Whenever we read or listen a wise saying or a sermon of a well-known personality, we mean to learn lessons from it. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to put forward the sacred sermon of Sayyiduna Imam Hussain Ibn Ali (RA), the grandson of Prophet Muhammadﷺ, and the message it includes. It is the last sermon of Imam Hussain, which he delivered before the army of yazid, under the commandership of Ibn Ziyad. The sermon has been quoted by many Muslim historians viz. Al-Tabri, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Athir etc. It was on 10thof October 680 AD when Sayyiduna Imam Hussain Ibn Ali (RA) delivered a sermon on the plains of Euphrates in Karbala (Iraq) in front of those people who were ready to kill him at any cost. Those were the people of Kufa and the army of Ibn Ziyad who were executing the orders of Yazid. They were the people who got blinded by the ignorance, captured by misguidance, their hearts filled with prejudice and hatred; they were the people of dead conscience. Sayyiduna Imam Hussain Ibn Ali (RA) raised his hands to supplicate in the presence of Almighty Allah,“O Lord! You are my trust in every adversity, my hope in every hardship! You are to me my trust and treasure for whatever afflicts me! How many worries have You removed and dissipated that over-burdened my heart, exhausted my plans, betrayed my friends, and elated my enemy which I complained to You, having placed my hope upon You? You are the Originator of every blessing and the ultimate end of every wish.” (Source: Tarikh Al-Tabri (Urdu Translation), Vol. 4, p. 207-210 (Published by Nafees Acdemy, Karachi, Pakistan, 2004) and Tarikh Al-Tabri (English Translation), Vol. 19, p. 122-124 (Published by State University New York Press, USA, 1990).These words are teaching us that in every hard situation, at any troubled hour of distress and unease we should be firm in belief and should have strong reliance on Allah. We should think that He is the ultimate authority and power of the universe so I rely on Him for every support; I put my trust in Him for every adversity and hardship. He is my hope and my aspiration as every blessing starts from Him, He is the genesis of all the blessings and divine sanctions, so I take refuge in Him. Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) called for his horse/camel. Having mounted it, took the copy of the Holy Qur’an with him, then stood in front of those people and said, “O people! The Book of Allah and the Sunnah of my grandfather, the Messengerﷺ of Allah, are the arbitrators between you and me.”This sentence of Sayyiduna Hussain is very significant and relevant for any case of dispute between Muslims, where two or more Muslims or group of Muslims undergo any situation of argumentation, disagreement or fight. Muslims should always get assistance and make their decision with Quran and Sunnah. This opinion of Sayyiduna Hussain is actually based upon a commandment of the Quran itself, where Allah says: “O believers! Obey Allah and obey the Messengerﷺand those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, then refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day. This is the best and fairest resolution” (Al-Quran 04:4. Almighty Allah is giving a one-time solution for every dispute or disagreement among Muslims so that they may come to a conclusion fairly. Allah’s Book Quran and Prophet’s Sunnah should be our source for guidance and a judge between us in all the conditions and circumstances. Then Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) called out loudly enough to be heard saying,”O people! Listen to my speech and do not rush till I admonish you with that which I owe you, and so that I tell you why I have come here; so, if you accept my excuse and believe my statement and fare with me with equity, you will be much happier, and you will see no reason to expose me to this. But if you do not accept my reason and do not fare with me with equity, then gather your affair and your accomplices, and do not feel sorry for what you do but effect your judgment in my regard and do not grant me any respite; surely my Lord is Allah Who revealed the Book and He looks after the righteous.”Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) was actually inviting them to have intellectual clarity in order to reconsider and rethink their decision once again. He actually wanted them to listen to him patiently and to understand his viewpoint as well so that they do not commit any major sin in haste and then later on they have to regret their actions. He also explained to them that if they do not trust him and they think he is lying then they can do whatever they want; concurrently he also reminded them that our Lord Allah is always with righteous and truthful people so that they may fear Him in this regard. We must learn that in any situation whether favourable or unfavourable, supporting us or against us, we’d never forsake righteousness and truthfulness. Being as believers we’d remember that Allah is always with those who are righteous. When the women of the family heard the above mentioned statement of Sayyiduna Hussain (RA), they cried and wailed, and their voices grew loud, whereupon he sent his brother, Abbas Ibn Ali (RA) and his son Ali Akbar (RA) to ask them to remain quiet and not to cry. Once the ladies were quiet, Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) again praised and glorified Allah Subhanahu WaTa’ala and then said, “O People! Fear Allah and be on your guard with regard to this life; Allah, the most Exalted One, created life and made it a temporary abode, taking its people from one condition to another. Conceited is whoever gets fascinated by it, and miserable is whoever gets infatuated by it. So, do not let this life deceive you, for it shall disappoint whoever trusts and desires it.”Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) reminded them to fear Allah and tried to explain them the reality of this temporary world in order to make them understand that we should not be deceived by this worldly life and ruin our life of hereafter. This life is like a dream and all of us will definitely realize this when we’ll experience death. Death is an undeniable truth so we’d always remember that we are going to die one day and we have to be accountable for whatever we have done here.
Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) further said,“You declared obedience to and belief in Muhammadﷺ the Messenger, then you put your ranks together to kill his Progeny and offspring! Satan took full control of you, making you forget the remembrance of Allah. Perdition, hence, is your lot and ultimate end! We belong to Allah, and to Him is our return. These are people who have turned apostates after having believed, so away with the oppressive people.”There’s a hadith in which Prophet ﷺ has himself commanded us to fear Allah in regard to his family (Ahlul Bayt) as reported in Sahih Muslim (6225, Int: 2408). Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) tried to make them realize that on one hand they believe in Islam and claim to be the followers of Prophet and on the other hand they’re ready to kill his family members. How can anybody do that? In fact no one can even imagine of doing that except those who have no faith or those who are in complete deception. Who have disposed themselves in the trap of devil and became apostates by forgetting Allah and rejecting His commandments; they’re the real oppressors. Finally at the end while concluding his sermon Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) took refuge from Allah from all the affliction and oppression that he was going to face soon as he has realised that those people who were listening to him got nothing from his speech, hence it draw no impact on them, then he said:“O People! I have sought refuge with Allah, your Lord and mine, against your killing me, and I seek refuge with my Lord and yours against any arrogant person who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning.”The lesson is that once truth has been revealed then we should accept it if we believe in the Day of Judgment, although not accepting the truth is to be an arrogant person and Allah doesn’t like arrogance. When Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) finished his sermon, he alighted from his she-camel, asking Uqbah Ibn Sam’an to tie it for him. May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Sayyiduna Hussain (RA) and all the martyrs of Karbala. Aameen! To commemorate the event of Karbala, it is imperative to evaluate the sermon of Imam Hussain delivered there but for the people to make them understandable regarding the status of the households of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and steadfastness in the way of Allah.
(The Author is a research scholar at Islamic Studies Department at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University -BGSBU, Rajouri. Views are his own)
[email protected]