Matam 4

Sorry to break into the stream of “sublime poetry”, Abbas, but what we have here is the story of one armed faction with a claim to power being defeated by another, larger, armed faction, from the same emerging Islamic nation, with its claim to power.This isn’t even like other bitterly remembered defeats, such as the defeat of the Jews by the Romans, the Battle of Culloden or the massacre of Wounded Knee, in which peoples were cruelly subjugated by an invading force from another culture. The Karbala massacre was a nasty internal dispute, apparently devoid even of any substantial ideological content or any claim of supernatural events, which occurred 14 centuries ago. I fail to see how this justifies perpetuating the blood feud forever, and teaching one’s sons, generation after generation, to flagellate themselves with chains! Fact: people sometimes get killed in Ashura processions. What are the NYPD or Social Services supposed to do if they know about parents who are making their children whip themselves with chains? I realize that people develop a fondness and loyalty to their cultural traditions and collective memories, even if they themselves have loosened their ties, but this is just way beyond tolerability!

The followers of Ali (the Shia) said to themselves that they would never allow this horrific event to be forgotten, and that they would mourn Husain and his family's murder forever, and for the last thirteen hundred years, they have lived up to this promise every year. This mourning has given rise to ritualistic displays of grief, which include flagellating oneself with one's hands, with chains, with knives, etc. It can all seem quite strange, out of context, but remembrance of that terrible day at Kerbala has also given rise to some of the most sublime poetry ever written (a whole genre in Urdu, called Marsia, is devoted to evoking the events of Ashura), and some of us, religious or not, still draw inspiration from the principled bravery and sacrifice of Husain on that black day.