10 Moharram – Ashura

Posted on January 30, 2007
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Religion, Society
86 Comments
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Adil Najam

Today is the 10th of Muharram. Ashura.

It commemorates a struggle that is steeped in deep spiritual meaning, not only for Islamic history but for all humanity. It is a struggle between good and evil, between just and unjust, between weak and powerful, between immediate and the eternal, between principle and ambition. The power of Ashura is not only in the epic events that it commemorates, it is in the narrative of those events, in the symbolisms that we construct. Ultimately, it is in the meanings that we derive from those events.

Muharram is, of course, of special significance to Shias. But the events and meaning of Ashura is of significance and relevance to all Muslims, and I would suggest, to all humans everywhere.


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Like so many others growing up in a Sunni household I grew up observing ehteram-i-Muharram and am always drawn in the days leading up to Ashura towards thinking about the meaning of religion and of faith. To me these have always been days of deep spiritual reflection; especially of intellectual enquiry into the meaning of justice (the concept of ‘adl’ holds a deep significance to me given the name I was given at birth and therefore I have always interpreted Ashura particularly as a time to reflect on what justice is).

Growing up in Pakistan, the night of Ashura was always defined for me by the Majlis i Shaam i Gharibaan (often by Allama Naseer ul Ijtihaadi) on PTV on the night of dasveen Muharram, which was followed immediately – and at right about midnight – by Syed Nasir Jahan’s soulful recitation of Salam-i-Akhir.

Bachay to aglay baras hum hain aur yeh gham phir hai
Jo chal basay tou yeh appna salam-i-akhir hai

His soulful voice, so pregnant with a deep and heartfelt pain, always echoes in my head when I read of continuing sectarian violence and the instigation of sectarian hatred.

Also echoing in my head are memories of the eloquent narratives of those PTV Shaam i Gharibaan’s. What I took from my yearly ritual of sitting glued to the screen was that the message of Ashura, of Karbala, is a universal and humanist messages. Justice is a universal message. Courage is a universal message. Conviction is a universal message. Sacrifice is a universal message.

It is the universality of the messages of Ashura that I hope we will all reflect upon. Every one of these messages is literally torn asunder each Muharram when the merchants of sectarianism highjack these commemorations with their vitriolic politics of fear, of difference, of hatred.

While these are universal messages, they are also – as they must be – messages of Pakistaniat. Yasser Hamdani sent me this quote from Mohammad Ali Jinnah published in a souvenir commemorating the 1300th anniversay of Imam Hussain’s shahadat.

There cannot be a better and more illustrious example than that of Husein who was the greatest embodiment of courage, conviction and sacrifice and every Mussalman in particular should take the great example of his life and service and follow it.

Jinnah was right. He would probably be pained to see how not only his own message, but that of Imam Hussain’s life -and death – have been so very lost on so many of his countrymen today.

86 responses to “10 Moharram – Ashura”

  1. Poor Hungry Doctor says:

    [quote comment=”32293″]Doc: What good deeds are you talking about? I am sure you know whats going on in Iraq in the name of Shiaism & Sunnism? What unity are you talking about? Do you have statistics in Pakistan about the killings in the name of religion? I don’t agree that people who spend all their day on the roads beating themselves fast or even pray or read Quran? Is that what their Imam taught them? I just feel bad when educated people also have very poor insight…Muhram has just become a cultural event, I don’t think it has anything to do with the teachings of Holy Prophet…its like Basant..have some hulla ghulla…[/quote]

    Mr. Bhatti,

    1. If we would like to discuss Iraq, then lets go to Iraqiat.com or something and continue there. Besides, how old is the Iraq secterian imroligo? Did it exist 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20, 30, 50 years ago?

    2. The unity I as well as many others are talking about is the unity or at least the desire for unity amongst common people which is well represented in the comments here. You can bring in all the statistics you want and they will show that not only were doctors and lawyers and others were killed just because they belonged to a certain sect but junior and senior law enforcement personell were also targetted regardless of sect. Therefore your statistics would point to a criminal or conspiratorial element rather than some seething, deep rooted resentment amongst the sects.

    3. The people who are as you say out on the roads beating themselves all day do usually fast and pray and read the Qur’an. Like I said the whole expression of passion is part of the people’s devotion to the Ahl e bait which does not absolve them of thier duty to Allah, but even then at the end of the day it is between them and thier creator what they do and not do. We should all evaluate our own piety rather than tut tutting others.

    4. Well its a bit more than culture since the family of the messenger who brought us our religion were made to suffer terribly, but even so whats wrong with culture? While it might be hulla ghulla for you but for others its a solemn and serious affair.

  2. Umer says:

    Guyz, may I propose something. We all agree that

    (1) The vast vast majority of Shia an Sunni DO consider themselves as Muslims first and anything else second, and that is how it should be.
    (2) There are some Sunnis who cross the line in condemning the Shia for their practices and some time (very very infrequently) even say hurtful things about people who the Shia (and most Muslims in general) hold especially dear. We all agree that this is just wrong thing to do.

    (3) There are some Shia who cross the line in condemning the Sunnis and some time (very very infrequently) even say hurtful things about people who the Sunnis (and most Muslims in general) hold especially dear. We all agree that this is just wrong thing to do.

    (4) Most Sunnis and most Shias do, in fact, respect each other’s practices and see themselves as Muslims first. We should all try to focus on strengthening these feelings and not falling for the minorities described in (2) and (3).

  3. Umer says:

    Listen to yourself guys. We are again being sucked away towards the ‘small’ stuff…. Why do we have to have only ONE view of what a Muslim is supposed to be…. if you agree that first and foremost you are a Muslim, then be what you be – Shia, Sunni, Wahabi, whatever. As long as your being whatever you are does not require you to think LESS of others. What is wrong is the arrogance of looking down on others and thinking of yourself as superior, beyond that, lets leave God’s business to God and use the lessons of whatever you are for turnig ourselves into better human beings… isn’t that the ultimate purpose of all religion….

    Sometimes, I wonder how Adil can stand this day in and day out… writing something noble and nice and then seeing it being torn and taken in directions that he probably never intended to go to!

    Beware of Fasad, my friends. There is much more I am sure that we have in common than in difference.

  4. Umer says:

    Folks let me urge and please to you again not to get sucked into debates that serve no purpose and lets focus more on what we can do to improve our situations. I used to have a teacher who used to say: “choose your battles carefully. not every battle is worth fighting.”

  5. Umer says:

    Thank you Samdani for nipping this in the bud. This is classic case of what we used to call ‘teeli lagana’. No evidence, no reference, no facts. Just throw a rumor without any facts or substantiation that you know is inflamatory. There are lots of people and books that entice this hatred. It is like throwing a bomb into a crows and running away.

    People, please let us all keep focussed on the real message here and not be distracted by such shooda baazi. I am sure this gentleman will try again, I plead you not to fall for his bait.

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