H [Laughter] [Laughter] for For the acceptance of our Zara for the reappearance of the master the Savior the Avenger for the pleasing of the mother of the imams fat zah and for the honor of receiving her intercession on the day of judgment recite my dear brothers and sisters Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says in the Holy Quran When it comes to it is truly an extraordinary phenomenon that even those participating in it find it unfathomable let alone those who don’t know what it’s about those who haven’t experienced it those who have not walked from Naf to carala those who have not seen the hospitality the gracious nature of the
Iraqi people those who have yet to taste the sweet nectar of stepping into the sacred and Majestic melum of ab abdah Hussein they will find it extremely difficult if not impossible to wrap their heads around what this phenomenon is all about but even those who do participate they’ll find it extremely difficult as
Well and you might ask well what’s your proof surely like any other phenomenon we should be able to study this examine it experience it and eventually try and make sense of it what is your proof well the proof is in the words of the one known
As the Imam says in a Hadith narrated by in his magnum opus if there are 10 books considered largely authentic and accepted by the vast overwhelming majority of our Scholars as reliable one of them is this Hadith is mentioned there says to someone if people knew the nature of the land that they
Were stepping on if they knew what was being offered to them we only see the material Banquets that are being presented to us here but what we don’t see is the spiritual banquet the banquet where the host is IM Hussein himself where the host is if people understood what lied within the
Visitation of IM Hussein the IM says they would have died from yearning to go to Z from the joy of knowing where they are now we’re not dead which means we have yet to know we don’t get it we don’t understand we only see the facade
We only see a small glimmer of this infinitely bright Supernova that is AB abdah Hussein and his Zar we still don’t understand it books articles thesis entire treaties have been devoted to trying to make sense of the Zara of IM Hussein not just IM Hussein himself or his movement or
His objectives or his goals or what he did on the day of Ash but the Zara itself it’s unfathomable it’s incomprehensible I’ll give you another Hadith once again in says there is not a prophet of God in the heavens given that all of the prophets either died or were killed or
Were raised like Prophet Isa Alam he was raised he’s awaiting the return of the savior in the fourth heaven and when the Savior savior returns has famously declared not only in our Traditions but also in the traditions of the opposing camp that he will pray behind the son
Of he will pray behind a member of this nation a member of this holy household so all the prophets are in the heavens IM says every Prophet begs Allah praise to God to be granted permission to come and visit imin the IM then adds he
Says f means like a group right you have these groups that come to Z the prophets also form groups the Imam says that a group of prophets descend and a group of prophets ascends now with a visitation like this with a phenomenon like this where you see a human Avalanche a human
Avalanche that head towards the head the peak of this mountain that is AB abdah Hussein it goes the the other way around such a phenomenon is unfathomable we don’t get it however attempts have been made many books have been authored many scholars the most Brilliant Minds have tried to extrapolate meaning to extrapolate
Lessons from this visitation and they’ve talked about various aspects of it they’ve talked about the spiritual dimensions of the Zara they’ve talked about the geopolitical ramifications of the Zara there’s an entire discussion as to how the imams carefully calculated and planned the Zara in such a manner so
As to create a geography for their followers imagine if we were just dispersed throughout the world imagine if we didn’t have places that we were constantly connected to we formed a geographical weight in the world thanks to these Z and so these discussions have been made but what I want to talk about
Tonight and the brief time that I have is the social dimension of Zara or to be more precise the socio educational dimension of the Zara and in order to address this topic I want to start by asking you all a question that I want you to think about
And maybe perhaps provide an answer to in your own mind and my question is this at your very core who are you how do you define your identity what is your identity because there is a plethora of ways that you can identify yourself you can identify Yourself by your race many
People do that you can identify Yourself by your ethnicity you can identify Yourself by your nationality you can identify Yourself by your class so socioeconomic class you can identify Yourself by your tribal affiliations you can identify Yourself by your job you can identify yourself that is by your career and so there’s a
Plethora an endless array of different selections that you can make in formulating an identity for yourself however notice how the verse that I recited at the beginning what does Allah subhana say he says that there is a Brotherhood obviously there are all kinds of brotherhoods again because in the Quran
There is no specific term that refers to Identity right instead what we have is for instance Allah subhah waala says those who are extravagant and wasteful they are brothers to who to the demon so there is instantly a fraternity A brotherhood created in other words if
You engage in in these acts if you exhibit these attributes then you are automatically uh introduced or induced rather within the fraternity of demons and so Allah subhana wa ta’ala is giving us this example in order to make us apprehensive towards these actions right you’re supposed to be repulsed you’re
Supposed to feel like I don’t want to be a part of this posi a part of this fraternity I’m a good person I’m not a demon right think about the fact that this rainbow Spectrum that’s been gaining more and more prominence and strength over the last couple of decades right
That’s a fraternity that’s a Brotherhood even though the various dfar groups within the rain the Rainbow Coalition share little more than their desire to completely upend society’s moral fabc they don’t share much in common between themselves but that is a shared goal and so they think of themselves as a fraternity that’s why
They have a shared logo a shared emblem a shared uh set of objectives they demand recognition they demand Acceptance in fact their slogan is toward 100% Acceptance in other words if there is one single person in society who refuses to accept us we will not rest until that person concedes until that individual
Surrenders to our will he or she has to accept us for who we are and so that’s a fraternity that’s a Brotherhood but notice how Allah subhah waala says in the verse that I recited in in the Arabic language denotes exclusivity in other words the only Brotherhood is that of the
Believers and they’re the only Brotherhood why does Allah subh say that despite the fact that we have all kinds of brotherhoods as we explained depending on how you identify yourself depending on how you define your identity what this means is that the only Brotherhood the only fraternity that receives Divine backing and
Recognition and has legitimacy in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is what the Brotherhood that revolves around Faith the Brotherhood that’s grounded in belief in Allah subhana wa tala His prophets his Messengers and his values this is the only true identity every other marker of identity
That’s not based on this or stems from it is not only worthless but is detrimental to us it’s a seed that grows nothing but vitriol and hatred in other words my Arabic ethnicity or language or nationality is completely worthless unless it is ground founded on and based on what on my religious
Identity whether I’m an Arab Persian turk it doesn’t matter it’s all worthless it’s all worthless and one of the great lessons that we learn from is exactly that you’ve seen how every other marker every other means of defining an identity is completely dissolved when you make the walk when
You’re on your pilgrimage towards carala none of that matters whether you’re rich or poor whether you’re Arab or non-arab nobody even asks you about that unless they’re curious unless they want to feel proud of the fact that we have so many different identities all melting in this pot that we call AR
Every single ethnicity every single class every single language every single barrier completely gets torn down in favor of the one and only legitimate shared identity that we all have which is the one that is grounded in our love for IM Hussein meaning faith meaning belief and really there is no other
Place around the world I I stand to be challenged I would love for anyone who has an opinion that counters this to come up to me approach me and tell me that I’m wrong nowhere else on the entire planet in fact the entire universe do you find a shared sense of
Brotherhood than in there’s nothing like it this is one of the greatest lessons that we learn from this that in order for us to Define our ident idti in a world that is marred by a crisis of identity by an identity recession people talk about economic recession the biggest recession that we’re suffering
From in this day and age is in our identity who are you once again I ask because a lot of times we find ourselves creating different metrics for our identity that are detrimental like I said that are divisive that are wrong and downright immoral we live in an age where a
Muslim feels ashamed of defining him or herself as a sh of abdah Hussein we’re ashamed of that we’re ashamed of praying in public in a place where we are a minority because you will instantaneously be identified as a Muslim we’re ashamed of telling our co-workers at at work that we are
Muslims that we have our own values and principles and we’d like to live by those principles but why my brothers and sisters if we’re going to take a lesson from this Zara and there are many lessons to reap but one of the most important ones is this when you go back
Home wherever that may be whether you live in Australia the UK New Zealand America wherever it may be especially in places where you are a minority where you have every disincentive to detach yourself from that identity remember the fact that we should be proud of our faith there’s nothing in our faith that
Is shameful there is nothing in our faith that would push us to hiding who we actually are despite the fact that you see other conservative communities like Jews and Hind Hindus and others they walk around with pride despite lacking the illustrious and beautiful examples that we have like
The who has a personality that is as great as who has exemplars like IM Hussein like like or even the companions of IM Hussein why are we ashamed of our identity and again this shame doesn’t necessarily have to translate in me saying I’m ashamed of being a Shia
Muslim but it’s the little things it’s the nuances right it’s how you conduct yourself it’s the fact that our sisters feel this sense of pressure to take off the hijab or loosen the hijab or it’s the fact that the brothers feel an an urge or a a push to assimilate you know
Quote unquote assimilate within their respective cultures why don’t think of your faith your values your religion your leaders as some kind of Burden that you have to carry on your shoulder think of them as a badge of honor in carala we all feel like this inala when you visit the shrine of ab
Abdah Hussein how do you feel when you see Millions upon millions of people visiting his Shrine some crawling others finding it difficult to walk blisters in your feet all these things all the challenges that they face heading towards the very spring of life you really feel it here in carala
That your life is dependent on IM Hussein that AB abdah radiates with true life not biological life where sell interact in a chemical manner but true life can only be derived from the shrine of AB abdah from the remance of IM Hussein you all feel that when you see people of different
Nationalities ethnicities languages classes when you see all of them sometimes you see them represented by their national flag right and you would be hardpressed to find a flag that’s missing right most most of the flags are represented I’m not in favor of this but at the end of the day some people might
Like to show how every National country is represented in carala so be it you see all of this and you feel what you feel Pride not the negative kind of Pride by the way not self-confidence but you feel that you’re a member of a formidable fraternity you’re a member of a global
Community of devotees to to the most pristine values to the most beautiful examples to the very embodiment of virtue the may God’s peace and blessings be upon them you feel this a lot of times I tell my brothers and sisters when I talk to them that one
Of our biggest problems one of the most difficult challenges that we face today is our lack of Pride and confidence in our faith whereas if you look at the number of Shia around the world if I asked you right now can you point to the country known as Trinidad
On a map how many of you can pick it out where is Trinidad most people don’t even know where it is it’s in the Caribbean right well what about Trinidad in 1888 the Muslim Community in Trinidad it’s a a small series of islands an AR archipelago in 1888 the British had
Colonized these islands and they had brought in they had Natives and they had Indians and they had different people there and the British col colonizers realized that there is a period of 10 days every year where the Muslim Community which was a minority and the Shia were even a smaller minority
There’s a 10day period where they come out they carry replicas of shrines even they didn’t even know what this was all they knew was that this period is called Jose right Jose what is it what doesn’t stand for even they had no clue an actual Trinidadian told me this he said
We would come out it was a 10day thing we would cry we would mourn we would lament but we had no clue what this was about so the British colonizers did what they do best which is Ban this why because they had these slaves who worked on these
Fields and so they didn’t want them to stop working for 10 days and so they said we’re going to put a ban on this procession this Jose procession you can look this up online by the way there’s a lot of Articles written about it and so for the first couple of
Years the Muslim Community which by the way includes both the Shia and the Sunni they didn’t come out because the persecution was too great they’re slaves after all they would be killed they they didn’t hold any rights of any kind and so a couple of years after that the
British Governor had left for London and so they decided to leave the plantations on the 1 of they had made plans that on the 1 of muharam we’re going to leave the plantations we’re going to leave the fields and we’re going to come out and carry these mosam replicas which they
Had spent an entire year building and so sure enough they come out and on the 10th of muharam the British decide to Massacre them they killed dozens of them which is now called the muharam massacre the British call it the the Jose riots but the people in Trinidad and Tobago they call
It the mam Massacre and that became the beginning of a revolution against Who the British colonizers brothers and sisters we belong to this community we belong to a community where blood relations don’t matter unless they stem from our religious fraternity think of the two brothers on the Plains ofal and his
Brother their father was a companion of their father was a devout and loyal companion of Amir he participated in all three major Wars of Amir and yet these two brothers who grew up in the same household they shared their DNA ends up in the camp
Of whereas ends up in the camp of IM Hussein historians describe the companion of IM Hussein they say as long as he was alive IM Hussein wasn’t injured this is a common theme that you find among many of the companions of Imam Hussein they would Shield their Imam
With their faces imagine an arrow that’s like a meter a meter and a half in length it’s more destructive than a bullet approaching you an entire rain of arrows and you block them with your face you Shield them with your chest and your neck he was in the camp of IM Al Hussein
Is there a Brotherhood that is closer than that of two Blood Brothers there isn’t and yet this is worthless unless the Brotherhood was bound by something much stronger the only thing in fact that is sanctioned and validated by Allah subhah wa taala the companions of IM Hussein they
Shared little amongst each other think of the fact that you had people who didn’t even speak the same language you had Sal he had learned Arabic as a second language and he was a scribe for IM Hussein but his native language his native tongue wasn’t even Arabic what does he share
With what does John the slave share with Muslim what does abdah share with what does share with nothing the only thing that they shared which was the strongest bond imaginable was their love and Devotion to abdah Hussein such that when we you when you and I visit them we say
May my parents be ransomed for you I would see my parents die before you who not IM Hussein but his slaves his companions the people that joined him halfway towards carala who were these people what bound them together the only thing that could bind them in such an Inseparable way was their shared
Religious identity their faith their devotion and that brothers and sisters is the lesson we should all take home that as long as this person shares your love for IM Hussein that’s what we say in that’s what we say in that’s what we say in so many of other our other devotional
Literature I am at peace with whoever is at peace with you I don’t care who he is where he comes from what language what none of that matters and I am at war with whoever is at war with you even if it’s my own blood brother like when was
Killed who was as I said in the camp of he came to him came to the IM and he said to him you killed my brother by God I shall kill you the Imam said to him I didn’t kill your brother Allah wanted what is best for your brother your brother knew what
He was doing your brother knew that he was on a path of Salvation like no other see the difference that should be the only metric the only thing that defines who I am as a Believer I mentioned Al he was the last martyr on the plains
Of carala I love to mention him because he was unique and different from all of the other companions think of the fact that all the other companions they fought with the hope of trying to save the life of abdah Hussein that was their aim that was their objective not only
That so they had hope the other point is that they were fighting while Imam Al Hussein cheered them on they were fighting while keeping a close eye onto the Luminous beautiful face of abdah Hussein they had Imam Hussein Inspire them and radiate towards them with life with
Energy and so IM Hussein was there while they fought And yet basri when he arrived he had heard that Imam Hussein was on his way towards kufa the messages of the Imam had reached him but by the time he arrived inala the chance of allahin were already Rising meaning we
Have killed Hussein IM Hussein was gone imagine he’s arrived a little too late the Imam has already been killed does he go back does he flee does he run away absolutely not he calls the enemy he summons the forces 30,000 of them he says to them what is my job what is my
Objective I am here to defend the family of even if you’ve killed IM Hussein I will give my every last breath in defense of his family because he could see the unthinkable about to unfold he could see the entire enemy camp converging on the tens of ab abdah
Hussein so he charged into the battlefield he fought with them single-handedly until he was killed this is is what should bind us all together brothers and sisters finally the very epitome of our shared values our shared identity is summarized in the words of he’s this young boy who comes to
Abdah Hussein and he says to him abdah would you give me permission to go and fight you’ve all heard the story Imam Hussein looks at this young boy with sympathy he says this young boy’s Father Jon has just been killed in battle take him back to his mother his
Mother doesn’t want to see him die so he says to the Imam it was my mother who brought me here it was my mother who had me wear my armor yeah my mother can’t face your mother f z on the day of judgment F having lost her son and I
Haven’t lost my son I have to offer some sacrifice in your way it was my mother who sent me so Imam Hussein cries for Him He blesses him and his mother and his father he then grants him his Blessing to head into the battlefield he heads into the battle field reciting
These epic poems we should all memorize this because one day we will be lowered into our Graves the angels will come and say who are you we have to have a response to offer to them that is satisfactory we should say what says he didn’t identify himself by
His name or his tribe what did he say he [Applause] [Applause] Said he says don’t worry about my name or my tribe’s name my master is Hussein and what a great Master he ISB we’re all here inala you should know that every square inch of this land has seen unspeakable tragedies when im is about when the IM said to his aunt and the
Women what do we do oh son of my brother lady Zab asked the IM the enemy is approaching they have torches of fire in their hands where do we go the Imam said to them you have to flee in the desert which desert it was the land that we’re sitting on right now
This is where the women and children were running in no specific direction is now coming towards carala in only two days the Imam will arrive on this land his tragedies will be revived when the M came tobala he then devoted his life towards what towards making sure people remember the tragedy
Of abdah and what happened to them which is why IM would try and give hints as to what they did to his father without opening up the tragedy too much and the Imam would walk in the marketplace if he saw a butcher about to be about to slaughter a sheep the IM
Would approach him you all know that IM said to he said to him if you’re going to cry for anyone for he was killed like a sheep and there are similarities between how they killed AB and how a sheep is slaughtered but IM wants to remind us of the opposite of
That that the way a sheep is slaughtered is much more Humane and merciful he would go to these butchers he would say stop before you Slaughter the Sheep did you quench its thirst did you offer it some water now imagine what The Butchers would say in response they would say
Of course we did we have learned this from you and your forefathers we would never slaughter a sheep without giving it some water first our sheep don’t die while thirsty they would say we also have other etiquette when we want to slaughter a sheep we make sure we use a sharp blade
So it doesn’t suffer when we slaughter a sheep we cut the jugular veins from the front so the blood gushes out and it dies quickly we never Slaughter the sheep from the back or the neck this is even more painful when we slaughter a sheep we make sure its
Children are watching as we do that we make sure the calves are removed and isolated for the reappearance of IM saying
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