al-Ridha alayhis-salam, Muhammad al-Jawad alayhis-salam, ‘Ali al-Hadi
alayhis-salam, Hasan al-‘Askari alayhis-salam, and Muhammad al-Mahdi
alayhis-salam. The Prophet salla-llahu-alayhi-wa-aalih himself is the
greatest lantern and ship. Allah has said: {O you the Prophet, surely We
have sent you as a witness and a bringer of glad tidings and a warner
and a summoner to Allah and as an illuminating lantern}. Humanity,
living as it is in the darkness of ignorance and drowning in the depths of
chaos, confusion and anxiety, has no cure available to it – if it wants
salvation – other than seeking illumination by the light of those pure
people and boarding their ship; for they are the complement to the wise
book (the Qur’an) as the Messenger of Allah salla-llahu-alayhi-wa-aalih
has said:
‘I leave behind me the two weighty things; the book of Allah
and my household. As long as you adhere to these two you
will never go astray after me ever.’
This points to the fact that without adherence to the household alongside
adherence to the book there will be a resultant straying which, in this
world means dishonour and ignominy and in the next world means hell
and the inferno.
The month of Muharram is the month of the sorrows of the people of the
Prophet’s household alayhum-as-salam. It is the month when the religion
was renewed by the uprising of the ‘ship of salvation’ and the ‘lamp of
guidance’ (i.e. Imam Husayn alayhis-salam). In this sacred month, a
strong Islamic nation should derive great benefit from this uprising. The
supreme religious authority Ayatollah Muhammad al-Shirazi believes that
the benefit of this month has been confined previously to one aspect only;
namely to the reviving of religious practises such as establishing prayer,
and paying the statutory Khums and Zakat along with other acts of
worship, ethical practises and etiquettes, and the building of religious
centres in the name of Husayn alayhis-salam and mosques and developing
sites of religious interest as well as feeding the poor and providing water
and the like. Two other aspects should be added to this, namely:
1. The implementation of the laws and rulings of Islam generally
and fully. At the top of which comes a system of consultative
government through the holding of free and fair elections to set
up a government which fulfils the conditions stipulated by Islam.
Next come the freedoms that Allah has ordered in saying: {. . .
and (for the Prophet) to relieve them from the heavy burdens
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and the yokes that were upon them}, such as the freedom to
form Islamic political parties under the supervision of the Islamic
religious authorities (maraji’), the freedom to trade, the freedom
to manufacture, the freedom to cultivate land, the freedom to
build, the freedom to travel and settle in a place, the freedom to
print and publish, the freedom of association, the freedom of
expression, and all the other freedoms conferred by Islam and
mentioned in the Qur’an and the sunnah or traditions and deeds
of the Prophet. Next comes the abolition of taxes and customs
and excise, and of all the laws that have no basis in the Qur’an
and the sunnah or in the consensus of scholars or reason. Then
comes the institution of Islamic unity meaning that no borders
will exist between the countries of Islam and no differences small
or large will be recognised between nationalities or races. For
{The believers are brothers} and in the words of Imam Husayn
alayhis-salam:
‘By my life, the Imam is none but one who rules by the book
and stands up for justice and equity and follows the religion of
Allah and restrains himself for the sake of Allah.’
Imam Husayn alayhis-salam explains his eternal uprising saying:
‘O Allah, you know that what we did was not out of competition
for worldly power, nor were we seeking the vanities of this
world, but we desired to see the features of your religion and
reform in your land and so that the oppressed of your servants
might find respite and so that your commands and laws might
be carried out.’
2. The propagation of the message of Allah – Islam - to the people
of the world as a whole and instilling Islamic values and ideals.
The month of Muharram can become an appropriate starting
point for propagating this message and these values and ideals,
which were embodied in the goals of Imam Husayn alayhissalam,
to a thirsty humanity. This mission can be funded through
collections at gatherings and Husayniyas, and forming bodies,
which will send missionaries to every part of the world. Benefit
may be derived from the gatherings held in remembrance of
Husayn in that they stir up deep emotions in the self and the
occasion they provide for intellectual direction, which has an
effect in changing human behaviour. Speakers should concern
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42
themselves in their sermons with showing the way to social
responsibility and institutions should be established in every
mosque and Islamic centre for the task of fulfilling the material
needs of the people according to priorities. These may be funded
by donations from charitable people and businessmen and the
wealthy. Imam Husayn alayhis-salam said in encouraging
donations and expending in the way of Allah:
‘Your wealth does not belong to you unless you spend it in the
way of Allah. Therefore do not leave it as a store for those who
come after you, when you yourself will be held responsible for
it. Know that you will not survive to make use of it and it will
not remain for you, so consume it before it consumes you.’
Attention and concern must be paid to Islamic institutions for they
continue to experience two crises; quantitative and qualitative. There is a
noticeable lack in the number of Islamic cultural and social institutions
and places of worship for Muslims in the Islamic world and for the Islamic
communities in other countries. This quantitative lack may be filled by
exploiting the occasion of Ashura so that preachers and hosts of gatherings
concern themselves with setting up such institutions by encouraging and
persuading the people to participate in providing the means and laying the
ground work. In this way and through these gatherings, which are spread
throughout the world, we will be able, each year, to establish one hundred
thousand institutions of differing types such as schools, mosques,
Husayniyahs, libraries, clinics and hospitals, orphanages, radio and
television stations, research institutes and newspapers and the like. After
fifteen years this would probably equal the number of institutions the
Christians have provided in Africa alone where they have founded
hundreds of thousands of institutions.
As for the qualitative side, we must attain the necessary administrative and
other skills to run these institutions in an organised and lasting manner so
that the cultural institutions such as the Husayniyahs and mosques can be a
source of thought and awareness including the scientific analysis of the
events of Karbala and elsewhere, and linking the past to the present and
the future. Without this, society will not be able to combat the dangers that
surround it. The intellectual level of the pulpit must be deep so that the
youth in particular can be protected from deviancy when it raises its ugly
head. Often, it is a low intellectual level that is the cause of the deviancy
of the youth and takes them to prisons and detention centres, and to the
grave or exile. Hence, those who host gatherings and administrators must
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43
exhort the preachers to deliver the best possible psychological, social,
historical, doctrinal, and other analyses. The speakers best equipped to
carry out this task must be invited and their lectures must be recorded and
published and distributed amongst the people to stir their emotions and
direct them towards the good and the right and towards reform so that a
wealth of information is available in all fields and aspects.
Islam is a world religion for the rescue of all people from darkness. It is
not the religion of one thousand million Muslims only. However, this calls
for great a deal of support. Is it not a source of regret that there are no
more than few hundred Muslim missionaries working outside Islamic
countries, whereas statistics show that the number of Christian
missionaries in Africa is more than ten thousand and in Asia ninety
thousand all equipped with all the aids and technology they need and
whose task is to convert the Asians and Africans to Christianity? They
have succeeded in converting tens of millions in these two continents.
If we, then, were to take the month of Muharram as a starting point for
these three tasks, we will have fulfilled what is incumbent upon us as far
as possible, as well as bringing Muslims from slavery to mastery and
many non-Muslims from the darkness to the light. This is in reality a
world Islamic movement not merely a local or territorial one, which has
begun to adopt these three tasks. Our condition today is as that of the
person yawning as he is newly awakened from a long sleep. However, this
is a sign of the beginning of an awakening rather than a preparation for
sleep. The Muslims have slept long enough so that their lands have been
divided up, their wealth plundered, their honour torn, and their blood spilt.
Illegal laws have been placed over them and chaos, ignorance, illness,
poverty, enmity and sectarianism reign. Now, thanks be to Allah, they
have begun to rise and they are able to make a programme for this rising
out of these three aforementioned tasks and starting from this sacred
month of Muharram so they might reach their lofty goal if Allah wills.
Among that which Imam Shirazi strongly recommends as part of this
programme is:
1. The establishment of an organisation and expanding it to
encompass all the lands of Islam so that communication may take
place amongst the various wings, on the condition that this
organisation includes free and fair elections held for example
every two years.
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