourn… A day to ask God for forgiveness… A day to quench the thirst of the thirsty and hunger of the hungry…

A day to remember that someone gave up His life for the sake of humanity, for the values given to mankind by His Holiness, The Prophet, Muhammad…

A day of reckoning for mankind that even after all the wars, fights we have had, differences have existed, do exist and will exist… Do we want to accept them or still fight for them to satisfy our egos… Cannot differences coexist?… I leave this question, to you, my reader to ponder over…