Adil Najam
I write these lines as midnight strikes in Pakistan on the night between 9th and 10th Moharram. I write these lines as the news on television flashes news about blasts and bombs all around. How much more poignant could the message of Ashura be than it is today? Each year, it seems, the message of Ashura becomes more poignant and more important than the year before. But each year, it also seems, that the message becomes less understood. Each of us has to understand what that message means to us. All I can do today is to repeat my own understanding, in the very same words I had used the last two years.
To me, Ashura 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 these 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, 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
Today, as I listen to him again, so many more layers of meaning unfold. So many deep wounds open up. So many new thoughts come flooding in. And, yet, I have nothing new to say. Maybe you can share what the message of Ashura means to you in a world that continues to be unjust and unjustly violent?
Life became a cheap commodity, no one cares for;
Streets filed with bodies in pieces, no one cares for.
Shops burned, peoples livelihood destroyed, no one cares for.
People parading in rituals with masks, no one cares for;
Worship of idols, acts of pagans, no one cares for.
I will request the sensible people here not to take the bait of the couple of fasaddis who only wants to destroy Islam by making Muslims fight against each other through their hate filled comments inciting sectarianism. Ignore them and the lies they are spreading in their support for Taliban and other enemies of Islam. By answering them you only give them importance they do not deserve.
Musharram and Ashura stand as reminders that we must stand against those who are unjust and stand against those who try to convert the religion into something other than what it was meant to be. It should be a source of reflection and thinking about how to make the world a more just and fair place. To me, that is the message of this day.
{This occasion has been usurped by bidaats, which will never be accepted by Allah, as confirmed in the Hadith in Sahih Bukhari.
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This guy can talk to Allah.. and Sahih Bukhari the book which was written after 200 years of death of Rasool Allah is 100% authentic and above Quran which clearly prescribed the rememberence of sacred and loved ones.. I suggest you should never read whole bukhari kahi dil na toot jai. :)
If you think that the period of Salaf was perfect then I suggest you should stop reading the Islamiat books reviewed by Zia-ul-Haq book board and seek real education in history.
here are questions for you to ask before having the nerves of pointing fingures over shia beliefs.
– What do you think about the ‘biddats’ like Ghusl-e-Kaaba, ghaibana Salaat, Taraweeh.
-Where is concept of Khilafat in Quran?
– How come Hazrat Ali move the capital from Medina if conditions were so perfect for Ahl-e-Bait?
– What is the issue of Fadak (inherritence of Rasool Allah)?
– How come Imam Hasan wasnt allowed to be burried next to prophet and who attacked his funrel procession?
– How was right pick between Hazrat Ali and Bibi Ayesha in jang-e-Jamal?? or Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Muyawaiya in the other war?
– Agar sab shahzaday hein then Who are the Munafiq addressed in Surah-e-Munafiqoon in quran? clearly they are some people around Rasool…
ask mullah qudrat ullah jee if he knows some of the answers cause my answers you wont like without having a frown on your face.
lol
well if the way muharrum is celebrated is bidaat, 1500 yrs have passed, so my question is to all so called thaikadaars of right islam. if this is not the right way of celebrating and remembering Hussain what is?
1500 yrs have passed, what have the extremist done to remember Hussain. what is their history? what alternative best way they have proposed to remember Hussain, and condemn yazeed. tell us how to do it? and we will listen.
but if your alternative is to do nothing then my answer is also
this
“shah ast husain, padshah ast husain”
“deen ast husain, deen panah ast husain”
“sar dad na dad dast, dar daste yazeed”
“haqqa binna la illah as husain”
Hussain zinda bad, yazeed or qomay yazeed murda bad