THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

"The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of Kerbala is that Husain and his followers were the rigid believers of God. They illustrated that numerical superiority does not count when it comes to Truth and Falsehood. The victory of Husain, despite his minority marvels me."

- Thomas Carlyle

On the 2nd of March this year, a bombing in Iraq brought to light the Shi'ite commemoration of Ashoora. Many had never heard of this event. Infact, before the attack on Iraq began, few had even heard of the word Shi'ite.

The fact that this sect is a minority of the Muslim community may be a factor behind this lack of knowledge, or it may be because the two countries known for having large Shia populations are the infamous Iran and Iraq. The Iranian's have been struggling to shrug off the burden of stereotyping for decades, while the Iraqi's were oppressed by Saddam Hussein (whose deep-rooted hatred for all things Shia was well known). Both circumstances hardly favourable for exposure of the faith.

But the reason for bringing this up is not to go into politics or even complain about lack of publicity. It is to share Ashoora and the spirit it has nurtured for the past 14 centuries. To understand the reason behind what happened in Kerbala, Iraq, 1364 years ago, one must understand the very basic principle of Islam - submission.

In earlier decades, Muslims were usually referred to 'Mohammedans' - in identifying them historians and philosophers applied the same principle that Christianity used.* It is only recently that the term has been filtered out, after Muslims protested that it implied we raised the Prophet Muhammed to the level of Divinity in the same way that Christians did Christ.

The reason why this difference was emphasised was because:

1. to imply worship of anyone or thing other than one Absolute entity is blasphemous in Islam. Muhammad is a Prophet and a servant of God, not a deity.

2. The essence of the Islamic Faith is in the word Muslim.

Muslim literally means 'one who submits'. Totally, completely, with body, mind and soul, having no hesitation or doubt - to God alone. It is in this submission that the element of sacrifice is ingrained.

In the decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammed, Islam had undergone distortions at the hands of the power-hungry. The era was fast becoming one of fear and oppression, while ruling parties regressed to Pre-Islamic barbarism. Adultery, murder, injustice and sins of all kinds were rife.

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