There is a moment in the life of every believer when the road disappears. Times when you have walked faithfully. You have chosen the harder, honourable path. And then you arrive at the edge of what you thought was a sea. Behind you – the army of tyrants. Before you-nothing but water, and the thought that you are struck.
Muharram is the month of that moment and it is the month of what happens next.
SubhanAllah! One of the most beautiful names of Allah is Al-Fattah- The Opener. The One Who unlocks what no human capacity can, Who parts what no force of will can separate.
The story of Musa (a.s) and the crossing of the sea reminds of this beautiful attribute of Allah Al-Fattah when He has opened the sea for Musa (a.s) and his followers.
Allah Al-Hakeem commanded Musa (a.s) to strike the water with his staff. The sea split, and the believers among Bani Israel walked through.
And Pharaoh, who had chased them with every material force at his disposal, drowned in the very opening Allah Al-Fattah had created for the believers.
This is the signature of Al-Fattah-He opens a door, and what was water becomes a path. The same water but two entirely different realities for Musa (a.s) and Pharoah. The difference was whose side you stood on.
The Day of Ashura, the tenth of Muharram. It was the day fasting in gratitude to Allah Al-A’zeem for this very victory was observed amongst يَهُود. We are asked in Islam to fast on this 10th day and one day more either on 9th or 11th as to distinguish with the practises of يَهُود, and imagine the gravity, even in appearances and practises we are not suppose to follow or resemble other qawms and yet here in muslim lands the whole system is borrowed and replicated from other qawms.
Centuries later, in Karbala, another kind of opening took place.
Husain ibn Ali (r.a), the grandson of the Prophet (peace be upon him), faced a different kind of Pharaoh, the tyranny of Yazid that demanded Husain r.a give his pledge to what Hussain r.a knew was wrong.
Husain r.a stood against the tyranny which has taken place in the structure which was established by the Prophet pbuh and carried forward by the khulafah e rashidden, he (r.a) stood against the injustice. Yet in muslim lands we see the entire structure missing, and we don’t even bat an eye, even though we claim to be the lovers of Hussain r.a.
He (r.a) did not stand because he (r.a) thought he would win in the conventional sense. He (r.a) stood because it was worth standing for even when the sea has not parted, even when there was no apparent positive results in this world. Because a believer’s duty is not always to see the outcome. It is to choose rightly as per the scale of Islam.
The tragedy of Karbala is real. But so is what it left behind as a legacy that no throne, no army, no manufactured consensus can purchase the conscience of those who have rooted themselves in Islam.
Husain’s r.a stand became an inspiration. Do not be silent in the face of injustice, whatever the cost. He (r.a) stood against the tyranny.
We live in a world where truth is compromised in the name of pragmatism, where power determines truth and falsehood, where those who speak honestly are told they are naive, extreme. Where man-made majority decides right and wrong, and capital is the nucleus of all basis.
…And that’s the edge of the sea moment for us. The waswasa (evil whisper from shaitan) in that moment is to believe that because the door has not yet opened, it will not. That the sea has always been a sea and always will be. That Pharaoh is simply too strong to even confront.
But Muharram reminds – You have been here before. You just need to follow what is right as per Allah Al-Ahad – The Only One.
We need to understand- Neither Musa (a.s) nor Husain (r.a) waited for confirmed results before they moved.
Sometimes the Muharram lesson looks like this- Speaking up in a room where it is easier to stay quiet. Refusing to participate in something that is wrong in light of Islam. Choosing not to give your silence as consent to what you know is wrong. Raising your progeny to know that truth has a price and that the price is worth paying. Holding on to Islamic values even when the current of the current world order is against it. Raising awareness to re-establish Islam peacefully as a complete deen in muslim lands even when it has become a forgotten obligation (khilaafah).
These are the personal Ashu’ras. The moments where you stand at your own small edge and choose. And Al-Fattah is present at those moments too whether you see the splitting of sea as is, or not.
May He swt make us like Musa (a.s) obedient to Divine instruction even when the command seems to defy possibility (striking his staff on the sea).
May He swt plant in our hearts the courage of Husain r.a the willingness to stand where standing is scary.
And may He Al-Fattah open for this ummah, in this moment in history, a door through which the light of deen Islam enters and justice and relief can be re-established especially in Muslim lands all of which are ruling by man made systems, Riba based economy and what not!.