Mourning, Wearing Black, and Preparing Food During Muharram in the Way We Do Now — Jurisprudential Answers — Miscellaneous Issues, Vol. 1

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

Everything that makes the oppression and suffering of al-Husayn (a) clear to people is recommended and carries a great reward. The greatest in reward is to know the reason for al-Husayn's uprising and explain it to people. Al-Husayn (a) rose to reform the community and bring it out of the bewilderment into which it had entered after rebelling against God's will and deciding to implement its own will: the community that rejected God's appointment and decided to appoint for itself; the community that readily accepted Abu Bakr's appointment of Umar, yet decisively rejected the appointment of Ali (a) by the Messenger of God Muhammad (s), by the command of God Almighty; the community that reached the point of regarding Yazid son of Maysun—may God curse him—as God's caliph on His earth and regarding al-Husayn son of Fatimah (a) as a rebel; the community that justified the Saqifah, which resulted in the breaking of Fatimah al-Zahra's rib and the captivity of Zaynab al-Hawra and the daughters of the Messenger of God (s). Commemorating the martyrdom of al-Husayn (a) on the tenth of Muharram every year is a revival of the divine religion from the time Adam (a) descended, because al-Husayn sacrificed his blood to say that God alone is the Sovereign and He is the One who appoints His caliph on His earth: 'And when your Lord said to the angels: Indeed, I am placing a caliph on the earth...' When the angels objected, saying, 'Will You place in it one who causes corruption in it and sheds blood, while we glorify You with praise and sanctify You?' He, the Exalted, answered them: 'Indeed, I know what you do not know' (Quran 2:30). Do the people of the Saqifah possess God's knowledge—Glorified and Exalted is He—so that they may appoint whomever they wish? Al-Husayn (a) sacrificed himself for the banner of the Messenger of God (s): 'The pledge of allegiance belongs to God.' Al-Husayn (a) sacrificed himself to demolish the structure of falsehood—the rule of the people—and build the structure of truth—the rule of God. Therefore, whoever truly wishes to revive the memory of Ashura must revive its objective: the rule of God, Glorified and Exalted is He.