Muslims around the world mourn the assassination of Imam Husayn, the second grandson of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on the Holy Ashura, 10th of Muharram (Al-Hijra month). Ancient River, Euphrates which cradled the world’s earliest civilizations, still flows down the Karbala. It was on the back of this river that Imam Husayn was assassinated by the forces of Yazid in the year 680. The Shiite Muslims in Bangladesh have brought out Tajia processions in Dhaka city, amid strict security, on Holy Ashura on Tuesday, marking the martyrdom of Imam Husayn.The tragedy of Karbala has left a deep scar in the hearts of all Muslims. People seek divine blessings for Imam Husayn in particular and the Muslim Ummah in general on this day offering optional prayers. It’s a sad story of what greed for a beautiful woman and power can lead to. It has made epic novels like ‘Bishad Sindhu’ which won the hearts of all communities in Bangladesh as an invaluable piece of literature. It is the most read novel although the three-volume piece was published in the late 19th century when the rate of literacy in this land was below 20 percent. In olden days people used to listen to readings from novel in groups and share their grief.
Bishad Sindhu is a Bengali epic novel by Mir Mosarraf Hussain, the first modern Bengali Muslim writer and novelist. Regarded as a central work of Bengali literature, and Hussain’s finest literary achievement, the novel chronicles the lives of Muhammad’s grandsons, Hasan and Husayn, and the Battle of Karbala. Bengali writer, novelist, playwright and essayist, Syed Mir Mosharraf Hossain is considered to be one of the finest prose writers in the Bengali language. His magnum opus Bishad Sindhu (Ocean of Sorrow) is a popular classic won the hearts of all. (Wikipedia) The tragedy of Karbala is its essence.
The longest river (3,000 kilometres) in the region, the Euphrates has started drying up for structural interventions and lack of conservation, but the rift over its water between the forces of Imam Husayn and Yazid continues to divide the people of Iraq and those of the region between Shiites and Sunnis. Bangladesh’s National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam called upon Muslims to make sacrifices instead of shedding tears on this day for the cause of the just, the truth, equality and unity. There can be no better guidance for Muslims on the Holy Ashura.
10 Muharram (10 September 2019) 1441 AH.
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