The Torch of Perpetual Guidance, an Exposé on Ziyarat Ashura of al-Imam al-Husayn b. Ali

Section Seven and Eight

“May the curse of Allah be upon those people who killed you and may the curse of Allah be upon those people who made it easy for them by preparing the grounds of your killing.”

The meaning of “...those people who killed you...” is a direct reference to Yazid, Shimr and the other criminals who directly carried out the war against the successor of the Prophet and may also be in reference to those people who killed the first 11 Imams.

As for who “...those people who made it easy for them...”, we alluded to this in our previous discussion and once again reiterate that these people are none other than those who laid the foundation of Karbala’ while they battled for power in the Saqifah of Bani Sa’ida.

“I turn to Allah and I turn towards you and turn away from them and their adherents, followers and friends.”

Not only do we curse and ask Allah to remove His mercy from these people, but once we have carried this Islamic injunction out, we then attest that we hold firmly to Allah and the Ahlul Bayt and distance ourselves from not only the killers of the Imam, but also those who adhere to their ideology and accept them as their leaders, those who follow them (both in succession and also in the spiritual essence of the word) and those who are classified as their friends. Is this nothing other than “Tabarrah” which is one of our Furu’ ad-Din?

This belief of Tawallah and Tabarrah can best be summarized in the famous hadith from Imam Muhammad b. ‘Ali Al-Baqir (peace be upon him) in which, when he was asked about the definition of ‘religion’ and he said, “...is religion anything other than love and hate...”