Thoughts from the battle of Karbala

My 5 part series on thoughts from the battle of Karbala .. 

I am not a fan of the idea of wearing one's religious beliefs or idelogical leanings on one's sleeve. I believe man is greater than both, that as people, we are defined only and essentially by our conduct not by what we proclaim. I do not believe in the idea of organized religion and I oppose the idea of religious state. Yet, there are religious figures, or let me say, people in the history of religions that have always fascinated me. Husain ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, the prophet, is one such.

Part of it is conditioning of course, part of it a result of personal explorations as a grown up; ideas that I have exposed myself to, ideas that have stayed with me, shaping who I am. 

Husain or Imam Husain, as the reverent call him, is remembered for his greatness. Called by titles like 'aaqa' (lord), 'maula' (master) 'Shah' (king) and 'badshah' (king of kings); the greatness of Husain is established in both historical and literary accounts in the context of the battle of Karbala, fought in Karbala,Iraq, in 680 AD between the army of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid and a small army led by Husain. 

Husain is known to have refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid, following which he set out for Mecca alongwith friends and family, much like the prophet's earlier 'hijrat' or departure from Mecca to Yethrib/Medina in 622 ad, to seek political asylum. 

The people of Kufa, a small town closeby, asked him to come over to discuss further political possibilities including that of overthrowing Yazid. On his way to Kufa, however, Husain's caravan of 70 people including women and children and the elderly, was intercepted by Yazid's 1000 strong army, forcing them to head up north where another 4000 soldiers joined the first batch. Husain and his people were intercepted, surrounded, and denied access to water. 

Denied the option of leaving without pledging allegiance to Yazid, Husain was compelled to fight the battle of Karbala, in which most of his kin including him got martyred; their camps looted and set on fire, the women, children, sick and elderly all taken prisoners. 

Neither Husain, nor any of the survivors, however, succumbed to either the lure of power or to the fear of its excesses. 

This is what makes men great. Our ability to live by and die for the things we believe in. If you can tell the truth from lies and deceit and if you believe in truth and justice, you need to stand up for it and if needed even fight the rest of the world for preserving it. 

If you love your women, protect them from the structures that they need to be protected from, stand up for them, with them. Do not deny the oppression they face, do not trivialize their suffering. If you love your children, your friends, your countrymen, anybody, anything, you have to fight to protect and preserve it. In escaping these battles that you must fight for their continuance you essentially escape and lose the battle of your own existence. 

People do give up on love, on truth, on justice, let down the people who trust them, succumb to convenience and gain .. but then there are those who don't, and that's perhaps what greatness is made of. 

And so Moinuddin Chishti the khwaja of Ajmer says, 'Shah ast Husain, badshah ast Husain, deen ast Husain, deen panah ast Husain, sar daad na daad dast dar dast e yazeed, haqqa ke binaye la ilaha ast Husian' .. Husain is the king, he is the king of kings, he is the path and the saviour of the path (of religion) for he gave his head but did not give his hand in the hand of the tyrant. Husain, the saviour of the very idea of 'la ilaha', the ultimate truth of God's absoluteness.

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Dispensation of justice is a complex task. It requires, even in a very basic sense, adherence to fairness at three levels. Having institutions and mechanisms in place to ensure that injustice doesn't take place to begin with; ensure an equitable distribution of rights, resources, capabilities and freedoms to contain vulnerability; and having legal mechanisms to ensure equal representation and fair trial post the injustice has happened; the two more talked about aspects. What I find even more crucial though is the third; non-denial. 

After an injustice has happened and after the legal mechanisms responsible for addressing it have failed, it becomes incumbent on society to make sure the injustice is not trivialized or denied. 

In the battle of Karbala for instance, that Husain and his kin were denied the  opportunity to say no to Yazid's offer of pledging allegiance was one thing, the persecution they faced another .. but the gravest injustice would be to deny the injustice they faced. 

Denial is also most toxic and cold blooded in that sense. An act of violence or betrayal or injustice can take place circumstancially, dispensation of legal justice can be delayed or denied institutionally but for individuals and socities to turn a blind eye to injustice or to peddle it as the norm is what actually defines how sane and human we are or aren't.

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There comes a point when you're fighting somebody, that you suddenly see the futility of it all; when the pointlessness of contest strikes you and you decide to just let it go.  

What differentiates justice from revenge is that the former is not supposed to be retributive. If you realize, in any struggle for justice, that the administration of punishment to those who wronged you, is working to avenge, not rehabilitate, it is time to let go; for in aveniging violence or coercion with violence and coercion, both the message and its moral premise are lost. 

Both myth and history report in their own way, how in the battle of Karbala, on the 10th day of Muharram, rembered as Ashura, when all of Husain's kin had been martyred fighting Yazid's army, and as Husain stood facing those who had killed his brothers, sons and friends, Husain stopped after a point and stood still, thinking .. riding his steed the 'Zuljanah', the horse rode and trained in battle by no other than the prophet himself; in his hands, the 'Zulfiqar', his father Ali's famed sword; both metaphors of vested valiance in themselves .. as Husain's sword slayed one  after another of Yazid's men, hitting them like lightning and befalling them as 'qaza' or death itself, as the narrations have it; the sight of beheaded men and human blood moved him so much he kept his sword back in. 

It is believed, a voice inside him said, 'enough Husain, no more', as the call for the afternoon prayers echoed in the battlefield. 

As Husain got down and got onto his knees for prayers, daggers, arrows and knives pierced his body, blood spurting out from the wounds, the torrid winds of the battlefield heavy with blood and sweat and the smell of death blowing past and through ... Husain is known to have simply bowed his head in surrender to the ultimate truth, proclaiming the greatness of the almighty, seeking mercy for those who loved him and forgiveness for those who had wronged him. 

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As the bodies of the dead of Husain's kin lay strewn on the battlefield after Husain's martyrdom; beheaded, trampled over by horses, their heads raised on spears for the women and children to see; their camps were looted and set on fire ..  Women, children, elderly and the sick were taken captive, chained and subsequently paraded bare head and barefeet from Karbala to Sham, a staggering 3590 kms .. stones pelted on them on the way, their famished bodies lashed with whips, laughed at, mocked and subjected to all forms and magnitudes of physical and mental torture .. all for rising up against power and refusing to cower.  

This is what tyranny does; it attempts to break you, and in doing so it tests your patience by aggravating the atrocity, untill you can take it no more. 

Not surprisingly, none of Husain's kin succumbed. Not to the lure of power, not in the face of death, nor upon suffering subsequent trials; for those who stand for truth derive their strength simply from the knowledge that no matter how many times a lie is repeated, it still remains a lie, and no matter how much the truth may be suppressed, it still is .. the truth! 

Of all the liguistic expressions and artistic  imaginations that are employed to describe the battle of Karbala, the one image that keeps coming back to me is that of Husain standing before Yazid's army, his 6 months old son Ali Asghar, raised on his hands; and even as Husain urged Yazid's men to at least let the children have some water, showing them the parched lips and shrivelled tounge of the child, it is said, Hurmula, a commander, instead shot an arrow that hit the baby's neck, causing blood to gush out from the delicate little throat. 

Husain was devastated .. he did not want to let the blood fall on the ground for he feared the land on which the blood of this innocent little child fell would go barren, he did not want to throw it skywards for he feared if he did so, the skies would never rain again; it is said, he just held the baby close to his chest, kissing the dying child, crying, as the blood kept oozing out, the blood smearing his own face and body .. I sometimes wonder how painful it must have been for a father to carry the dead child back to his mother .. how heavy those footsteps must have been .. 

Anybody pushed to such an extreme, subjected to an atrocity of this scale could only know how to stand his ground, not succumb .. what tyrannts do not realize is that while there are always limits to tyranny, human will pushed to extremes, knows no limits .. no wonder Husain stood his ground and embraced death rather than cower; telling the world, if man is to live and die in the true glory that he is meant for, nothing should be held dearer than truth, not even life .. 

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Of everything about Karbala that inspires me, the women of Karbala inspire me the most. 

Umme Rabab, the mother of Ali Asghar, who handed her 6 months old son to Husain, knowing well, he'd not return alive .. Umme Laila, who prepared her 18 year old son, Ali Akbar, the first martyr of Karbala, first for his wedding and then for the battlefield .. Ummul Baneen, the mother of Abbas, Husain's brother and commander in chief, who was raised by his mother for a singular purpose .. to live and die for his brother Husain! Fatima Kubra, who was to marry her cousin Qasim to honour a promise her father Husain had made to his dying brother, Hasan, even as Qasim was to be martyred the next morning .. Fatima Sughra, Husain's elder daughter, who could not travel with the family due to ill health, who spent her days awaiting the return of Husain's carvaan; Sakina, Husain's four year old daughter (four, seven, eleven; narratives vary) who kept running to the battlefield to look for her father's body all night, after their camps had been looted and set on fire .. Sakina who'd never once slept without resting her little head on her father's chest .. Husain's mother Fatima Zehra, long dead before the battle itself, but who had raised her sons and daughters knowing well what fate awaited them years hence .. Wives, mothers, daughters; willfully preparing their men for the battle, knowing well the miseries that'd befall them once the men died .. 

.. but what inspires me most is the strength and courage and determination of Zainab binte Fatima, Husain's sister; Zainab, who kept Husain's message alive .. Zainab who not only left her marital home behind in Medina to travel with her brother, sacrificing her two young sons Aun and Muhammad in battle, but also stood steadfast through all subsequent trials valiantly and gracefully .. everything, from their camps being looted and set afire to the women and children being held captive, chained and paraded barefeet from Karbala to Sham to Kufa; Zainab who not only counseled and guided Husain's only surving son Sajjad in politics, but also came forward to address the people in the streets of Kufa and Sham before her final Khutba or address in Ibne Ziad's court, where  ambassadors of surrounding kingdoms had gathered .. when Zainab came forward to speak, Ibne Ziad asked her to shut up, saying she was a woman and did not deserve to talk .. Zainab not only asserted her right to speak as an individual, but also told people she was none other than the daughter of Ali and Fatima; the prophet's own beloved daughter. 

When Zainab told people what had happened at Karbala, the tide turned against Yazid and Ibne Ziad, who'd never imagined the words of a woman could trigger a popular uprising against them. Not only did common people come out openly against their brutality, political support from neighbouring kingdoms was also withdrawn. An uprising ensued, sweeping through the lands like wild fire, dethrowning Yazid and all his governors including Ibne Ziad. 

To be wives and mothers and daughters supporting your men in a cause is one thing, to be flagbearers of revolution in your own right, another. To think of how Zainab and the women of Karbala were both, renders me speechless! 

There's an ayat in the Quran, aayat e tatheer, that identifies the five most pure and innocent people as Muhammad, the prophet himself, Fatima, his daughter, Ali her husband and their sons Hasan and Husain .. people of the 'chaadar' as they're called; people protected by the 'gird' and 'hisar', the limits and expanse of Fatima's faith ... 

No wonder, families and communities and socities who love and respect and empower their women stand respected and empowered themselves; and families and communities and socities that don't, suffer the curse of their own ignorance.

#ThoughtsFromTheBattleOfKarbala