WHY IS REMEMBRANCE OF KARBALA SO IMPORTANT?

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1 By Sheikh Yasar Ebrahim on 22 Sep 2017 in Raslouw, Pretoria We thank Allah (swt) for giving us another opportunity to remember one of His most beloved of creations and servants. A man who gave everything, so much so that the question of what Husayn (as) gave is not adequate; rather the question of what did he NOT give for the sake of Allah (Swt) should be pondered upon. For sitting in the Majalis and gatherings of Imam Husayn (a.s) is a blessing, it is a blessing in which the rewards will only be truly seen on the day of Judgement. However, millions if not billions of people do not attend these gatherings; some because they honestly do not know about the tragedy, hence it is our duty to take the message to them; however others do not because of laziness and even out of spite do not attend them. What answer will we give Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgement, for not attending these gatherings of a man who gave everything so that today me and you can find the path towards Him? Husayn (a.s) gave everything for Allah (swt) yet we find it difficult and troublesome to even give an hour or so of our time for his remembrance? One of the greatest if not the greatest lesson we learn from Imam Husayn (as) is that a life that cannot be lived in the obedience of Allah, an obedience in the way that Allah (swt) wants to be obeyed and not an obedience which entails me following my own whims and wants, is a life not worth living. It is in this way that we understand the slogan of Hayhat minnaz Zillah! That a life which is lived in disobedience towards the commands of Allah (swt), is a dishonorable life and one that is not worth living. The battle of Karbala and the massacre that ensued on those dusty plains in current day Iraq, is the ultimate example of truth versus falsehood. Of an individual s duty towards the religion of Allah (swt); that religion which guarantees one salvation if followed correctly. Karbala and Ashura are a university like no other, with teachers that are living examples of a prosperous life and whom are not confined to any specific time, place or even age. 1 / 5

2 For Karbala has a teacher for everyone; from the strong youth to the feeble old man, we will find our place in this great classroom of divine light. BUT WHY IS REMEMBERING KARBALA SO IMPORTANT? important? Why is remembering it so important? But why is Karbala so One reason of its importance is the personality of the person who took the first stand. Husayn ibn Ali; Husayn ibn Fatima was no ordinary personality. He was not a normal revolutionary leader, but was the embodiment of Islam and Truth. HUSAYN (a.s) IN THE QURAN In this being the first lecture in this blessed and scared month, one of the four forbidden months, we will try and show the greatness of Imam Husayn (as) from the verses of the Holy Quran and we shall all see that even during the early days of his youth, he possessed the highest level of spiritual efficiency. Allah (swt) says in the 76th Surah of the Holy Quran, this surah goes by many names; some call it surah Insan whilst others call it Surah Dahar and it is even known as Surah Hal Ata, this is because all of these words appear in the first verse of the Surah. However, in traditions it has been called Surah Hal Ataa. Has there been for man a period of time when he was not anything worthy of mention? In this Surah, verses 5 to 22 are of interest to us, as they speak about a group of people who performed a specific action and who will receive great rewards. However we will focus on verses 8 and 9 specifically for our discussion. The verses read: They give food, for the love of Him (or whilst in need of the food), to the needy, the orphan and the prisoner of war, [saying] We feed you only for the sake of Allah. We do not want any reward from you nor any thanks. 2 / 5

3 These verses and the ones that follow them were revealed in honour of Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn (as) and the reason for it revelation goes like this: One day Imam Hasan (as) and Imam Husayn (as) were very ill, so the Holy Prophet (sawa) told them to make an oath or nazr to fast for three days if they were cured. So on the advice of the Holy Prophet (sawa), Imam Ali (a.s), Lady Fatima (s.a) and Lady Fiza (ra) make an oath to do so. In some narrations it is said that even the two boys took the oath. Anyways after a very short period of time the little Imams got healed. So in fulfilling their oaths, Imam Ali (as) took a loan of an amount of barley from a Jew so that they could have iftar for the three days. On the first night, just before they break their fasts, an orphan comes to the door asking for food, the entire household gives their share and they all just have water to break their fasts. On the second day, a poor person comes to their door and again they give him what they had and break their fasts with water. On the third day, again just as they were about to break the fast, a prisoner of war came to their door and what we know about this is that there was a high probability that this prisoner was not even Muslim, but regardless they gave him all what they had and went to bed just on water. On the morning of the fourth day Imam Ali (a.s) went to see the Holy Prophet (sawa) with his son Imam Hasan (as). When the Holy Prophet (sawa) saw their condition he became very upset and went with them to their home where he found his beloved daughter (s.a) in her prayer area and she was in an even worse condition and this made the Holy Prophet (sawa) even more upset. At that very moment Jibreel (a.s) descended upon the Holy Prophet (sawa) and revealed these verses in honor of the Ahlul Bayt (as). 3 / 5

4 Hence, we can see clearly from these verses that Imam Husayn (a.s) learnt the concept of selflessness from a very young age, well he had the best of teachers in this regard. That the needs of others should always be considered, even if it means I struggle, if only the Muslim world took heed of this. ALLAH EXPOSES YOUR GOODNESS TO OTHERS The second lesson that we learn from these verses is that Allah (swt) will make your good deeds apparent to others if He deems it fit to do so, hence the concept of riya or self-conceit and self-advertising should be far from us. For they not only are detrimental but will nullify all our good deeds. The second Quranic verse, which is a well known verse, is known as the verse of Tatheer or purification. This is the 33rd verse of the 33rd Surah, that is Surah Ahzab. Hence this group of people became known as the Ishab al-kisa or the people of the cloak. Imam Husayn (as) was the last of these 5 members. The story regarding this verse is unanimous, and has many differing versions, here we shall mention two. The first is narrated by Ummul Mumineen Aisha who said: "Aishah said: 'The Prophet went out one morning wearing a striped cloak of black camel hair. Al-Hasan bin 'Ali came and he enfolded him in the cloak, then Al-Husain came and he enfolded him in it, then F?timah came and he enfolded her in it, then 'All came and he enfolded him in it, then he said: "Allah wishes only to remove Ar-Rijs (evil deeds and sins) from you, O members of the family, and to purify you with a thorough purification." The second time this incident is narrated is as follows, and from this we can conclude that the Holy Prophet (sawa) took these 4 individuals of which Husayn (as) was one of them, under his cloak on more than one occasion, but yet the Muslim Ummah failed to recognize the greatness 4 / 5

5 of Imam Husayn (as). This one is narrated by Ummul Mumineen Umme Salama as follows: 'Umar bin Abi Salamah- the step-son of the Prophet (s) said: "When these Ayat were revealed to the Prophet: 'Allah only wishes to keep away Rijs from you, O members of the family, and to purify you with a thorough purification' in the home of Umm Salamah, he called for Fatimah, Hasan, Husain, and wrapped them in a cloak, and 'Ali was behind him, so he wrapped him in the cloak, then he said: '0 Allah! These are the people of my house, so remove the Rijs from them, and purify them with a through purification.' So Umm Salamah said: 'And I, Prophet of Allah?' He said: 'You are in your place, and you are upon goodness." However, this is not the only incident that occurred in this blessed house concerning Imam Husayn (as), Umme Salama narrates that one day while the Holy Prophet (sawa) was sleeping at her home, he awake in a frantic state, but after a while calmed down and went back to sleep, again for a second time he awoke in an even more frantic state but again calmed down and went back to bed, but this happened again for a third time and on this time the Holy Prophet (sawa) had something in his hand which he was smelling with tears in his eyes. I asked him what he was doing and the Holy Prophet (sawa) replied that Jibreel had come to inform me of how Husayn (as) would be killed in a distant land so I asked for some sand from that place and this is that sand. It is also reported that the Holy Prophet (sawa) gave the sand to Umme Salamah and said to her that O Umme Salamah when this sand turns red with blood, know that my son Husayn has been killed. 5 / 5