To separate Karbala and Husayn ('a) from their historical...

To separate Karbala and Husayn ('a) from their historical and ideological context is to dissect a living body, to remove only a part of it and to examine it in exclusion of the living system of the body.

Two Classes of Prophets As I have mentioned in my previous lectures, th­roughout the whole history of humanity, religious move­ments, whether related to the contents of the religions, and conduct of the prophets and founders of the religion or to the social class connections of the leaders of the religion and to what they were calling the people to, are divided into two classes.

According to this classifica­tion, all of the historical prophets, whether true or false, as well as anyone who has begun a religious movement, are divided into two different classes: The first group belongs to the religious chain founded by Abraham. These chains of prophets, from the historical point of view, are nearer to us and therefore we know them better. They consist of prophets whose view of society arose from the most deprived social and economic class of a society.

As Muhammad ( 's ) said, all of these prophets were either shepherds, as history shows us, they grazed sheep, or a few were simple hungry artisans or workers. These prophets stand in contrast with the messengers of the other group or founders of intellectual and moral schools of thoughts such as those in China, India, Iran and the founders of the scientific and ethical schools of Athens. These latter groups, without a single exception, were aristocrats.

They arose from the noble, powerful, comfortable classes of their society. Throughout history, the powerful rulers of society have been one of three groups: the powerful, the wealthy and the clergy. They exercised political and economic power with each other and control over the faith of the people. They co-operated with each other in ruling the people. Their collaboration, whether or not they shared the same views, was in order to rule the people and for the sake of the people.

All of the non Abrahamic messengers from Indo ­China to Athens were either connected on their mother's side or their father's side or even both sides to emperors, clergymen and aristocrats. This holds true for Confucius, Laotzu, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mani, Mazdak, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Whereas the Quran emphasizes, "We appointed among the ordinary people, a Prophet from themselves." (3:163 ). They were ordinary people from the masses and among the community.