MUHARRAM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE (5)
By:Syed-Mohsin
Naquvi
21 January 2006
This is the fifth article in the series
on Muharram and its significance.
We began this series with an
introduction to the concept of Imamat in Islam. The first article in
this series introduced that concept from the holy Qur’an. The second
article presented a view of the same concept from Hadeeth by way of a
book review.
In the third of the series
we looked at the historical background of the ceremony of Hajj and its
connection to the event of
Karbala.
In the fourth article of the
series we came back to the direct historical background of the
Karbala story itself. We quoted a passage from a Ph.D.
thesis on Islamic history and presented to our readers the background
of how Yazeed came to power in the month of Rajab of the 60th
year of Hijra and he commanded the governor of Madinah to send for
Husayn and insist on his Ba’yat. Husayn left Madinah on the 28th
of Rajab for Makkah after having refused to that demand.
Husayn stays in
Makkah until the month of Zil-Q’adah. During that stay he receives a
number of letters from the people of
Iraq who were asking him to come to
Iraq and free them from the oppressive rule of the Umayyads.
Husayn does not respond to those letters for a while. His friends
exhort him not to go to
Iraq.
I had only published the
first two articles in the series that I began receiving negative
comments from some of the readers. One reader expressed the view that
Karbala was just a power struggle between two parties.
Another view was that my writings were nothing but one-sided
propaganda. Another forum threatened to ban me from their group if did
not stop writing on that subject. I finally un-subscribed from that
Group. However, it prompted me to change my line of thinking and write
on the subject of why people have such diverse views about
Karbala.
It is obvious that when a
writer writes about any topic, he/she has a specific point-of-view
about that. I, too, have a specific point-of-view about
Karbala, Imam Husayn and the month of Muharram. My view is
that those three things are closely related. When Husayn refused the
original demand of the B’ayat from the government, he considered
himself as a pious Muslim and a person deserving of leadership or
Imamat. When the people of
Iraq wrote to him they addressed him as their Imam. Those
people who commemorate the martyrdom of Husayn every year in the month
of Muharram, consider him as an Imam – a person truly worthy of
Allah’s favours due to his personal piety (TAQWA) and devotion, and
one who gave his life trying to protect the basic human rights of an
individual as well as trying to protect the law of Allah.
That is why, my discussion
on this topic would revolve around the concept of Imamat and I will
make efforts to explain my specific point-of-view on those lines
However, I support all my points by rational arguments.
How
Karbala Has been Viewed in History
Let us first list the diverse views on
the event of
Karbala:
-
Karbala
is the epitome of one man’s selfless sacrifice to preserve individual
freedom and human rights against all kinds of oppression and tyranny.
-
Karbala
is the epitome of Islamic concept of martyrdom, as preserved in the
holy Qur’an
-
Karbala
is a symbol of peaceful opposition to oppressive and tyrannical rulers
-
Karbala
stands for rejection of any unjust dispensation, irrespective of the
price for opposing or seeking to change it. In the words of Hazrat Ali
(A.S), while an order based on Kufr may last for a while, tyranny will
not endure.
-
Karbala
was the result of two parties struggling for power.
We will now
list some of the famous historians and writers who have commented on
Karbala in their own way:
-
“It is from
Hussain (A.S) that we have learnt the message of the Holy Quran.” --
Dr. Anne Marie Schimmel
-
"In a distant age
and clime, the scene of the death of Hussain would evoke the sympathy
of the coldest reader" --- Edward Gibbon
-
"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." --- Sir William Muir in his
-
"The fall of Husain, a
quite mediocre person, excites the Shi'as to the point of delirium"
--- Lammens, Islam: Beliefs and Institutions, p.144
-
“In commemoration of al-Husayn’s
martyrdom the Shi’ah Moslems have established first ten days of
Muharram as days of lamentation, and have developed a passion play
stressing his heroic struggle and suffering. This annual passion play
is enacted in two parts, one called Ashura (the tenth day) in al-Kazimayn
(close to Baghdad) in memory of the Battle, and the other forty days
after the tenth of Muharram is Karbala entitled ‘the Return of the
Head.’ The blood of Husayn, even more than that of his
father, proved to be the seed of the Shi’ite church.” -- P.K. Hitti,
History of the Arabs.
-
“Husayn drew up his comrades --- a
handful of men and boys --- for battle against the host which
surrounded him. All the harrowing details invented by grief and
passion can scarcely heighten the tragedy of the closing scene. It
would appear that the Umayyad officers themselves shrank from the
odium of a general massacre, and hoped to take the Prophet’s
grandson alive. Shamir, however, had no such scruples. Chafing at
delay, he urged his soldiers to assault. The unequal struggle was soon
over. Husayn 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
Husayn as a martyr and Yazid as his murderer; while modern historians,
for the most part, agree with Sir W. Muir, who points out that Husayn,
‘having yielded himself to a treasonable, though impotent design upon
the throne, was committing an offence that endangered society and
demanded swift suppression.’ This was naturally the view
of the party in power, and the reader must form his own conclusion as
to how far it justifies the action which they took. For Muslims the
question is decided by the relation of the Umayyads to Islam……………
Yazid was a bad Churchman, therefore he was a wicked tyrant;
the one thing involves the other. From our unprejudiced standpoint, he
was an amiable prince who inherited his mother’s poetic talent, and
infinitely preferred wine, music, and sport to the drudgery of public
affairs.” --- R.A. Nicholson, A Literary History of The Arabs
-
Ibn Taymiyyah, a Hnabali scholar who
lived during the 7th-8th century, is full of
contempt for those who have made Muharram a time of mourning and
commemoration for the martyrdom on Imam Husayn.
-
Mawlana Abul A’ala Mawdi (a 20th
century scholar of
Pakistan) has given an elaborate thesis on how a conflict
between two warring Muslim parties has to be resolved. This, he has
discussed in his work TAFHEEM-UL-QUR’AN in the commentary to chapter
49, Sura Hujrat. IN that he has mentioned the martyrdom of Imam Husayn
as a precedent set in history for later jurisprudential scholars to
use as a paradigm in conflict-resolution. In his opinion, Imam Husayn
was right in standing up to Yazid’s oppressive policies and un-Islamic
behaviour. He actually implies that it was Imam Husayn’s duty as the
grandson of the Prophet and as an elder of the Muslim community to
take that stand.
-
Someone wrote to Imam Ghazali (6th
century Hijra) and asked him whether it was OK to denounce Yazid for
what he did with Imam Husayn and his family. Imam Ghazali wrote a long
reply in which he conceded that Yazid was definitely wrong in killing
Imam Husayn and oppressing his family but it was advisable not to say
La’anat on Yazid. Because that creates a hatred in the heart of the
Muslims for the senior companions of the Prophet.
Having said all
that, let me look at our own present times.
Iraq has suddenly become the center stage for a great
global political activity ever since President Bush decided to attack
the country in 2002.
The city of
Karbala lies in
Iraq, where Imam Husayn’s glorious mausoleum is a very
central object of devotion and pilgrimage for the devotees.
That
mausoleum has been attacked by various rulers as well as rogue enemies
over the last one thousand years and has been rebuilt.
IN
later articles in this series, we would discuss why and how an inert
object made of mortar and steel can become an object of
discomfort and displeasure for some powerful people; so much so, they
would resort to destroy the buildings. At the same time, how is it
that for some people that same object could be a symbol of veneration
and consolation in times of trials and grief.
Obviously, it all has something to do with the person who is buried
there, the Imam Husayn.
We will discuss the various
statements made by scholars as above and the views held by various
people and groups about Muharram and
Karbala in view of that in the coming numbers in this
series.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
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