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

Section Thirteen

“May my father and mother be sacrificed for you. Surely my sorrow for you is great and I pray to Allah who has honoured your status and has also honoured me through you that He grant me the opportunity to seek your revenge with the victorious Imam from the family of Muhammad.”

This is perhaps one of the most moving, inspirational, and thought provoking lines of this Ziyarat.

We first make a very honorific promise to the Imam that had he been alive today, that we would be willing to sacrifice ourselves and even our parents in his way. Thus, our lives mean nothing when compared to the Imam. This is not only a plea made to an Imam who is no longer with us, rather, since our 12th Imam is still alive and among us, we are making this pledge to him as well, since he is the inheritor of Imam Husayn – are we truly ready and willing to sacrifice ourselves and our families for the 12th Imam? It is hard enough to sacrifice our money let alone our lives and our parents...

The appeal made in this section of the Ziyarat is to be along side the 12th Imam in his army to take the revenge on all of those who were guilty of this great crime – from the days in Saqifah up until the day of ‘Ashura in 61 AH.

As for the honoured status of the Imam, to recount his lofty rank would take us volumes, however it is enough to mention that he was the son of the Prophet (according to the Qur’an) and that the dirt from around his grave is a means of cure for illness as has been seen and recorded in many books. It is through his noble status that we today, the Shi’a, have any status or honour – as it is through following his mission that true Islam is separated and differentiated from the Islam practiced by the majority of others.

We also make a supplication that we are able to assist the 12th Imam in his mission to avenge the death of the Hujjat of Allah on the Earth. Yes it is true that over 1,350 years have passed since this massacre and that Mukhtar took “revenge” for the killings, however the true revenge which is to be done by the immediate family under the authority of Allah still remains – as we discussed in the beginning of this commentary.

In actuality, this line of the Ziyarat shows us that ‘Ashura is not ‘one day’ and Karbala’ is not ‘one land’ and that as long as oppression and tyranny remain, ‘Ashura and Karbala’ remain and it is only with the advent of the 12th Imam that this state of affairs will perpetuate.

Unfortunately, we only study the event of Karbala’ and ‘Ashura as a historical occurrence with no desire to tie it into current events to see how Karbala’ is alive today and how ‘Ashura is occurring every day and this is what this one line of the Ziyarat is seeking to instil within us...

It also keeps the hope of the advent of the reformer of the world, our 12th Imam, enlivened in our hearts as we seek to be along side him when the Divine retribution takes place.