Crimson Scriptures: Legend of Muharram

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Crimson Scriptures: The Tradegy of Alids

Hadith of the Two Weighty Objects

    This week, Muslims all around the world shall observe the beginning of the fourteen hundred and fortieth (1440th) year of the Arab-Islamic lunar-based calendar which marks Muhammad's flight to Medina (622 AD), an event that evolved Islam from a fringe persecuted minority within the sanctuary of Mecca to a powerful and civilized empire that was destined to strech over three continents in the glorious days of its peak magnitude.

    This calendar, like many other things in the shari'ah, was not an innovation offered by Muslims to the mankind. Similar to what they did to the annual festival of hajj (pilgrimage to Ka'bah), Muslims adopted a system that was already under usage by Bedouins. Even the concept of the four sacred months (described in Qur'an), during which all bloodshed was forbidden as a gesture of respect for the pilgrims, was an ancient Arab custom, probably initiated by Muhammad's own ancestors who were, as Muslim historians relate and pre-Islamic poets verify, very much involved with the making of Arab rituals (for instance, cutting off thief's hand was introduced into Arabia by Qusay, the Prophet's great-great-great-grandpa'). When he arrived at Medina, the founding father of Islam saw Jews observing fast (Yom Kippur) on the 10th of Muharram, the first Arabian month, so he imitated the ritual stating that Muslims were more rightful over Moses than Hebrews. But some customs in Islam were invented by Muslims and they are traits unique to the second largest faith in the world. One of these customs is the commemoration of the Battle of Karbala (680 AD) by the Shiite branch of Muslims.

    A summary of Karbala can be uttered via the following sentences. Shiites argued over the installation of Abu Bakr as the first caliph in favor of Ali whom they assumed to be divinely-appointed immediate successor of Muhammad. When Ali finally began his tenure as the fourth caliph, his authority was challenged by the Umayyads who, under the leadership of Mua'wiyah I, succeeded in removing Ali's successor Hasan (and also his son) and establishing a monarchy. Mua'wiyah I died and Hasan's brother Husayn disputed the legitimacy of Mua'wiyah's son Yazid I as the caliph, a person whose crowning was controversial even during his father's lifetime as the heir-apparent. So Husayn moved to Mecca and later journeyed to Kufah where he expected to meet a great number of his political supporters. Unfortunately, his caravan was ambushed at the bank of Euphrates in a desert called Karbala where he and his family members fought to death against the government army. On the 10th of Muharram, all the adult male members of Husayn's caravan had been killed (with the exception of his religio-political successor Ali al-Sajjad) while the female members was detained but later liberated by Yazid.

Arba'in in Karbala, one of the world's largest public gathering

    Reactions to Husayn's execution were overwhelming and widespread. The province of Hejaz (encompassing Mecca and Medina) rebelled against Yazid who was already perceived as a tyrant by the religious figureheads of the Muslim ummah. They gathered under the leadership of Ibn Zubayr who had assumed the title of the caliph. Yazid's forces captured Medina and ruined the former asylum of Muhammad in an incident known as Hirrah, the chronicles of which are penned down with the same sorrow and lamentations the Fall of Baghdad deserves. After a brutal massacre in Medina, the Umayyads moved their attention to Ibn Zubayr's stronghold, the sanctuary of Mecca. But, when it seemed that the Muslims were on the verge of breaking down even the temple of Ka'bah - the very symbol of their eternal religion - Yazid died and his successor Mua'wiyah II stepped down, a decision that went in favor of Marwan, another powerful member of the Umayyad clan, whose nine months long reign commenced the historical lineage of the Marwanid caliphs. On the other hand, Shiites of Kufah, the political ones - as the word "Shiite" was used to describe partisans of Ali, a title that was legally offensive in the early days of Islam - who had ditched Husayn in the time of need, repented and, under the leadership of Muhammad's companion Sulayman ibn Surrad, marched to avenge the martyrs of Karbala. Although their initial struggles met bad results, the idea was stolen and used by Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubaydah al-Thaqafi, who, in less than a decade after Husayn's assassination, killed most of the soldiers who were involved with the tragedy of Karbala. He even murdered Ibn Ziyad and Umar ibn Sa'd, the generals who commanded the anti-Husayn army. But the gravest part of Karbala was the long line of Alids whose massacre was triggered after the martyrdom of Husayn.

A grand view of the shrines of Husayn and his half-brother Abbas in Karbala

 
   Zayd ibn Ali al-Sajjad was the first victim of the Umayyad anti-Alid policy the impact of which was of such magnitude that children began to chant Ali's name - the name of Muhammad's most beloved relative - to mock their friends. Initiated after Hasan's removal, the Umayyad custom of cursing Ali from pulpits every Friday is considered among the worst and the most shameful parts of the Muslim history. But Alids were not confined to public humiliation only. Umayyad hands are stained with the blood of the family of Ali. The pages of history have been reddened by the many accounts of the persecution of the family of Muhammad by the Umayyad and Abbasid empires.

    Muhammad had many children but all his sons died in infancy and only one daughter survived. It was Fatimah, the daughter of Khadijah, whom he married to Ali ibn Abu Talib, the Prophet's first cousin. Accounts of Ali's marital life with Muhammad's daughter differ with Umayyads accusing Abu Talib's son of domestic violence and Fatimah being a timid selfish woman. Such stories have been rejected as being immoral fabrications by both Sunnis and Shiites. Fatimah bore her only husband two sons, Hasan and Husayn, whom Muhammad regarded as equal to his own children. He was very much pleased with his grandsons and he wanted them to be his successors, if one believes Margoliouth. He regarded them as the "Princes of the Youth of Paradise". Hasan was the protagonist of Muhammad's prediction that he would bring peace between two hostile Muslim camps, which he did by abdicating the throne of caliphate in favor of the Umayyad candidate. As for Husayn, the Prophet foretold that he would be slaughtered brutally. There are accounts of the Messenger's widow, one Um Salimah, who dreamed her husband collecting Husayn's blood in Karbala with obvious devastation being mournfully expressed by his dusty hair and tragic demeanor.

    This group of Muhammad, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, his affectionate daughter Fatimah, and his grandchildren Hasan and Husayn, is respectfully termed as Ahlul-Bayt of the People of the Household. Q. 33:33 was revealed about these five people in which Qur'an speaks of purifying the People of the Household. Ali al-Sajjad, keeping these multiple incidents of the celebration of the grandeur of the Ahlul Bayt, once spoke: "Had the Messenger asked people to persecute us, they would have never treated us the way they have done after the Messenger had specifically asked them to celebrate us."



    The story of persecution began with Husayn. Then Zayd was executed during the reign of Hisham. Abdullah ibn Mua'wiyah ibn Jafar ibn Abu Talib felt the blow of the wrath of Umayyads after him. Zayd's two sons were assassinated as well. Then the Abbasids rose in power but the trail of blood continued even after the descendants of the Messenger's own uncle (Abbas) began to rule the Muslim people. Muhammad ibn Abdullah and his brother Ibrahim, the descendants of Hasan, were killed on the orders of Mansur when they rebelled. Their father Abdullah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib was tortured publicly. Many members of the Alid clan were buried live in pillars. Even the successors of Ali al-Sajjad were not immune from the anger of the disgruntled caliphs. They were called imams (chiefs) with Ali being the first one. The last imam Hasan al-Askari died in prison at Samarrah (Iraq), apparently childless. The search for his missing successor resulted in the Twelver Shiites claiming that he had disappeared from the eyes of mortals temporarily. But the disappearance of an imam was not the destruction of the Shiite clergy. In the ninth century AD, Shiites finally made it into the politics when the Buyids took control of Iraq. Egypt was next to fall under the Sevener Shiites i.e. the Fatimid Caliphate. Persia became a permanent abode of Shiite branch of Islam when Hulagu's descendants, the Ilkhanids, embraced Twelver doctrines. Today, three countries in the world are ruled by Shiites who make up only 10% of the total Muslim population in the world.

    But it started with a big bang that was the tragedy of Karbala. It all began when a bunch of some
hundred Hashimites was encountered by fifteen to twenty thousand soldiers. It was commenced when the daughters of Muhammad was arrested by the followers of Muhammad and presented before Muhammad's "successor" without their veils and scarves, with their hair and faces open to public eyes while the Kufans throwing stones at them and calling them names, without realizing that these were the women who belonged to their own Prophet's tribe.

    Every Islamic year initiates with lamentations. Shiites gather in their local mosques and imambargahs to narrate and weep loudly over the incidents of Karbala. They beat their heads and chests and sometimes injure them with chains and daggers. On the tenth of Muharram, which is the day of Ashura, Sunni Muslims observe fasts in remembrance of Passover, but Shiites organize street rallies where they imitate the burial ceremonies of the martyrs of Karbala, the city where one of the largest public gathering events occur on te 20th of Safar, the second Islamic month. On the 20th of Safar, millions of Shiites meet up at Karbala for Arba'in, the fortieth day after Husayn's assassination. Thus, we can say that his death was one of the most important political murders of the human history.

Hadith of the Bird