A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ On this day of ‘Ashura , we remember the prominent personalities of Bani Hashim and the Ahl al-Bayt martyred at Karbala.   Historians have recorded the names of the following shuhadah :   1. Hadhrat Muhammad ibn Abu Sa’id ibn ‘Aqil ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 2. Hadhrat ‘Abdullah ibn Muslim ibn ‘Aqil ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 3. Hadhrat ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Aqil ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 4. Hadhrat ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn ‘Aqil ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 5. Hadhrat Ja’far ibn ‘Aqil ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 6. Hadhrat Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Ja’far ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 7. Hadhrat ‘Abbas ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 8. Hadhrat ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 9. Hadhrat ‘Utsman ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 10. Hadhrat Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 11. Hadhrat Abu Bakr ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 12. Hadhrat Abu Bakr ibn al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( r.a. ); 13. Hadhrat ‘Abdullah ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ What do Sunni Muslims think of the Day of ‘Ashura? ”   In Sunni Islam, ‘Ashura has a spiritual meaning.   Each prophet experienced a significant event on that day.   All those prophets, except Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ), had a positive development on that day.   Adam ( a.s. ) was Forgiven by Allah ( s.w.t. ); Noah ( a.s. ) was Saved from the flood and the ark came to rest; Moses ( a.s. ) was Saved from Pharaoh with the Israelites and received the Commandments; Abraham ( a.s. ) was Saved from the fire of Nimrod and received his title, ‘al-Khalil’ and Jesus ( a.s. ) was Raised up to Heaven.   Additionally, this was also the Day, Enoch ( a.s. ) was Raised to the Heavens; Job ( a.s. ) was Relieved from his trial; Jonah ( a.s. ) was saved from the three layers of darkness; David ( a.s. ) was Forgiven; Solomon ( a.s. ) Received his kingdom and was Restored to it.   As f...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Our shaykh , Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi ( q.s. ) made ziyarah of both the graves of Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali ( r.a. ); in Karbala’, where his noble body is, and in Egypt, where his noble head is.   About that visit, he said in Sayr al-Qalb :   “In Karbala’, I visited al-Husayn seeking a means, To his father, the pleased one, seeking Allah. ‘Ali, the father of the two grandsons, the Lion of Muhammad, By whose sharp sword I ward off calamities!”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is an extract of Qaswidah Hamziyyah of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sa’id al-Buswiri ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ).   Among the couplets of this poem are the following lines, referencing the tragic fate of the Ahl al-Bayt , at Karbala’:   “And the two sons whose perfumed scent is from you, Who the extremely pure one had borne. You used to give them shelter in yourself, just as, The ya’ gave shelter to the writing of its two dots. Two martyrs, neither at-Taf makes me forget, Their affliction, nor Karbala’. The ruled did not take care of your rights in regard to them, And the rulers as well betrayed your pact. They replaced the love and care to your relatives; And the fogs of hypocrisy rose from its people. Hardened became their hearts towards those, For whose loss, the earth and heaven had wept. So, weep for them as much as you are able, surely the very least. In the midst of such a great affliction,...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Marwan ibn al-Hakam converted in the time of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) and spent time in his company.   By all accounts, he would be considered a swahabah in Sunni Islam.   However, besides being the fourth Umayyad caliph, he also incited Muslim ibn ‘Uqbah, Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah’s general, against the people of Makkah and Madina, in al-Harrah .   The Ka’bah was burnt, the Prophet’s ( s.a.w. ) Mosque was defiled, the ‘amir and leader of Madina, the swahabah Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ibn Hanzhalah ( r.a. ), was murdered and thousands of the swahabah and tabi’un were put to the sword, the women raped, and slaves taken.   It was this act that caused Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah to elevate the states of his cousin, Marwan, which lead to his caliphate.   A year before, Marwan also incited Yazid to confront Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali ( r.a. ) and the Ahl al-Bayt at Karbala, leading to the infamous massacre on ‘Ashura.   As caliph, he w...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ It was written that Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali’s ( r.a. ) stand in Karbala was the last breath of the Khulafah ar-Rashidin , the final attempt to bring back that Original Way.   He said, “I have risen up, not for oppression or arrogance, but to fix the ummah of my grandfather.”   To those who warned him of being killed by the tyrants, he replied, “And if the affairs of this ummah will not be set right except by my death, then be it.”   The Khulafah ar-Rashidin never came back after that.   It will only return with the Guided Imam , Imam al-Mahdi ( a.s. ), from the Ahl al-Bayt , in the end of times.   He will be the true successor of Sayyidina ‘Ali ( k.w. ), Sayyidina Hasan ( r.a. ) and Sayyidina Husayn ( r.a. ).   Until then, we do the best we can and make swalawat on Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) and the Family of Muhammad ( s.a.w. ).

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The Battle of al-Harrah took place after the massacre of the family of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) at Karbala.   The army of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah attacked Madina whose residents had revolted against his tyranny and outrage over the murder of the Ahl al-Bayt .   In Madina, they massacred 10,000 of the best Muslims then, including 700 swahabah who fought valiantly until the end.   Among the dead were the swahabah who had participated in the Battle of Badr.   More than a 1,000 of their daughters were raped and impregnated.   For three entire days, there was no adzan and swalah in Masjid an-Nabawi.   The pillars of the mosques were used by Yazid’s army to tether their horses, and the animals defecated therein, soiling the place.   The pillage was done at Yazid’s explicit order, as recorded in the history books.   The people of Madina, the swahabah and the tabi’un , were forced to give bay’ah to Yazid as slaves...

Muslims may remember that Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah’s army massacred the family of the Prophet.  But the story did not end there.  There were the rape and massacre of the people of Madina and the desecration of the Prophet’s mosque. After the massacres of Karbala and Madina, the accursed army of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah marched toward Makkah, where the people had also revolted against him.  They were outraged at the murder of the Ahl al-Bayt in Karbala and Madina.  Under the leadership of the swahabi , Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr, they had put up a competent defence.  Since Yazid’s army could not enter Makkah, they set up siege engines and shot fireballs of pitch into the city.  Many worshippers in the Haram were killed by these.  One of these fireballs hit the Ka’bah itself and set it on fire.  Due to the fighting, it remained on fire for a significant amount of time, causing a large part of it to be burnt. The Battle of al-Harrah, which pr...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ There are different levels of ijma’ , consensus, in fiqh .  The ijma’ of the swahabah is considered one of the strongest legal proofs in fiqh .  What this means is that once all the swahabah agree on something, and this is very rare, no one in all the ummah after them can contradict that.   When Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah was made the caliph after his father, many of the swahabah gave him bay’ah for the sake of unity, even though he had no legitimacy.  Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali ( r.a. ) was not amongst those who gave the bay’ah , and it had nothing to do with the fact that Yazid and his father had opposed the rightful caliph, his father, Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( k.w. ).   Rather, had Sayyidina Husayn ( r.a. ) followed the rest of the swahabah , he would have sealed an ijma’ making it wajib to accept a drunkard, a tyrant, and a philandering apostate as the leader of the ummah in the name of unity.  In such ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Speaking about Karbala, Imam Abu al-Faraj ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn ‘Ali ibn al-Jawzy ( r.a. ) said, “The most despicable thing was not that ibn Ziyad ordered the killing of al-Husayn, that he sent ‘Umar ibn Sa’d and Shimr to carry out the deed, nor even that he ordered the heads to be carried off to him.   Verily, what is truly despicable were Yazid’s own actions, especially his poking of al-Husayn’s head with his staff, his carrying off of the Prophet’s ( s.a.w. ) family on the backs of camels in the manner of captives, and his attempt to give Fathimah bint al-Husayn to the man in his court who demanded her for himself!   Moreover, his recitation of the infamous verses of ibn al-Zub’ari, ‘I wish my forefathers at Badr were here to witness …’ and his sending the head of al-Husayn to Madina in order for it to be displayed publicly as if he were a Khwarij rebel are just as deplorable!   Yet, even Khwarij and rebels are given the dign...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Utsman al-Hujwiri ( q.s. ) wrote, “And among the Ahl al-Bayt is the shining light of the Family of Muhammad ( s.a.w. ), the Lord of his Age, Abu ‘Abdullah al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib, ( r.a. ).   He was from among the truthful saints and the beacon for the oppressed everywhere.   He was murdered in the deserts of Karbala.   All those adhering to our path are agreed that he was absolutely righteous in his cause because he was pursuing truth as long as it was manifest.   And when truth faded away, he unsheathed his sword in its cause and did not desist until he offered his blessed soul as a sacrifice and was martyred in the Way of God.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ This is a sunnah al-muthlaq from the Futuhat al-Haqqaniyyah of Shaykh Muhammad ‘Adnan al-Qabbani.   On the eve of ‘Ashura, the sunnah nafl is to offer four raka’at : In every rak’ah , after Surah al-Fatihah, recite Ayat al-Kursi once and Surah al-Ikhlasw three times.   After completing this swalah , recite Surah al-Ikhlasw a hundred times.   It is said, Allah ( s.w.t. ) will Purify such a person from all their sins and Grant them endless bounties and blessings in Paradise.   The sunnah swalah of ‘Ashura is four raka’at .   After Surah al-Fatihah in each rak’ah , recite Surah al-Ikhlasw eleven times.   The intention is the sunnah yawm al-‘ashura in commemoration of ‘Ashura, and is normally done at the time of dhuha’ .   It is said that whoever does so, Allah ( s.w.t. ) Forgives his sins of fifty years, and Builds for him a pulpit from light.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ After the massacre of the Ahl al-Bayt at Karbala, the accursed ‘Ubdaydullah ibn Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan, ordered the killing of the last surviving Husayni male of the family of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), the then 14-year-old Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ), as he lay sick in the ladies’ tent.   His aunt, Sayyidah Zaynab bint Fathimah az-Zahrah ( q.s. ) screamed, “Who will be our mahram if he is killed?”   So, the soldiers left him alone.   Every sayyid , including the haba’ib of Yemen, many of the ‘ulama , the awliya’ , and the a’immah of our time, and the shuyukh of the various Sufi orders, are descendants of this lone survivor of Karbala.   And since the Ahl al-Bayt have this tendency to intermarry, this has become true for every lineage.

Sayyidina al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali said, “The world has changed colours, and it has been deprived of good.  Is there nobody who would stop the oppressor from oppression?  The time has come for the believer to come forth, and to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah.” Sayyidina al-Husayn said these words in 61 AH, on the plains of Karbala’, in what is now southern Iraq.  He said them, knowing what was coming.  He said them, having refused every offer of safe passage that required him to give legitimacy to what he considered an illegitimate authority.  He said them as the grandson of the Prophet, the son of Sayyidina Abu Turab ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib and Sayyidatina Fathimah az-Zahra’, a man whose lineage placed him at the very centre of what Islam was supposed to mean in practice. The Context Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah had assumed the Caliphate in 60 AH following the death of his father, Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan.  The manner of his assumption was not the manner of the R...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Brother Jordan Mikhail Vesci posted this, on The Sharing Group, on the 12 th March 2015: “This is a question for our Shi’ah brothers and sisters.   I would like to know how you view Karbala in comparison to Makkah and Madina?   Is Karbala at the same status of holiness?”   Brother Şahin Farökhzad : Visiting Makkah is obligatory, while Karbala is not.   But there are ahadits that state Karbala is the holiest place on Earth.   Brother Martin Harrison : Ahadits of whom?   Brother Terence Helikaon Nunis : Even holier than Makkah, where the Ka’bah is?   Or Madina, where the Rawdhah of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) is?   Do Shi’ah actually believe that?   Brother Martin Harrison : This is where I really do not get Shi’ism.   How can the martyrdom of Sayyidina Husayn ( r.a. ) take precedence over so many other matters, such as the death of the Rasul ( s.a.w. ), the death of Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Tha...