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Article 4
Imam Husain And His Martyrdom
By Abdullah Yusuf Ali
Renowned English translator and commentator of the Holy
Qur'an
(Progressive Islam Pamphlet No. 7, September, 1931)
Introduction:
The month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar,
brings with it the memory of the sacrifice of Imam Husayn [a],
the grandson of Prophet Muhammad [s], and his noble family and
friends. This short text reflects the deep admiration of its
author towards Imam Husayn [a] and an insight into the tragedy
of Karbala, its reasons and its consequences. It is presented
with the hope that it will foster the Islamic unity and the
brotherly love that the author seeks in his preface.
The author, of course, is none other than the well-known Sunni
English translator and commentator of the Qur'an, Abdullah Yusuf
Ali, who died in 1952 in England. Little would he have known
that his English translation and commentary of the Qur'an would
become so popular in the West and East alike, wherever English
is read and understood.
And little would he have known that later editions of his Qur'an
translation and commentary would undergo tampering such that
favorable references to Imam Husayn [a] would be deleted,
amongst other changes!(*)
Perhaps there are some out there who want to see the memory of
Imam Husayn [a] wiped out. Perhaps Karbala is not quite over
yet.
(*)
A detailed and documented case study is now available on
Tahrif!
Investigating Distortions in Islamic Texts
Imam Husain And His Martyrdom,
Abdullah Yusuf Ali (d. 1952), 41 pages
Lahore: M Feroz-ud-Din & Sons, 1931.
[Harvard]
[Columbia]
[McGill]
[MELVYL]
[Library
of Congress]
[Try the
Guide to
Online Libraries to locate this text elsewhere]
Preface
The following pages are based on a report of an Address which I
delivered in London at an Ashura Majlis on Thursday the 28th
May, 1931 (Muharram 1350 A.H.), at the Waldorf Hotel. The report
was subsequently corrected and slightly expanded. The Majlis was
a notable gathering, which met at the invitation of Mr. A. S. M.
Anik. Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan, Tiwana, presided and members of
all schools of thought in Islam, as well as non-Muslims, joined
reverently in doing honour to the memory of the great Martyr of
Islam. By its inclusion in the Progressive Islam Pamphlets
series, it is hoped to reach a larger public than were able to
be present in person. Perhaps, also, it may help to strengthen
the bonds of brotherly love which unite all who hold sacred the
ideals of brotherhood preached by the Prophet in his last
Sermon.
A. Yusuf Ali.
Imam Husain And His Martyrdom
Sorrow as a Bond of Union
I am going to talk this afternoon about a very solemn subject,
the martyrdom of Imam Husain at Kerbela, of which we are
celebrating the anniversary. As the Chairman has very rightly
pointed out, it is one of those wonderful events in our
religious history about which all sects are agreed. More than
that, in this room I have the honour of addressing some people
who do not belong to our religious persuasion, but I venture to
think that the view I put forward today may be of interest to
them from its historical, its moral and its spiritual
significance. Indeed, when we consider the background of that
great tragedy, and all that has happened during the 1289 lunar
years since, we cannot fail to be convinced that some events of
sorrow and apparent defeat are really the very things which are
calculated to bring about, or lead us towards, the union of
humanity.
How Martyrdom healed divisions
When we invite strangers or guests and make them free of our
family circle, that means the greatest outflowing of our hearts
to them. The events that I am going to describe refer to some of
the most touching incidents of our domestic history in their
spiritual aspect. We ask our brethren of other faiths to come,
and share with us some of the thoughts which are called forth by
this event. As a matter of fact all students of history are
aware that the horrors that are connected with the great event
of Kerbela did more than anything else to unite together the
various contending factions which had unfortunately appeared at
that early stage of Muslim history. You know the old Persian
saying applied to the Prophet:
Tu barae wasl kardan amadi;
Ni barae fasl kardan amadi.
"Thou camest to the world to unite, not to divide."
That was wonderfully exemplified by the sorrows and sufferings
and finally the martyrdom of Imam Husain.
Commemoration of great virtues
There has been in our history a tendency sometimes to celebrate
the event merely by wailing and tribulation, or sometimes by
symbols like the Tazias that you see in India, -
Taboots as some people call them. Well, symbolism or visible
emblems may sometimes be useful in certain circumstances as
tending to crystallise ideas. But I think the Muslims of India
of the present day are quite ready to adopt a more effective way
of celebrating the martyrdom, and that is by contemplating the
great virtues of the martyr, trying to understand the
significance of the events in which he took part, and
translating those great moral and spiritual lessons into their
own lives. From that point of view I think you will agree that
it is good that we should sit together, even people of different
faiths, - sit together and consider the great historic event, in
which were exemplified such soul-stirring virtues as those of
unshaken faith, undaunted courage, thought for others, willing
self-sacrifice, steadfastness in the right and unflinching war
against the wrong. Islam has a history of beautiful domestic
affections, of sufferings and of spiritual endeavour, second to
none in the world. That side of Muslim history, although to me
the most precious, is, I am sorry to say, often neglected. It is
most important that we should call attention to it, reiterated
attention, the attention of our own people as well as the
attention of those who are interested in historical and
religious truth. If there is anything precious in Islamic
history it is not the wars, or the politics, or the brilliant
expansion, or the glorious conquests, or even the intellectual
spoils which our ancestors gathered. In these matters, our
history, like all history, has its lights and shades. What we
need especially to emphasise is the spirit of organisation, of
brotherhood, of undaunted courage in moral and spiritual life.
Plan of discourse
I propose first to give you an idea of the geographical setting
and the historical background. Then I want very briefly to refer
to the actual events that happened in the Muharram, and finally
to draw your attention to the great lessons which we can learn
from them.
Geographical Picture
In placing before you a geographical picture of the tract of
country in which the great tragedy was enacted, I consider
myself fortunate in having my own personal memories to draw
upon. They make the picture vivid to my mind, and they may help
you also. When I visited those scenes in 1928, I remember going
down from Baghdad through all that country watered by the
Euphrates river. As I crossed the river by a bridge of boats at
Al-Musaiyib on a fine April morning, my thoughts leapt over
centuries and centuries. To the left of the main river you have
the old classic ground of Babylonian history; you have the
railway station of Hilla; you have the ruins of the city of
Babylon, witnessing to one of the greatest civilisations of
antiquity. It was so mingled with the dust that it is only in
recent years that we have begun to understand its magnitude and
magnificence. Then you have the great river system of the
Euphrates, the Furat as it is called, a river unlike any
other river we know. It takes its rise in many sources from the
mountains of Eastern Armenia, and sweeping in great zig-zags
through rocky country, it finally skirts the desert as we see it
now. Wherever it or its interlacing branches or canals can
reach, it has converted the desert into fruitful cultivated
country; in the picturesque phrase, it has made the desert
blossom as the rose. It skirts round the Eastern edge of the
Syrian desert and then flows into marshy land. In a tract not
far from Kerbela itself there are lakes which receive its
waters, and act as reservoirs. Lower down it unites with the
other river, the Tigris, and the united rivers flow in the name
of the Shatt-al-Arab into the Persian Gulf.
Abundant water & tragedy of thirst
From the most ancient times this tract of the lower Euphrates
has been a garden. It was a cradle of early civilisation, a
meeting place between Sumer and Arab, and later between the
Persians and Arabs. It is a rich, well watered country, with
date-palms and pomegranate groves. Its fruitful fields can feed
populous cities and its luscious pastures attract the nomad
Arabs of the desert, with their great flocks and herds. It is of
particularly tragic significance that on the border of such a
well-watered land, should have been enacted the tragedy of great
and good men dying of thirst and slaughtered because they
refused to bend the knee to the forces of iniquity. The English
poet's lines "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink"
are brought home forcibly to you in this borderland between
abundant water and desolate sands.
Kerbela and Its Great Dome
I remember the emotion with which I approached Kerbela from the
East. The rays of the morning sun gilt the Gumbaz-i-Faiz,
the great dome that crowns the building containing the tomb of
Imam Husain. Kerbela actually stands on one of the great caravan
routes of the desert. Today the river city of Kufa, once a
Khilafat capital, is a mere village, and the city of Najaf is
famous for the tomb of Hazrat Ali, but of little commercial
importance. Kerbela, this outpost of the desert, is a mart and a
meeting ground as well as a sacred place. It is the port of the
desert, just as Basra, lower down, is a port for the Persian
Gulf. Beautifully kept is the road to the mausoleum, to which
all through the year come pilgrims from all parts of the world.
Beautiful coloured enamelled tiles decorate the building.
Inside, in the ceiling and upper walls, there is a great deal of
glass mosaic. The glass seems to catch and reflect the light.
The effect is that of rich coruscations of light combined with
the solemnity of a closed building. The tomb itself is in a sort
of inner grill, and below the ground is a sort of cave, where is
shown the actual place where the Martyr fell. The city of Najaf
is just about 40 miles to the South, with the tomb of Hazrat Ali
on the high ground. You can see the golden dome for miles
around. Just four miles from Najaf and connected with it by a
tramway, is the deserted city of Kufa. The mosque is large, but
bare and practically unused. The blue dome and the Mihrab
of enamelled tiles bear witness to the ancient glory of the
place.
Cities and their Cultural Meaning
The building of Kufa and Basra, the two great outposts of the
Muslim Empire, in the 16th year of the Hijra, was a visible
symbol that Islam was pushing its strength and building up a new
civilisation, not only in a military sense, but in moral and
social ideas and in the sciences and arts. The old effete cities
did not content it, any more than the old and effete systems
which it displaced. Nor was it content with the first steps it
took. It was always examining, testing, discarding,
re-fashioning its own handiwork. There was always a party that
wanted to stand on old ways, to take cities like Damascus
readymade, that loved ease and the path of least resistance. But
the greater souls stretched out to new frontiers - of ideas as
well as geography. They felt that old seats were like dead wood
breeding worms and rottenness that were a danger to higher forms
of life. The clash between them was part of the tragedy of
Kerbela. Behind the building of new cities there is often the
burgeoning of new ideas. Let us therefore examine the matter a
little more closely. It will reveal the hidden springs of some
very interesting history.
Vicissitudes of Mecca and Medina
The great cities of Islam at its birth were Mecca and Medina.
Mecca, the centre of old Arabian pilgrimage, the birthplace of
the Prophet, rejected the Prophet's teaching, and cast him off.
Its idolatry was effete; its tribal exclusiveness was effete;
its ferocity against the Teacher of the New Light was effete.
The Prophet shook its dust off his feet, and went to Medina. It
was the well-watered city of Yathrib, with a considerable Jewish
population. It received with eagerness the teaching of the
Prophet; it gave asylum to him and his Companions and Helpers.
He reconstituted it and it became the new City of Light. Mecca,
with its old gods and its old superstitions, tried to subdue
this new Light and destroy it. The human odds were in favour of
Mecca. But God's purpose upheld the Light, and subdued the old
Mecca. But the Prophet came to build as well as to destroy. He
destroyed the old paganism, and lighted a new beacon in Mecca -
the beacon of Arab unity and human brotherhood. When the
Prophet's life ended on this earth, his spirit remained. It
inspired his people and led them from victory to victory. Where
moral or spiritual and material victories go hand in hand, the
spirit of man advances all along the line. But sometimes there
is a material victory, with a spiritual fall, and sometimes
there is a spiritual victory with a material fall, and then we
have tragedy.
Spirit of Damascus
Islam's first extension was towards Syria, where the power was
centred in the city of Damascus. Among living cities it is
probably the oldest city in the world. Its bazaars are thronged
with men of all nations, and the luxuries of all nations find
ready welcome there. If you come to it westward from the Syrian
desert, as I did, the contrast is complete, both in the country
and in the people. From the parched desert sands you come to
fountains and vineyards, orchards and the hum of traffic. From
the simple, sturdy, independent, frank Arab, you come to the
soft, luxurious, sophisticated Syrian. That contrast was forced
on the Muslims when Damascus became a Muslim city. They were in
a different moral and spiritual atmosphere. Some succumbed to
the softening influences of ambition, luxury, wealth pride of
race, love of ease, and so on. Islam stood always as the
champion of the great rugged moral virtues. It wanted no
compromise with evil in any shape or form, with luxury, with
idleness, with the seductions of this world. It was a protest
against these things. And yet the representatives of that
protest got softened at Damascus. They aped the decadent princes
of the world instead of striving to be leaders of spiritual
thought. Discipline was relaxed, and governors aspired to be
greater than the Khalifas. This bore bitter fruit later.
Snare of Riches
Meanwhile Persia came within the Muslim orbit. When Medain was
captured in the year 16 of the Hijra, and the battle of Jalula
broke the Persian resistance, some military booty was brought to
Medina - gems, pearls, rubies, diamonds, swords of gold and
silver. A great celebration was held in honour of the splendid
victory and the valour of the Arab army. In the midst of the
celebration they found the Caliph of the day actually weeping.
One said to him, "What! a time of joy and thou sheddest tears?"
"Yes", he said, "I foresee that the riches will become a snare,
a spring of worldliness and envy, and in the end a calamity to
my people." For the Arab valued, above all, simplicity of life,
openness of character, and bravery in face of danger. Their
women fought with them and shared their dangers. They were not
caged creatures for the pleasures of the senses. They showed
their mettle in the early fighting round the head of the Persian
Gulf. When the Muslims were hard pressed, their women turned the
scale in their favour. They made their veils into flags, and
marched in battle array. The enemy mistook them for
reinforcements and abandoned the field. Thus an impending defeat
was turned into a victory.
Basra and Kufa: town-planning
In Mesopotamia the Muslims did not base their power on old and
effete Persian cities, but built new outposts for themselves.
The first they built was Basra at the head of the Persian Gulf,
in the 17th year of the Hijra. And what a great city it became!
Not great in war and conquest, not great in trade and commerce,
but great in learning and culture in its best day, - alas! also
great in its spirit of faction and degeneracy in the days of its
decline! But its situation and climate were not at all suited to
the Arab character. It was low and moist, damp and enervating.
In the same year the Arabs built another city not far off from
the Gulf and yet well suited to be a port of the desert, as
Kerbela became afterwards. This was the city of Kufa, built in
the same year as Basra, but in a more bracing climate. It was
the first experiment in town-planning in Islam. In the centre
was a square for the principal mosque. That square was adorned
with shady avenues. Another square was set apart for the
trafficking of the market. The streets were all laid out
intersecting and their width was fixed. The main thoroughfares
for such traffic as they had (we must not imagine the sort of
traffic we see in Charing Cross) were made 60 feet wide; the
cross streets were 30 feet wide; and even the little lanes for
pedestrians were regulated to a width of 10.5 feet. Kufa became
a centre of light and learning. The Khalifa Hazrat Ali lived and
died there.
Rivalry and poison of Damascus
But its rival, the city of Damascus, fattened on luxury and
Byzantine magnificence. Its tinsel glory sapped the foundations
of loyalty and the soldierly virtues. Its poison spread through
the Muslim world. Governors wanted to be kings. Pomp and
selfishness, ease and idleness and dissipation grew as a canker;
wines and spirituous liquors, scepticism, cynicism and social
vices became so rampant that the protests of the men of God were
drowned in mockery. Mecca, which was to have been a symbolical
spiritual centre, was neglected or dishonoured. Damascus and
Syria became centres of a worldliness and arrogance which cut at
the basic roots of Islam.
Husain the Righteous refused to bow to worldliness and power
We have brought the story down to the 60th year of the Hijra.
Yazid assumed the power at Damascus. He cared nothing for the
most sacred ideals of the people. He was not even interested in
the ordinary business affairs of administration. His passion was
hunting, and he sought power for self-gratification. The
discipline and self-abnegation, the strong faith and earnest
endeavour, the freedom and sense of social equality which had
been the motive forces of Islam, were divorced from power. The
throne at Damascus had become a worldly throne based on the most
selfish ideas of personal and family aggrandisement, instead of
a spiritual office, with a sense of God-given responsibility.
The decay of morals spread among the people. There was one man
who could stem the tide. That was Imam Husain. He, the grandson
of the Prophet, could speak without fear, for fear was foreign
to his nature. But his blameless and irreproachable life was in
itself a reproach to those who had other standards. They sought
to silence him, but he could not be silenced. They sought to
bribe him, but he could not be bribed. They sought to waylay him
and get him into their Power. What is more, they wanted him to
recognise the tyranny and expressly to support it. For they knew
that the conscience of the people might awaken at any time, and
sweep them away unless the holy man supported their cause. The
holy man was prepared to die rather than surrender the
principles for which he stood.
Driven from city to city
Medina was the centre of Husain's teaching. They made Medina
impossible for him. He left Medina and went to Mecca, hoping
that he would be left alone. But he was not left alone. The
Syrian forces invaded Mecca. The invasion was repelled, not by
Husain but by other people. For Husain, though the bravest of
the brave, had no army and no worldly weapons. His existence
itself was an offence in the eyes of his enemies. His life was
in danger, and the lives of all those nearest and dearest to
him. He had friends everywhere, but they were afraid to speak
out. They were not as brave as he was. But in distant Kufa, a
party grew up which said: "We are disgusted with these events,
and we must have Imam Husain to take asylum with us." So they
sent and invited the Imam to leave Mecca, come to them, live in
their midst, and be their honoured teacher and guide. His
father's memory was held in reverence in Kufa. The Governor of
Kufa was friendly, and the people eager to welcome him. But
alas, Kufa had neither strength, nor courage, nor constancy.
Kufa, geographically only 40 miles from Kerbela, was the
occasion of the tragedy of Kerbela. And now Kufa is nearly gone,
and Kerbela remains as the lasting memorial of the martyrdom.
Invitation from Kufa
When the Kufa invitation reached the Imam, he pondered over it,
weighed its possibilities, and consulted his friends. He sent
over his cousin Muslim to study the situation on the spot and
report to him. The report was favourable, and he decided to go.
He had a strong presentiment of danger. Many of his friends in
Mecca advised him against it. But could he abandon his mission
when Kufa was calling for it? Was he the man to be deterred,
because his enemies were laying their plots for him, at Damascus
and at Kufa? At least, it was suggested, he might leave his
family behind. But his family and his immediate dependants would
not hear of it. It was a united family, pre-eminent in the
purity of its life and in its domestic virtues and domestic
affections. If there was danger for its head, they would share
it. The Imam was not going on a mere ceremonial visit. There was
responsible work to do, and they must be by his side, to support
him in spite of all its perils and consequences. Shallow critics
scent political ambition in the Imam's act. But would a man with
political ambitions march without an army against what might be
called the enemy country, scheming to get him into its power,
and prepared to use all their resources, military, political and
financial, against him?
Journey through the desert
Imam Husain left Mecca for Kufa with all his family including
his little children. Later news from Kufa itself was
disconcerting. The friendly governor had been displaced by one
prepared more ruthlessly to carry out Yazid's plans. If Husain
was to go there at all, he must go there quickly, or his friends
themselves would be in danger. On the other hand, Mecca itself
was no less dangerous to him and his family. It was the month of
September by the solar calendar, and no one would take a long
desert journey in that heat, except under a sense of duty. By
the lunar calendar it was the month of pilgrimage at Mecca. But
he did not stop for the pilgrimage. He pushed on, with his
family and dependants, in all numbering about 90 or 100 people,
men, women and children. They must have gone by forced marches
through the desert. They covered the 900 miles of the desert in
little over three weeks. When they came within a few miles of
Kufa, at the edge of the desert, they met people from Kufa. It
was then that they heard of the terrible murder of Husain's
cousin Muslim, who had been sent on in advance. A poet that came
by dissuaded the Imam from going further. "For," he said
epigramatically, "the heart of the city is with thee but its
sword is with thine enemies, and the issue is with God." What
was to be done? They were three weeks' journey from the city
they had left. In the city to which they were going their own
messenger had been foully murdered as well as his children. They
did not know what the actual situation was then in Kufa. But
they were determined not to desert their friends.
Call to Surrender or Die
Presently messengers came from Kufa, and Imam Husain was asked
to surrender. Imam Husain offered to take one of three
alternatives. He wanted no political power and no revenge. He
said "I came to defend my own people. If I am too late, give me
the choice of three alternatives: either to return to Mecca; or
to face Yazid himself at Damascus; or if my very presence is
distasteful to him and you, I do not wish to cause more
divisions among the Muslims. Let me at least go to a distant
frontier, where, if fighting must be done, I will fight against
the enemies of Islam." Every one of these alternatives was
refused. What they wanted was to destroy his life, or better
still, to get him to surrender, to surrender to the very forces
against which he was protesting, to declare his adherence to
those who were defying the law of God and man, and to tolerate
all the abuses which were bringing the name of Islam into
disgrace. Of course he did not surrender. But what was he to do?
He had no army. He had reasons to suppose that many of his
friends from distant parts would rally round him, and come and
defend him with their swords and bodies. But time was necessary,
and he was not going to gain time by feigned compliance. He
turned a little round to the left, the way that would have led
him to Yazid himself, at Damascus. He camped in the plain of
Kerbela.
Water cut off; Inflexible will, Devotion and Chivalry
For ten days messages passed backwards and forwards between
Kerbela and Kufa. Kufa wanted surrender and recognition. That
was the one thing the Imam could not consent to. Every other
alternative was refused by Kufa, under the instructions from
Damascus. Those fateful ten days were the first ten days of the
month of Muharram, of the year 61 of the Hijra. The final crisis
was on the 10th day, the Ashura day, which we are commemorating.
During the first seven days various kinds of pressure were
brought to bear on the Imam, but his will was inflexible. It was
not a question of a fight, for there were but 70 men against
4,000. The little band was surrounded and insulted, but they
held together so firmly that they could not be harmed. On the
8th day the water supply was cut off. The Euphrates and its
abundant streams were within sight, but the way was barred.
Prodigies of valour were performed in getting water. Challenges
were made for single combat according to Arab custom. And the
enemy were half-hearted, while the Imam's men fought in contempt
of death, and always accounted for more men than they lost. On
the evening of the 9th day, the little son of the Imam was ill.
He had fever and was dying of thirst. They tried to get a drop
of water. But that was refused point blank and so they made the
resolve that they would, rather than surrender, die to the last
man in the cause for which they had come. Imam Husain offered to
send away his people. He said, "They are after my person; my
family and my people can go back." But everyone refused to go.
They said they would stand by him to the last, and they did.
They were not cowards; they were soldiers born and bred; and
they fought as heroes, with devotion and with chivalry.
The Final Agony; placid face of the man of God
On the day of Ashura, the 10th day, Imam Husain's own person was
surrounded by his enemies. He was brave to the last. He was
cruelly mutilated. His sacred head was cut off while in the act
of prayer. A mad orgy of triumph was celebrated over his body.
In this crisis we have details of what took place hour by hour.
He had 45 wounds from the enemies' swords and javelins, and 35
arrows pierced his body. His left arm was cut off, and a javelin
pierced through his breast. After all that agony, when his head
was lifted up on a spear, his face was the placid face of a man
of God. All the men of that gallant band were exterminated and
their bodies trampled under foot by the horses. The only male
survivor was a child, Husain's son Ali, surnamed Zain-ul-'Abidin
- "The Glory of the Devout." He lived in retirement, studying,
interpreting, and teaching his father's high spiritual
principles for the rest of his life.
Heroism of the Women
There were women: for example, Zainab the sister of the Imam,
Sakina his little daughter, and Shahr-i-Banu, his wife, at
Kerbela. A great deal of poetic literature has sprung up in
Muslim languages, describing the touching scenes in which they
figure. Even in their grief and their tears they are heroic.
They lament the tragedy in simple, loving, human terms. But they
are also conscious of the noble dignity of their nearness to a
life of truth reaching its goal in the precious crown of
martyrdom. One of the best-known poets of this kind is the Urdu
poet Anis, who lived in Lucknow, and died in 1874.
Lesson of the Tragedy
That briefly is the story. What is the lesson? There is of
course the physical suffering in martyrdom, and all sorrow and
suffering claim our sympathy, ---- the dearest, purest, most
outflowing sympathy that we can give. But there is a greater
suffering than physical suffering. That is when a valiant soul
seems to stand against the world; when the noblest motives are
reviled and mocked; when truth seems to suffer an eclipse. It
may even seem that the martyr has but to say a word of
compliance, do a little deed of non-resistance; and much sorrow
and suffering would be saved; and the insidious whisper comes:
"Truth after all can never die." That is perfectly true.
Abstract truth can never die. It is independent of man's
cognition. But the whole battle is for man's keeping hold of
truth and righteousness. And that can only be done by the
highest examples of man's conduct - spiritual striving and
suffering enduring firmness of faith and purpose, patience and
courage where ordinary mortals would give in or be cowed down,
the sacrifice of ordinary motives to supreme truth in scorn of
consequence. The martyr bears witness, and the witness redeems
what would otherwise be called failure. It so happened with
Husain. For all were touched by the story of his martyrdom, and
it gave the deathblow to the politics of Damascus and all it
stood for. And Muharram has still the power to unite the
different schools of thought in Islam, and make a powerful
appeal to non-Muslims also.
Explorers of Spiritual Territory
That, to my mind, is the supreme significance of martyrdom. All
human history shows that the human spirit strives in many
directions, deriving strength and sustenance from many sources.
Our bodies, our physical powers, have developed or evolved from
earlier forms, after many struggles and defeats. Our intellect
has had its martyrs, and our great explorers have often gone
forth with the martyrs' spirit. All honour to them. But the
highest honour must still lie with the great explorers of
spiritual territory, those who faced fearful odds and refused to
surrender to evil. Rather than allow a stigma to attach to
sacred things, they paid with their own lives the penalty of
resistance. The first kind of resistance offered by the Imam was
when he went from city to city, hunted about from place to
place, but making no compromise with evil. Then was offered the
choice of an effectual but dangerous attempt at clearing the
house of God, or living at ease for himself by tacit abandonment
of his striving friends. He chose the path of danger with duty
and honour, and never swerved from it giving up his life freely
and bravely. His story purifies our emotions. We can best honour
his memory by allowing it to teach us courage and constancy.
The End
Further Reading
To find out more about Imam Husayn [a], his position in Islam,
his noble family, their sacrifice in the deserts of Karbala, and
its universal relevance, see the following resources:
·
The Excellences of Imam Husayn In
Sunni Hadith Tradition
·
The Revolution of Imam Husayn
·
Karbala, an enduring paradigm of
Islamic revivalism
·
Imam Husayn's Concepts of Religion and
Leadership
·
Victory of Truth: Life of Zaynab bt.
'Ali
·
The Illustrious Period of the Imamate
of Imam Zayn al-'Abidin
·
Karbala and the Imam Husayn in Persian
and Indo-Muslim literature
Also see the heading "Ahlul Bayt - Imam Husayn" and "Karbala" in
the
Subject Index for many more
text, audio, and video resources
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