My condolences to imam Mahdi (aAtfs) and the whole Muslim ummah on the sad occasion of Muharam.. Here is a great article written by Bro. Adnan Khalil about our Beloved Imam Hussain (as)... Bismillahal-Rahman al-Rahim (In the name of Allah, the infinitely compassionate, the most merciful). ‘And reckon not those who are slain in Allah’s way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord’ (Quran, 3:169). ‘He is an unarmed, powerless and lonely man. But he is still responsible for the jihad. . . He who has no arms and no means has come with all of his existence, his family, his dearest companions so that his shahadat [bearing witness to God, martyrdom] and that of his whole family will bear witness to the fact that he carried out his responsibility at a time when truth was defenceless and unarmed. . . It is in this way that the dying of a human being guarantees the life of a nation. His shahadat is a means whereby faith can remain. It bears witness to the fact that great crimes, deception, oppression and tyranny rule. It proves that truth is being denied. It reveals the existence of values which are destroyed and forgotten. It is a red protest against a black sovereignty. It is a shout of anger in the silence which has cut off tongues.’ - Dr Ali Shariati The martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali (as) on the 10th of Muharram (Ashura) (almost 1400 yrs ago) of the year 61 (680) and his seventy two faithful followers juxtaposes good versus evil, the right versus the wrong dichotomy and invokes a lesson that remains unparalleled and consecrated as an exclusive synonym in the test and trial by Allah (swt), the most omnipotent the mighty and high. The lesson of right versus wrong can be traced back to the Quranic story to which Iblis (Satan), who out of arrogance and jealousy was expelled from heaven for disobeying Allah (swt) command to prostrate to Prophet Adam (as) (Iblis according to some narrations had previously worshiped Allah for over 6000 years). In order for this narrative to be understood, it must represented and given an identity. More fundamentally, what stands out in the narrative of Karbala and its aftermath paves the way for a threshold, a stand towards resistance as a general principle. Indeed, for all those adhering to righteousness, Imam Hussein (as) reflected a source of wisdom, an exemplary revolutionary, distinguished in ethics and virtuous who possessed all human perfections. As a testamentary trustee (wasi) of his grandfather Prophet Muhammad (sawa), his mother Fatima al-Zahra (as), the daughter of the Holy Prophet (sawa), the divine Prophetic light, the embodiment of purity and his father Ameer ul Momineen (commander of the faithful) Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) brave as a lion, yet the most gracious. On this premise, the core teachings, traditions and inheritance of knowledge of Imam Hussain (as) were a continuation and devotion of the true message of Islam; the tradition of Allah (swt). The Prophet of Islam (sawa) began to convey a unique miracle. His heavenly eternal message, at a time when existing practices were in the days of jahiliyyah (time of ignorance), seeking to protect his ummah (nation) by keeping it from false limits; ‘the truth has arrived and the falsehood perished...’ (Quran, 17:81). Crucially, however, towards the end of the Prophet’s (sawa) mission, and as history testifies, enemies of the religion revived, and grew. To this end, they found a way to penetrate deep in to the heart of the Prophet’s (sawa) ummah. It is then here, roughly speaking, fifty years after the death of the Holy Prophet (sawa), the ignorant aristocracy was being revived - faith had turned into narcotics, or more simply, Islam was in a comatose state. Hence from the outset, Imam Hussain’s (as) primary motive was to resuscitate Islam. It is for this reason Imam Hussain (as) overtly refused to give Bayah (allegiance), to the tyrannical Ummayd ruler Yazid ibn Muawiya (Yazid, a ruler, who, was best known as an open fasiq (a transgressor)). Yazid, whose tenure, can be seen as one of debauchery - a grotesque and nasty illegitimate caliph who violated and mocked all the fundamental tenets of Islam. Consequently, his authority as the caliph bore no legitimacy according to the sunnah (way of the Prophet). He led a kleptocratic rule, correlating of corruption, licentiousness, deceit, false propaganda, tyranny, injustice. To put it another way, ignorance of true Islam became endemic and widespread. Imam Hussain (as) decision to consistently oppose the Ummayd regime began an intensive persecution of the Holy Imam (as). Yazid, without bayah from the Imam (as) knew that he would never be seen as the rightful ruler. Importantly, Imam Hussian (as) ignored any surrendering advice; ‘a man like me can never give allegiance to a man like him [Yazeed].’ Aware of the fact, firstly, in giving Bayah to Yazid, Islam would capitulate; secondly, refusal to do so could potentially metamorphose into a bloody and merciless massacre. It is within this context Imam Hussain (as) chose to leave his birth place of Madina to the Holy City of Mecca. During this persecution, Yazid would formulate a plan to murder the Imam (as) in the heart of the Holy Shrine (Kaba): Certainly these people have come to staunchly obey Satan the Imam (as) would say and given up obeying Allah, the Compassionate. They made permissible what Allah has forbidden and forbade what Allah has legalized, and showed mischief and took Muslims property to themselves. And I am more entitled than anyone else to make the change. Recognizing this, the Imam (as) would leave Mecca for Iraq - he sought to seek peaceful reform before completing the ceremony of Hajj in order for bloodshed not to be spilt, therefore to preserve sanctity of the Haram. It was inevitably on this journey to Kufa where he would be met by Yazid’s army led by Hur al-Riyahi in Karbala, a city in Iraq. Very soon, along with his children, women and seventy two loyal companions, their caravans would be surrounded by an army of approximately thirty thousand keeping them under siege, preventing them access to water from the Euphrates River. It was under these circumstances, companions, relatives and children died fighting bravely in the desert plains of Karbala. Even his six month old son Ali Asghar’s (as) life would not be spared; his thirst would be mercilessly met by a deadly three-pointed arrow penetrating his neck in to the arms of his helpless father. (Hitherto, Hurr was not initially cognizant of the plan to kill imam Hussain (as). It was on the day of Ashura that Hurr was informed of these orders - after which, he eventually switched sides to join the Imam (as)). (A detailed description of the massacre and aftermath of Karbala require a separate chapter). When Imam Hussain (as) was martyred, the remaining women and children of the Prophet’s household (AhlulBayt) were subjected to torture and humiliation. They were tied with ropes and seated on the bare backs of camels and taken from city to city until they reached the courts of Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad and Yazid in Kufa and Damascus. The bodies of their martyrs lay naked on the burning sand, covered with dust and blood. It was in Yazid’s court in Damascus that he would blithely deny, to Imam Hussain’s (as) captive sister Zaynab (as) divine revelation; ‘Bani Hashim [the tribe of the Holy Prophet (sawa]) had just staged a play to gain power and there was never any divine revelation.’ It was here that, Zaynab (as) would taunt the caliph in a powerful sermon. (For full speech see Sermon of Lady Zaynab (as) in the Court of Yazid). Reading the tragedy and aftermath of Karbala resonates with a common theme that runs throughout the entire narrative. Imam Hussain (as) embodied to protect the ummah from false limits. As the legitimate Imam of his time, it was he who would judge by the Quran, uphold justice, profess the religion of the truth, and dedicate himself to the essence of God: ‘By God, I did not rise out of selfishness’ he would say ‘or with the aim of oppression or corruption! But rather, I rose to seek reform in my grandfathers nation, I want to enjoin good and forbid evil and follow the way of my grandfather and my father Ali ibn AbiTalib... Whoever accepts me not for myself but by accepting the truth, then Allah is higher than the truth. And whosoever rejects me then I will bear patiently until Allah judges between me and them, and He is the best Judge. In concrete terms, refusing to justify injustice, the refusal to acquiesce with the perpetrators of injustice and corruption stresses the importance of choice, one of the most important manifestations of the meaning of human being. It can provide us to evoke connections between the meaning and narrative. At a time when tyrants had forsaken ethical and moral beliefs, true love for righteousness lay in the will of sacrifice. Righteousness, as prescribed in its true sense in the Quran is only achieved when one relinquishes a possession he/she loves: ‘by no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend [benevolently] out of what you love’... (Quran, 3:92). Resistance in this sense can bear its meaning with a capital ‘R’. This in the words of Jacqueline Rose ‘represents that break in the system where injustice gives way to freedom.’ Though, indeed, it is the narrative that speaks for itself, focusing on its legacy and aftermath is rendered pointless unless we are able to crystallize Imam Hussain’s (as) philosophy in to contemporary socio-political milieu. And hence, the past is as much part of the present. Herein, memory, as well as history carries a fundamental significance to understanding identity; such identity becomes salient when one takes into account the nucleus of the struggle. In other words, out of anguish of this experience emerges an ethos, and what follows is the legacy of that moment. More specifically, then, we must not relinquish - remembering and understanding the narrative must become unconditional - precisely because meaning emerges through the act of narrating. It is through the act of telling that the narrative reconstructs and proliferates. Yet, understanding the essence of the message cannot be fully comprehended unless our methodological injunction is widened through our scope of knowledge - a key component that the mind has at its disposal: ‘it is he who brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when ye knew nothing and he gave you hearing and sight and intelligence and affection: that ye may give thanks [to Allah]’ (Quran, 16:78). Hence, we should not be limited to just scratching the surface. Fundamentally, a deep textual and historical study will bring to our realization; the knowledge acquired serves as a counter to ignorance, an area behind the very essence of truth. ‘No tool’ in the words of Imam Ali (as) ‘is more beneficial than intelligence. No enemy is more harmful than ignorance.’ For this purpose, our understanding must not remain limited, but rather, it should be developed further, brought out of its circumscribed shell, beyond our sphere and relish in its epistemological intimacy. As exemplified, moreover, by Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (as); ‘enlightenment of heart is its essence, truth is its principal object, inspiration is its guide, reason is its acceptor, God is its inspirer, and the words of man are its utterers.’ According to the emerging argument, to be more precise, knowledge acts as a premise of action. It is practically, here, in this sense, the philosophy of Imam Hussain (as) should be organically utilized as a way to deal with our bleak situations. Here, the discourse of the Quran is explicit; the believer is in a positive-sum: ‘O ye who believe: shall I lead you to a bargain that will save you from a grievous penalty? Believe in Allah and his Messenger, and that ye strive in the cause of Allah with your property and your persons: that will be best for you, if ye but knew!’ (Quran, 61:10-11). Indeed, it is Allah (swt) divine message, and as here minds us, it is he who takes care of the righteous. For this purpose, and in its own way, grounding in a comprehensive and substantive understanding of both historical awareness and our present circumstance, if applied, serves as an added dimension of power. In an era of capitalism, or whether it is a form of struggle against the unfolding horrors of the world, where images of children’s blood flows through the streets, similarly to that of Karbala, or indeed whether it is a case of poverty or any other socio-economic issues such as women’s rights (i.e. struggle with regards to Hijab), or whether it is related to the increase of tuition fees. When we are speaking of justice, no question should vanish into an unanswerable question. Here we must ask; why have billions of pounds of taxpayer’s money been squandered in illegal military action? Where is the accountability for the current economic malaise? Why should future students be made to atone for this blindness? Should Muslim women be confined for opting to wear the Hijab? Let us look deeper at the very essence. Through, one may argue, the quest for knowledge (whereby our thinking becomes something akin to ideology itself) - a revolutionary doctrine - we assert a form or resistance. Lets just pause for a moment, or rather, should we just surrender? Or should we correctly use it as a means to make political statement? We must, therefore, understand whether A is better than B. A real revolutionary is one who must stand within and reflect the value of his nation. ‘I learned from Hussain’ asserted Mahatma Gandhi (famous for his non-violent resistance against the British Empire) ‘how to achieve victory while being oppressed.’ The perceived fact is therefore co-determined - or rather embedded within the normative traditional frame of reference (Quran and the Sunnah). Or more simply, the framework which helps facilitate our understanding should be deeply embedded into our human psyche in order to differentiate right from wrong, and give access to truth, something Imam Hussain (as) was able to diagnose. Perhaps today, one may ask, why is there not enough Imam Hussain’s (as), yet many Yazid’s? And why was Imam Hussain (as) accompanied by only seventy two companions? The answer, one could argue in short, is fear. ‘When fear’, here we return to Jacqueline Rose again, ‘entrenches itself inside apolitical identity and life, one of the things this history shows is how fear becomes unanswerable, a sacred object that hardens like a crystal in the soul.’ The lexicon of the Quran was the Imams (as) answer: ‘we said: get ye down all from here: and if, as is sure, there comes to you guidance from me, whosoever follows my guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve’ (Quran,2:38). As a result, this trajectory must be made intrinsic. In turn, individuals should be willing to assimilate it as a core component, to use as an impetus - a form of emancipation to extrapolate from, and break down existing forms of hierarchical hegemonies - and indeed help to undertake fundamental changes within our body politic. As the Holy Prophet (sawa) asserts, ‘verily Hussain is a door from the doors of paradise; God has made even the smell of Paradise unlawful for those who antagonize Hussain.’ Here it should be noted, as the master of the youth of heaven, he could have chosen to remain ascetic or sat in a mosque and taught jurisprudence (fiqh). But rather, his belief in Allah (swt) remained his proximity; he saw it as an obligation: ‘Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are all for Allah, the Lord of the worlds’ (Quran, 6:162). If we turn to Dr Ali Shariati, he elaborates, or rather offers a powerful analysis and deeper-rooted understanding of this type of sacrifice; so he writes: Shahadat has such a unique radiance; it creates light and heat in the world and in the cold and dark hearts. In the paralyzed wills and thought, immersed in stagnation and darkness, and in the memories which have forgotten all the truths and reminiscences, it creates movement, vision, and hope and provides will, mission, and commitment. The thought, Nothing can be done, changes into, Something can be done, or even, Something must be done. Such death brings about the death of the enemy at the hands of the ones who are educated by the blood of a shahid. By shedding his own blood, the shahid is not in the position to cause the fall of the enemy, [for he cant do so]. He wants to humiliate the enemy, and he does so. By his death, he does not choose to flee the hard and uncomfortable environment. He does not choose shame. Instead of a negative flight, he commits a positive attack. By his death, he condemns the oppressor and provides commitment for the oppressed. He exposes aggression and revives what has hitherto been negated. He reminds the people of what has already been forgotten. In the icy hearts of a people, he bestows the blood of life, resurrection, and movement. For those who have become accustomed to captivity and thus think of captivity as a permanent state, the blood of a shahid is a rescue vessel. For the eyes which can no longer read the truth and cannot see the face of the truth in the darkness of despotism and istihmar (stupification), all they see being nothing but pollution, the blood of the shahid is a candle light which gives vision and [serves as] the radiant light of guidance for the misguided who wander amidst the homeless caravan, on mountains, in deserts, along by-ways, and in ditches. Let us be clear, Imam Hussain (as) sacrificed for the sake of the greater good; a lesson intended to show mankind a way to overcome tyranny. ‘If Hussain (as) had fought to quench his worldly desires’ writes Charles Dickens, ‘then I do not understand why his sister, wife and children accompanied him. It stands to reason therefore, that he sacrificed purely for Islam.’ It is, precisely this trust in Allah (swt) that caused fear no longer to be an end game. Rather, it opened up a box that transmuted into a fruitful legacy - a true victory. Quintessentially, Islam aglow with his own destiny, producing an everlasting message for the whole of humanity, one in which righteousness and truth kissed. ‘And never will Allah grant the unbelievers a way (to triumph) over the believers’ (Quran, 4:141). What does it mean, then, to derive an important methodological premise from the story of Imam Hussain (as)? Alas, the sad truth of the matter is that far too many of us adopt the modern political myth, in which we are wrongly persuaded we are the powerless ones. By contrast, and in Imam Hussain (as) case, truth was not subjective, it was mortal. To die for: ‘No way! By God’, he said in one of his most powerful famous speeches, ‘I will never surrender to them like a humiliated person and never pledge allegiance to them like slaves. Behold, the illegitimate (i.e. Ubaidullah ibn Ziad), son of the illegitimate (i.e. Ziad binAbih), has settled between two, between unsheathing [the sword] and humiliation, Oh how impossible is humiliation from us! Allah refuses that for us, and His Messenger, and the believers, and laps and purified and zealousness and repudiating souls, that we prefer obedience to the mean ones, over the killings of the honourable.’ The fact, then, when we discuss the life of Imam Hussain (as), we are talking about struggle, resistance and sincere commitment to the truth. Read in this way, a number of distinct characteristics stand out, such as, resilience; the refusal to be intimidated and subservient; the insistence to repudiate false philosophies; the ability to reform religious beliefs and courage over adversity. Or to push the vocabulary a little further, Imam Hussain (as) epitomizes the principles of Islamic ethics, the Quranic principle of tawheed in which deontology precedes pragmatism. In other words, truth through resistance and struggle appropriated a vital means which presented an empowering paradigm of determination and principles, laying the foundations for one of the greatest sacrifices in the history of mankind. The real achievement was the objective realized. What has been said thus far, therefore, highlights the reason why Imam Hussain (as) remains an exclusive voice of justice, or to put it more crudely, a ‘lantern of guidance and the ark of salvation’ - and indeed one of the many blessed AhlulBayt (as) whom we should imitate and follow. But by the same token, to wear the banner and dress up slogans of Imam Hussain (as) by claiming to speak in the name of Hussain (as) is simply not enough. We must, therefore, not blind ourselves but rather, awaken the minds from their sleep, understand and conceptualize the essence, and move beyond a parochial mindset, by expanding our imaginations backwards, forwards and outwards, to keep Imam Hussain (as) firmly entrenched in our blood and nerves. In other words, we must not allow our minds, our will and our judgement to degenerate into passivity. In this regard, we must grab our own destiny with both hands and ask our heart whether it loves Imam Hussain (as) more this year than the last. To summarize, then, one of the instrumental lessons we take is that if blood does not have a message, it remains mute in history. For this reason, the blood of Imam Hussain (as) is what we ought to remember, of which service of humanity is our raison d’etre. Trust against treason and Islamic rule supersedes that of the taghut is what needs to be ubiquitous, inexorable and most importantly, elucidated, fathomed and manifested. Above all else, we must seek to embed the nucleus of the narrative – detail this early history so faithfully and minutely, to make it an integral part of our ideological realm, and to foster it as part of our political consciousness. The message is clear; the fight against evil knows no limits. In front of tyrants, there is no bowing, no silence, no surrender and no accompaniment. Hence, our framework must be impregnable; it must be Hussain (as). The key universal, eternal message of Imam Hussain (as) needs to live on.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:46:47 +0000
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