December 27 is Ashura, the 10th day of the month Muharram of the Islamic calendar. It is commemorated to mark the day of martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, in the year 61 of Hijra (680 AD).
I grew up in a very traditional, religious Shi’ite family in Tabriz in northwestern Iran, during the shah’s rule. The predominant religious culture said that Imam Hussein, as a last, true defender and just follower of the Prophet and his cousin, Imam Hussein’s father, Imam Ali, heroically and selflessly fought with just a few dozen poorly armed, but absolutely dedicated and selfless followers against the bloodthirsty Yazid, the son of the Umayyad Caliph Muaviyeh outside of Karbala, in today’s Iraq.
Imam Hussein knew well that he couldn’t win against the well-equipped army of Yazid, himself a symbol of injustice, arrogance, and oppression. But he fought nonetheless and was brutally killed so that the idea of Shi’a, the just one, following the path of the Prophet and Islam, could survive –and win some day in future.
For teenagers like me in the 1960s, Ashura was a time of sorrow and grief, yes, but the schools were closed for a few days. We went out to see the processions: people wore black shirts, marched through the streets, sang “nohas,” poems of grief, and shouted “Ya Hussein-e Mazloom!”. “Hussein, Hussein, Ya Hussein.” Most of the marching people would strike their chests as a sign of grief. I did too, occasionally.
Some would strike their backs with chains and some – I’d heard, but never saw myself — would cut their heads with knifes so that blood streamed over their faces. It was all to say: “We are with you, Ya Hussein, and want to feel what you felt, and sacrifice our lives for the true faith, as you did.”
At that time, this whole commemoration was something traditional, ceremonial. It had nothing to do with politics. Then it was a religious and social event, the Ashura, a get-together. Remembrance and grief.
Now it is grief and politics, a lot of politics. Hate and a lot of slogans. “Down with…” or “Death to…” for political opponents — even those who are Shi’ite clerics — and moderates, and everybody and anybody who is not fully behind the current rulers of Iran.
مطلب را به بالاترين بفرستيد:
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