Muharram (Arabic: المحرّم) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year in which fighting is prohibited.^[1] Since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, Muharram moves from year to year when compared with the Gregorian calendar.

Muharram is so called because it is unlawful to fight during this month, the word is derived from the word haraam, meaning "sinful". It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. Some Muslims fast during these days. The tenth day of Muharram is the Day of Ashura, which to Shia Muslims is part of the Mourning of Muharram.

Azadari procession carried out by Shiite Muslims in Indian city of Hardoi on the Day of Ashura.

Many Sunni Muslims fast during this day, because it is recorded in the hadith that Musa (Moses) and his people obtained a victory over the Egyptian Pharaoh on the 10th day of Muharram; accordingly Islamic prophet Muhammad asked Muslims to fast on this day, and also a day extra either before or after, so that they are not similar to Jews (since, according to him, Jews used to fast for one day due to the same reason, and many practices recorded in the hadith are specifically performed to avoid any apparent similarity to those of contemporary neighbouring Jews and Christians). Many Muslims cook something sweet like sweet rice and distribute it throughout their family and circle of friends to eat when breaking their fast.

Fasting differs among the Muslim groupings; mainstream Shia Muslims stop eating and drinking during sunlight hours and do not eat until late afternoon. Sunni Muslims also fast during Muharram for the first ten days of Muharram, just the tenth day or on both the ninth and tenth days; the exact term depending on the individual. Shia Muslims do so to replicate the sufferings of Hussein ibn Ali on the Day of Ashura. Shia Muslims, go further in their attempts of replication, including self-flagellation (also see Matam).

Muharram and Ashura[link]

Shia Muslims in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in a Hussainia as part of the commemoration of Muharram

Muharram is a month of remembrance that is often considered synonymous with the event of Ashura. Ashura, which literally means the "Tenth" in Arabic, refers to the tenth day of Muharram. It is well-known because of historical significance and mourning for the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad.^[2]

Shias start the mourning from the 1st night of Muharram and continue for two months and eight days. However the last days are the most important since these were the days where Hussein and his family and followers (consisting of 72 people, including women, children and aged people) were killed by army of Yazid I at the Battle of Karbala on his orders, Surviving members of the family of Hussein and that of his followers were taken captive and marched to Damascus and imprisoned there.

Muharram is also observed by Dawoodi Bohras in the same way as Shias.They practice prayers on the sayings of the present dawah of Bohras, Mohammed Burhanuddin. On the tenth day of Muharrum, they pray for Hussein till the magrib namaz. When the namaz ends, Hussein is considered shahid by Yazid. It is also close to the day of resurrection because it said in a book that this world will one day come to an end on Friday 10th of Muharram.^{[citation needed]}

With the sighting of the new moon the Islamic New Year is ushered in. The first month, Muharram is one of the four sacred months that God has mentioned in the Quran.

Timing[link]

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar calendar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Muharram migrates throughout the solar years. The estimated start and end dates for Muharram are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia:^[3])

Islamic events taking place during Muharram[link]

Scenes in the procession at the Mohurrum festival

• 01 Muharram: The Islamic New Year.
• 01 Muharram: Shi'a Muslims begin the Commemoration of Muharram which marks the anniversary of the Battle of Karbala.^{[N 1]}
• 02 Muharram: Martyrdom of Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Sunni Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.
• 02 Muharram: Hussein ibn Ali enters Karbala and establishes camp. Yazid's forces are present.
• 07 Muharram: Access to water was banned to Husayn ibn Ali by Yazid's orders.
• 10 Muharram: Referred to as the Day of Ashurah (lit. "the tenth") was the day on which Hussein ibn Ali was martyred in the Battle of Karbala. Shia Muslims spend the day in mourning, whilst the Sunni Muslims fast on this day commemorating the rescue of the people of Israel by Musa (Moses) from Pharaoh^[4]
• 15 Muharram: Birth of Muhammad Sirajuddin Naqshbandi in 1297 AH (1879-1880 AD)
• 25 Muharram: Death of Zayn al-‘Ābidīn, fourth Shia Imam, day of Shahid (martyrdom: lit. "witness", as "martyr" is Greek for "witness") in 95 AH (714 AD).
• 27 Muharram, Mesum was killed.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

1. ^ 01 Muharram is also known as Satu Suro in some parts of Indonesia, when it is often thought dangerous to leave the house.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Optional prayers for Muharram, especially Qalbi Zikr

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Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf is an Islamic scholar who was born in England. He began his early Islamic and secular studies in Clapton in East London and went on to complete secondary school and further his knowledge of Islam at Darul Uloom Al-Arabiyyah Al-Islamiyyah where he completed the memorisation of the Qur'an by the age of fifteen.^{[citation needed]} Upon the completion of hifz by Hafiz Ali, he went on to study the rigorous, six-year aalim class.^{[citation needed]}

After graduation from Darul Uloom Al Arabiyyah Al Islamiyyah he undertook further studies in South Africa, where he completed ifta at Madrasah Zakariya and a B.A. with honors in Islamic studies at Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, under Professor Abdur-Rahman Doi.^{[citation needed]}

He also travelled to numerous other places to gain knowledge, including Syria, where he gained ijazah from Shaikh Abdul Razzaq al-Halabi and Saharanpur, India, where he received formal accredition to issue fatwas.^{[citation needed]}

He is a signatory of the Pledge of Mutual Respect and Cooperation Between Sunni Muslim Scholars, Organizations, and Students of Sacred Knowledge.^[1]

Work[link]

Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf has authored, commented upon and translated many works including:

Reflections of Pearls (1995)
Fiqh al Imam - Key Proofs In Hanafi Fiqh (1996)
Provisions for the Seekers (1996)
Prayers for Forgiveness (2004)
The translation of Imaam Abu Hanifah's Al Fiqh Al Akbar^[2]

He presently serves as Imam at Masjid E Quba North London Stamford Hill UK.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf audio and video lectures from Halal Tube
• White Thread Press Publishing company founded by him
• Masjid e Quba Mosque where Shaykh is currently Imaam

Shaykh Ahmad

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Dín ibn Ibráhím al-Ahsá'í (Arabic: شيخ أحمد بن زين الدين بن إبراهيم الأحسائي‎) was (1753–1826) was the founder of a 19th century Shi`i school in the Persian and Ottoman empires, whose followers are known as Shaykhís.

He was a native of the Al-Ahsa region (Eastern Arabian Peninsula), educated in Bahrain and the theological centers of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.^[1] Spending the last twenty years of his life in Iran, he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty.^[2]

History[link]

Early life[link]

Little is documented about the early life of Shaykh Ahmad, except that he was born in Ahsa, in the northeast of the Arabian peninsula, to a Shi'i family of Sunni origin in either the year 1166 A.H. (1753 C.E.), or 1157 A.H. (1744 C.E.). Nabíl-i-A`zam, a Baha'i historian, documents his spiritual awakening in his book The Dawn-Breakers as follows:

He observed how those who professed the Faith of Islam had shattered its unity, sapped its force, perverted its purpose, and degraded its holy name. His soul was filled with anguish at the sight of the corruption and strife which characterised the Shí'ah sect of Islam.... Forsaking his home and kindred, on one of the islands of Bahrayn, to the south of the Persian Gulf, he set out,... to unravel the mysteries of those verses of Islamic Scriptures which foreshadowed the advent of a new Manifestation[revelation].... There burned in his soul the conviction that no reform, however drastic, within the Faith of Islam, could achieve the regeneration of this perverse people. He knew,... that nothing short of a new and independent Revelation, as attested and foreshadowed by the sacred Scriptures of Islam, could revive the fortunes and restore the purity of that decadent Faith.

While it is unclear how much of Nabil's interpretation is consistent with Shaykh Ahmad's true feelings, the underlying motivations for reform, and ultimately for messianic expectation, become somewhat clearer.

Education and Mission[link]

Shaykh Ahmad, at about age forty (1784 or 1794 - circa), began to study in earnest in the Shi'i centres of religious scholarship such as Karbala and Najaf. He attained sufficient recognition in such circles to be declared a mujtahid, an interpreter of Islamic Law. He contended with Sufi and Neo-Platonist scholars, and attained a positive reputation among their detractors. Most interestingly, he declared that all knowledge and sciences were contained (in essential form) within the Qur'an, and that to excel in the sciences, all knowledge must be gleaned from the Qur'an. To this end he developed systems of interpretation of the Qur'an and sought to inform himself of all the sciences current in the Muslim world.

He also evinced a veneration of the Imams, even beyond the extent of his pious contemporaries and espoused heterodox views on the afterlife, the resurrection and end-times, as well as medicine and cosmology. His views on the soul posited a "subtle body" separate from, and associated with the physical body. It was this body that ascended into Heaven, he posited, when Muhammad was said to have bodily ascended, and this also altered his views on the occultation of the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi. His views resulted in his denunciation by several learned clerics, and he engaged in many debates before moving on to Persia where he settled for a time in the province of Yazd. It was in Yazd that much of his books and letters were written.

Founding the Shaykhi School[link]

Juan Cole summarizes the situation at the advent of the Shaykhi School, and the questions that were unfolding as his views crystallized and he acquired an early following:

When Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i wrote, there was no Shaykhi school, which only crystallized after his death. He saw himself as a mainstream Shi'ite, not as a sectarian leader. Yet he clearly innovated in Shi'i thought in ways that, toward the end of his life, sparked great controversy. Among the contentious arenas he entered was that of the nature of religious authority. He lived at a time when his branch of Islam was deeply divided on the role of the Muslim learned man. Was he an exemplar to be emulated by the laity without fail, or merely the first among equals, bound by a literal interpretation of the sacred text just as was everyone else? Or was he, as the Sufis maintained, a pole channeling the grace of God to those less enlightened than himself? How may we situate Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i with regard to these contending visions of Shi'i Islam? ^[3]

Momen in his Introduction to Shi'i Islam(George Ronald, Oxford, 1985)states that many mujtahids were afraid that the Shaykh's preference for intuitive knowledge, which he claimed to obtain directly by inspiration from the Imams, would seriously undermine the authority of their position. Momen has some interesting and useful commentary on Shaykh Ahmad's doctrines and his succession during which the conflict with Shi'i orthodoxy intensified.^[4]

Successor[link]

Shaykh Ahmad appointed Sayyid Kazim Rashti as his successor,^[5] who led the Shaykhí movement until his death. He taught his students how to recognize the Mahdi and the "Masih" (the return of Christ). After his death in 1843, many of his students spread out around Asia, Europe and Africa to search them.

See also[link]

• Babism
• Bahá'í Faith
• Islam

References[link]

Published Works of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i.

• Sharh al-Fawa'id. Lithographed. N.P. (Tabriz: 1856).
• Jawami' al-Kalim. Lithographed. N.P. (Tabriz: 1856-59).
• Sharh al-Masha'ir. Lithographed. N.P. (Tehran: 1861).
• Sharh al-'Arshiyya. Lithographed. N.P. (Tehran: 1861).
• Sharh al-Ziyara al-Jami'a al-Kabira. Chapkhaneh Sa'adat (Kirman: 1972), 4 Volumes.
• Rasa'il al-Hikma. Al-Da'ira al-'Alamiyya (Beirut: 1993).

Scholarly European Language Sources on Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i.

• A-L-M Nicolas. Essai sur le cheikhisme. Paul Geuthner (Paris: 1910), 2 Volumes.
• Henry Corbin. L'ecole Shaykhie en Theologie Shi`ite. Taban (Tehran: 1967).
• Henry Corbin. En islam iranien. Galimard (Paris: 1972), vol. 4.
• Vahid Rafati. The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shi`i Islam. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1979).
• Denis Maceoin. S.V. "Ahsa'i, Shaikh Ahmad b. Zayn al-Din," in Encyclopaedia Iranica, 3 vols. - (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983 - ).
• Juan Cole. "The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i," in Studia Islamica, No. 80. (1994), pp. 145–163.
• Idris Samawi Hamid. The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i. (Ph.D. dissertation: State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
• Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi. "Une absence remplie de présences. Herméneutiques de l'occultation chez les Shaykhiyya (Aspects de l'imamologie duodécimaine VII) ," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Vol. 64, No. 1. (2001), pp. 1–18.

External links[link]

• Alahsai
• Sheykh Ahmad Ahsa'i, Iranica
• alabrar.com for more information about Shaykhi teachings. (This site is in the Arabic language.)
• Early Shaykhism - Some biographical notes, translations and studies
• Collected Works of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i at H-Bahai Discussion Network