Peace be upon Al-Hussein, and upon Ali bin Al-Hussein, and upon the children of Al-Hussein, and upon the companions of Al-Hussein, who sacrificed their lives for Al-Hussein, peace be upon him.
As the days of Ashura pass, the believer becomes more attached to the project that Hussein rose up to save by reforming the nation of his grandfather, peace and blessings be upon him. The Husseini pulpit plays its awareness-raising role, at least by establishing the facts of history and repeating them so that they are fixed in the minds of successive generations, so that the injustice of Hussein (which represents the injustice of the Messenger of God, Muhammadan Islam and the Holy Quran) remains present in the nation. It has become clear that the Yazidis’ attempts to confront the principled Husseini project always fail. Husseini councils are held in every corner of the earth, and the title of Hussein’s cause becomes increasingly clear and widespread in the regions. The values of Hussein are embodied in the struggle of peoples for freedom and independence. What is happening in Gaza and other regions of our Islamic world revolves around issues of truth, freedom, reform and preserving human dignity, which are the values that the Husseini uprising was filled with.
A believer cannot pass through Ashura without having a number of things:
First: That his humanity should move without hesitation in grief for what happened in that desert on the tenth of Muharram in the year 61 AH, which coincided with October 12, 680 AD. The recipe of faith is necessary to stir human feelings, because it prompts a person to contemplate and reflect on the events of that historic day that blood engraved in the minds of those in whose souls faith was stirred. Al-Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Messenger of God, may God bless them both, was not a victim of a battle between two armies or two tribes, for example. Rather, his killing was part of a broad project that saw that its success would only be achieved by uprooting the family of the Messenger, the elite of Quraysh, the adornment of the Arabs, and the pride of humanity. It was not enough to kill Al-Hussein in an ordinary way, but it required torture, mutilation, and dismemberment in order to clarify the price of opposing the Umayyad project that was planned to replace the Islam of Muhammad bin Abdullah, may God bless him and grant him peace. The Karbala incident had to be a “lesson” for anyone who thinks of thwarting that plan by truly confronting it. There were many indications to confirm the bloody liquidationist trend on which the Umayyad project was founded. The appointment of Ziyad bin Abihi over Basra and then Kufa, and the release of his hands to commit the most heinous crimes against humanity, including torture and abuse in ways that the Arabs had not known at that time, were necessary to impose that project and eradicate resistance to it in the most heinous ways. Therefore, the descriptions of what happened to Hussein were consistent with the nature of the project and what the owners of that project were planning. The killing of children, the cutting off of hands, the crushing of bodies, the burning of tents, and the violation of the sanctity of the women of the Prophet’s household, all of that was part of a well-thought-out plan drawn up by the Umayyad house and implemented by their slaves in exchange for promises of money and prestige.
Second: After the believer’s feelings overflow with sadness and grief for what happened to the purest of creation, it is the turn of the mind that the believer possesses, to begin the phase of thinking about the ideological and political project in order to recognize its nature and dimensions. This thinking was required at the moment of the occurrence of the major crimes that have been committed since the dawn of Islam, and it is also required to deal with what happened in the following decades of revolutions, unrest, and expansion in the circle attributed to Islam, and what happened throughout the past fourteen centuries until today. It is not academic or utopian thinking, or for the sake of searching for an identity that the Umayyads destroyed in Karbala and after, but rather activating the mind is necessary to establish a life system based on evidence, logic, and proof. It can be said that the absence of the mind from public life contributed to the ignorance of successive generations, and weakened the position of Muslims in the world. This mind is what qualified the first generations to enter the spaces of science and knowledge, and contributed to building their civilization that lasted for centuries.
Third: Rational thinking is supposed to push a person to adopt a project of change for the sake of development. God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. It is of no use to cry over the glories that Muslims have lost, nor to use the inability to keep up with the times, nor to direct blame at the living conditions in the Muslim world. Rather, what is required is to renew the determination towards work that must begin with scholars and thinkers and automatically move to society and its pioneers of change. It is certain that the continuation of the grip of tyranny and the tyranny of dictatorship are among the basic obstacles to change. However, the will of the people cannot be broken by methods of bullying, injustice, and oppression. The desired work requires sacrifice, giving, removing the cloak of laziness, and fulfilling the promise to God Almighty to work based on enjoining good and forbidding evil, even if that requires great sacrifices. Rebuilding the Muslim nation is not a simple goal, but rather an arduous task that requires those sacrifices. There is no point in claiming to love Al-Hussein, peace be upon him, without resolving to follow his example, whether in declaring his work to reform the nation of his grandfather, the Messenger of God, may the best prayers and peace be upon him, or in confronting the unjust ruler, or in sacrificing oneself, one’s family and one’s friends.
Fourth: Claiming to love Al-Hussain without following his example is not enough. The Imam did not intend for the project of protecting the Muhammadan project to be limited to the sacrifice he offered, which was an unprecedented sacrifice in terms of the depth of faith, clarity of purpose, and size of redemption. Al-Hussain wanted his noble blood to be fuel for a historical movement of change that would not stop, until God reveals his religion in its entirety, and until the state of divine truth and justice is established. Whoever loves Al-Hussain must follow his example in his giving, sacrifice, and devotion to the goal he declared. Loving Al-Hussain requires deepening feelings of loyalty and following, in addition to showing sadness and psychological interaction by holding and attending councils and deepening scientific research into the Karbala incident and all its details. What happened on the tenth of Muharram in the year 61 AH was a conscience and human awakening from a quarter-century of slumber that nearly uprooted the message of Muhammad bin Abdullah, may the best prayers and peace be upon him. Al-Hussein was aware of a fact that many people do not know: that his silence would provide “legitimacy” for the Umayyad project, which was considered a coup against the Muhammadan project, and that the distortion to which the nation was subjected would be permanent, and the components that made it the best of nations would end: “You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.” Al-Hussein’s blood put an end to that collapse on the levels of faith, commitment, and absolute obedience to God and His Messenger. Obedience to the Messenger is not required to be relative, but absolute, and when some refused to commit to that, the greatest catastrophe occurred in Islamic history, and the nation came to be ruled, past and present, by people like Yazid, who removed the spirit and values of Islam from public life.
In light of these facts, we call upon believers to return to their roots by reviving the heritage of the Messenger of God and reading the Prophet’s biography consciously.
And to recall his orders and prohibitions and to make the intention to commit to absolute obedience to him in application of the Quranic verse: It is not for the believers, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should have any option over themselves. Al-Hussein sacrificed himself to stop the phenomenon of collapse that began with the refusal to obey the Messenger and reached the weakening of the Muslims, after they reached the peak of their power, until it reached the point where they were silent about changing the project of Islamic rule and submit to the Umayyad will and accept Yazid as a ruler. They only have to pay attention to what Muawiyah, Yazid’s son, did when he refused to take power from his father after his death, knowing that that rule was seized by force out of greed for power and targeting Islam and its political system. The Ashura season is an opportunity to return to the fundamentals of faith that deepen among Muslims the concept of absolute (not relative) obedience to Allah and the Messenger. It is enough to reach this result to consider the Ashura season a success.
O God, have mercy on our righteous martyrs, and grant them a position of truth with You, and release our prisoners, O Lord of the worlds.
Islamic Freedom Movement
July 12, 2024
2024-07-12 09:01:23