As soon as the preacher went up to the pulpit, the Ummah started to lament and weep – There was a presence of tremendous grief and sorrow. They all knew what was coming and the tragic events of Kerbala that were going to be revealed in minute detail.. The plight of the beloved Imam, his loneliness, his being away from his home, his parting from his family, his having lost everything he had, his thirst and his hunger, his grief and his broken heart all was going to be revealed at this moment – The hearts sunk at the bewilderment at the state of endurance of this one person on a mission – A mission to uphold the truth and fight against injustice and tyranny – A fight against power and authority –.
The preacher started to summarize firstly, all that happened on this day – Significantly he talked about Hur’s round turn and the great pardon followed by his martyrdom – All Hur needed was a process of thinking what he was doing and that was it – He died a hero.
Alas, how many a times we know we did a wrong thing and we fail to make that small turnabout and put matters back in order and become heroes ourselves by submitting to that small acceptance of fault.
The preacher then said that it had taken three days for Umr Ibn Saa’d to take up his stand against the beloved Imam and he did that because of an opportunity to get his hands upon a kingdom and governorship of a place called Ra’i. Alas how many times do we submit to the wrong just to gain a small importance and an opportunity to ‘be someone’ in the authority. By the way Umr ibn Saad never got what he thrived for in the end. How could he? Divine justice is supreme.
He talked about so many relevant and substantially relevant episodes to be reflected upon and we went on weeping and lamenting – and then we made a significant statement – Had I been there, Oh our beloved Imam, we would have been with you and we would have laid down our lives for you – All the while, inside us we knew even today we cannot really uphold justice and fairness. Even today we let go of simple, evident principles for small gains, we slander, we backbite and we deceive – and we gain temporary victories exactly the way it happened in Kerbala, on this day of Ashura.
The desert calm vibrated with the voices of the ‘wrong’ proclaiming Allaho Akber while the family of the prophet sat on the warm sands of the desert shelter less and lonely – The bodies of the ‘rights’ lying in appalling condition some without their heads on them – The ‘wrongs’ were buried, the ‘rights’ lay unshrouded and unburied – What kind of Allaho Akber chants were these ? And yet, they thought they were holy and had carried out a holy duty –
So what was it all ? Wasn’t that a fight of justice against injustice ? We lamented not knowing what it was, really. We lamented the episode – We did not lament the flouting of the principles by the army opposing justice. But we wept, nevertheless, and we wept so that we be counted amongst the followers and supporters of this great Imam –
For the first time, I lamented because even after 1400 years I had failed to ‘see’ – I was glad I was not born then, for I am not sure where I would have been – I have not been a HUR even today, and for most of the time I think like gaining something out of situations by deception, lying and manipulation of the weak. Yes, I wept – Perhaps the opportunity had come for me to make a HUR turnabout or be condemned to live with injustice. I knew I could only really lament the Imam’s plight if I were sincere in my daily life and uphold values and principles – failure to do that, I now know, would just dismiss this Ashura as any other that went by in my life so far..
And the preacher summed up – he said ‘ even if you did not belong to any religion, to uphold the principles of justice and fairness is built-in by the creator in you – and, if you follow the religion of Hussain then to flout these principles cannot simply ‘fit in’ – How would you do such a thing , and to make it worse keep on lamenting? What are you grieving about?
The preacher started to summarize firstly, all that happened on this day – Significantly he talked about Hur’s round turn and the great pardon followed by his martyrdom – All Hur needed was a process of thinking what he was doing and that was it – He died a hero.
Alas, how many a times we know we did a wrong thing and we fail to make that small turnabout and put matters back in order and become heroes ourselves by submitting to that small acceptance of fault.
The preacher then said that it had taken three days for Umr Ibn Saa’d to take up his stand against the beloved Imam and he did that because of an opportunity to get his hands upon a kingdom and governorship of a place called Ra’i. Alas how many times do we submit to the wrong just to gain a small importance and an opportunity to ‘be someone’ in the authority. By the way Umr ibn Saad never got what he thrived for in the end. How could he? Divine justice is supreme.
He talked about so many relevant and substantially relevant episodes to be reflected upon and we went on weeping and lamenting – and then we made a significant statement – Had I been there, Oh our beloved Imam, we would have been with you and we would have laid down our lives for you – All the while, inside us we knew even today we cannot really uphold justice and fairness. Even today we let go of simple, evident principles for small gains, we slander, we backbite and we deceive – and we gain temporary victories exactly the way it happened in Kerbala, on this day of Ashura.
The desert calm vibrated with the voices of the ‘wrong’ proclaiming Allaho Akber while the family of the prophet sat on the warm sands of the desert shelter less and lonely – The bodies of the ‘rights’ lying in appalling condition some without their heads on them – The ‘wrongs’ were buried, the ‘rights’ lay unshrouded and unburied – What kind of Allaho Akber chants were these ? And yet, they thought they were holy and had carried out a holy duty –
So what was it all ? Wasn’t that a fight of justice against injustice ? We lamented not knowing what it was, really. We lamented the episode – We did not lament the flouting of the principles by the army opposing justice. But we wept, nevertheless, and we wept so that we be counted amongst the followers and supporters of this great Imam –
For the first time, I lamented because even after 1400 years I had failed to ‘see’ – I was glad I was not born then, for I am not sure where I would have been – I have not been a HUR even today, and for most of the time I think like gaining something out of situations by deception, lying and manipulation of the weak. Yes, I wept – Perhaps the opportunity had come for me to make a HUR turnabout or be condemned to live with injustice. I knew I could only really lament the Imam’s plight if I were sincere in my daily life and uphold values and principles – failure to do that, I now know, would just dismiss this Ashura as any other that went by in my life so far..
And the preacher summed up – he said ‘ even if you did not belong to any religion, to uphold the principles of justice and fairness is built-in by the creator in you – and, if you follow the religion of Hussain then to flout these principles cannot simply ‘fit in’ – How would you do such a thing , and to make it worse keep on lamenting? What are you grieving about?
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