By IANS
New Delhi : Muslims took out religious processions, observed fast, gave charities and held special prayers across the national capital Sunday to mark Youm-e-Ashoora as day of victory of virtue over evil.
On the 10th day of the month of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar, Muslim across the globe remember the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, some 1,400 years ago, at a place called Karbala in Iraq.
On Ashoora, as the 10th day of Muharram is also known as, special prayers were offered at historic Shahi Masjid Fatehpuri and shrine of Khwaja Nizam-ud-din Auliya in South Delhi, where Muslims paid homage to Hussain.
Shia Muslims took out tazia (mourning) processions from various places in the national capital.
The processions included some of the oldest, like the one taken out from Shia Jama Masjid in Kashmiri Gate to Punja Sharif Karbala in the same locality and from Pahari Bhojla in Chittqualam near historic Jama Masjid to Karbala in Jorbag near Lodhi colony.
Dressed in black, Shia Muslims, both men as well as women, were crying and beating their chests to mourn the Hussain’s martyrdom. They were also were holding flags.
After reaching the Jorbag Karbala, the mourners performed rituals of tearing up their flags and burying them there.
The occasion was marked by the story of Hussein’s martyrdom being told in a sombre voice as the day-long affair of tazia processions continued.
It is said that during this month only, soldiers of Yazid, an Arab Muslim ruler, surrounded Hussain, his family and some followers at Iraq’s Karbala. In the days that followed, they were denied food and water and many of them were killed in the war that lasted till Muharram 10 in 680 AD.
Keeping with the country’s secular traditions, Hindus and Muslims also took out a joint tazia from Bhairon Mandir near Pragati Maidan to Jorbag karbala.
“It’s one of the oldest tazia processions of Delhi where Muslims and Hindus keep up with the country’s secular traditions and bond of fraternity,” Imran Ahmed, a participant of the procession told IANS.