Editorial
On Ashura, we recall the sacrifices in Karbala
Imam Hussein (RA) waged battle in defence of faith
TODAY is a day of mourning for Muslims, indeed for all people who believe in the righteousness of a cause, all over the world. The sacrifices through which Imam Hussein (RA) and his followers saw their lives come to an end on the battlefields of Karbala hundreds of years ago were fundamentally proof once again that martyrdom in defence of faith is a supreme act of nobility. The grandson of the Holy Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him) has, through his valour and through his refusal to submit before the brute forces led by Yazid, imparted the important lesson that it is the moral responsibility of anyone confronted with gross and manifest injustice to engage in a battle that has as its goal the triumph of good. In Karbala, it was patently an epic struggle between good and evil. Imam Hussein (RA) and his followers, rather than give in to the sinister forces typified by Yazid and his gang of usurpers, happily went down the path of supreme sacrifice.
And yet good does not die when apparently it is evil that wins the day. Imam Hussein's sacrifice was to be but one more demonstration of how often it is in history that good, noble men have seemingly bitten the dust even as the ignoble and infamous ones have claimed victory. On a far bigger scale, however, the Imam's sacrifice has through the centuries acted as a spur to a reinforcing of faith among Muslims of all countries and all sects and has endlessly served as a cardinal lesson to all that when men of questionable intent seek to spread their unhealthy shadows all over our lives, it is time to rise and, invoking the name and grandeur of the Almighty, wage a twilight struggle to restore the cause of right to its majestic splendour. The terror visited upon Imam Hussein (RA) and to his followers was made all the more gruesome through the atrocities inflicted on the children and women of his clan who, deprived of such basic amenities as water, were hacked to death by Yazid and his murder squads. And yet none of these noble dead asked or begged for pity, for a chance to be allowed to live. It was the strength of faith that sustained them even as death stared them in the face.
This morning, as we reflect in sombre manner on the murder and mayhem in Karbala centuries ago, it is a call to faith, to a proper keeping of it that is called for. In worldly terms, the death of Imam Hussein (RA) and his followers was but a consequence of general conflict. In more philosophical and indeed spiritual terms, however, that sacrifice was but a renewal of faith for the followers of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) at that point in time and in the times to be. The cardinal lesson left for us by the supreme sacrifice of Imam Hussein (RA) is that justice and human welfare are causes to live and, when necessary, to die for. It is this lesson we recall on Ashura.
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