Page 155 - Pure Life 07

The Day of Ashura: A Microcosm of the Human Condition / 81

It was the decisions on the Day of Ashura that that
reflect the “ongoing struggle between right and
wrong, truth and falsehood, piety and impiety,
worldliness and spirituality. Such struggles take place
1
in our life each and every day on different scales.”
It is with the freedom of the human beings that one
must decide to choose the side of less, the side of the
oppressed, even if the odds are entirely against them.
It was with this same freedom that Imam Hussain
provided his companions, with a transparent understanding
that there would be no reward, and a definite martyrdom.
No other leader would give their followers the freedom, or
even the push them to leave, to the extent of Imam Hussain.
Ayatullah Mutahhari concludes that this was namely
because “he was seeking that his companions would
2
discharge their responsibility of their own accord.”
Each person is responsible for their own fate,
with the knowledge of their potential outcome. Not
only did this allow his followers the freedom to
make their own decision, it also purified the
intentions for who stayed, to fight for no gain in
3
this world, but purely for the sake of Islam.

1. Al-Jibouri, https://www.al-islam.org/karbala-and-beyond-yasin-
t-al-jibouri.
2. Mutahhari, https://www.al-islam.org/truth-about-al-Hussain-s-
revolt-ayatullah-murtadha-mutahhari.
3. In his work, “Understanding Karbala,” Allamah Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi
compares Imam Hussain giving his companions freedom to Prophet Ibrahim
“seeking the opinion” of his son, Ismail, before his sacrifice. He states that
Ismail’s “willingness for slaughter, made it a model of partnership between the
Friend (of God) and the slaughtered.” (Rizvi, Understanding Karbala).