A Missionary Work by the Indian Muslims

Many different works are done, during their religious festivals, at different times, by all the followers of different religions, in the world. Almost all the communities are following their hereditary traditions taking it as religious tradition as established by their sects. Among these traditions, there are eating, drinking & enjoying, there are also community meals, meetings & other functions at the time of the religious festivals. But there are heart moving traditions prevalent in some of the communities, which a common man can’t see even.

It is not so that only illiterate & backward communities follow the heartrending traditions that are surprising & move the people. The Christian community that considers itself the most literate & modern, is sometimes found involved in such religious movements. Almost every year, the pictures of the persons are published in the newspaper who in Jerusalem or in any other holy city, hang them self to demonstrate as was done to the Christ. It must be a heart rending when an alive person is crucified & heavy, long nails are struck in both of his palms, hands & feet. Often, any devotee of the Christ offers himself to be crucified & demonstrates a tribute with blood to the Christ. Obviously he may lose his life at the demonstration of such painful event. It is so; the members of his family & of his society immediately take it that the devotee has gone near his God & in the heaven. Besides the Christians, there are other communities too, where there are such surprising scenes at the time of religious functions.

Similarly there is in the Shia community of the Muslims. Usually all the festivals, that are celebrated in the Muslim religion are also celebrated in Shia sect, just like the other Muslims. But in Moharram, the persons of Shia sect mourn the martyrdom of the grand son of Prophet Mohammad, Hazrat Imam Husain & his 72 companions, who were starved & kept thirsty for three days & killed in the ground of Karbala by a terrorist Muslim king Yazid. The Syed sect in Shiites, consider themselves the successors of Hazrat Imam Husain. Every year at the time of this mournful function of the Shia sect, they pay a tearful tribute to Hazrat Imam Husain. Meetings are held at this occasion, where there are talks about the atrocities on the Prophet Mohammad & his relatives in the ground of Karbala by Yazid & his army. On hearing this, the Shia followers cry in tears. The Shia sect doesn’t weep only for the fact that Hazrat Husain was their ancestor but by the mournful tribute the Shia sect wants to give a message that Husain was on the path of truth & he was innocent. He didn’t have any army. He was a saint & preacher. The Shiites remember Hazrat Husain & mourn with sharp knives & swords on their back, head & chest. During it, the blood oozing from their bodies make the ground of deep red colour. They present a tribute with blood, by this tribute to Hazrat Imam Husain. At the same time, by the tribute of their blood, the Shiites want to show that had they been present in the ground of Karbala, they would have shed their blood for Hazrat Imam Husain & had sacrificed their lives.

Every year, this way of shedding the blood & giving tributes to Hazrat Husain with their blood had been going on for about last 1000 years in the world. It can be said that it is increasing. If such activities have direct link with religion, then no finger can be raised against it. If someone raises a question of this type to a person with religious zeal, that one may have to suffer. But it seems that there is awakening among the Shiites, now. The Shia community has started to feel that just as Imam Husain made a successful try to save the Islam by shedding his blood & blood of his relatives in the same way, the followers of Hazrat Husain should give their blood to save someone’s life instead of shedding their blood on the roads.

On the last January 20, in Delhi, during a procession of Moharram, it was seen that some Shiites were shedding their blood on the roads while a parallel noble deed, by the Kashmiri Shiites was started, to donate blood. As this noble deed was being cooperated by the government, so a special bus, by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIMS to store blood, was sent at the place where there was mourning by chains & swords. Surprisingly, it was seen that there was a long queue of persons who offered to donate blood. During this, hundreds of youths donated their blood as a tribute to Hazrat Imam Husain. Surprisingly, there were many Shiite women in this noble deed.

An organizer of this work of blood donation form Hussaini Relief Committee, Jammu & Kashmir, told that this mission started from Srinagar, many years ago. Now it has reached Delhi. This service of blood donation has started to give positive results. This mission is getting favour from the government & the educated persons of the Shia community have started to feel that there can be no other best tribute to Hazrat Husain than to save a life. It can be hoped that this missionary work started by the Indian Shiites will get favour not only in India but in the whole world. This possibility can’t be denied that the persons of Sunni community who agree with the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Husain & feel sorry on that event but avoid this mourning with blood as the Shiites do, they will also join this mission of blood donation. It will create an example of communal harmony along with the tribute given to Hazrat Imam Husain & other martyrs of Karbala. This blood donation will set an example of humanity & brotherhood which is urgently needed at present.

ENDS

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