Muharram, month of God – The Hindu

Muharram is the first month of the Islamic lunar Hijri calendar (Hijirah, because the Prophet began his migration on that day, thereby giving the name Hijri to the calendar), to the city of Yathrib, where the Prophet became the leader of the city, thereafter renamed Madinat Al Nawabi, or the City of the Prophet, said Syed Meeran.

Muslims of both sects (Shia and Sunni) view and value the tenth of Muharram with considerable significance. For the Sunnis it is the day on which God saved Moses and his people from the Pharaoh and thus they demonstrate their gratitude by fasting. It also holds reverence because it is believed God created Adam and Eve on this day.

Another significance of Ashura is the martyrdom of Iman Hussain, the son of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, and the fourth Caliph of Islam and for the Shiite Muslims, the first Imam of the community. Hussain’s martyrdom provides an example of selfless sacrifice in the cause of God’s justice in the face of human oppression. This event took place around fifty years after the passing of the Prophet. Yazid, a tyrannical and by all accounts disreputable figure, was forcibly assuming leadership of the Muslim community and was demanding that Hussain swear allegiance to him. Hussain rejected the proposition seeing Yazid unfit for office. At the battlefield of Karbala, 5,000 of Yazid’s forces stormed the Hussain’s contingent of 80 people. What ensued was a massacre and nearly all the companions and family, including young children and a six-month old baby of Hussain, Ali Asghar, were slaughtered. The last one standing was Hussain himself.

Thus the ‘Month of God’, of Prophets and celebrated heroes and martyrs, Muharram continues to be one of the most significant months, in terms of worship and the opportunities it affords to learn about the long history.