[Reader-list] II The Everydays of Eternity: A Study of Muhurrum Processions

[shireen mirza]

II The Everydays of Eternity: A Study of Muhurrum Processions
(A summary of the war of Karbala and the procession is given at the end)


When I first started my study on Muhurrum processions, the central question 
of my project was to understand why certain events gain momentum through 
history and become constitutive of a community and of individuals within the 
community. What processes have gone into shaping a community’s perception of 
itself in terms of others, and itself as the ‘other’? Specifically in 
relation to the Shia community, how does Karbala become the trope for acting 
out the political, historical oppression faced by the Shias over centuries, 
in a manner that Shia identity gets articulated in a language of oppression, 
a language of deep pessimism and a sense of fatalism that casts the world 
outside as it as that which has been and will always be alien and threatens 
its existence. These continue to be the questions I have been asking through 
the two months of Muhurrum and Safar this year. (While Safar has just gone 
by, the majlis still continue till Eid and the mourning and black clothes 
are worn till 9th Rabiul Awal, 30th April) Only it wasn’t the only kind of 
question I needed to ask…

If identity of a community is too abstract a concept to articulate, Muhurrum 
was the perfect instance to map Shia identity on to body, time and space: In
The black clothes worn during Muhurrum
Beating the chests (matham)
The flagellating subject :acting out of a condition of subjecthood in 
relation to historical and social processes that form it.
Mourning as a metaphor embodied in the songs of Karbala
Collective purging of emotions
Imam Badhas /ashurqanas built mostly for the women to congregate 	during 
majlis’
Languages of suffering and pain
Alam: the symbolic palm which is a battle standard carried in the Asuhra 
processions

Muhurrum then could be read as a site for not just locating identity but a 
public performance and a spectacular staging of the Shia identity that is 
performed to make a political-historical point. I was in Hyderabad during 
Ashura (the 10th of Muhurrum),  this year. My first Muhurrum in Hyderabad. 
Till this year I have only attended the regular majlis’ at particular homes, 
within the family and in the ashurqanas on Richmond Road in Bangalore. It 
changed everything for me. Also I stayed in Raichur for the first few days 
of Muhurrum on my way to Hyderabad. Raichur is interestingly located on the 
border of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and has a very interesting history. 
It was under the Nizam’s rule, which gives it an interesting permutation and 
combinations of various influences.

The bombing attacks on the Shias this year during the 10th of Muhurrum 
(Ashura) in Iraq and Pakistan during the 2nd March 04 brought out in some 
ways how closely linked the martyrdom of Hussain and the battle of Karbala 
is to the Shia imagination, in its self conception and in the way the world 
conceives it. Somehow some identities get articulated louder than others. I 
saw the famous procession in Hyderabad on Ashura with Bibi Ka Alam that 
moves from Sar Tok Ka Alawa to Mosa naddi announcing as it marched from 
ashurqana to ashurqana through the streets of Darul Shifa: “Since Imam 
Hussain’s time the Shias have been killed and oppressed. It is no different 
today. Our brothers in Iraq and Pakistan have been killed on Ashura in the 
act of azadari (mourning). While you curse (lanath) the martyrs of Imam 
Hussain also send lanath on America and the enemies of the Shias.”

Muhurrum for the Shias could definitely be understood as their response to 
the world outside, their response to the on-going battle— against the West, 
against America, against their enemies with whom they have political, 
economical and historical scores to settle. The announcement during the Bibi 
ka Alam procession distinctly echoes Ayathollah Khomeini’s speech that 
re-inscribed Karbala within modern political terms:

"And they should know that the injunctions of the Imams, peace be upon them, 
regarding the commemoration of this momentous event in the history of Islam, 
and the cursing and hating of those who oppressed 	the Prophet’s household, 
are all (of a piece with) the protesting laments of communities (everywhere) 
against oppressors throughout history until eternity.

And you know that the cursing and hating and lamenting against the unjust 
Umayyad dynasty, God’s curse be upon them, although they have been destroyed 
and sent off to Hell, are cries against (all) the world’s oppressors and 
keep alive these cries which break oppression brought about by oppressors at 
every time and place be recounted. And in this age, which is the age of the 
tyrannizing of the world of Islam at the hands of America, the Soviets, and 
the clients attached to them, including the House of Saud, these traitors to 
the Great Sanctuary of the Divine, upon whom be the curses of God, his 
angels and the prophets, their crimes must be energetically recounted, 
cursed and hated." (Khomeini, 1361: 9, cited by Devji in Culture and 
Dynamics)

Khomeini was instrumental in reclaiming the Shia identity politically with 
the Iranian revolution and ending taqiyah, the “necessary dissimulation” in 
which one may give an external show of acquiescence while preserving silent 
resistance in one’s heart.2 It acts as a guiding principle for any Shia 
living under a tyrannous government too powerful to be safely resisted, 
where the person does not affirm his or her Shia identity but believes in 
their heart and keeps their suffering restrained within their family and 
among other Shias. In fact this enacting ones identity in a ritual 
performance perhaps comes from years of silences under which Shias might 
have found themselves. Also any display of matham or azadari has a history 
of persecution, which perhaps is the reason for self-flagellation. Beat 
yourself before the authorities/enemies beat you.

While on the one hand Karbala has embodied the religious and political 
thought and struggle of the Shias and will always be the essence of Shia 
identity; such a reading doesn’t capture what Karbala has come to mean 
outside this mainstream understanding. While I can easily make the link 
between Shiism and Karbala, it leaves many other links unexplained. Karbala 
remains significant to different people belonging to different communities. 
Almost everybody has this inexplicable, unquestionable deep faith in martyrs 
of Karbala. A lot of the faith is innocent and ignorant of its historical 
and political significance and has little to do with the sacrifice or the 
ideals of Islam.

Bibi ka Alawa for instance, the main Imam badha in Hyderabad where Bibi 
Fathima’s alam stands, is maintained by a Sunni, a Shia and a Hindu family. 
Anybody who has faith is welcomed. People come distances hoping to make a 
mannath (a wish, would be a bad translation), asking for a child to be born 
in the family, asking for a daughter’s marriage. Obviously a deeper 
narrative underlines the spread and the diversification of Muhurrum. It has 
come to mean a million different things to a million different people. Why 
muhurrum; would be the next question I would inevitably ask everyone. Why 
not Ramazan? Why not a happier occasion? The question seemed almost forced 
and unnecessary. The knowledgeable would say it is the love of the prophet, 
his son-in law Imam Ali and his grandson Imam Hussain; others would say it 
is because of the sacrifice for Islam and the intolerable cruelty inflicted 
on the prophet’s grandson and his family. But for most Shias and non-Shias 
the reasons were hardly historical, it had little or nothing to do with the 
martyrdom or the sacrifice. In fact there are hardly any reasons. I choose 
to call it faith, the ‘living faith’. Living, because it is the faith which 
has evolved and is evolving with history, time and space. Because it arises 
from the mainstream faith but has fanned into different shades, all merging 
and blending.

The main procession during Ashura has the main alam and many small groups 
that follow it. Some without alams but with coconuts and flowers and smoke, 
and each has a story of faith and belief. Each coming from their own family 
legacy and tales.

On my way to Darul Shifa on Ashura I saw a small procession, moving to the 
beating of the drums with apparently no Muslims, who told me they had the 
horse shoe of Imam Hussain’s horse when he went to the battleground.

Another ashurqana called Panje-Shah has Hazrath Ali’s alam from Najaf. The 
Najafi family, who are Sunnis, own it and take care of it. It is an 
important ashurqana for the Shias who come there are read their majlis and 
have the buttermilk that is distributed, but they don’t do matham because 
Sunni thought does not allow matham.

All ashurqanas are owned and looked after by families who stay there and 
take care of it. Each ashurqana has its own amazing history, linked with the 
family legacy. Most are built with open spaces and pillars for people to 
congregate and pray and chat and just be. They run on donations. I even 
heard of a hijrah ashurqana, obviously owned and maintained by the hijrah 
community.

The Iranian community in Hyderabad plays a very active role during Ashura. 
These families are in the food business in a big way and they own the famous 
Paradise hotel, Hotel Sarvi, Madina café, Hotel Alpha…all extremely popular 
for Hyderabadi biryani and Iranian chai. They make haleem or khitchda for 
everybody during Ashura. They told me, for Arabayein (which is observed 40 
days after ashura) they transport gallons of food to Jowrah in Madhya 
Pradesh, and feed millions of people coming there from all over the country. 
The auspiciousness of the day is believed to remove the bad eye that’s been 
caste on someone’s life and people get into a trans and purge their lives of 
its sorrows and problems.

In Raichur again, Muhurrum means something similar. From the 7th of Muhurrum 
the alams are put up (“peeran bethathein”, they told me) and nauhas, 
sometimes in Kannada and sometimes in Urdu, are sung every evening till the 
main day, the 10th of Muhurrum. Entire villages get together for the main 
procession on the 10th. Needless to say it isn’t a Shia or a Muslim 
observance. The Muslims (the people didn’t seem to understand the Sunni-Shia 
distinction and I felt silly pushing this question every time I talked to 
someone), liked to believe it was a sad occasion for them because they had 
this vague idea about someone killing someone. But the enemy changed with 
each person’s narrative. Some said it was the Pakistani Muslims that killed 
Hassan and Hussain (together). Some said it was a Hindu-Muslim jhagdha. The 
enemy changed with each village.

In fact for the people in Maski, the Muslims in Manvi (villages in Raichur) 
were the bad people who killed Hassan-Hussain basha. According to the Maski 
faqir the bad people who killed Hassan-Hussain were the Congress who had 
penalized the Nizam. He also spoke about the separate worlds and work areas 
of the peers and the mullahs. The mullahs do not celebrate Muhurrum and 
discourage people. Muhurrum is more a festival of the people. They make 
mannaths at the dargah during Muhurrum. “Hum peeran bethathein, shakharan 
(sugar) khelathein”.

Everybody joins the main procession, which carries the alams to the nearest 
river. Someone beats the drums, and songs are sung. Some drink, some dance, 
some get into a trans, some even walk on fire. The procession at Maski stops 
at some point, where Imam Qasim is suppose to meet Mariamma and they discuss 
the drought situation. Why has there been no rainfall this year? Will it 
rain next year? The Maski peer sang the only Urdu nauha I heard in Raichur, 
which is so similar and yet so different from the nauhas sung in Bangalore 
and Hyderabad. I don’t think even he knew what he was singing about.
“alweda yo alweda
shah-e shaheedan alwedaaa”

I have recorded nauhas in Kannada from various villages in and around 
Raichur and some amazing conversation I’ve had with the people there, which 
need to be transcribed.

The Sufi influence and the coming of Shiaiism through the Bahmini kingdom 
certainly has an impact on how traditions have come in and how they linger 
and how they’ve changed. It would be interesting to trace the developments 
as well as collect the millions of oral traditions that are so alive. A 
trajectory that shows the nexus between Shiaism and Sufiism will probably 
untangle the many ways in which the martyrdom of Hussain has been 
incorporated and now forms the rubric of Sufi philosophy.  Karbala in Sufi 
philosophy is devoid of its political agenda but gets projected inwards as 
an inner conflict with the base self where the higher self or khuddi emerges 
victorious.

For Iqbal, Karbala becomes the embodiment of ideal love or khuddi: invested 
with knowledge and action. “For without knowledge the object of quest, the 
beloved, remains unknown and in order to attain this knowledge one has to 
perform the action of soul searching. This playful circular quest, 
existential jouissance of sorts, is often painful. However, the more painful 
it is, the keener is the awareness that the lover has of his separation from 
the beloved.” (‘Iqbal and Karbala’ Syed Akbar Hyder in Cultural Dynamics 13 
(3) 2001; pg. 345)

The kind of literature that Karbala has managed to generate has immensely 
diversified where suffering in love becomes a common theme, sacrifice and 
self-destruction for God/Beloved becomes the truest and the purest form of 
love. Abida Parveen sings the Iranian poet Hafiz’s verse in her most popular 
album Raqs-E-Bismil:

	Aanche jaane aashiqan az dast hijrat min kushad
	Kas na deeda dar jahan juz kushtagaan e Karbala

	No one in this world knows
	The Anguish of separation from the Beloved
	as would the martyrs of Karbala.
		   															Hafiz

Perhaps it is because Karbala might be an instance that allows for 
suffering, allows for narratives of love (especially familial love within 
the Shia marsiya tradition) that makes it so popular across people and 
communities in India. And I know I might just be referring to the tip of the 
iceberg.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The History
Karbala is the cornerstone of institutionalized devotion and mourning 
azadari). Its tale is recounted in vivid details in the commemorative 
atherings (majalis) during the first two months of the Islamic calendar, 
muhurrum and Safar, and throughout the year in 	various other contexts, such 
as when personal losses are mourned. For Shias, the event of Karbala is 
inextricably bound to the issue of succession to the Prophet Mohammed, the 
issue that caused the first major split in the larger Muslim community: The 
Prophet had clearly designated his successor in the form of his cousin and 
son-in-law, Ali b. Abi Talib, after whom the spiritual leadership of the 
Muslim 	community would be the sole providence of Ali’s chosen descendants 
	(the Alids). However, after the Prophet’s death, the position of Ali and 
his descendants was usurped by Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and then the Umayyad 
family. The Alid resistance to this usurpation manifested itself in Karbala 
when Ali’s son, Hussain, refused to pay allegiance to the Umayyad ruler 
Yazid.(‘Iqbal and Karbala’ Syed Akbar Hyder in Cultural Dynamics 13 (3) 
2001)

The Procession
During the two months when mourning is observed, the entire community wears 
black clothes and recalls the tragedy through speeches delivered by the 
mullahs and through songs sung to the rhythm of beating chests (matham). The 
first ten days of Muhurrum are recalled as the family of Imam Hussain 
suffers without food and water (a fact much mourned and exaggerated) and the 
suffering culminates in death on the tenth day. On the tenth of every 
Muhurrum, after the afternoon prayers, the Shia men and children gather to 
form the army that was 	led to death…with horses, flags and alms; while the 
women look on,silently beating their chests and the tragic tale is sung as 
the men bleed their bodies with blades, knives and chains; signifying the 
	battle fought to save the community and thereby immortalized in time 		as 
an act of martyrdom.

_________________________________________________________________
Ready cash in just 72 hours.  Apply Now !!!  
http://go.msnserver.com/IN/46922.asp