Analysis Of The Phenomenon Of Weeping In order to understand...

Analysis Of The Phenomenon Of Weeping In order to understand the phenomenon itself, first of all, and in order to understand its historical significance, we maintain the following: In remembering al-Husayn we come before a historical problem which we read about and listen to. In the light of this reality we face a definitive question: How do we write and tell of history?

How do we write and tell the history of man who loves and hates like us who are alive, who fails and succeeds like us, who fills his heart with grief and happiness like us, who faces the greatest challenges and does not flee from them and does not resort to deceitful tricks against them but stands firm in the face of them, who is inflicted with the greatest disasters but faces them with heroism that has become legendary in history? How do we write and tell of the history of man?

Should we write about it as if we were writing a report on the economic situation? Should we write about the history of man as if we were writing about the history of the layers of the earth or the history of fossils? Should we change history into numerical lists and the analysis of numbers and the evidence for them?

Or should we write and tell of history so that through it we may form a picture of the life of man who is made up of flesh and blood, aspirations and hopes, love and hatred, heroism and cowardice, high emotions and base desires, in one word, the history of man? I do not imagine that any scholarly and trustworthy researcher would allow himself to say 'no' to this, even though he claims that we ought to write and tell history in the language of numbers.

When history is written and told as the history of man, we should ask: How will we read and listen to history? Should we stop ourselves feeling happiness when we feel happy? Should we stop ourselves feeling sad when we feel sad? Should we stop ourselves feeling disgust when we feel disgust? I do not think that any scholarly and trustworthy man would be pleased with himself to maintain that. We are like all people at all times and in all places.

They write and tell history, read and listen to history so that they may be affected by what they listen to and read, whether it be sadness or happiness, pleasure or disgust. It may make them feel proud so that they smile, or it may make tears of sadness, pride and wonder flow from their eyes.