The Battle of Karbala took place at Karbala, Iraq, on the day of Ashura, 10th Muharram 61 Hj (8th to 10th Muharram), 680 AD. According to Islamic thinkers, this single event encapsulates the coalescence of man’s religious understanding and personifies the essence of man’s relationship with the Creator. In this battle, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Hussain ibn Ali (AlaihisSalam), and his family and companions of 72 people were surrounded by five thousand men belonging to the forces of Yazid ibn Muaviya, on the bank of the river Euphrates. Hazrat Hussain (AS) and his family and companions were denied water for several days in the fierce desert heat and finally mercilessly massacred through the most compelling tale of the fight between good and evil where good prevails, not by the might of the sword but by conviction reinforced by commitment to sacrifice everything, for the sake of God and the religion of God. While, Hazrat Hussain (AS) could have accepted the offer of a comfortable life from Yazid, he chose instead the excruciating path to shahadat or martyrdom. Today, millions call their children ‘Hussain’, and his tale is ardently told and retold, while the name of Yazid and what he stood for is recounted with revulsion.
In the words of Mohammad Ali Jauhar :
Qatal Hussain asal main marg Yazid hai The slaughter of Hussain, in reality is the death of Yazid
Islam Zinda hota hai har Karbala kay baad. Islam is re-born after every Karbala
Khawaja
Moinuddin Chisty (RA) says :
Shah ast Hussain, Badshah ast Hussain Ruler (Spiritual) is Hussain, King (Worldly) is Hussain
Deen ast Hussain, Deen Panah ast Hussain Religion is Hussain, Guardian of Religion is Hussain
Sardaad na daad dast, dar dast-e-yazeed Gave head, but not hand to hand of Yazeed
Haqaa key binaey La ila ast Hussain The foundation of Faith (La ila …) is Hussain
The origins of the Battle of Karbala lay in the early days
of Islam. Opposition to Hazrat Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) came from
various quarters, and for various reasons. Personal fealty and dispositions, family
and tribal loyalties, religious and social convictions, commercial and
political rivalries and ambitions all played a part to affect the spread of Islam
through Hazrat Muhammad (SAW). Good was to be separated from evil, permanence
from transience. It is therefore natural to assume that many people outwardly
loyal to the Prophet may have harbored hidden discontent towards him and
members of his immediate family during and after his lifetime. Hazrat Ali (AS),
the son in law of the Prophet was preferred by the Prophet over others. The
tradition of the Ahle Bayet (Family of the House/Allegiance) became
established through the Quran (3:61, 33:33, 42:23) and other acts of the Prophet
(the most important being the Hadith of Ghadeer e Khum) which conferred a
unique status on Hazrat Ali (AS) and his sons, Hazrat Hasan (AS) and Hazrat Hussain
(AS), born of Fatima (AS), the daughter of the Prophet. This roused further envy and animosity of
many, which, after the departure of the Prophet appeared as open and hidden
enmity towards Hazrat Ali (AS) and his Ahle
Bayet. It can therefore be inferred, that enmity that existed for the
Prophet himself, transmuted into enmity for Hazrat Ali (AS) and Hazrat Hasan
(AS) and Hazrat Hussain (AS) when the persona of the Prophet was gone. In a
manner of speaking the martyrdom of Hazrat Hussain (AS) was actually the
martyrdom of Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), the only difference being that, had the
Prophet been martyred, then this act would have become a Sunnah of the Prophet, and shahadat or martyrdom would have become a requirement
of the rituals of Islam. Since, martyrdom or absolute sacrifice in the way of
Allah gives completeness to one’s deen or religion, this part of the Prophet’s responsibility was carried out by his
grandson, Hazrat Hussain (AS), a person whose faith and standing was possibly
only equaled by the Prophet himself.
Having always opposed the Prophet, Abu Sufian and his son
Muaviya ibn Abu Sufian accepted Islam at the fall of Mecca, only with the intention of being part
of the developing new power structure. Shortly after becoming Caliph, Omar ibn
Khattab appointed Abu Sufian’s elder son Yazid ibn Abu Sufian (Abu Sufian’s
grandson also had the same name) as the
governor of Syria. Later, Muaviya, the younger son of Abu Sufian, and father of
Yazid ibn Muaviya, became governor of Syria. A power hungry man with no
moral scruples and no respect for Islamic ideals or rules of conduct, he did
not give his allegiance to Hazrat Ali (AS) when he became Caliph, and waged war
against him. Having succeeded in having Hazrat Ali (AS) and Hazrat Hasan (AS)
murdered, the object of Muaviya and Yazid was to eliminate the house of the Prophet
entirely by any means, and hence the events of Karbala.
Life from the instant of birth to the moment of death is a constant struggle between the forces of life and the forces of death; the forces of good and the forces of evil. Disease, pain, decay and evil, perpetually joust with health, happiness, renewal and good. Ultimately, death overtakes and defeats life, life as we know it. Shakespeare said –‘To be or not to be that is the question’. Although man knows that defeat is inevitable in the end, yet man strives to defeat this inevitability. But, life is fleeting. The forces of defeat and death are far more superior to that of life and renewal. For the time that life manifests itself, it cannot survive, unless the force that controls
both life and death is on the side of life, even for a little while. The
thinking mind perceives this small window of life as a unique gift and projects
it forward into the realm beyond death in the hope of another life and renewal.
This hope for renewal and permanence has proved time and again in the past to
be the greatest and most ultimate hope for all mankind. This hope for life and
renewal after death must be affirmed from time to time. This can only be done
by great men and the greatest of them was Hazrat Hussain (AS). God says in the
Quran – ‘Think not of
those who are slain in God’s way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their
sustenance in the presence of their Lord’ (3:169),
and ‘And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah. “They
are dead.” Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not’. (2:154).
Man, in his truest form, tries to fulfill the innate need of
‘understanding the purpose and mystery of creation’ or ‘finding the inherent
meaning of life’. He may even assume the presence of a Creator (in the case of
Muslims, the One God) and gain the satisfaction of being one with it. Although
not universal, this desire defines the spiritual man. No other creature
presumably is affected in this way. However, what constitutes ‘meaning to life’
varies from individual to individual.
The desire or urge to find this ‘inherent meaning of life’ seems to be ‘hardwired’
in all individuals in a pre-determined strategy of creation which propels each
individual to find what he is destined to look for. Not that he is destined to find it, but, to
the extent that he does find this ‘meaning of life’, to that extent he finds a
certain kind of spiritual wellbeing and satisfaction which defines his
humanity. Some find satisfaction in money, some in fame and power, others in
health, and yet others in whatever it may be. A few, not satisfied with mundane
needs of the flesh and the self, take the leap and go beyond the periphery of
their own ‘selves’, trying to find the connection that binds man to the
universe and beyond. There are levels and levels of this too, and heaven only
knows where resides, the ultimate Supreme Being – the destination of the
supreme seeker.
This effort is painful and is surrounded by many
pitfalls. It requires patience, contemplation,
prayers, empathy, ritualistic exercises, and a host of other exhortations as
per the personal disposition of each individual. All such attempts involve the
making of sacrifice, in however small an amount it may be. Sacrifice requires
one to give up what one loves in the expectation of a greater love. Sacrifice is an essential element for
attaining the knowledge of God (9:24)
and this is true even in the case of the Prophets, including the Prophet
Muhammad (SAW). Only when the prayers and the exhortations of the seeker are
answered, is that effort vindicated, and the seeker finds peace, even if the
peace be temporary. This process of sacrificing what one loves, and being
rewarded by what one loves more, is the journey of the spirit, the spirit that
is everlasting. This is the essence of the teaching of Karbala and the central cornerstone of Islam.
‘You never gain something, but that you lose something’, said the philosopher Henry
Thoreau.
When the Seeker seeks the Sought, he praises him (or it), by
concentrating all his attention to him (or the inner unexpressed, yet real,
outline of what is being sought). When the Sought, answers his efforts, the
Seeker finds satisfaction and feels ‘expanded’ and praised. Praise is the
single most essential element that defines all emotions of man. An
understanding of the functionality of this word opens the door to much deeper
truths. For the act of praise to take place there must be a ‘Praiser’ and the ‘Praised’.
For the act of praise to take place there must be duality (or multiplicity).
The act of praise requires the Praiser to merge his consciousness into the
Praised. The act of praise creates unity and destroys multiplicity. At one
point the praise flows in the reverse direction, when the former Praised
becomes the Praiser and vice versa. Genuine praise and praise that is returned
is the beginning of love, the most glorious of all things in the universe. In
Islamic terminology, the state of the Praiser merging into the Praised is known
as fana, and the state of the Praiser
being rewarded by the Praised is known as baqa.
It is small wonder that the very first Ayat of Sura Fatiha in the Quran starts
with the words, ‘All praise belongs to Allah, the Creator of the Worlds’. The fact that even God praises man is
underscored by the famous Ayat in the Quran where God not only says that He
Himself praises Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) but asks the angels and men to praise him
(33:56).
Many have described Islam as ‘a way of life’. This
description can be misleading. ‘A way of life’ signifies a manner of existence
or a method to conduct one’s life such as, the desert way of life, the
democratic way of life, the Buddhist way of life, the banker’s way of life, and
so on. To categorize Islam as ‘a way of life’ would not do justice to the
meaning of Islam, because Islam is not just ‘a way of life’ but rather ‘the
essential purpose of life’ or even ‘the meaning of life’. Yet there are others
who see Islam as a set of rules and practices which if followed would
automatically lead one to salvation or heaven in the hereafter. They use the
simile of the ‘key’ to these practices which would open the ‘lock’ of heaven.
This machine like approach is erroneous too, because it does not recognize the
role and state of the heart or soul which does not follow logical formulas. Islam
recognizes that every aspect of life has two modes, the outer and the inner.
The outer gives it the form, and the inner, the purpose. In Islam, the outer
mode is known as the Shariat or Islamic Law, which is a set of basic laws
and rituals that govern the essential elements of man’s social and daily
activities. The inner mode is known as the Tariqat or ‘Special Method’ (5:51) which addresses the special
needs of individual hearts and souls to understand the mystery of God and
Creation. While there is basically only one set of Shariat there could be many
different Tariquats depending on the
preference of the seeker.
Jihad or struggle is an integral part of Islam, the
word Jihad being mentioned in the Quran 41 times. From
the Islamic point of view, Jihad is a continuous process that encompasses all
acts of life, proceeding towards attainment of the higher values of life
through overcoming forces that oppose it. ‘Value’ does not just refer to
ethical standards but to the attainment of a plane, in the heart and soul, more
fulfilling and satisfying than what one may have become complacent with. Personal Jihad happens in mainly 4 areas, the physical, the
mental, the emotional and the value level. However, different Tariquats interpret and employ different
methods to achieve the same goal.
The entire period of the revelation of the Quran was a period
of Jihad. It started with the revelation
– ‘Read, in the name of your Sustainer’ (96:1), and ended with – ‘Today I have
perfected your religion for you’ (5:3). The last Ayat, which completed the
revelation of the Shariat was
revealed on the day of the Hajj which
is significant. The Hajj one of the 5
pillars of Islam, performed on the 10th day of Zil Hajj, revolves
around the sacrifices of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) culminating in the attempted
sacrifice of his beloved son Hazrat Ismail (AS), ‘attempted’ because it was not
accepted by God on that day. It is believed that this sacrifice was finally
accepted by God on the day of Ashura through the ‘momentous sacrifice’ of
Hazrat Hussain (AS) (37:106-107). This is the deeper spiritual completion of
the revelation of the Quran which was perfected on the day of Ashura, the day on which the world was
created and the day on which it will be destroyed. The Martydom of Hussain (AS)
is therefore an integral part of the revelation of Islam.
The Prophet used to hold the persona of Hazrat Hussain (AS)
in extreme high esteem. This is exemplified in the famous incident where Hazrat
Hussain (AS) had climbed the shoulder of the Prophet when he was in prostration
in prayer at the time of leading the prayer. The Prophet did not lift his head
until his grandson had climbed down from his shoulder on his own accord. The
Prophet used to say ‘Hussain is from me and I am from Hussain’. The gravity of
this cryptic statement can be understood if one tries to imagine the scenario
had God accepted the sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), in which case The
Prophet would not have been born because he was born in the line of Hazrat
Ismail (AS). Only because of the acceptance of God of the ‘ransom’ of the future
sacrifice of Hazrat Hussain (AS) through his ‘momentous sacrifice’ (37:106-107)
was Hazrat Ismail (AS) allowed to live and hence the birth of the Prophet made
possible. In this way the Prophet owed his birth to the birth of Hazrat Hussain
(AS). Since the wahdiniyat or ‘oneness’ of God was brought to the world
by Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) and that, he could not have come without the
acceptance of ‘ransom’ of sacrifice by Hazrat Hussain (AS) at Karbala, can it
not be said that the Ground of Karbala is more sacred than any other religious
site in the world ? The Qabaa may the the Qibla (point of worship) for the outward
world, but Karbala
is the Qibla for the world of the soul.
The cornerstone of the ritualistic practices of Islam is the
elimination or sacrifice of the ‘self’ in one’s life to be replaced by ‘the
higher self’ which is more attuned to the will or wish of God. The root word of
Islam is aslama which means to give up, to desert, or to
surrender. Another noun derived from the same root is salaam which means peace.
The method of Islam is to surrender and the objective is peace.
The sacrifice of Hazrat Hussain (AS) is the sacrifice of the nafs (the lower self) to the will of the higher ruh (the higher self). With Hazrat Muhammad
(SAW), only the outward law had been promulgated; with Hazrat Hussain (AS) the
inner path towards union with the Creator was established. Law without benefit
is meaningless; therefore, the sacrifice of Hazrat Hussain (AS) gives true
meaning to the outward form of Islam. By destroying the lower self of the nafs at the will of the ruh which can never die, it was Hazrat Hussain
(AS) that defeated Yazid and not the other way round.
So what is the significance of Ashura in the daily affairs of men? It is in the destiny of man
that he will be continuously presented with choices between what is the easy
thing to do and what is the right thing to do, or to put it in other words, the
choice between what will give immediate comfort, and what will give future
greater fulfillment but at the cost of sacrifice in the present time. Civilizations
have risen and fallen with these choices made by men. Most humans do not have
the deeper knowledge of religion, and choose the path to immediate comfort and
security, instead of the path to an obscure future of greater comfort and honor
through sacrifice. The few who choose the path to future honor and glory are
the leaders of men and those entrenched in faith. The real glory of man lies
not in immediate comfort, but in the uncovering of his real potentials through
the process of self discovery through continuous sacrifice and continuous
regeneration. It is the memory of Hazrat Hussain (AS) which re-affirms to all
lesser believers, each hour and each place, that there is an inner glorious
meaning to life, that there is life after death, and that Creation has not been
created in vain, and the short life that has been given to man represent
something much more, and that the call of the seeker shall definitely be
answered by the Sought.
Hazrat Hussain’s (AS) Jihad on the sands of Karbala
is meaningful in many levels, from the lowest to the highest. By refusing to
accept the worldly comforts and charms offered to him, he completed the first
stages of Jihad. By enduring the
physical pain of water being denied to him and his family for over 3 days he
overcame the domain of Jihad of the body. By sacrificing his two sons he
exceeded the distinction of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) and by sacrificing himself, he
sacrificed his entire ‘self’ to the service of the Almighty.
It may be noted that Hazrat Hasan (AS) and Hazrat Hussain
(AS) were both martyred, the first through poisoning and the other through a brutal
monstrosity that will live through the millenniums. The first kind of Shahadat is a solitary one that is
endured by the person in secret. The second kind being open for all to see
gives the opportunity to all to share in the grief of the sacrifice and to feel
the loss and to be one with him. In this way, Hazrat Hussain’s (AS) sacrifice
is a gift to mankind, but only to those who share in this grief. This gift
comes in three ways. Firstly, it set the
burning example of how an individual should act in the face of adversity to
protect the fundamental principles of life and Islam. Edmund Burke’s famous
statement comes to mind ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good
men do nothing’. Many present day Muslims, like the forces of Yazid
are motivated by the view that if sufficiently large number of Muslims support
the wrong cause, then it becomes the right cause. These Muslims are completely
misguided. They forget that each person shall be accountable to the Creator on
the Day of Judgment individually and superiority of numbers will be useless. Secondly,
Hazrat Hussain’s (AS) sacrifice reaffirms the faith, of those wavering
in faith, about the existence of an everlasting life after death. Thirdly, by
sacrificing himself and attaining the approval of the Almighty, he went to a
position where exhortations made to him would be heard and answered by him, in all
places and at all times, because people who die in the way of God ‘live, finding their sustenance
in the presence of their Lord’ (3:169).
To Muslims who call on him, ‘Every day is Ashura,
and every place is Karbala’.
It would be another monstrosity if Muslims did not give the due respect,
affection and allegiance to the Great Helper of Mankind, Hazrat Imam Hussain
(AS), Shaheed e Karbala who is even
today capable of helping those who call on him in earnest. Hazrat Hussain (AS) was killed not by non-Muslims, but by
Muslims who obviously were misguided and were only mindful of satisfying their
own depraved natures. The question may be asked by men without understanding,
how can one man be so sure of himself that he can oppose the majority, all by himself?
To answer this comes to mind the Prophet’s statement, ‘I am the city of
knowledge and Ali is its gate’. One man can equal the city, and one man be its
gate, if he be the right man.
It is erroneous to assume that a person achieves inner
spiritual perfection as soon as he accepts the religion by the performance of the
outer obligations of the religion (49:14). Until a man becomes firmly
established in the faith of Islam, a
gap, and hence a conflict, remains
between the outer ritualistic compulsions of the religion and the relative inner
spiritual state of perfection, which until it is achieved, does not give
completeness to the man to achieve an inner sense of peace and harmony. It is therefore obligatory on Muslims to
recognise this fundamental failing in his disposition and to find ways to
correct it. What prevents a person from overcoming the fixations of the mind
and the heart that prevents the resolution of this conflict between his outer understanding
and the inner spiritualistic needs is a mystery possibly equal to the mystery
of creation itself. Whom, God leaves to stray, unable to receive inspiration,
is a mystery with God Himself. (39:23, 2:7). However, this conflict may be
resolved by constantly subjugating the inner self to the reference point of a
superior entity who can provide the guidelines for uniting the outer form with
the inner spiritual state of the person. These ‘superior persons’ are persons
of experience endowed with understanding, and, in the highest echelons are the members
of the Ahle Bayet. Having respect and
love for the Ahle Bayet is therefore
the most essential part of one’s deen.
Having love for those held dear to the Prophet is absolutely the essential
foundation of Islam. As per the Quran (42:23), this is the one and only price
that has to be paid to receive the gift of Islam. However, if this price is not
paid, then the taker, by all applications of rationality may become the
possessor of a valuable jewel of which he is not the rightful owner.
The greatest threat to Islam
today are not non-Muslims or idolaters but the enemies who lie within, hidden
in the outer garb of Islam purporting to be devout Muslims, but in actuality,
devoid of the spirit and the essence of Islam. The origin of these people can
be traced to the field of Karbala
where the forces pitted again Hazrat Hussain (AS) were only holding the outer
garb of the religion. The sense of unity and purpose offered by the assumption
of the outer form of Islam, provides to these individuals the convenient tool
to materialize their un-Islamic self-serving ambitions and to do un-Islamic
things behind the façade of Islam. Unless and until, that they are indentified,
and segmented into their proper stations, they will continue to be the source
of discord and fanaticism within the society. Fortunately, these individuals
can be easily identified by the fanatical way they assume the external features
of the religion for example, by assuming long beards and robes and other such ostentatious
attributes.
Curiously, now a days there are 3 distinct types of Muslims.
In the first category, they show genuine sympathy and support for Hazrat Hussain
(AS) and his family. In the second category, they show no sympathy or support for Hazrat Hussain (AS) and explain the matter of the Battle
of Karbala in the western mould of thought as a power struggle between two political
groups in the early days of Islam. In the third category, are men who are actively opposed to Hazrat Hussain (AS) and his family and
want to do away with the legacy of Karbala.
It is a shame that the first category is in the minority, and hence probably
the main cause why the Islamic Ummah is in such disarray today. Submission to
a higher authority through sacrifice of the self is missing in the Muslim Ummah. It is hard to conceive how a
nation can achieve and develop without having a hierarchy of authority. Muslims
recite the Sura Fateha (first Sura of
the Quran) every day but do not understand the plain meaning of the verse which
requires them to find ‘those whom thou hast favoured’ (1:7). Internecine
quarrels, to the point where the persona of the Prophet himself is being tainted
and attacked, as is being done by the Wahabis and the Salafis, go against the teachings of Islam. It is only
through the message of Karbala
that the Muslims can unite under the banner of the Ahle Bayet for the advancement of the Ummah in the present world and the next.
It is inconceivable that God in his infinite mercy towards
mankind would not keep alive the legacy of Karbala and the sacrifice of Hazrat Hussain
(AS) for the benefit of those who would still remember him in later
generations. As revealed in the Quran,
it is the promise of the Almighty to keep alive the religion of Islam despite
all odds (9:32, 15:9). If
the outer form of Islam is preserved, it must be that the inner form shall be
preserved too. God had promised to Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) that he would make leaders
from among his progeny (2:124). These individuals would lead mankind to the
right path. Again, Allah through the Ayat
of Tathhir (33:33) had promised to cleanse pure the Ahle Bayet of the Prophet who would be the guiding light for
generations of the future. These members of the Ahle Bayet live even today through the progeny of Hazrat Hussain
(AS) and Hazrat Hasan (AS). One son of Hazrat Hussain (AS), Hazrat Zainul
Abedin (AS) escaped death at Karbala
because of illness and the Grace of God. Through him came his line of the Ahle Bayet consisting of the 12
Infallible Imams. Through the line of
Hazrat Hasan (AS) has come a long line of the Ahle Bayet the most notable being Hazrat Syed Abu Muhammad
Mohyuddin Abdul Quadir Jilani (AS), also known as Ghausul Azam, or ‘The Greatest Helper’, the most brilliant Shining Star in the
firmament of the Ahle Bayet of the
Prophet. His birth has been compared to the birth of the Greatest Prophet Hazrat
Muhammad (SAW) who was the only Prophet to have come from the line of Prophet
Hazrat Ismail (AS) whereas many Prophets came from the line of Hazrat Ishaq
(AS), the other line of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS).
Hazrat Hussain (AS) sacrificed himself for the benefit of all mankind. It is now the duty of each generation to regenerate its faith and understanding of Islam through the legacy of Karbala through the members of the Ahle Bayet. God’s mercy and blessings descend on those who remember him, and weep for him, for his days of trial on the desert sands of Iraq, on the bank of the Euphrates, 1371 years ago.
Syed Mujtaba Quader
a Servant of Hazrat Hussain (AS),
Ghausul Azam and the Ahle Bayet
