AYAT I BUSTAN
Year:2016 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

The movement of Imam al-Husayn has been one of the most outstanding human events in pursuit of the right, hence packed with enormous lessons. Throughout the whole movement, Imam al-Husayn had dialogues with several people from which a certain logic and framework can be discerned.The present descriptive-analytical study aims to focus on Imam al- Husayn'sarguments throughout his Ashura movement so as to lay bare the logic of his argumentation. The results are as follows: continuing the debatein a logical manner, obtaining confessions from the enemy with carefully-crafted questions, detailed criticism of the enemy's speech, comparison and contrast, acting as an interrogator, kindling the interlocutor's human instinct, and making use of an inspirational language. Thematically, Imam al-Husayn resorted to the Quran, the Prophetic sunna, and the standards accepted by the opponent groups. Morally, he showed clemency, forbearance, well-wishing for the other party, aversion from animosity, humbleness in speech, respecting the interlocutor, and accepting the interlocutor's excuses.

Al-Hakim al-Nayshaburi's book al-Mustakrak ‘ala al-sahihayn contains a section on the merits of Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Husayn. In it, a debate is recorded that took place between Yahya b. Ya’mar and al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf in which the latter attempted to cast doubt on Imam al-Husayn's being a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. However, Yahya b. Ma’mar refuted al-Hajjaj's claims based on convincing Quranic proofs and authentic hadiths. The Quranic references are based on the SurasAl ‘Imran [3]: 61, al-Nisaa' [4]: 23, and al-An’am [6]: 84-85 as well as the hadiths in which the Prophet Muhammad maked reference to Imam al-Husayn as a descendant of his own.

A tremendously great event took place around the river Euphrates in 61 AH/ 680. It is important to gain knowledge about the peoples who were residing in that area. This is because the inhabitants of the Iraqi regions were tribally not unanimous, hence this demographic feature played a role in the occurrence of the catastrophic event of Ashura. The present paper deals with a study of the typology of the peoples of the region of the Euphrates and their geographical distribution, and whether their demographical differences made a contributory effect in favor of the Umayyad hegemony and army troops in that region. Since the inhabitants of the regions on both sides of the river Euphrates were composed on immigrant Arab tribes, Persians, mawalis, Kurds, Aramaic nomads, Nestorians, and followers of other offshoots of Christianity, they were not united with one another, a characteristic that has since lasted for several centuries, hence the enemies of Imam al-Husayn made the most of absence of sucha demographic homogeneity.

Shedding tears in favor of, and lamenting, the martyrdom of Imam al- Husayn has been profoundly emphasized and regarded as an Islamic ritual in the Shiite and Sunni hadiths. In such a context, the hadith of Imam 'Ali al- Rida (Reza), related by Rayyan b. Shabib, is one of the most authoritative accounts that indicate the status of Imam al-Husayn, the month Muharram, the tragedy of Ashura, and the merits of shedding tears in favor of Imam al- Husayn. The present study proves that this hadith is authentic, without any flaw in its signification. This leads to its authority, implying that their nothing fake or fabricated, without any flaw as to the merits of its abundant rewards.

The early Islamic history witnessed formation of three sub-discourses in the realm of social life. They were framed within the frameworks of Divine vicegerency "wilayah", caliphate and kingdom, where all of them tried to get as close to the Islamic center for obtaining the public mentality and acceptance. To achieve this aim, they had to redefine the major Islamic values according to their own favorite central frameworks. Hence, in certain cases the place of inviting people to accomplish the good was transposed with that of prohibiting people from committing the abominable. Since the framework developed and introduced by the Prophet Muhammad was based on the Divine vicegerency "wilayah", such a framework was not accepted by some people, while others accepted it with alacrity, an experience that led to caliphate and kingdom. To study it in full, the discourses of Imam al- Husayn, based on the Divine vicegerency "wilayah" are contrasted with the kingdom-based discourses of Yazid.

The event of Ashura and the revolt of Imam al-Husayn were certainly significant events that caused thematic and semantic changes in Persian and Arabic literatures. However, in the present descriptive-analytical work, such a view has been influenced by the dominant political views and atmospheres, leading to a sway in the poets' viewpoints. Hence, Persian and Arab poets' attention to the individual and social character of Imam al-Husayn deserve special attention. Likewise, their recounting and narrations signify the melancholic and epic aspects of this event in both languages. This is indicative of a tragic interpretation of Ashura in contrast to that of a revival revolution. Beyond these common points, there are also some differences, e.g., Arab poets' tendency to the lineage of Imam al-Husayn and praising him. The type of characteristics Arab poets highlight for Imam al-Husayn indicate that they seek a role model for their political struggles. On the other hand, the presence of the religious leaders in the Iranian constitutional movement and after that caused relatively less attention to Imam al-Husayn for a political end. In contrast, Ashura was looked up to as a model for the Islamic revolution of Iran, leading to venerating Imam Khomeini as a portrait of Imam al-Husayn. In effect of this view, Ashura, that was formerly a cause for shedding tears, has come to be viewed as an epic.

The present paper is concerned with analyzing the earliest Christian account of the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn as reported by the Byzantine ambassador to the Umayyad court of Yazid. Based on an English academic translation of the original Syriac text (published in Liverpool, UK), it shows that the crime of putting Imam al-Husayn to the sword made the Roman ambassador of the Byzantium react against it. However, as the earlier Byzantine ambassador was killed at the behest of Yazid for raising his open objection against him for committing such an utterly grave crime, it seems that the second Byzantine ambassador never showed the slightest reaction in deeds but expressed his disgust and aversion in words, all expressed in a language that the majority of Arab Umayyads were ignorant to decipher or understand.