44 replies to this topic

[NoorFatima]

Vicarious suffering in the path of God: Muharram

      As the above summary of Shii history shows, Shiis have found themselves to have suffered severe injustices in the first three centuries of Muslim history. First they were excluded from taking the positions of leadership which clearly were theirs; when Ali, the proper heir to power, finally did gain the seat of the caliph he was granted only a short period of rule before being assassinated; when Ali's son Husayn made another try at the caliphate he too is assassinated, and this under most heinous conditions; and finally, the line of Ali seemed to die altogether when the twelfth imam disappeared.

      Shiism reconciled these injustices with the clear directives of the Prophet, who, they felt, had explicitly designated them the true Muslims, by adopting the explanation that God's inscrutable plan underlay it all and that all these events were foreordained for specific reasons. Since these maligned Shii heroes were doubtless destined to receive the favor of God, it was not a long jump to the conclusion that accepting all the sufferings was in some way the key to God's good pleasure. For the mass of the Shiis, who were not privy to the core events of Shii history, the key to God's favor and even the intercession of the imams was to commemorate and sincerely lament over these events and thereby partake vicariously in the sufferings of God's chosen ones.

      All of God's prophets, Muslim belief holds, have suffered in His path, and likewise have all of the imams.[64] Each and every one, according to Shii belief, found his life ended by martyrdom. Shiis commemorate the sufferings of these martyrs frequently, both in a variety of public holidays scattered throughout the year and also in private, often weekly, ceremonies. The most important of these ceremonies are those held in Muharram, the month in which Husayn was killed. This month, and especially its first ten days, is the central focus of Shii piety. Worshippers attend special commemorative meetings in which the story of Karbala is told and retold and the sufferings of the house of Ali, the imams, and especially Husayn are recounted, processions are held, and passion plays, taziya, are enacted.[65] These three rituals--the tellings of the story of Husayn (rauza-khani), the passion plays (ta'ziya), and the processions (dasta-yi azadari)--are the three main elements of activity and devotions during Muharram.[66]

      The commemorative meetings known as rauza-khanis, or "Rauza readings," are named after an early book on the sufferings of Husayn called Rauza al-Shuhada', "Garden of Martyrs."[67] These are held in many venues, both public and private. Special narrators, called rauza-khans, "Rauza readers," are hired to recite the events surrounding the day of Ashura, the day of Husayn's martyrdom. The more successful of these narrators are highly skilled in poetic storytelling, dramatic techniques, and chanting of elegies, as well as perfect pronunciation of classical Arabic and skilled use of symbolism, all serving to convey the events of Karbala with an intense passion and maximize the audience's emotional involvement. The rauza-khan portrays the events with great detail, and dwells especially on the sufferings of Husayn and his party: their long march, the heat and their thirst, the gradual killing of the fighting men and the agonies of each individual death, and the brutality Husayn is subjected to. As the narration proceeds and continually heightens in intensity, the audience repeatedly will burst into sobbing and moaning and will slap their foreheads and beat their chests in anguish.

      The taziya, the passion play in which the events of Husayn's death are actually reenacted by the participants, is another important event. These plays began to be enacted in a simple form shortly after the event of Karbala but only became widespread during the Safavid period,[68] reaching their peak in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Qajar Iran. In the twentieth century Iran's various secular governments have occasionally outlawed their practice,[69] but the taziyas nonetheless still exist as a key religious event in Iranian Islam. They are enacted in every major city in Iran, and semi-professional traveling troupes--whose pay is often provided by a wealthy sponsor as a public service bringing its own religious rewards--sometimes bring the play even to remote and small villages. As with the rauza-khans, the taziyas do not simply portray the known historical events but provide a great amount of imaginative detail to flesh out the story. A Turkish traveler to Iran in 1640 provides a vivid description of one such public passion play for Husayn, to which came "the nobles and notables and all the people of the city, great and small":


When the reader of the book [on the martyrdom of Husayn] reaches the part describing the manner in which the accursed Shemr killed the oppressed Husayn, at that very moment, they bring out to the field...mock representations of the bodies of the dead children of the Imam. Upon seeing this spectacle shouts and screams and wailings of "Alas, Husayn" mount from the people to the heavens and all spectators weep and wail. Hundreds of Husayn's devotees beat and wound their heads, faces and bodies with swords and knives. For the love of Imam Husayn they make their blood flow. The green grassy field becomes bloodied and looks like a field of poppies. Then the mock dead are carried from the field and the reading of the story of Imam Husayn's martyrdom is completed.[70]
      The processions are perhaps the most public of the Muharram ceremonies and, with their conspicuous self-flagellation, are perhaps the most immediately noticeable to foreign observers. These range from simple marches to elaborate pageants, complete with characters from the taziya, groups singing dirges and laments, banners and flags representing the standard of Husayn at Karbala (the alam), and floats, all interspersed with often shirtless men wailing and beating their chests.[71] The self-beatings take a variety of forms, from light chest-slapping practiced chiefly by the observers to strenuous self-flagellation, often with chains, daggers, razor blades, or other "implements"--these occurring in their most vigorous forms during processions and other outdoor events--practiced most conspicuously by young men. Indeed, many of the forms of self-beating are complex and evolved enough that the activity has become even part art and part sport, with vendors selling a variety of instruments and enthusiasts discussing fine points of technique.[72]

http://bahai-library...ng5.shiism.html

For more details; follow the link, and read the entire chapter.

[NoorFatima]

Also read those two sections within the chapter provided – They are deeply philosophical and excellent.

1) Identification with Husayn to vitalize personal religiosity

2) Intercession through redemptive suffering and martyrdom

http://bahai-library...ng5.shiism.html

[rocket1k]

Quote

I don't agree with the professor. I believe the prophet underwent extraordinary hardships and among his flock, there were many more Osamas and Saddams than Mother Teresas. His so-called successes were forestalled and foreshadowed by far greater sorrows and trials. Full details on that would require more than just a few posts here.

You missed the point completely.

The Shia historical experience is akin to those of the Jews and Christians in that it is is a millennium-long tale of martyrdom, persecution and suffering. Sunni's, by contrast are imbued with a sense that immediate worldly success should be theirs. Sunni Islam made huge strides as a force in the world very quickly. Within a generation after Prophet Muhammad (saw), Arab tribal armies had exploded from their native peninsula to defeat the three superpowers of the time, overrunning the Persian and Egyptian empires and pushing the Byzantines out of the Near East into Anatolia. Muslim armies continued to conquer, moving across North Africa, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar (named after the Arab commander Tariq) to control the Iberian Peninsula, and pushing into  Western-Europe until the Franks stopped them at the Battle of Tours-Poiters in 732 CE.

Given thier history, the Shia would never associate thier faiths validity with worldly success. The Sunnis, by contrast, became accustomed to celebrating thier dominon in the world through the muscular temporal institution of the caliphate. As a result, Shias seem to find it less threatening than the Sunnis do the relative decline of Muslim Power in modern times, since for the Shiah such a decline does not suggest a crises of beleif.

[baqar]

 phknrocket1k, on Jan 24 2007, 11:32 PM, said:

You missed the point completely.

The point the professor was making and that I disagreed with (and still do) was about the Prophet. But you are entitled to your opinion.  

 Maimonides, on Jan 22 2007, 02:29 AM, said:

Muhammad led a successful state, and died happy."

That is the professor's opinion and in my view incorrect. Anyway, I will not pursue the argument. It is outside the scope of this thread.

[rafu007]

[Ali Hassan]

the tragedy of karbala by Dr. Israr Ahmad

http://www.scholaris..._of_Karbala.pdf


from http://www.scholaris.com/ebooks.htm

[Panzerwaffe]

^  kufa was the head of islam according to umar, most of its best people were revolutionaries but were martyred by the ummayyad tyrants who replaced them with their mercenaries


the great tawwabun and amir mukhtar was also kufan


there is no lesson for polythesists in karbala, karbala is the same struggle that was started in badr and reached its climax at siffin

it was people of kufa who also led the revolution against uthman

Edited by Panzerwaffe, 28 September 2007 - 12:45 AM.

[lfatima]

 baqar, on Jan 20 2007, 01:46 PM, said:

And this is what some Western scholars say about Imam Hussain


1. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson

(1868-1945) Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge.

"Hussain fell, pierced by an arrow, and his brave followers were cut down beside him to the last man. Muhammadan tradition, which with rare exceptions is uniformly hostile to the Umayyad dynasty, regards Hussain as a martyr and Yazid as his murderer."
[A Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge, 1930, p. 197]

2. Robert Durey Osborn

(1835-1889) Major of the Bengal Staff Corps.

"Hussain had a child named Abdallah, only a year old. He had accompanied his father in this terrible march. Touched by its cries, he took the infant in his arms and wept. At that instant, a shaft from the hostile ranks pierced the child's ear, and it expired in his father's arms. Hussain placed the little corpse upon the ground. 'We come from God, and we return to Him!' he cried; 'O Lord, give me strength to bear these misfortunes!' … Faint with thirst, and exhausted with wounds, he fought with desperate courage, slaying several of his antagonists. At last he was cut down from behind; at the same instance a lance was thrust through his back and bore him to the ground; as the dealer of this last blow withdrew his weapon, the ill-fated son of Ali rolled over a corpse. The head was severed from the trunk; the trunk was trampled under the hoofs of the victors' horses; and the next morning the women and a surviving infant son were carried away to Kufa. The bodies of Hussain and his followers were left unburied on the spot where they fell. For three days they remained exposed to the sun and the night dews, the vultures and the prowling animals of the waste; but then the inhabitants of a neighboring village, struck with horror that the body of a grandson of the Prophet should be thus shamefully abandoned to the unclean beasts of the field, dared the anger of Obaidallah , and interred the body of the martyr and those of his heroic friends."
[Islam Under the Arabs, Delaware, 1976, pp. 126-7]

3. Sir William Muir

(1819-1905) Scottish scholar and statesman. Held the post of Foreign Secretary to the Indian government as well as Lieutenant Governor of the Northwestern Provinces.

"The tragedy of Karbala decided not only the fate of the caliphate, but of the Mohammedan kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared."
[Annals of the Early Caliphate, London, 1883, pp. 441-2]

4. Peter J. Chelkowski

Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, New York University.

"Hussain accepted and set out from Mecca with his family and an entourage of about seventy followers. But on the plain of Karbala they were caught in an ambush set by the … caliph, Yazid. Though defeat was certain, Hussein refused to pay homage to him. Surrounded by a great enemy force, Hussein and his company existed without water for ten days in the burning desert of Karbala. Finally Hussein, the adults and some male children of his family and his companions were cut to bits by the arrows and swords of Yazid's army; his women and remaining children were taken as captives to Yazid in Damascus. The renowned historian Abu Reyhan al-Biruni states; "… then fire was set to their camp and the bodies were trampled by the hoofs of the horses; nobody in the history of the human kind has seen such atrocities."
[Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, New York, 1979, p. 2]

5. Simon Ockley

(1678-1720) Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge.

"Then Hussain mounted his horse, and took the Koran and laid it before him, and, coming up to the people, invited them to the performances of their duty: adding, 'O God, thou art my confidence in every trouble, and my hope in all adversity!'… He next reminded them of his excellency, the nobility of his birth, the greatness of his power, and his high descent, and said, 'Consider with yourselves whether or not such a man as I am is not better than you; I who am the son of your prophet's daughter, besides whom there is no other upon the face of the earth. Ali was my father; Jafar and Hamza, the chief of the martyrs, were both my uncles; and the apostle of God, upon whom be peace, said both of me and my brother, that we were the chief of the youth of paradise. If you will believe me, what I say is true, for by God, I never told a lie in earnest since I had my understanding; for God hates a lie. If you do not believe me, ask the companions of the apostle of God [here he named them], and they will tell you the same. Let me go back to what I have.' They asked, 'What hindered him from being ruled by the rest of his relations.' He answered, 'God forbid that I should set my hand to the resignation of my right after a slavish manner. I have recourse to God from every tyrant that doth not believe in the day of account.'"
[The History of the Saracens, London, 1894, pp. 404-5]

6. Edward G. Brown

Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic and oriental studies at the University of Cambridge.

"… a reminder of 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 kinsmen, has been at anytime since then sufficient to evoke, even in the most lukewarm and heedless, the deepest emotions, the most frantic grief, and an exaltation of spirit before which pain, danger and death shrink to unconsidered trifles."
[A Literary History of Persia, London, 1919, p. 227]

7. Ignaz Goldziher

(1850-1921) Famous Hungarian orientalist and scholar.

"Ever since the black day of Karbala, the history of this family … has been a continuous series of sufferings and persecutions. These are narrated in poetry and prose, in a richly cultivated literature of martyrologies - a Shi'i specialty - and form the theme of Shi'i gatherings in the first third of the month of Muharram, whose tenth day ('ashura) is kept as the anniversary of the tragedy at Karbala. Scenes of that tragedy are also presented on this day of commemoration in dramatic form (ta'ziya). 'Our feast days are our assemblies of mourning.' So concludes a poem by a prince of Shi'i disposition recalling the many mihan of the Prophet's family. Weeping and lamentation over the evils and persecutions suffered by the 'Alid family, and mourning for its martyrs: these are things from which loyal supporters of the cause cannot cease. 'More touching than the tears of the Shi'is' has even become an Arabic proverb."
[Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, Princeton, 1981, p. 179]

8. Edward Gibbon
(1737-1794) Considered the greatest British historian of his time.

"In a distant age and climate the tragic scene of the death of Hussain will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader."
[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1911, volume 5, pp. 391-2]

9. Thomas Carlyle has relayed this about the Tragedy of Karbala:

"The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of Karbala is that Hussain and his companions were the rigid believers of God. They illustrated that numerical superiority does not count when it comes to truth and falsehood. The victory of Hussain despite his minority marvels me!"

Very well researched and intellectually rigorous. I am so happy to see this piece and the noble intention behind it. We need more of such dialogue and interaith reconciliation.

MAy Allah SWT reward you for your noble work..

Edited by lfatima, 01 January 2008 - 11:10 PM.

[lfatima]

 phknrocket1k, on Jan 24 2007, 03:32 PM, said:

You missed the point completely.

The Shia historical experience is akin to those of the Jews and Christians in that it is is a millennium-long tale of martyrdom, persecution and suffering. Sunni's, by contrast are imbued with a sense that immediate worldly success should be theirs. Sunni Islam made huge strides as a force in the world very quickly. Within a generation after Prophet Muhammad (saw), Arab tribal armies had exploded from their native peninsula to defeat the three superpowers of the time, overrunning the Persian and Egyptian empires and pushing the Byzantines out of the Near East into Anatolia. Muslim armies continued to conquer, moving across North Africa, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar (named after the Arab commander Tariq) to control the Iberian Peninsula, and pushing into  Western-Europe until the Franks stopped them at the Battle of Tours-Poiters in 732 CE.

Given thier history, the Shia would never associate thier faiths validity with worldly success. The Sunnis, by contrast, became accustomed to celebrating thier dominon in the world through the muscular temporal institution of the caliphate. As a result, Shias seem to find it less threatening than the Sunnis do the relative decline of Muslim Power in modern times, since for the Shiah such a decline does not suggest a crises of beleif.

WOw awesome point. Everyday this forum enlightens me more and more..I really have to think about THAt one..
Always wondered why Muslims lost so much.. a la Allama Iqbal..
Kalme padhte the ham chayon mein talwaron ki..
BUt the SHia are also part of much cultural baggage.. esp in the subcontinent..so the danger is always there. The Effort never ceases and the jihad with the nafs and culture never ends.
The day we become complascnet and 'cultural' Muslims is the day we lost the spirit of real Islam..
May Allah SWT reward you all for your quust for knowledge and its spreading to fellow humans..
and hasten the Reappearance of our Qaim ATFS..

Edited by lfatima, 01 January 2008 - 11:16 PM.

[Mustafa R. Al-Hassani]

 Ali Mahdi, on Jan 20 2007, 02:01 PM, said:

Mourning Imam Husain

ibn ‘Abbas reports from Imam Amir al-Momenin, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taleb who said:

"Once Prophet Jesus was passing by Karbala when he sat down and began to weep. His disciples (hawariyoun) who were observing him, followed suit and began weeping too. But not understanding the reason for this behaviour, they asked him:
'Oh Spirit of God! What is that which makes you weep?'
Jesus said:
'Do you know what land this is?'
The disciples replied: 'No'
He then said:
'This is the land on which the son of Prophet Ahmad (Mohammad) shall be killed.'"

Behaar al-Anwaar
Volume 44, page 252

[UIE]

if any on is interested in a book about karbala you could contact me at sjafri7865@yahoo.com becuse i can sell you some books on this topic

[pakistanyar]

 yonus, on Jan 20 2007, 02:29 AM, said:

Christians holocost is Jesus crucifixion .

Jews holcost began in the first century .

Muslim shia holocost is tragedy of imam Hussein.

I think muslim sunnis need holocost .

Ashura and Imam Hussain are for all Muslims sunni and Shia and even nonmuslims

[Meesum-e-Tammar]

I was reading this thread and could not help being impressed by such smart personalities who write this thread on reading another hindu admirer of Imam Hussain came to mind and i felt that i had to share it with you people.

The famous hindu was none other that Mr Gandhi his non violence struggle was inspired by kabala and he was so inspired by iman hussains teachings and his wilingness to avert a fight that he came up with the idea of satyagrah that is a non violence way of fighting against injustice.

Again not many people know this but Mr. Gandhi tried to mimic Imam hussain whenever the situation presented itself, his famous dandhi march (protesting against the british on the tax on salt) was joined by many freedom fighters but he started the journey with 72 of his closest friends and companions and later many people joined him, to honour the 72 comarades of imam hussain

Just a kids thought in a room full of professors and specialist on the matter

[blister]

Baqar my friend I hope all is well with you and your family.

I keep a copy of your article in my documents and posted it on another web site as well.

Blister

[Leto]

Imam Hussain is a source of inspiration for all that believe in a righteous world. It will be world in which those who usurp power and crush the weak have perished in the judgement of God.

Such a world can only come to be by the blood and sacrifice of righteous people that refuse to bow for the power of this world and stand up against the abuse that reigns our world. Imam Hussain was such a person and, even though he died, his victory on the forces of evil enlights humanity till this day.

Thanks for this thread!

Edited by Leto, 08 April 2011 - 10:27 AM.

[RedWaterCup]

Thank you for the remembrance, what a wonderful post!

[ana_ma3a_al_haq]

thanks for this post ! Jazaka Allahu gaira

[Logical Islam]

IF ONLY this was the result you got when you google imaged ashura, instead of kids in blood.

Great idea !

[jobsikd]

thanks for nice sharing............

[CLynn]

Baqar made these two statements:

"OK, there does not have to be a caliph at all if God does not want it. But we believe God asked Mohammad to declare one."

"In essence, the caliphate does not have to be in the family of the Prophet. But apparently God so chose it to be."

and it made me curious to know;
Why is it believed that God asked Muhammad to declare a caliph?
and
Why is it believed that God chose for the caliph to be in the family of the prophet?

The qur'an being the word of allah, isn't the qur'an silent on this issue?

Thanks and salaam.

 Meesum-e-Tammar, on 18 October 2009 - 05:22 AM, said:

I was reading this thread and could not help being impressed by such smart personalities who write this thread on reading another hindu admirer of Imam Hussain came to mind and i felt that i had to share it with you people.

The famous hindu was none other that Mr Gandhi his non violence struggle was inspired by kabala and he was so inspired by iman hussains teachings and his wilingness to avert a fight that he came up with the idea of satyagrah that is a non violence way of fighting against injustice.

Again not many people know this but Mr. Gandhi tried to mimic Imam hussain whenever the situation presented itself, his famous dandhi march (protesting against the british on the tax on salt) was joined by many freedom fighters but he started the journey with 72 of his closest friends and companions and later many people joined him, to honour the 72 comarades of imam hussain

Just a kids thought in a room full of professors and specialist on the matter

It is good that we learn from one another.  
In this case Ghandi learning from Hussain according to what you say.  This is how cultures improve themselves, by learning from one another, like the days of the Ottoman empire.