OFTEN during the period of mourning in Muharram and Safar, some take umbrage at the fact that ‘political’ issues are brought up during majalis. This view suggests that one should keep mourning and other religious matters separate from what is happening around us and in the world, and simply concentrate on historical events, and the virtues of religious figures, or fazail.

Proponents of this view feel that religious events are to be attended, and rituals followed, only to obtain sawab (spiritual benefits), and secure a decent place in the afterlife. There can be no denying the importance of narrating historical events, as well as the fazail of revered figures. However, while from the religious viewpoint gathering sawab for the next world is essential, were these the sole aims of Imam Husain’s immense sacrifice that people around the world commemorate on Ashura? Let us see what the Imam himself says about the matter.

In a well-known will to his brother Mohammad Hanafiya, as quoted by Ustad Murtaza Mutahhari, when Imam Husain was leaving Madina, he said his intent was to “reform the community of my grandfather”, the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Now arguably this effort at reform was not restricted to the seventh century:........

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