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Ashura: (Photos) Suffering and the martyr Husayn
Afghan Shi'ite Muslim men flagellate themselves during a Muharram procession in Kabul December 13, 2010.
On a night a little over twenty-two years ago, I went with some friends to a middle class neighborhood in Karachi, Pakistan. Over a thousand people were gathered in a park outside a mosque. The park was illuminated by lights strung on trees and I could see that the men sitting on the ground were all dressed in black--the color of mourning. An imam ascended to a dais set outside the walls of the mosque, and began to speak in Urdu--his tone and cadence carefully pitched so even I could understand. He told the story of the Prophet's grandson, Husayn, and his death at Karbala, near the banks of the Euphrates river. As the imam spoke, he wept and others in park cried the name Husayn and that of his father, Ali. After the narrative reached its climax, the men formed a line processed out of the park and into the neighborhood, singing elegiac songs to Husayn--all the while keeping the beat by striking their chests with their open palms.
Shi'ite pilgrims pray at Imam Abbas shrine in the holy city of Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, December 15, 2010.
That night marked the beginning of Ashura, the tenth day of the month of Muharram, according the Islamic lunar calendar. This week, Shi'ite Muslims throughout the world will remember and mourn the death of Husayn.
Back on that Ashura in Karachi, I must say I was initially drawn to the scenes that Western observers usually find quite stunning: a young man became possessed by the spirit of Husayn's horse; carried in the procession was an image of Husayn's severed head; periodically the young men the procession would stop and rhythmically swing chains fitted with razor-sharp blades that would make bloody gashes on their backs.
Shiite Muslim men flagellate themselves with chains in an Ashura ritual in the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq on December 14, 2010.
The religious significance of pain, of marking the body and wounding it, fit well with my Catholic sensibilities. I most certainly knew about Catholic practices of self-mortification with the discipline and the cilice and familiar to me from my youth were images of the crucified body of Jesus and of Mary's heart pierced by seven swords. But even twenty-two years ago, I knew enough not to perceive Shi'ite practices simply as distant reflections of what were, to me, more familiar aspects of Catholic devotionalism. As I began to reflect on what I observed during Ashura, it was clear that what mattered was the story of Husayn--and how or why it mattered to my Shi'ite friends.
Shiite Muslim shiite women beat their chests in an Ashura ritual in the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq on December 14, 2010.
One layer of the Husayn narrative was unpacked for me by friends in a town near Pakistan's border with China, where I stayed for an extended period. My friends and I would gather daily over salted tea to chat about various and sundry events and ideas. When I asked about Ashura, Shi'ites in our group spoke about Husayn and his resistance to tyranny and injustice. Husayn had refused to give allegiance to Yazid whom Husayn believed had been illegitimately elevated to Caliph. As my friends explained, Yazid was cruel and licentious and had targeted Husayn for death. And so, Husayn emigrated from Medina, through Mecca and beyond, in hopes of finding refuge in Kufa for himself and his retinue. Husayn eventually died at Karbala where his force was hopelessly outnumbered.
At that time, back in Pakistan of the 1980s, the image of Husayn fighting against an unjust ruler had resonances not only to those who had friends who resisted the Shah in Iran, but also to those who bitterly resented the dictatorship of Zia-ul Haq. Of course, Ashura continues to be marked by political violence directed against Shi'ites, especially in Iraq where Karbala is located.
But political interpretations of Karbala do not exhaust its significance. Back in Karachi, I remember meeting with a retired university professor who shared with me elegies written about Husayn. These elegies portrayed the terrible suffering of Husayn's entourage at Karbala, especially the cruel death of his youngest son Asghar. The elegies also spoke of how women and children were made captive and put in chains. But, most of all, these elegies spoke of Husayn as the perfect embodiment of submission to the will of Allah. In one sense, Husayn was a martyr because he sacrificed his life for a righteous cause; in another, related sense, Husayn was a martyr because he sacrificed his own self-will. Connected with this image is the theme of personal and collective atonement for Husayn's death at Karbala--a personal and collective atonement that is acted out and reaffirmed in the collective mourning that characterizes Ashura not only as I witnessed it in Karachi but as it can be observed in the present day.
A Shiite Muslim man flagellates himself with chains during an Ashura procession in the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq on December 13, 2010.
The events leading to the death of Husayn have always been subject to differing interpretations by Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims--though certainly, given the significant Sunni presence I witnessed during Ashura in Karachi, the two groups are by no means necessarily opposed. But leaving aside intra-Islamic debates--which I am not qualified to adjudicate--it is important to understand the rites of Ashura within their broader religious context. For me, as for many non-Muslims, Ashura will always remain an important touchstone for any discussion of the religious meaning of suffering and self-surrender.
By
Mathew N. Schmalz
|
December 15, 2010; 1:20 PM ET
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Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | December 18, 2010 7:52 AM
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Scmalz:
"The religious significance of pain, of marking the body and wounding it, fit well with my Catholic sensibilities."
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Speaking as a Jew, I confess I'm not surprised. The Catholics have visited pain on the world for two thousand years.
Posted by: FarnazMansouri2 | December 17, 2010 12:07 PM
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As a Sunni Muslim, I find all those self inflicted wounds repulsive. But I have to say, The martyrdom of Imam Hussein at the hands of the tyrant Yazid was a watershed moment in Islam's history. All muslims and not just shiites remember it with pain. Imam Hussein is a hero to all muslims and Yazid's fate is to be cursed forever by all muslims. There's no Shia Sunni divide on this issue.
Posted by: yasseryousufi | December 17, 2010 6:02 AM
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Flagellation(Torture to your own body)
Dont work,dont produce anything(any economic and Fine Art values) except Terror.
Dont improve yourself although huge Oil income,but,let majority of nation starve.
Dont love,but,hate everything and everyone that doesnt belong to your Cult.Do Crazyness.
Torture your body,murder your Dissidents as it's written in Book.Do Repulsiveness.
Dont establish Democracy and Contemporary Values,but,have Totalitarianism and be governed by Dictators.
Dont do reasonable Appeciation,dont do Self-Critique,but,always blame Others(infidels) and repeat Old Tales such as Mosaddiq or Colonization palaver(China created an Economic Giant from zero within 20-25 years).Let your people live in Poverty.
If anyone critisize you and your Stone Age rituels,rules,insult him/her.
Let me come to point,topic.
Struggle between Muawiyyah and Ali is a Fight of Post,not for any Ideal or Idealism.
Actually,it's matter of Hostility between Aisha(child bride) and Ali,not for any ideal.
Fight of Post.*I will be Khalifa,you will not*,nothing else.
Posted by: halozcel2 | December 16, 2010 9:15 PM
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Bubba20, did you bother to read the article? You just wanted to give your two cents, didn't not matter what it was about.
Posted by: Secular | December 16, 2010 7:34 PM
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The national experts; Focus Adolescent Services has told me that "self-injury" is near epidemic numbers in America.
If you read my comment following Gene Davenport's article: "God's special concern for the poor," you will note my interest in non-profits and tax free orgs.
Focus Adolescent Services is our countries largest group that helps parents and professionals with "troubled teens." I am told that they refuse to register as a 501c, they refuse to accept taxpayers money.
They depend on people like you and me to send them a buck so that they can continue to save American children. Remember, it is not tax deductable.
This is the season, time of the year, of Hannukkah and Christmas. Let us not buy some plastic toy, made in China, that will break in short order and help save the children in our country which will last for a life time.
Posted by: Bubba20 | December 16, 2010 2:36 PM
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Oh! So Yazid was a tyrant? The Sunni/Shia schism is just another blood feud between Ali's family and the one time nemesis of MO Abu Sufiyan. It is the whiner Ali had never gotten along with MO's other followers, including his dear & favorite child bride Ayesha. The whiney that Ali was tried to over throw Muwaiya from Syria when he eventually begged to become one after Uthman. In any case the Abu Sufiyan family had not forgiven nor forgotten Ali's good deeds towards them and then when the cards wer in their hands got rid of the Ali clan ones and for all. There are no heroes here just a bunch of power hungry thugs, killing each other.
Posted by: Secular | December 16, 2010 1:16 PM
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But what about all the people who suffered in the Twin Towers at the hands of Islam?
Don't they deserve hysterical, maniacal self-flagellatons, self-mutliation memorial rites, too?