The Day After Ashura

The day of Ashura ends by the sunset for the people who consider the tenth day of Moharram as Ashura. When the sun that was ashamed of the act of Kuféh people radiated on Karbala in the dewing of 11th day of Moharram 61 A.H. again Ashura ended for many people, and everyone returned to his/her daily work since the mission of martyring the truth and decapitating the justice had been ended. The commanders of Kuféh troops, who had the commandment of governorship on mundane provinces provided that they violate Imam Hossein (AS) trusteeship, intended to move toward the destination immediately, the infantry men departed to Kufeh with the spoils and booties which have obtained from the Al-e-Allah caravan.

However, some whose nasty moat of their avarice had not become full yet, departed to Syria hopping that they receive more prizes. They accompanied the pure caravan of martyrs who were on their feet while they held a whip in their hands and sat on their horses in order to receive the wags of sycophancy to Umayyad, the sycophancy to the child of Moavieh via killing Hossein (AS), the son of Mohammad, Peace be upon him.

Ashura had been ended for them. The avaricious fanatic people whom Imam Hossein (AS) named them as the people of "Adhan" and negligence with the sovereignty for maintaining the security, discharged their vow and built many mosque in Kuféh in gratitude for the reduction of Hossein's sedition and maintenance of Yazid's government.

The disciples of "La-Ma'k and La-Al'eik" and the irresponsible religious people who were crying on the top of the adjacent heights and saying "O' God, help Hossein", during the time of that incident, initiated the first groups of mourning, and moved toward their houses while weeping since Ashura had been ended for them.

Only few groups among the troopers, all of a sudden, became aware of what a nasty work they have done after that they killed, burned and stole. Firstly, they blamed themselves and said "O'h, what we have done; what a nasty work we have done! We demolished Hossein, the son of Ali in order to satisfy an offender. We ourselves called for him. He wanted the good for us; not only we did not help him, but also we sacrificed him and their followers in front of the government of Damascus!"

So, the anger replaced by the regret, and they returned back to their land ashamed of what they have done. However, it had been too late for them, because their Ashura had been finished. But Kufeh became completely aware and tasted the heinousness of its work when the caravan of the survivors of Ashura arrived at Kufeh. The people of Kufeh who had more than 20 years old, had seen Zeinab, upon whom be peace, in the days of the caliphate of the commander of the faithful, in this city, so they remembered the respect of her in Ali's eyes and her magnificence in the Prophet's family. When the caravan of the Prophet's family were brought as the unbeliever captives to this city, the streets and parish were full of crying and weeping, and the yelling and groaning could be heard from everywhere suddenly.

But, it was too late. As holy Zeinab said to them, "I hope that your eyes be always full of tears! I hope that your heart be always full of groan and lamentation! You are like the woman who used to spin whatever she had and then tore all of her strings suddenly. You are as a green and fresh plant which has grown on the sludge. Yes, cry! You deserve crying. What a disgrace is worse than killing the Prophet's son and Seyyed of the Paradise youths. You are wondering why the drops of blood are falling from the sky to the earth, but you should know that the disgrace of Resurrection's chastisement will be harder. Do not be relaxed if God does not punish you due to the sin which you have done. God does not give the retribution of the sin all at once, but He does not let the blood of the oppressed shed without any punishment.

These words which were arisen from a broken heart and gained its strength from the wavy sea of God's faith revolutionized all the people and a sigh echoed from the depth of all hearers. Alas! For them Ashura was the 10th day of Moharram 61A.H. which were ended by the sunset. What about the followers of Imam? Is Ashura considered as a sheet of the ended pages of the history? Was Ashura ended by the sunset of 10th day? Was Imam Husain's uprising martyred in Karbala too? If yes, why the people who consider Ashura as only a day among the other days, could not have washed the blood of Imam Hossein and his followers yet? Why does the Hossein affection spring in the heart of the freedom-seekers of the world livelier than before and why Ashura creates a new revolution every day? Why Karbala is still the Kiblah of those who prefer the splendid death over the abject life and why the Imam Hossein's movement always runs all over the history? Why this reviving flam of Hussein's affection in the heart of justice seekers and this inspirational essence of the revolutions centering on justice never become quiet and faint?

He said, "All days are Ashura and all lands are Karbala". Ashura is the day which will not go down. Since the fighting for the right and wrong has not been ended yet, and the struggle of goodness and evil is continuous and permanent in all times and places. According to this interpretation, the people who consider Ashura as the tenth day of Moharram 61 A.H., are wrong because the struggle of Hossein's followers and Yazid's adherents will be continued until the advent of Imam Mahdi whose first word is about the master of martyrs, peace be upon him, and Imam Hossein's memory, and his first motto is the vengeance for the bloodshed of Imam Hossein (AS) when he will orate between Rokn and Ibrahim position for the people.

The next day after Ashura is not only the eleventh day of Moharram, since Ashura has not ended for the Hossein's followers. The next day after Ashura is a day in which a sound says "انا المهدي المنتقم"in answering to the voice of "اين الطالب بدم المقتول بكربلا"

Also, Imam Hossein said that my ninth child is the upholder for right. God will resurrect the earth by him and give the religion authority. He will vindicate the right in spite of the unbelievers and enemy's desire.

"عظم الله اجورنا بمصابنا بالحسين عليه السلام و جعلنا و اياكم من الطالبين بثاره مع وليه الامام المهدي عليهم السلام"

God magnifies our rewards due to our lamentation on Imam Hossein's calamity and put you and us as the revengeful persons of him accompanied by his master, Imam Mahdi, and peace be upon Him.

The Distortions of Ashura

1. The meaning of distortion

The literal meaning of distortion is to deviate one thing from the main line.

The distortion and transformation are usually occurred in the historical matters and events during the time. Of course, the distortion has various factors, and it is necessary for the friends and advocates of Villayat and Imamate to recognize them and remove them from the pure honor of Ashura's movement.

2. The Elements of Distortion

a) Sometimes, the enemies of the movement try to represent it as a reversed one via the inversion of the realities and real purposes in order to foil its effects.

b) Sometimes, the ignorant friends magnify the incident with the feeling of compassionate myth-making; and sometimes the incident is magnified in such a way that it seems unreasonable and unacceptable.

c) Furthermore, the passage of time, death of the real witnesses, memory loss of Hadiths tellers or destroy of real documents cause that incidents to lose its real face.

d) Regarding that crying and make people cry is desirable in the view points of the religion prophets and some people, this has caused some ignorant people to tell lie and make story based on this belief.

Different Types of Distortion:

The distortion is divided into two types in one division: the first is literal distortion and the second is spiritual distortion.

The literal distortion means to increase or decrease the Hadiths or add the Hadiths and fictional stories to the history of one event (for example Ashura) and in other word, it is a structure and form distortion.

The spiritual distortion means to change or represent the purposes and motivations of one incident reversed or in other words to change the prevailing spirit on that subject.

The distortion may occur by the friends, or enemies of one movement, but most of the spiritual distortions in Ashura incident have been accomplished by the friends; and both the friends and enemies have done the literal distortion.

First: the literal distortions.

Many literal distortions have been occurred in Ashura incident, such as forgery of news, narrations and stories that we point to some of them.

1 – The story of Qasim wedding which have not been narrated in the valid and reliable books.

2 – The attendance of Leila in Karbala and the commandment of Imam Hossein to her: "Go to the tent and dishevel your hair".

3 – Some have said that the day in which Ashura had been happened was seventy-two hours.

4 – This matter that a person killed ten thousands people with just one attack.

5 – The return of the captive people from Syria and their passing through Karbala.

Second: the spiritual distortions.

a) The spiritual distortions by the enemies

1 – After the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, peace be upon Him, Ibn-e-Ziyad made this rumor that it was God's desire that Hossein and his followers be killed.

Also, Imam Hossein was named as an outsider (it means a person who has ejected from the religion).

2 – Imam Hossein (AS) was introduced as the opponent of Muslim's Imam by them, so, Umar, the son of Hajjaj in the day of Ashura said, "O' People of Kuféh!

Maintain your unity, obey the commander and do not hesitate about the killing of the person who has ejected from the religion and opposed the Muslim's Imam".

b) The spiritual distortion by the friends

1 – They gave the nickname of sick Zeinul–Abedin to Imam Sajjad (As), while, Imam Sajjad was sick based on the Divine prudence in a specific moment of time.

2 – Making the mourning rituals empty of the spirit of fighting the oppression so that it becomes as a habit merely and be accompanied by some works which are not approved by the religion.

3 – The Solutions:

· Answering the propaganda of enemies by the research in the history of caliphs and Imams, peace be upon Them; and making clear the dark points of the history so that their lies are disclosed.

· The investigation of narration's documents of Karbala's incident from the viewpoint of men and history; and the dismissal of fabricated and weak Hadith and not referring to them in the gatherings and books which are written about Ashura incident.

· Giving information to the scientists and scholars of the society concerning the real and true purpose and motivation of Imam Hossein's uprising and making clear the lies and distortions in this domain.

Saturday, January 30, 2010 - 13:10