The human in Imam Hussain
While in many cultures the occasion of New Year is the time for celebrations and festive activities, such as in Western or Chinese traditions, the Islamic New Year, although marked by a public holiday in many Islamic countries, is not accompanied by fun parties or fireworks. On the contrary, you will find certain areas of the Muslim population that are decorating their streets, mosques, and community centres with black banners and drawings of mourning people. That’s the time of Muharram, the first Islamic calendar month, with a very important date on its tenth day, Ashoora. For Shia Muslims and the followers of Prophet Mohammed’s Progeny this is a very special time of the year.
When the month of Muharram draws near there is this unique feeling of impatient anticipation for the days of Ashoora that has been commemorated for hundreds of years with ever increasing zeal and love for Imam Hussain, his family and companions. For the outsider this zeal and love might seem very strange. In fact, before I knew anything about Imam Hussain and Ashoora, I too was bewildered but also intrigued by what I saw and heard in the streets, mosques, and religious centres. And even though I didn’t understand very much from what was being said in the vivid lamentation of the sermons and the rhythmic lyrics, I became fascinated by the whole spectacle and the genuine emotions so openly displayed by people. Who was this man who caused these outbreaks of compassion in grown up men and women? Then I wondered why I hadn’t heard about Imam Hussain and Karbala before? In actual fact, throughout 20 years that I grew up and lived in Europe I had never heard even the name of Imam Hussain anywhere, leave alone what happened to this important historical figure in Karbala.
After getting to know the story of Karbala and Imam Hussain in more detail, hearing its gruesome facts, and shocking descriptions of what exactly had happened to Imam Hussain, his family and companions, I couldn’t help but feeling a deep sense of sympathy and I began to ponder about its meaning for us today. People surely wouldn’t commemorate this occasion year after year with such enormous efforts and zealous emotions only to remember a historic battle in which the grandson of Prophet Mohammed had died. In order to remember this fact of history a simple memory service would have served this purpose. But during the Ashoora activities the followers of the Progeny of Prophet Mohammed, the Shia of Ahlul Bait, seem to relive the pain and sorrows of this battle, as if it happened only yesterday. Therefore, it began to dawn on me that there was much more to it than meets the eye of an observer of the Ashoora traditions.
Much has been said and written about Imam Hussain and the battle of Karbala. Year after year we hear about the brave resistance and courage that Imam Hussain, his family and companions put up. Year after year we read and hear the very same stories about his infallible character, his magnificent virtues, his incomparable patience, his outstanding knowledge, his great generosity, his heroic bravery, or his praiseworthy purity that were so brutally wiped out by an army that was under the command of the Muslim nation leader. Again and again we listen to the unimaginable sufferings and terrible deaths of each and every martyr in Karbala in the most vivid description. And yet, people never seem to get enough of Ashoora. Men, women and children in Iraq today even risk their lives to march days on foot till they reach the holy shrine in Karbala. They defy all terror threats and dangers just in order to be there for Ashoora, to be with Imam Hussain in Karbala, when the holy shrine becomes engulfed by a sea of people, the faithful followers of Imam Hussain till this very day and age after almost 1400.
Great effort and financial resources are invested each year for the commemoration of Ashoora, which is much more, much, much more than, for example, the financial and physical efforts that are invested into the Good Friday services before the Easter Festivities in the Christian culture, in which the Christians commemorate the death of no other but their “son of God.” However, although Imam Hussain was “only” the grandson of the Prophet of Islam, the commemoration of his death stands in no comparison to how Christians commemorate the loss of Jesus. Besides, I have never seen people cry on Good Friday the way people cry for Imam Hussain. Maybe there are people who do cry on Good Friday, but it is not part and certainly not specifically recommended during commemoration services. With the alleged death of Jesus in mind, I began to think about the similarities and differences of the assumed crucifixion of Jesus and the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. In Christian theology, which, of course, elevates Prophet Jesus to the status of the son of God, Jesus was tortured on the cross and died for peoples’ sins. Hence, for Christians it was God who became in part human in order to show His love for mankind through the sacrifice of “His son.” Thus, in this case the love comes from God to mankind.
Imam Hussain, on the other hand, was, of course, “just” a human. But this human suffered incomparable torture, pain, and sorrow, which he bore in a way like no other human did before or after him. What was his secret? How could anyone be able to bear such indescribable physical and mental strain? After all, despite being infallible, Imam Hussain was still “only” a human. And yet, he demonstrated his love for God beyond intelligible human capacity to the last drop of his blood and with everything and everybody that meant the world to him. But it wasn’t the world for which he sacrificed everything; it was God the Almighty Imam Hussain totally submitted to by bearing what he suffered on that day. And this becomes clear through the quotation of Imam Hussain, who said: “I don’t see death but as success; and life with the oppressors as nothing but a deviation.” What kind of love is this, if not, yes, if not only the love for God? So the direction that this love is taking is totally different than that of Jesus in Christian theology! It is not from God to mankind, but from man to God. And therefore, the effect of this love on humans is totally different too. In the case of Christian belief, God demonstrated His love for mankind through the death of Jesus. So we said that this love comes from above, sent down onto mankind. Man can accept it or not, although one would easily understand its message. God loves you, the human.
But the love of a human for God through sacrifice and the effect it has on the rest of mankind seems less apparent and thus more difficult to comprehend. One difficulty in fully grasping its meaning might be the difference between the understanding of martyrdom in Western and Islamic terms. A martyr in Islam is called a “shaheed”, which also means a ‘witness’. As such he bears witness to the truth, because a witness is called upon to testify about the truth, to establish reality. Therefore, a martyr is not simply someone who dies for the higher cause that he believes in, which could be anything even his own principles, but a “shaheed” is someone who witnesses to the truth or bears testimony to the truth. To find out about the truth we need a witness and Imam Hussain was the absolute witness to the truth of Islam and human creation by God the Almighty.
You might argue that the truth could be established by revelations and divine signs. Ironically enough, God had already sent plenty of those and people again and again rejected or falsified them. But again, the direction of this love is different. It is not God that proves His love to us, but it is man who proves the degree of love possible that a human can show to his Creator. So in order to bear such witness of the absolute love, he had to be a human. By doing so he also bore witness to the absolute truth, which is God the Almighty. Besides, God the Almighty doesn’t need to bear witness to His own truth. This would be quite illogical too. A human, however, is only a part of God’s creation within God’s absolute truth. And as such we have a purpose, which God the Almighty tells us in the holy Quran: [51:56] I did not create the jinn and the humans except to worship (Me alone). “wa ma khalqtu aljinna wal insa illa liya’abudoon” By becoming a martyr or a witness in death, a shaheed, Imam Hussain was also a witness to the ultimate act of worship, he gave his life to submit to the eternal truth of his Creator and all His attributes.
