Younis Kaloo
Muslims around the world bade adieu to the 1439th year of the Islamic calendar and welcomed the 1440th on September 12, 2018. Muharram, the first month, holds great significance for all Muslims, Shiites or Sunnis, as several important events in Islamic history took place in this month.
Of all the days of Muharram, the first ten days had been witness to some of the greatest happenings of Islam , apart from the great tragedy of Karbala on Ashura, the 10th day of the month.
It is said that on 10th Muharram, Allah accepted the repentance of Adam after he committed the sin by eating from the forbidden tree in paradise. On this day, Allah saved Prophet Moses from the Pharaoh who drowned on the same day also. Also, the arc of Prophet Noah landed safely on mount Al-Judi after the flood on the day of Ashura.
Ashura is the day when Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad and son of Caliph Ali, along with his 72 family members and followers was massacred by Yazid’s army, which according to certain accounts was estimated to be 100,000 in number.
Yazid was the second Umayyad Caliph considered to be oppressive, corrupt and unjust. It was the allegiance to him denied by Imam Hussain that led to the latter’s killing and his supporters on 10th of October 680 AD. Hussain preferred death over a life of humiliation and ‘lost a battle to win a war’.
“I will never give Yazid my hand like a man who has been humiliated, nor will I flee like a slave. I have not risen to spread evil or to show off. I only desire to enjoin good values and prevent evil. Someone like me, does not pledge allegiance to someone like him,” Hussain Ibn Ali had said upon refusing the oath of allegiance to Yazid.
Kashmir News Bureau (KNB) spoke to Molvi Imran Raza Ansari, a religious scholar, MLA and former minister for Technical Education, Youth Services & Sports. He said, “Imam Hussain presented a model that you do not need millions to show that you are on the right path. If only a few God-fearing people are with you, you can change the entire society”. He further said that people remember the atrocities committed to Prophet Muhammad’s grandson in Muharram.
Ansari also said that life of Imam Hussain, from being in the womb of Fatima to being a leader and his role in both worldly and religious matters, is an answer to the three questions asked by Allah to the Man as to where he has come from, where he is and where he has to go.