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Karbala, A Reminder

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Photo Credit: Davoud Ghahrdar

by Suraiya Ali

There is a story of Karbala

that everyone knows.

There is a story of a man who was connected to divinity

There is a story of a man who knew that he was the prophet’s progeny.

There is a story of a man who realized his life was political currency,

that with spending it, he could save thousands, millions, of others from calamity.

There is a story of Karbala that is harsh. It is chains on the chest of mourning men.

This is a story about Hazart Hussain, who went to aid his allies in Kufa, and with his family, walked into his own martyrdom.

There is a story that he knew he was going to die, and that when his enemy told him

that not even a funeral shroud

would be provided for his corpse,

he responded, God will send onto his body a cloth of divine light, directly from Heaven.

There is a story that is about massacre.

70 women and children, warrior and worshipper, killed by an army of thousands; starved from water for three days.

There is a story of Karbala that everyone knows.

It is sharp like swords, putrid like the smell of bodies left to rot in the desert.

There is another Karbala, that we do not speak about.

There is a Karbala that is soft.

There is a Karbala;

In which Hazart Hussein was a father, a new father, to baby boys; Ali as-Asghar and Zayn-al Abidin,

In which he felt their infant hands, soft as the petals of Persian Jasmine, grasp his fingers.

There is a Karbala;

In which he heard his young daughter, Ruqayyah, speak to him in the gentle and gibbering Arabic of a toddler.

There is a Karbala full of mothers, who tended to their children, regardless of thirst, regardless of heat, with love as supple as the hand-woven rugs they left behind in their homes.

There is a Karbala full of husbands, who’s bond in marriage reeked so much of love that their wives walked with them through that desert, to the last moment they would ever be able to embrace one and other.

There is a Karbala of love.

There is a Karbala as soft as the laugh of a child, as smooth as silk on a jummah afternoon.

There is Karbala as sweet as Hafiz, as succulent as Rumi.

Why do I remind you of this? When you fathers beat themselves with chains, and your mothers weep into black chadors– why do I remind you of softness?

I do not wish to romanticize Karbala.

There is no romance in malpractice.

I wish to remind you that as you fight for the injustices of our past, and blaze forward to undo the injustice of our future, you must seek the soft.

You must remember as you mourn that while they fought they also loved.

While they died they also loved.

While their last breath left their bodies, they also loved.

My Karbala so full of love that it is as soft as pink chiffon, as delicate as rose petals.

My Karbala is one where the Army of the Holy was massacred, but the love of their House was only sanctified.

My Karbala is soft, so soft, that even chain links covered with the blood of devotees, are no match for the noor they bring to those who hold them.

 

Poet Suraiya Ali has grown up with the mourning of Karbala. She has felt her history every Ashura. During the Muslim month of Moharram, where Shia and Sunni Muslims alike, mourn the martyrdom of Hazart Hussain, who suffered on the fields of Karbala a death deemed gruesome by most in history, it is easy to be lost in the convictions of pain. Suraiya in her work, “Karbala, A Reminder”, engages readers in realize, that even with pain comes softness and in that softness, a devotee can find bliss. 

The Martyrdom of Imam Hussein

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Muharram, the 10th of the Islamic calendar brings out fissures in the Muslim community. Its a day when a segment of Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet and the other segment that equally loves the Prophet and his family, minimize or ignore the martyrdom.

While one segment fasts on the day commemorating a Jewish tradition that says that on this day Prophet Moses saved his people from the tyranny of Pharaoh, the other grieves, laments and remembers the martyrdom of Imam Hussein by self-flagellation.

History is still haunting us and the event that took place some fifty years after the death of the Prophet still divides us. Yazid ibn Muawiya and Imam Hussein are the two characters around whom the entire story revolves. One segment of the ummah considers Yazid a legitimate ruler and the Imam a rebel, the other considers Imam a freedom fighter and Yazid a tyrant. In the continuation of the controversy that has resulted in the emergence of different versions of Islam, the dream of making the faith a unifying force for Muslims is irrelevant.

History has to be seen in its right perspective and should be analyzed according to the explanation of people who were involved in it.

Based on how Imam Hussein presented his case and the horrific ordeal he and his family went through, it is clear that his martyrdom is one of the most revolutionary moment in the history of humanity when an individual decided to sacrifice all that he had to preserve the divine ideals of justice. Those who were fighting against him knew the fate of the opponent. They knew that he was the grandson of the Prophet.

The people who claimed to be defenders of the principles of justice betrayed Imam Hussein and watched him as bystanders pursue the struggle on his own. The Imam fully knew the value of his stand, but mourning or grieving would not serve the purpose or give right tribute to him.

Rather than observing this day of 10th Muharram as a day of mourning and tragedy, all Muslims regardless of their sect, must observe it as a day of justice and freedom. They must make this a day to remind the world that tyranny must be challenged, abuse of power must be questioned, usurpation of power by turning political office into a throne to be passed on one’s progeny must be defied and coercion to force people to succumb to political authorities must be responded. This will bring meaning to the sacrifice of the great martyr Imam Hussein for Muslims and people of all faith.

The Muslim world is in fact divided between those who usurp the rights of people and those whose rights have been usurped. We have falsely tried to cover this basic division through imposing sectarian, ethnic, cultural and tribal differences so that the real issues can never be brought up. The existing divisions are preventing Muslims from bring about positive changes in the society. Any time people question the legitimacy of those who unjustly violate people’s human rights, the shia sunni differences are brought up by the special interest groups. Often these differences are escalated to devastating violence.

Unless, Muslims go back to their history and read it correctly to draw necessary conclusions, they will continue to be played by special interest groups among themselves. Perhaps, we can begin by reevaluating our attitude to the most tragic event of our history, the Karbala