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.
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.
hi
pakistan is a country where the shia are in minority. muharram every year increases unduly tension and fears of attacks on ashura processions especially keeping in view the current world geo politics. although at a communal level sunni and shia have no problems, the extremist groups supported by iran and arab states continue to dominate the headlines by attacking each other in a spiral of sectarian violence. i feel that pakistani shias should be large hearted and confine their ashura activities inside imambargahs and not use street processions as means of observing muharam. shia leaders sometimes insisit on such processions passing thru sunni areas on the plea that it is their traditional route. i beleive this is a futile argument and serves only to increase tensions.this also causes district adminstartions and law enforcement agencies a lot of headaches. such behaviour should end and all communities should avoid shoving their faith in other peoples faces.the twelver shias should follow the example of dawoodi bohras and ismailis , both shia sects who are law abiding and against confrontation. this will have a good impact on the sunni majority and end the propaganbda of extremist sunni parties like sipahe sahaba and sunni tehreek.
I am somewhat late, but since the door is still open, allow me to squeeze in.
Adil, I like the calligraphy of “Husayn bin A’alyâ€
Eidee mian,
Why don’t you just admit that you deliberately tried to pin “revision” on me by assuming that by “his son” I meant Prophet’s grandson and not Muawiyah’s son Yazid, whereas I clearly meant Yazid.
By not “dignifying” my response you have thoroughly “undignified” yourself.
Stop calling your self Shia, Sunni, Wahabee etc etc.
Aik hoo muslim haram kee passbaane kae leae
Neel kae sahil sae lae kar, tabba khae kashgar
If you do that, Holy Prophet, Hazrat Imaam Hussain & all the Shabaas will be proud of you!!!That will be the real observence of Ashura and love for these personalities!!
I’m not going to dignify some of the comments by replying to them. But it seems like my point is being twisted the wrong way.
What I meant was that for one, denying the tragedy of Hussain is basically an attempt at revising history. And coming up with arguments such as Yazid’s army prayed before launching a massacre is beyond ridiculous…you know, Osama Bin Laden and crew probably pray 5 times a day as well….I guess that makes their “extracurricular activities” acceptable.
The bottom line is, as others have said, if you think that some Shias are taking things to extremes, then you can certainly express your differing point of view but at the end of the dya you have to realize that you’re not god and have no position to JUDGE. Like I mentioned before, some people in my local mosque belive that “Quran Khwani” is bidah (innovation)…and that basically it is an excuse for having a party…now, who is right here?
That’s the problem with us Muslims (myself included)…even if there is 99% similarity and 1% difference, we’ll beat the 1% over and over again…..