August 8, 2022 by Abukar Arman | Despite the superficial growth rate, the Muslim world has never been more dysfunctional and more incompetent- politically, economically, socially, and spiritually. I know it is painful; but we must be a good mirror to one another. It is the prophetic model without which introspection and transformation are virtually impossible.
If there is a single common factor leading to such dysfunctionality and subsequent incompetence, it must be our collective abandonment of being ‘upholders of justice and witnesses to truth’ for the sake of Al-Haqq (The Ultimate Truth). The various reasons that led to such abandonment are found in these three categories:
The first is al-assabiyyahwhich is extremely emotional attachment or blind fixation on certain identities or ideologies; Second is self-interest or a material-based extrinsic rewards; third is being a promoter of one political agenda or another.
Against that backdrop, let us assess the two venomously dichotomous narratives promoted by the Sunni Muslims and the Shi’i Muslims regarding Youm Ashura’.
YoumAshuraa’ (Day of Ashura’)
Monday August 8th marks the 10th day of the sacred month of Muharram which is the first month of the lunar Islamic calendar and ironically the most controversial day.
To the Sunni Muslims, as narrated by Abdullah Ibn Abbas (RA) who was one of the great campions and the cousin of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), when the Prophet migrated and settled in Medinah, he noticed that the Jews in that city were fasting. When he inquired about the occasion, he was informed it was when Allah helped Prophet Moses (AS) to liberate the children of Israel out of the brutality of Pharaoh’s oppression. Hence it was a day of rejoice and gratitude. Then, as an expression of solidarity with the oppressed and expression of gratitude toward The Almighty whose grace and blessings could never be enumerated, Prophet Muhammad joined the Jews of Medinah in fasting. And that became obligatory fasting upon all Muslims till the verses that command the fasting of the month of Ramadan were revealed. After that the fasting of that holy day became a voluntary act act of worship (sunnah).
To the Shi’a Muslims, Youm Ashura’ is a day of profound agony, mourning and tormenting lamentation for the sadistic murder of Prophet Muhammad’s beloved grandson, Imam Al Hussain Ibn Ali Ibn Abu Talib (AS) and 70 of his immediate and extended family.
As prophesized by Prophet Muhammad, this horrific tragedy came to pass 50 years after his death. It took place at the very location where it was meant to be- Karbala. The name derives from two Arabic words that mean ‘extreme grief and calamity.’
When the Caliph Mu’awiyah Bin Abi Sufyan got ill, he, in what was a clear violation of his oath to reinstitute the Islamic consultative selection process that is based on the individual’s piety, he subjectively appointed his son Yazid as his successor. Many including Imam Al Hussain rejected to extend their hands and take bay’ah (symbol of consent and endorsement) to Yazid. He was considered corrupt and ruthless by those companions who were still living and almost all historians and religious scholars who assessed his character ever since.
Yazid ordered his army to acquire consent from Al Hussain by any means necessary. And when Yazid heard that Imam Al-Hussain received a caravan full of letters from tribal leaders of Kufa urging him to come and lead them within Prophet Muhammad’s method, he dispatched his most ruthless General—Ubaydullah Ibn Ziyad— to take over the governorship and mobilize a 4000 men army to stop Al Hussain from coming.
The army found Al Hussain with his family and a few dozen men at Karbala . They besieged Prophet Muhammad’s family whose youngest member was 6 months old. They tortured them under the scorching sun by denying them any access to water or food before massacring them in the most horrific way imaginable. Al Hussain was hit with over 100 shots of spears, arrows, and swords. They decapitated his head and let their horses march over his decapitated body. His head was placed on a tip of a spear was carried back to Kufa as a trophy. Only the women, including his sister Zainab Bint Ali, survived. And so has his young son Ali Ibn Al Hussain (Zainul Abidin). The young boy was ill and he was being nursed by his aunt in the women’s tent.
Though neither Sunnis nor Shi’is deny these two narratives, they become over the years venomously weaponized against one another. Most Sunni scholars preach that that dark chapter in the Islamic history must be forgotten. Only the original Youm shuraa’ should be remembered. Finding that extremely offensive, most of the Shi’i scholars preach that defending Ahlul-Bait (Prophet Muhammad’s family) is an Islamic obligation. If we failed to defend his family, we should at least express our unwavering love by condemning those who committed that gruesome crime and those who have been cursing them from mosque pulpits for a century- The Umayyad dynasty and its blind loyalists.
Is The Ummah Condemned to Stay On Course?
An apolitical and unapologetically truthful account that is solely intended to commemorate that day for what it truly is would require both the Sunnis and Shi’is willingness to accurately tell both versions of without any hyperbole
Along with Dhul-Qa’idah, Dhul-Hijjah, and Rajab this moth is one of the 4 sacred months in the Islamic calendar when wars and any other forms of transgressions are doubly forbidden. Likewise, doing good in these sacred months are doubly rewarded and are most beloved to Allah (SWT).
We need to cultivate a new generation whose faith or Islam transcends all politics and being
uncritically locked in the ways of our forefathers.
Allah SWT says “O’ you people of faith be steadfast for Allah’s sake and bear witness with the highest standard of justice (bi alqist).” [Qur’an 5:8] He also said “And when you testify do it justly.” [Qur’an 6:152] So we should be telling these two narratives in the way they occurred. We should not be making excuses for Yazid and company of criminals, and we should not be disingenuously conceal the moral character of Imam Al Hussain or project him as someone who was driven by worldly power. We should be teaching the moral character of Al Hussein, his commitment and courage to pursue what was right and just at any cost. That is the prophetic model. Compare that to his killer, the power-obsessed desperado who conducted his life as though he will never meet The Judge of all judges.
“Hussain is part of me and I am part of him. May Allah love whoever loves Hussain,” said Prophet Muhammad PBUH. Though a Sunni (like myself) may easily dismiss this as a Shiah insertion to elevate the moral importance of Al Hussain, with a simple fact check one would discover that this, ironically, is a an authentic Hadith even within the Sunnah tradition. So if that is the case, why is it that we seldom hear this another other Hadiths that attest to the importance of Ahlul Bait (Prophet Muhammad’s family) in our Sunni khutbas (sermons) and lectures? Granted there are some within the Shia and the Sufi traditions that elevate the Prophet’s family to a blasphemous level, or claim that they are wholly infallibles, but what is the real cause of our phobia about Ahlul Bait?
Any objective student of Islam (formal or informal) who searches across the rich scholarly materials of the classic scholars would come to see how Banu Ummayyah—the tribe that Yazid hails from—by and large carried hatred toward Banu Hashim—the tribe which Prophet Muhammad, therefore Al Hussain, hailed from. The former was the tribe of Quraish’s jewl of honor, wealth, and power before Islam. The tables have apparently turned against them when Prophet Muhammad started to call people to Islam. With that in mind, is it so difficult to see why Banu Ummayyah tried for almost a century that they were in power to stain the Prophet’s immediate family and ultimately attempt to ethnically cleanse them?
As a Sunni who is likely to be accused of turning into Shi’i or a Rafidhi (rejectionist) I would conclude with the immortal words of Imam Shafi’ in one of his famous poems attributed to Prophet Muhammad and his family:
If the love of Muhammad was my ‘sin’/
of that sin I shall never repent/
If it is rejection to love the family of Muhammad/
Let the humans and spirits bear witness that I am a rejectionist.
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Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu
_____________________________________________________________________________________Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia
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