In defence of Shia rituals on Ashura – by Fawad Manzoor
With 10-14 million people, Arbaeen (20 Safar) in Karbala is the largest Muslim gathering in the world
Related post: An open letter to Prof Saleem Ali – by Mustafa
What can Pakistan and the entire world learn from Pakistani Shias? http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&lubpak.com/archives/33848
This article offers a rebuttal to Professor Saleem Ali’s article in Express Tribune (later retracted but republished on his personal blog with some edits) in which he ridiculed and insulted Shia Muslims and their Ashura rituals.
Shia rituals which were so shamelessly detested by the writer
Shia traditions or rituals can be traced back to Prophet’s (pbuh) time rather than cheaply and easily referring them to Safavid times of 16th century. If they are, as suggested by Saleem Ali, a creation of the Safavid Empire, today’s mullah will wreak havoc on Shias. Iran is a Shia State but it doesn’t mean, Shia Muslims take dictation from Iran. On the contrary, majority of Shias in Pakistan and elsewhere refer to Najaf, Iraq, for theological guidance, and many more remain secular in their personal and collective lives.
Saleem Ali has limited knowledge about Shias world wide. There are many states which constitute Shia Muslims as a majority population. Shia population in Iran-96%, Iraq-68%, Azerbaijan-75%, Bahrain-72%, Lebanon-71% of all Muslims, Yemen-47%, Syria-30%, Kuwait-30%, Pakistan-25%, Turkey-20%, Afghanistan-20%, Egypt-15%, Bangladesh-9%, Qatar-6%, India-25% of all Muslims, Saidi Arabia-15%, Malaysia-3% etc. The crowds in Karbala, Iraq (Yom e Ashura -10th of Moharram) at Imam Hussain’s mausoleum were estimated to about 12 million where as in comparison about 2.5 million perform Hajj every year. An estimated 10 to 14 million people visit the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq during Arba’een (20 Safar) every year.
Mullah knows all the rituals of Shias are according to the practices performed during Prophet Mohammad’s time. Let’s not forget the incidents of Shahdat of prophet’s (pbuh) uncle Hazrat Hamza in Ghazwa e Ohad and how the Prophet mourned his uncle’s death, the beating of chest and face by Hazrat Ayesha at the death of Prophet (pbuh) and let’s not forget Hazrat Owais Qarni, when he heard one month later that Prophet’s two front teeth were injured in the attack by Kufar during the Ghazwa e Ohad, he broke all his teeth with stone (try breaking one teeth with a stone) and ultimately injuring his whole face and jaw as a token of love and affection for the minor injuries faced by Prophet. If Owais was wrong, Prophet could have easily admonished him for such a wrongful act but rather declared Hazrat Owais as his Sahabi even though they never met and sent two envoys Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Omar to ask Hazrat Owais to pray for the forgiveness of his followers (ummat) and sent his shirt as a gift.
Zuljanah is taken out in Ashura rituals as symbol of the horse which served the grandson of Prophet, when Muslims were hell bent on killing him but that horse remained faithfull to Imam Hussain. Shia-phobes will make no one objects to the sacrifice of millions of animal on the Eid ul Azha. We purchase animal and kids love and we take good care of the animal knowing well that this animal is no where the same as the one sacrificed by Hazrat Ibrahim. That horse protected his master and history tells how he protected him till Imam Hussain himself told him to leave as his time of shadat had come. Matam and Zanjeer are done as a token of love with Imam Hussain, whose blood was shed in the desert by keeping him thirsty for ten days. All the rituals performed by Shia Muslims are a part of the protest to commemorate every year the brutality suffered by Hazrat Imam Hussain at the hands of thousands of Muslims led by an usurper Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiya.
The army of Yazeed wanted to finish of the battle at the earliest as they were getting late for their Juma prayer. Besides the killing of Imam Hussain and his 72 companions on 10th Moharram, his oldest companion was Hazrat Habib Ibne Mazahir who was also Sahabi of Prophet (more than 90 years old at the time) and Imam Hussain’s six months old son, all brutally killed and their heads severed and put on spears and flouted around bazars for days on almost 1000 mile long journey through deserts, mountains and forests.
Karbala did not end on 10th Moharram; the women and children of Imam Hussain and his family were made prisoners including Hazrat Imam Zain ul Abideen son of Imam Hussain and his son Imam Baqir who was barely five years old, Hazrat Zainab (S.A) sister of Hazrat Imam Hussain and four year old daughter of Imam Hussain, Hazrat Sakina (S.A). They faced the torture of Yazeed in the dungeons of Syria. This persecution of descendants of Prophet (pbuh) continued during the reign of Banu Ummayya and then Banu Abbass. Both dynasties are detested by Shia Muslims for their torture of next of kins of the Prophet. Yes Shias have committed the crime of loving the Prophet and his family and cursing their enemies.
We present ourselves every year to such practice. Dear Shia-phobes, try it once for any one of your loved ones. We do it to our self, we don’t bomb and kill innocent people in the name of religion.
Start of the differences of Shia and other sects of Islam
It is a historical fact that Shias are the people who have always stood by the descendants of Prophet known as Ahlul-Bayt and Aal-e-Muhammad. Differences within Muslims started from the succession of the Prophet. But succession of khilafat to Hazrat Ali (A.S) can be ignored as Ali himself did not indulge in the fight or argument for the khilafat. Real clash started when the daughter of Prophet Hazrat Fatima (S.A), in whose respect even Prophet himself would stand on her arrival, had to go to the darbar of the first Khalifa to demand her inheritance (Baghe Fidak, Gardens of Fidak); her inheritance was refused. Later she was attacked in her home by some people; she suffered serious injuries during that attack, which ultimately led to her death merely six months after the death of the Prophet (pbuh). No one is abusing any Sahabi neither it is our faith to degrade any Sahabi. Shias uphold the Sahaba who remained faithful to Prophet. Theirs is only one slogan: “May Allah have his curse on the enemies of Muhammad and his family”. Even though history is full of names of all the culprits, we don’t want to be the judge, we leave it to Allah Almighty to judge who was the enemy of the Aal-e-Muhammad.
Every day protest rallies are held, e.g., when people were out to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, people in those rallies were seen beating their chest but no one objected to that. If anyone had a chance to see when a dead body is taken from the house for burial, loved ones do what comes “natural”, i.e., they cry out a loud and start beating up their chest or their face in utter grief.
Dear Saleem Ali, would you also call this due to testosterone. Every year whole world on 1st May commemorates as Labor day, for a few nameless labourers killed in Chicago about a century ago, rallies and processions are taken out to commemorate that incident, but no one objects to that. But it bothers a few Shia phobes when Shia Muslims commemorate the brutal killings of the Prophet’s family. Shias have been persecuted for fourteen hundred years but these rituals to commemorate or mourn the shuhada of battle of Karbala have spread even at the faster pace.
A family friend and famous poet Josh Malih Abadi said:
Insan ko baidar to ho lainay do
Har qom pukaray gi hamaray hain Hussain
Shia aik Sabai Yahoodi Fitna Hain
An apt reply to Shia-phobe Saleem Ali. Well done, Mr. Fawad
Mr. Musalman try reading history. Sabai was a man known to abuse First & Second caliph in the open. When Hazrat Ali took control of the Caliphate, one rawait goes Ali warned him to shut up or be killed. Another rawait goes he was thrown out of Arabia.
Sabai who was Jew had similar credentials as Abu Hurraira who wrote all the Ahdees and was beaten by second caliph in the middle of the market for falsifying ahdees.
On one hand people say Shias are followers of 16th century Safavid dynasty and others say we follow Sabai, kindly make up mind there are good thousand years in between.
Come with another version of the shia orgin this just doesnt fit anymore. Shia origin is with Prophet himself whose Hadees is very commonly quoted “ALI IS WITH HAQ AND HAQ IS WITH ALI”. We are with Ali and know thru Prophet that we are with Haq.
Abdullah Ibn-e-Saba is a fictitious character, invented by Saif ibn-e-Umar Tamimi (considered unreliable by all great Sunni scholars of Hadith). Murtaza Askari has written a 3 volume book on it, available in English too. Unchallenged and yet to be refuted.
Thanks for the post Fawad. Its great.
I have no problem with Shia’s view of history or their devotion to the Prophet which is to be respected. The question was one of how rituals are practiced in a modern society where public health and order are at stake. As for male displays off valor, I would have the same disdain for Western displays of such fervor where it exists as well. Indeed, often sports events are also strictly regulated for that purpose. People write against those displays all the time and are not hounded personally the way I have been. Also worthy of note is that the bullying response reenforces negative stereotypes about minorities even more which we all want to avoid. As I have noted before — half my family are shia and have endured persecution in Pakistan as well (one of my aunts had to flee to UK and seek asylum for being persecuted). Yet, we have discussions about ritual reform as well.
Again, I appreciate the knowledge sharing about this view of history. But note that this is an issue of active debate in many Shia countries as well and I hope that Pakistani Shia will also follow the same introspection. Peace and blessings to you all.
Mr. Saleem I am glad you have responded personally. Your family members being shia and persecuted doesnt permit you to so callously in utter disrespect criticize and insult shia rituals.
I want to know how do the shia rituals endanger public health & order. Every year there are over twelve thousand Matami jaloos in Pakistan during first ten days of Moharram and never have we heard of a damage to any public property except for the violent attacks by Taliban. As far as health is concerned there are over five millon Shias actively participating in all rituals of Matam & Zanjeer Zani in Pakistan alone and they do it repeatedly many times every year but it has caused no public health issue. If it had caused any such issue as assumed by you I am sure all the shias would be dead by their own hands without any help from Taliban and the issue will b closed. I am western educated person and take pride in all our shia rituals and defended our rituals and faith because I personally participate in all of them.
Mr. Saleem you have very limited knowledge of how we practice our religion. It is not based on what any country does or what any society does. We do what our religious hierarchy permits us to do. We have a well established “Marjah” system and that has survived fourteen hundred years of persecution. Our Marjah, people who qualify to be one have, religious education of over forty years with minimum seven PhD’s in religious subjects before passing any religious dictate. All the rituals that you have questioned have the blessings of all the Marjah since the twelfth Imam Mehdi. They are not based on the blessings of any political force.
If You wanted debate on the rituals is another thing but to disrespect our faith and rituals and then enter debate is completely out of question.
excellent reply. may Allah help others understand shia religion.
God bless you Mr Fawad.
Interesting debate but both Dr. Ali and Fawad are wrong on many counts. For one, Dr. Ali (whom I otherwise respect as a genuine scholar) does not have the basic understanding of the differences between Shia and Sunni Islam, while Mr. Fawad also gave some very simplistic explanations, with which I beg to differ. The origins of sectarianism were much deeper and many factors were simultaneously at play, but if one factor was responsible for division of Islam in Shia and Sunni sects, it was the spread of Islam through sword during the rule of Hazrat Omar (RA). As Muslims, we are fond of those conquests to all parts of the world and the war booty accumulated in the process, without even realizing that this was the very root of the problem. Those who got more share in this war booty than they deserved became Sunnis while those who did not get their share, belonging mostly to southern parts of Arabia, sided with Imam Ali (AS) who was always opposed to such militarism.
Mr. Fawad has raised some good points, such as that Shia rituals and practices are not forced on someone; they are adopted voluntarily. You do not harm anyone else, but yourself. This is simple freedom of choice which Dr. Ali should always advocate since he himself has been its beneficiary as an academic. Anyway, I have two minor disagreements with Mr. Fawad. The picture is not as rosy as perhaps he has tried to paint. Shia rituals are more of a cultural thing for them. They are more of socializing, rather matchmaking, events. As a Shia myself, I hate to admit it but I feel dismayed at how even the most prominent Shias take great pride in telling how much they have paid to a particular zakir. The Sunnis who revere Imam Ali (AS) actually show much more respect on days like ashura. Coming to those Shias who self-flagellate to mourn the tragedy of Kerbala, how come they never try to follow Imam Hussain’s path in real life? This is my question to all Shias, including myself, and shall be indebted for an honest reply. Why this devotion for Imam Ali (AS) and his family never translate into something tangible or concrete? Have you ever came across a Shia who follows a simple life just because Imam Ali (AS) did so or who would give whatever he or she has in charity just like Imam Ali (AS) used to do? What is the use of such extreme acts of devotion when you are not willing to relate to their message in real life? I personally think that this very contradiction of Shia Islam is bound to provoke academics like Dr. Ali to question the faith, belief and practices of Shias. If they are sincere to their faith, and in its defence, they would have to do more than simply mourn in Muharram and become real followers of Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Hussain (AS).
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