Imam HUSSAIN Ibn Ali, the Great Grandson of Hazrat MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H.)

         No matter their race, faith, or color, people all around the world are groaning beneath the weight of injustice and oppression. Some people are caught up in destructive wars, falling prey to geopolitical games and maneuvers. Others are harmed by the incompetence and unrelenting avarice of the ruthless ruling class. Many more people are the victims of ruthless capitalism, which punishes the weak and the impoverished with "austerity" while rewarding the wealthy. Even in supposedly developed countries, more people are living in poverty.

 

A man launched a courageous fight against all the aforementioned social and political sins in his birthplace of Madina fourteen centuries ago. He then took his campaign to Makkah and then to Iraq, where he and his family and friends gave their lives on this day in support of the truth and justice. Hussain ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the son of Hazrat Ali and Bibi Fatima Zehra, was that individual. Imam Hussain's struggle for justice is still going strong centuries after that gruesome day on the scorching sands of Karbala. He continues to urge all morally upright people to fear only God and to stand up against all forms of oppression.

 

The world's current circumstances are similar to those of the Islamic world in the seventh century in many ways. Imam Hussain paints an unsettling picture of his life during the Umayyad era in his own words. The Imam claims that "the blind, dumb, and chronically ill everywhere lack protection in communities and no pity is shown [to] them" while delivering the Sermon of Mina to a sizable crowd of the ulema. The Imam laments that "the rulers administer the government affairs by their whims" and that "the governors feel no sympathy or mercy towards the believers under authority" in another location.

 

Uncanny parallels exist between the seventh and twenty-first centuries. The injustice and oppression that man inflicts upon man have therefore largely remained the same, even though there may have been significant changes in terms of material growth.

Regarding the false assertion made by some revisionists that Imam Hussain launched his valiant attempt to overthrow the Umayyads for the benefit of the state, the Imam had already made it clear to those gathered at Mina many months before the incident of Karbala that he had taken on the mission "to protect and secure the indisputable rights of Your [God's] oppressed servants, and to act by the duties You have established."

 

Throughout the great reaches of time and space, people of conscience, philosophers, and revolutionaries have been moved by these beautiful words to oppose oppression and stand up for the helpless and defenseless. The late grand Marja and founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, writes in The Ashura Uprising about the events of Karbala that "all lands should play the part that Karbala performed, that is, people must reject oppression whenever and wherever it arises." He writes in the same book that Imam Hussain's son Imam Ali Zainul Abideen and his sister Bibi Zainab "taught us that neither men nor women should be scared to confront tyrannic tyranny" while stressing their contributions.

 

However, resisting tyranny is not simple, and Imam Hussain's position has little precedent in human history. It is incomprehensible how, during the first century of Islam, people identifying as Muslims killed the Holy Prophet's only living grandchild, displayed his blessed head atop a lance as a war trophy, and carried the Noble Messenger's granddaughters through the markets and deserts of Iraq and Syria as prisoners of war. But the fact that Imam Zainul Abidin and Bibi Zainab dared to defy the Umayyad imperial power that aimed to stifle Islam's egalitarian ethos while imprisoned speaks volumes about their courage.

 

Justice is now associated with Imam Hussain. The Imam has taught humanity to stand up against oppression with tremendous courage and be ready to pay the ultimate price for upholding the truth, whether it be in the pursuit of social justice, political justice, or economic justice.

 

Today, humanity strives to free itself from all forms of oppression, transcending the boundaries of religion, sect, race, and culture. The vast majority of humankind, which is comparable to those who were or are oppressed on the earth and who are referred to in the Quran as "mustadifin fil ard" (those who were/are oppressed on the earth), have been excluded from development, from healthcare, from decision-making, and are barely surviving; they can learn important lessons from Imam Hussain's heroic struggle. Hussain is after all referred to as "safinat an-nijaat" and "Misbah al Huda" (the lamp of guidance) in hadith (the ark of salvation). Because anyone who genuinely understands his fight cannot bear living under the control of dictators, he is also known as "Abul Ahraar" (father of the free).

 

Hussain illuminates the path for the poor of the planet who desire to inhale the air of liberty.