He felt great sorrow in all these instances...

He felt great sorrow in all these instances, but he just wept out of his affection for them. He wept for his son Ibrahim, for his grandson al-Husayn (a.s.) when Gabriel told him that he would be murdered, and wept for his brother and cousin Ali (a.s.) when he foreknew that the most wretched of people would dye his (Imam Ali a.s.) beard with the blood of his head. The (S) often wept and he ordered Muslims to feign crying if they could not cry.

He sought the protection of Allah from the eye that did not shed tears. Nevertheless, he prohibited Muslims from being excessive in expression of their sorrow, beating their faces or tearing their clothes. Then, what is this about beating one’s head or body with iron tools until one bleeds? Our first imam after the (S) - Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s.) did not do anything like that when his brother and cousin the Messenger of Allah (S) died.

After a short time of six months, his wife Fatima (a.s.) left to join her father in the better world. Imam Ali (a.s.) felt great pain and sorrow, but he did never do anything unusual as what ordinary people do nowadays.

Imam al-Hasan (a.s) and Imam al-Husayn (a.s) did nothing of that when they lost their merciful grandfather Muhammad (S), and their kind, loving mother Fatima (a.s.), nor when their father Imam Ali (a.s.), who was the best of all human beings after the , was killed by the cursed ibn Muljam in the mihrab. Imam as-Sajjad (a.s.) as well, did nothing unusual when he saw scenes that had never happened anywhere else at all.

He saw with his own eyes the massacre of Karbala when his father, uncles, brothers, cousins and companions were murdered and after this terrible event also he faced great difficulties and suffering that even mountains would not be able bear. History did not record that any of the infallible Imams (a.s.) did something of that or ordered their followers to do it.

The only thing they did was that they liked to hear from some poets elegies about the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) where they wept and felt sorrow and ordered people to weep and be sad for the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.). In fact, this is a recommended thing if not obligatory. I myself, attended many occasions of Ashura in many countries and did not find anyone of the ulema doing that at all. Scholars and learned people of the Shia avoid that and try to refute and forbid it.

We, after having become Shia, do not imitate ordinary people of the Shia in all what they do without researching and being certain of its truth.