Zeinab Merai, Sada al-Mashrek
“Within academia, much research has been done on Ashura’ and its centrality in Shi’a Islam. However, much of the field has focused on particular communal or ritual manifestations with less emphasis on the rich philosophical and theological interpretations of Imam Hussein’s life and legacy found in diverse Muslim societies throughout time,” states Dr Payam Mohseni, Director of the Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University Weatherhead Centre.
That’s why a March online panel discussion titled “Studying the Philosophy and Meaning of Ashura’ in Academia: Historical and Contemporary Issues” was moderated by Mohseni, who hosted three researchers.
The webinar is part of the Ashura’ Lecture Series at the Project on Shi'ism & Global Affairs - researching the life, legacy, and impact of Imam Hussein.
Sada al-Mashrek has as well spoken to social and political activist Ali Mallah, who’s made some essential viewpoints on the issue of the Ashura’ commemoration.
In this part, it is stated that the theology of Ashura’ transcends time and space and embraces people from all walks of life.
“Ashura’/ Karbala’ transcend time”
Associate Professor of History of Religions and the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, Karen Ruffle, has been engaging and studying with Shi’i communities in South Asia for nearly twenty years.
Ruffle uses the term “everyday Shi’ism,” which she defines as “a space that is inhabited by all Shi’a, whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, male or female, urban or rural… The everyday is a space for the creative expression of Shi’i devotion to the 12 Imams, particularly the first, Imam Ali, his son Hussein, who’s killed in the year 680, at the Battle of Karbala’ in Iraq, as well as others, such as the 12th al-Mehdi, who is a state of occultation.”
The author adds that “the everyday Shi’ism is translocative, meaning it collapses time and space between the historically and geographically distant sites in Arabia, Syria and Iraq, where the Imams and Ahlul Bayt lived and died.”
Concerning the philosophy of Ashura’, Ruffle says, “Ashura’ is the climatic event in the 10-day ritual commemoration of events leading up to the cataclysmic event between Imam Hussein and his small troop of supporters against the military might of the Umayyads.” She believes that in “Husseini terms” this is “a scene that today is playing out in many parts of the world” because of “the injustices that are happening now.”
“The spirit of sacrifice and faith is exemplified by Imam Hussein and his family, the Ahlul Bayt at the Battle of Karbala’. The ethical messages are not important just for the ten days of Muharram, but for the whole year... These stories are told again and again and again. It’s a compass point,” says Ruffle, who extolls the Husseini ethics’ of “sacrifice and commitment to social welfare. We want to understand the legacy of how Ashura’/Karbala’ is remembered in a non-hierarchical way: no one’s place is given value over another. The map is not the territory should serve as a guiding value. The universal translocative point on our map is Karbala’. It transcends time, place and Shi’i cultural memory.”
Associate Professor of Asian and Islamic Studies and Islamic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Syed Akbar Hyder, has focused his research on the “recasting and travelling of the story and different ways in which people have commemorated this event.”
Citing Imam Ja’far Saadiq’s hadith: “Every day is Ashura’, every land is Karbala,” author and researcher Hyder notes the story of Karbala has influenced “resistance discourses” in different parts of the world and thinkers like Mohammed Iqbal and Ali Shari’ati.
The theology of Karbala’
Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, Nicholas Boylston, studies Islamic intellectual history, Persian literature and Shi’i Islam through the lenses of religious, intellectual and literary pluralism.
Discussing the theology of Karbala’ in Iran, Boylston casts light upon the viewpoint of Sayyed Hashem Haddad, a student of Sayyed Ali Qaadi Tabataba’i, which for “most of his life was that the world of spiritual light that transcends the material world is fundamentally more real than the world we inhabit as physical bodies, and hence Hussein’s spiritual presence is far more real than his death. As a result, Ashura’ is a spiritual victory and a deeply powerful spiritual event…”
The researcher sees a “central philosophical theological mystical paradox expressed in the words of Hussein’s sister, Zeinab: ‘I saw naught but the beautiful.’ So they all reflect on the fact that there’s something remarkably beautiful within the horrific tragedy – the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and the death of so many members of the Household of the Prophet.”
Boylston cites a popular nohe by Hussein Fakhri, which says, “No one knew if this was a wedding or a mourning ritual. Looking at the plains of Karbala’, is this a tragedy or something to be celebrated?”
“A canopy for all”
The speakers agree that more polycentric models are needed.
Ruffle, whose work is constellated around what she refers to as “everyday Shi’ism” believes that “there is no one way of being Shi’a; there’s no one memory of what Ashura’ or Karbala’ is… What this reveals is the richness of this memory, and the very different ways in which the event of Karbala’ is remembered in different places for different communities... The question ‘What is Ashura’, what is Karbala’ allows for that space, for multiple answers…”
Portraying Ashura’/Karbala’ as “canopy,” Ruffle believes that “the memory is, in a sense, for everyone, not exclusively only for Shi’a, either. There are a lot of devotees of Imam Hussein and the Ahlul Bayt who are not Shi’a.”
Muslim/Arab community leader Mallah says that Ruffle’s viewpoint is reflected by the presence of so many books and articles about “Imam Hussein (AS), the legacy of his and his companions’ martyrdom, as well as their journey of nobility, dignity, and fight for justice and religious and moral values.”
Please follow further discussions in part 2.
Picture: Zoom Screenshot by Sada al-Mashrek