Travel with me back to 670 AD | Readers Discretion Advise | 18+ Only
DISCLAIMER:
Before I start writing this article, I'd like to make it very very clear that I, by no means, am promoting or discouraging or attacking any religious or cultural beliefs. This is a mere post on what goes on largely throughout the world in the month of "Muharram"
Also, this post is strictly 18+, contains blood and has content that some of you might find disturbing. If you're not 18+, this is the time to head back.
BACKGROUND:
Around 1400 years back, one of the biggest tragedies in this world took place. A caravan of 72 people, which consisted of women and children was martyred by an army of more than 4,000. The worst thing about this barbarism was that it came from the people who used to call them their 'brothers'. The caravan of 72 people was headed to the emperor to sign a treaty. This caravan was promised shelter and security. This caravan consisted of the people of the Ahlul Bayt. The family of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
The Prophet's grandson, Imam Husayn was the leader of this caravan. His wives, brothers and sons were also a part of this cruel murder. The caravan stopped at the famous plain of "Karbala" where they were attacked by the Yazidi forces. This caravan didn't intend on fighting. They were there for peace and were backstabbed by the Yazidi forces and martyred. All of this happened in 672 AD
SHAAM E GHARIBA
The ruler, Yazid, who did all of this died and his son refused to take on the throne as he didn't want any connections to a throne under which lied the head of the grandson of the Mulsim's Prophet.
Anyways, this was and probably is the biggest treachery and backstabbing events that took place in the Islamic history. All of this took place in the sacred month of Muharram and the Imam Hussain was martyred on 10th Muharram
Even the children were not spared. One of the kids who was just a baby in his cradle. His age was 6 months. He was martyred brutally with more than 10 arrows in his body. The women were taken from this camp. The night of the 10 known as the "Shaam e Ghariba" or the "Night of thr Oppressed" is by far one of the most depressing nights in the history of this mankind where even women were not spared. There are some historic painters who tried to show what happened that night through their artwork.
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1400 YEARS LATER
The grief of this event is as fresh as the day in the hearts of all Muslims and Personally I believe if you don't speak against what happened that day, you cannot call yourself a Muslim. The Shia group of the Muslims have taken this as their culture to mourn every year in the month of Muharram according to their own rules. In this post I'll be showcasing you how, approximately all the Shias around the world mourn in their own way. As I'm not a Shia myself, I accompanied my shia friend who took me to one of their Imam Bargahs where they mourn.
Disclaimer: Graphic pictures ahead.
THE VISIT
Located in the heart of Karachi, this Imam Bargah is one of the biggest in Pakistan. Every year on 10th Muharram hundreds and thousands
of people gather here to mourn for what happened 1400 years back.
The gathering starts after the sun sets. All the lights of the surrounding areas are switched off and a dim red light is turned on. This is done to experience what those oppressed innocent people had to go through in the darkness. Ofcourse we're not even a bit close to what they had experienced, but it's still a try.
The Imam starts a sermon in which he describes what happened to that caravan. The place for men and women is seperate and are completely secluded. The imam goes through the events of that night back in 670 AD in sequence. It's truly an grasping sight where literally all men are not able to contain their emotions.
As the Imam continues, the wailing and the crying increases and some people start beating themselves out of pure grief and the helplessness the women and children had been facing in that incident.
As the Imam goes deeper and deeper into the story, it gets almost impossible to contain the emotions and men literally start to beat themselves with chains and daggers. This is known as the MOURNING
THE MOURNING
Ofcourse everyone mourns differently. I always say that if you are unable to understand the ways of a mourning of a person, consider yourself lucky that you cannot feel what he/she's feeling. The mourning gets intense and the surrounding gets heated up when some boys and men start thrashing themselves up with daggers.
Graphic content ahead..
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Out in the night sky, with only thr moonlight and the red lights upon them, hundreds of mourners stand and do the "Matam"
Theres blood everywhere, the smell of the earth feels different. There's sadness in the air and wailing as far as your ears can hear.
THE "ALAM"
"Alam" is the flag that a warrior carries in a war. It is one of the most significant things in a war. If the flag bearer is martyred or the flag is dropped on the ground, the warriors lose their spirit. The "Alamdaar" or the flag bear was "Abbas" who didn't let down the alam until and unless he was martyred brutally.
There's this replica of the Alam which hold a significance amongst their group who give great respect to this Alam.
People tie and leave all sort of stuff at this pillar. They tue flowers and ribbons and pieces of cloths as well as sweet food in order to be blessed with good luck.
THE COFFIN
At the end of the procession, a replica of the the coffin of Imam Hussain is brought forward, this ignites the emotions and the faith of all of these people even further. Truly a depressing sight
THE CAMP
All the injured people of this "mourning" are Carried to the camp almost immediately after they can not continue anymore. The camp is really close to the this convention center and the transport system is top notch and swift.
In this camp, all the bruised and torn up people are sutured and taken care of. Now, I don't intend to speak against any beliefs or cultures but this is where I HAVE to speak up. As a doctor, I know what sort of environment is needed when you're suturing someone. It should be in a closed bacteria free environment but here hundreds of bodies lie beside each other while hundreds of people are suturing them in open.
MY VIEWS
As I said, I'm no one to judge anyone on their beliefs but as a person who has common sense, I believe we should think of the thungs that we do just because of the cultural norms. We should do our research on stuff and think of better ways to come up with. We should follow the teachings of being a perfect Muslim which consists of being polite and good with the people of other faiths, to be kind with animals, to not talk back to parents, to pray and lots of other stuff.
This post of mine was completely different than the ones I usually post. I like to travel and experience new things and this was something new for me so I wanted to share with you all as well. I hope you enjoyed the article.
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WHO IS HUZAIFANAVEED?
huzaifanaveed hails from Pakistan, who is an aspiring dentist, studying in one of the top notch universities of Pakistan, Jinnah Sindh Medical University.
he loves interacting with new people, making new friends and traveling the world, but most importantly he loves to make a change in this world through his actions and his words. He's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist who's been actively working with different Charitable Organizations in Pakistan.
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Interesting tradition. I just wonder... Does it refer to these Yazidis? I don´t know much about these things but I do remember how the Islamic State tried to exterminate this community... Thousands of them fell victims to the genocide, horrible...
Didn't know that Yazidis exist till date. But no this post is about the "Shia" group who mourn over the biggest loss Islam has witnessed.
"Yazid" was the one who massacred this caravan I talked about in the post. Yazidis probably are those who support Yazid.
Yes, they do exist and according to what I found on the internet, they have been persecuted and oppressed for centuries... This is what Wiki says about them for example:
"Since the spread of Islam began with the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries, Yazidis have faced persecution by Arabs and later by Turks, as their religious practices have commonly been charged with heresy by Muslim clerics. Most recently, the 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery, as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees."
I don´t want to play down the incident that you described in the post but if I compare the facts and numbers here, your interpretation sounds severely biased...
Brooo. You got it completely wrong. My post has got nothing to do with the yazidis. Genocide against Yazidis is completely utterly wrong but the incident that I was talking about in my post happened 1400 years ago. The guy who did it was named Yazid.
As a Muslim, this is my responsibility to tell you that whatever a person of other religion is doing is 100% their right to do. No one can excercise violence on them. The most important example is that of ISIS. They give themselves a Muslim identity but what they're doing is totally forbidden "Haram" in Islam.