Imam Hussain – The Reformist of  Human Values

By Ali Haider (alihaider1960@gmail.com)

Islam is a religion which came as a blessing amongst the Arabs who were living in an age of ignorance. An era of cruelty, bloodshed of innocent, oppression, treachery, extreme violation of woman rights, polytheism and superstitious beliefs. The implementation of this religion amongst the Arabs was the greatest revolution in the world which was undertaken by the grandfather of Imam Hussain (a.s), the Holy Prophet Mohammed (s.a.w.s). This revolution brought by this great man on divine principles was not exclusively for Arabs only, it spread across the globe.

The soul of Islam does not lie in certain acts of worships or a collection of obligatory and prohibited set of laws. Islamic acts revolve in an orbit of core human values, whose axis is monotheism i.e. belief in one non materialistic creator. Islamic beliefs specify it very clearly that what is referred to as Islamic values are nothing but human values which were planted inside the human innate nature from the time human being was created. Human being was given a choice to either abide by the demands of his innate nature or move along the lines of his/her desires. This factor of intention and choice granted to Human being made him prestigious and esteemed over all other creations. But it also resulted into a war within its own self, a war between truth and desires, a war between values and passions. The effects of this internal war got manifested in social form, whereby human being in his never ending quest for power, pleasure and love of world went into a destruction mode. As a result many ideologies came into existence which revolved around the materialistic needs of human being. Islam on the other hand presented an ideology which revolved around a value system.

As truth and equality is established and evil eradicated from one era, it still remains subject to corruption and evil invasions as time passes until unless a system is in place which defends the values. It is essential at this stage to mention a few important human values presented by Islam. Though morality, worship and ethic form the basis of Islamic Ideology, but still they are more focussed towards self development. Whereas the core values presented by Islam are highly focussed towards society and human beings relation with other human being and nature. These core values cannot be kept alive or nurtured unless self development takes place inside human being. Hence self development, principles of worship and ethics act as a launch pad for the revival and implementation of the core values.

Certain values presented by Islam are  no submission to any form of oppression and cruelty, patience and forbearance coupled in a state of action, freedom from all sorts of slavery, Self Respect, No defamation and humiliation of self, Sacrifice, Justice in all forms, Sense of Responsibility etc. These values can be very clearly understood by a common sense that they are nothing specific to any ideology, they are core human values. As mentioned before, that the war between good and evil has always been present and evil has always aimed to suppress these values sometimes in form of oppression, slavery, targeting woman chastity or in direct bloodshed of innocents.

In order to protect these values Islam devises a plan, whereby it makes it mandatory on all Muslims to invite others towards Recognized Good Values and Forbid from Evils, which in Islamic terminologies is known as Amr Bil Maroof and Nahi Anal Munkar. Islam further strengthened this process by associating it with Jihad (crusade). In Islam a holy war is only undertaken for the defence of life, property and values. Islam does not permit a war to acquire others properties, territories or to take innocent people’s lives. Since defending the core values is so crucial for the ethical, moral and spiritual development of society, Islam even went ahead to encourage sacrifice of life in order to defend values. This is what is meant by Martyrdom. In Islam Martyrdom is giving life by your own will in a state of struggle for a much higher cause and purpose, and nothing is considered higher than defending the values. If values are attacked, Islam does not permit silence at all. Islam commands us to move out and do whatever we can even to the extent of giving away all your possessions, life , children etc to defend these values, since values keep the soul of monotheism alive in a society which results into peace. A Holy War in Islam is for the purpose of uprooting corruption and establishing justice and peace only.

Such was the situation at the time of the grandson of Holy Prophet (s) also. After the Holy Prophet(s) went on his final heavenly ascension, the people gradually went towards a state of degradation and certain values were getting adulterated in the society. In 50 years of time, it so happened that the people became senseless and did not care about who is ruling, they succumbed to oppression and became only concerned about their invidualistic affairs of religion only. It went to an extent, that Yazid bin Muawiyah was forced as the Caliph and despite of being aware of his character; despite of the fact that he openly denied the Islamic value system and promoted liberalism, the people remained silent. The situation came to a dangerous point where if no action was taken all the Islamic teachings and human values would have been buried.

This is where the grandson of Holy Prophet (s) stood up. Imam Hussain (a) started his uprising by first extending a slogan cum invitation to the entire nation. His slogan was not to bear oppression. He said that Truth is being tortured in front of your eyes, falsehood is being promoted but you are silent. As a result of his call, people responded also but due to fear and terrorism by the state they went back and betrayed Imam Hussain (a). Still, he decided to carry on with his mission. He marked the purpose of his mission as “Reformation of the nation of his Grandfather”. In Islam reformation stands against corruption. Though the corruption was being directly spread by Yazid (the Caliph), he was the oppressor, he was the tyrant. But Imam Hussain (a) said, he is going to remove corruption from the society. What he meant by this was, that Yazid is a tyrant, an oppressor and a criminal but it is the people who are silent and accepting this oppression. He himself could have started a direct war with Yazid and using miraculous powers could have uprooted Yazid, but that would have been a temporary solution. He wanted to set a path which generations can follow to uproot tyranny and oppression.

The mission of Imam Hussain (a) was to reform the values in the society which were corrupted. The people had become senseless to oppression, the people have lost courage to stand up and fight against crimes. It was essential now to do something. By moving out with his companions, his near and dear ones which included the women of his household, young children and even an infant of six months, he presented to the world, that Hussain’s uprising is not for power but it was defence of values and to defend values you have to sacrifice all what you possess. And he did it; he sacrificed everything on the plains of Karbala. He was martyred with his entire family and even his six months old infant in the most brutal manner. As a result the holy and pure blood of the grandson of Prophet (s) sent a wake up call amongst the people. The bare headed, chained women and children of his family spread this message through their captivity. They delivered eloquent sermons regarding this tragedy and thereby awakened the people, which eventually resulted into uprooting of the regime of Yazid through the hands of the people.

So now the answer to the most commonly raised question should be very much clear. The question is that why do we Shiites commemorate this epic in such a state of grief and mourning. We do not do this for the sake of earning some heavenly rewards. We are not traders of the blood of the grandson of our Holy Prophet(s). We mourn to present to the world how much we love Hussain (a.s), for the reason that he sacrificed everything he had for the sake of preservation of Islamic or human values. We, by our mourning gatherings send messages across the world, that through the spirit of Imam Hussain (a) we will never tolerate oppression, we will rise against all sorts of oppression, cruelty and terrorism. And we are sure of victory also. Because the 72 companions of Imam Hussain (a) against 1000’s of enemies have proved how victory can be achieved without weapons and army mass.

If the Islamic values are human values, then the struggle of Imam Hussain (a) was a struggle for humanity. His uprising is for entire humanity. He, on the plains of Karbala presented the practical laws on how you can eradicate oppression from your lands even if you are in minority. There are many revolutionists in history who were inspired by Imam Hussain (a.s) struggle. Mahatma Gandhi explicitly said that his freedom fight was inspired by Imam Hussain (a.s)’s struggle. Why?  Because freedom from slavery is a human value. Today if the world needs freedom, if the world needs justice, if the world is looking for peace and if the word wants salvation from fear of terrorism, then there is no other way other than the path of Imam Hussain (a.s), We need to learn to not to tolerate injustice, oppression and crimes. It is our silence towards acts of injustice which gives more fuel to tyrants and hegemonic powers. If humanity unites on the basis of values, then the tyrants can never succeed in their plans. It is our silence which gives birth to extremist components in our society who in the name of religion, by adulterating divine principles adopt terrorism thereby taking lives of innocent.

In these days, we Shiites are giving an invitation to entire humanity, to at least come forward and study what this man Imam Hussain (a.s) did. There is no harm in looking into this epic and analyzing it. Acceptance or Rejection is in your hands. We, in these aggrieved days of mourning pray to our Almighty Lord to help us with all possible means, vigour and courage to uproot all sorts of oppression, tyranny, terrorism and injustice from each and every corner of the world and let us make this world a world of peace and justice - a place where the values are alive.