Anas asked: ‘What is al-Kawthar?
Anas asked: ‘What is al-Kawthar?’ He answered: ‘It is a river in Paradise, but neither those who violate my covenant (dhimma), nor those who shall kill the people of my House will be allowed to drink of it.'(5) Finally, Shi’i tradition has always insisted on the great merit the faithful earn in making a pilgrimage (ziyara) to the tomb of Imam Husain and the tombs of the men who were martyred with him. Yet Sunni tradition has likewise seen great merit in this pious act (6).
The ziyara to the tomb of the martyred Imam has acquired this great significance in all Muslim traditions because the Imam and his fellow martyrs are seen as models of jihad in the way of God. It is related that the father of the Imams, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, passed by Karbala’ after the battle of Siffin. He took a handful of its soil and exclaimed: ‘Ah, ah, on this spot some men will be slain, and will enter Paradise without reckoning!’ (7).
The spiritual unity of the , symbolized by the Kisa’, is in turn a symbol of the unity of all Muslims. It is for the sake of this unity in faith and commitment (Islam) to God and the truth that Imam Husain sacrificed his life. He refused a partisan Islam when he refused to legitimize Umayyad rule.
Because he refused humiliation, wrongdoing and deviation from the ideals of Islamic leadership as exemplified by the Prophet and his own father ‘Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Husain drew once and for all the distinction between a true khalifa (representative) of the Apostle of God and the kings of this world. But above all, Imam Husain and his fellow martyrs accepted God’s bargain with the people of faith to exchange their lives and wealth for the eternal bliss of Paradise (8).
This divine challenge is no less relevant to the Muslim community today than it was fourteen hundred years ago. It invites us still to ‘a garden whose breadth is greater than the heavens and earth, prepared for those who fear God’. NOTES: __________________________________________________ 1. Abu Bakr Ahmad b Husayn b. al-Bayhaqi, Al-Sunan al-Kubra (Haydarabad, 1344), III, 337. 2. Ibn Hajar, p. 291. 3. See the commentary of 19:13 in al-Suyuti 4. Al-Tirmidhi, 2: 306. 5.