Muharram – 2

(The Shrine of Iman Hussein)

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…

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…

Hussein and his 72 followers had entered Karabala in the 1st Day of Muharram and the King Yazid, his opponent was already there as if waiting for them to arrive… Hussein and his followers were surrounded and asked to surrender… To which Hussein denied… And the seige began…

As the seige dragged on, Yazdi stopped all the water from reaching the Hussein camp on the 7th day… There were small children who thirsted for water… Seeing this some people broke the seige and reached the river, which was nearby, for water… But as soon as they turned around with their pots filled, they were attacked and killed and the pots failed to reach the Hussein camp… This lead 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 attained 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…

But the way Islam is looked as regressive in the world, pains a few thinkers. A handful few (maybe 10% of all Islamists) follow a path of violence to propagate their thought and have also created a havoc around the globe. From Afghanistan to Iran, from Iraq to Syria, from Al Quaeeda to ISIS, the militant mindset needs to be changed. And Imam Hussein can be the best ideal for all of this to change.

At the same time, Imam Hussein’s sacrifice is a factual and a sad truth about differences within a thought process. But these differences within, leading to a kill, is something Humanity needs to think about. Differences exist and should exist in the quest for truth, but they should not translate into killings. We find many instances of such differences in every culture too. But some learn, some wait to be taught. At the end we all need to understand that killing is not the final good.

On this day, I pray to Allah to bestow upon His children, the patience, understanding and love for each other and for peaceful coexistence of the humankind.