By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: A seven-year-old boy beats his chest with his hand while chanting Ya Husain, Ya Husain. He is walking with hundreds of Shia Muslims in Alamganj area of Patna town. Today is 10th of Muharram. The procession has been taken out to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Husain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, at Karbala, Iraq, more than a millennium ago.
Children, youth, elderly people – mostly barefooted and draped in black or white attire – are beating their chest, some slowly, lightly, some fast, violently wounding themselves. Blood is all over their body. They are mourning the bloodbath that took place in the field of Karbala on 10th Muharram 61 Hijria (in 680 CE) when Imam Husain and his 72 companions took on the well equipped armed soldiers of ruler Yazeed, a notorious figure in the Islamic history, and were killed mercilessly. Yazeed is blamed for corrupting the Khilafat system established soon after the departure of Prophet Muhammad, and killing almost entire extended family members of the Prophet.
Talking about the significance of the martyrdom of Imam Husain, Ahsan Safeer, commercial tax officer and one of the mourners today says: “His (Husain’s) sacrifice protected Islam and Muslims from bad elements and traditions from within the community. People had then began drinking wine in mosques. His death revived Islam.”
Naseem Haider, science teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, while walking with the mourning procession says the sacrifice of Imam Husain should inspire us to do something for Islam and community.
The procession called alam consisting bands of people beating while reciting poems descriptive of the Karbala incident and chanting slogans, mock coffin of Imam Husain and green, black flags, originated from Pathantoli locality in Alamganj area and culminated at Karnail Saheb ka Imambara near the famous Patthar ki Masjid, a Shia mosque in Sultanganj area on Ashok Rajpath.