STRAIGHTPATHMONTHLY December 2011
Imam Hussain a.s
Views of Non Muslims
By Compiled on IslamicWisdom.net
The event of Karbala marks the
greatest sacrifice for the sake of God in
the human history. The minute and
stunning details of this great event have
been written and survived from the very
first day by the eye witnesses.
For the last fourteen hundred
centuries, the battle of Karbala reflects
the collision of the good versus the evil,
the virtuous versus the wicked, right
versus the wrong, and the collision of
Imam Husain (the head of virtue)
versus Yazid (the head of impiety).
Edward G. Brown, the professor of
Arabic and oriental studies at the
University of Cambridge, praises Imam
Husain in these words:
"A reminder of the bloodstained field of Kerbela, where the
grandson of the Apostle of God fell at
length, tortured by thirst and surrounded by the bodies
of his murdered kinsmen, has been at anytime since
then sufficient to evoke, even in the most lukewarm and
heedless, the deepest emotions, the most frantic grief,
and an exaltation of spirit before which pain, danger and
death shrink to unconsidered trifles."
[A Literary History of Persia, London, 1919, p. 227]
As the Imam of the time and true representative of his
grandfather Prophet Muhammad (S), Imam Husain (A) stood
up against the tyrant of the time to safeguard and protect Islam
and guide fellow Muslims. On the other hand, the staying
power of the rulers (Mu'awiya and his son Yazid) depended
solely on the might of the sword. They used brute force to rule
over the Muslim empire even by all possible illicit means.
By the time the sun was set, the day of Ashura in the
plains of Karbala, witnessed Imam Husain (A) giving up
everything humanly possible in the way of God including his
72 brave and loyal followers and his 6 months beautiful baby,
Ali Asghar. In the wake of such a great sacrifices, the Quran
praises as:
"Think not of those who are slain in God's way as
dead. Nay, they are living, finding their sustenance in the
presence of their Lord" (Qur'an 3:169).
Before the battle of Karbala, the world knew only the rule
that "The Might is the Right". However, the day of Assura
introduced even more powerful rule to this world; "The Right
is the Might" . Now, the blood of the innocent could win over
the sword of a tyrant.
Mahatma Gandhi (Indian political and spiritual leader)
writes: "I learned from Hussein how to achieve victory
while being oppressed."
57
According to the great poet Rabindranath Tagore,
Hussain's sacrifice indicates spiritual liberation. He writes:
"In order to keep alive justice and truth, instead of
an army or weapons, success can be achieved by
sacrificing lives, exactly what Imam Hussain (A.S.) did"
Such an everlasting victory can only be achieved by the
one who totally believes and trust in the Almighty God.
Thomas Carlyle (Scottish historian and essayist) explains:
"The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of
Karbala is that Husain and his companions were rigid
believers in God. They illustrated that the numerical
superiority does not count when it comes to the truth
and the falsehood. The victory of Husain, despite his
minority, marvels me!"
Imam Hussain (A.S.) explains the mission of his sacrifice in
his own words:
"I have taken this stand not out of arrogance or
pride, neither out of mischief or injustice. I have risen to
seek reform in the community of my grandfather. I
would like to bid good, forbid evil, and follow the
tradition of my grandfather and my father 'Ali bin Abi
Talib."
Charles Dickens (English novelist) writes:
"If Husain had fought to quench his worldly
desires.then I do not understand why his sister, wife,
and children accompanied him. It stands to reason
therefore, that he sacrificed purely for Islam."
In spite of all the painful aspects of Karbala, it holds a
great significance in the Islamic history, for the revolution of
Imam Husain (A) was not merely an event which had taken