Distortions about Ashura - Part 4

Ashura: Lies and Fabrications

This work is a summary of a series of lectures conducted by Ayatollah Murtadha al-Mutahhari during Ashura in Iran in 1969. In these lectures Mutahhari discusses the many fabrications regarding the martyrdom of al-Hussain ibn Ali (as), and specifically the spurious stories that have been falsely attributed to this event by Shias. He demonstrates the fact that many myths have been created around this event – created specifically for the purpose of whipping the people into a frenzy and making them shed false tears.

Muttahhari sought (in 1969) to bring accountability to both the reciters of these events and the listeners. He emphasized that it was the responsibility of all parties involved to end the mythmaking and storytelling, and to focus instead on the factual retelling of the martyrdom of al-Hussain (as).

Al-Hussain Prays Salat Al-Khawf and then Conducts a Marriage Ceremony while the Battle is Raging

A worse fabrication is the one mentioned by Hajji Nuri. As you know, in the heat of the battle on the day of ‘Ashura’, the Imam offered his prayers hurriedly in the form of salat al-khawf and there was no respite even to offer full prayers. In fact, two of the companions of the Imam came to stand in front of him to shield the Imam (against the arrows) so that he may offer two rak’ahs of the salat al-khawf.

The two of them fell from the injuries inflicted under the shower of the arrows. The enemy would not even give respite for offering prayers. Nevertheless, they have concocted a story that the Imam called for a wedding ceremony on this day, declaring, ‘It is my wish to see one of my daughter wedded to Qasim.’ Obviously, one cannot take one’s wishes to one’s grave.

By God, see what kind of things they have attributed to a man like Hussain ibn ‘Ali, things the like of which we sometimes hear from persons of a very mediocre character, who express a wish to see the wedding of their son or daughter in their life. And this is said to have occurred at a time when there was hardly any respite even for offering prayers.

They say that the Hadrat said, ‘I want to wed my daughter to my nephew here and now, even if it is just an appearance of a wedding.’ One of the things that was an inseparable part of our traditional ta’ziyahs was the wedding of Qasim, the boy bridegroom.

Such an episode is not mentioned in any reliable book of history. According to Hajji Nuri, Mulla Hussain Kashifi was the first man to write this story in a book named Rawdat al-shuhada’ and it is totally fictitious. The case here is similar to the one about which the poet says:

Many are the appendages that they have clapped upon it,

You will hardly recognize it when you see it again.

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SOURCE:

http://www.twelvershia.net/2015/09/05/ashura-lies-and-fabrications/