Muharram Editorial

by Sajida Alidina

So with every passing year this month comes
back again and again where our mosques and
centres are swathed in black, where we commiserate
and mourn where we cry and grieve
for the personality’s integral to our faith. But
what does Muharram mean for each of us on
a personal level?

Muharram for me is a time for activity. A time
where we need to get up and implement what
we know. Where we learn from the tragedy
of Kerbala - this great landmark in history and
then go out there and put all the different
messages into practice.

Let me explain - Ramadhan has come and
gone, where we’ve cleansed our bodies and
minds, been revived physically, we’ve spiritually
elevated our souls to move forward. After
this we go through the Hajj period, where on
Arafat we repent, we purify our souls, we
connect to our Lord realise our existence and
then celebrate our rebirth and clean slate after
this – we come to Muharram.

This Muharram where we listen to the stories
of our Aimmah, about their bravery, their
struggle for truth, their submitance to the
Almighty and their personal struggle towards
excellence of character. It is then incumbent
on each and every one of us to take these
very messages into our lives, embed them into
our souls and move forward, with each step
emulating the examples of these personalities.
And yes, surely Muharram comes and yet
again our centres are filled. Youth and elders
alike flock to shed tears over the Ahlul Bayt
(as). For 10 days we struggle to find parking,
we struggle to find places to sit in lectures, we
mourn together, we elevate our souls together,
we eat together, we pray together,
and then the Majalis are over and so is our
participation to our Deen.

What happens to us as soon as the black
clothes come off? Do we forget the remembrance
of Husayn (as)? Does the tragedy disappear
only to come to light again when the
dark moon of Muharram once again rises? Do
tears form in our eyes over our divine role
models for simply 1 or 2 months? When did
we become such seasonal Muslims?
Are these questions ones that are in our
minds? Yes they should be for without questioning
ourselves we have no room for progression
and of course the very essence of
being a Muslim is being one who develops
themselves and progresses.

With the central theme of the message of
Kerbala being that of Jihad it is imperative that
we realise our role in this jihad. It’s been
rightly said, Every day is Ashura, Every land is
Kerbala – it is with this in mind that we realise
that the jihad is not over simply by the sacrifice
of Imam Husayn and his pure progeny.
Moreover this jihad is a reminder for us to
pull our socks up and to keep the struggle
going both on an individual level as on a community
level.

So as we come together as a community, as
the youth of Imam Mehdi (may Allah hasten
his reappearance), let us come together as
one – with the same aim- that being to put
into practice all that comes from the messages
of Kerbala. Remember this is our time to act
– let’s stop being seasonal Muslims and bring
about our own revelations within ourselves.

Illtemase dua