These interactions take the form of these rituals or ceremonies...

These interactions take the form of these rituals or ceremonies, which take place in the days of Muharram and particularly on the tenth day. ..al-Minbar: Then you believe that these rituals are a source for the survival of this revolution . . . correct? Naturally, because when we remember a person the way we remember Husayn, it is not enough that we pray for his soul or remember his deeds or virtues, but rather, something palpable and something painful must be brought into the equation.

..al-Minbar: Painful?! Yes, painful. For that which does not cause pain to the body does not persist. It is the pain that preserves the issue and the memory and is what allows them to be implemented on an existential level and to have effects on cultural and social movements. The persistence of the memory and its survival in the human mind must be accompanied by tangible physical pain and this is what the Husayni rituals accomplish.

When one feels pain in one’s body, one will contemplate its source and when this contemplation leads one to the pains that befell Husayn, then one will evoke his revolution and his principles and goals in a spontaneous way. ..al-Minbar: There are those who believe that Husayni rituals are superstitions, which cause a negative view of those who practise them in the eyes of the world. Is this true in your view? This is nonsense and is far from scientific realities.

As we know, a superstition is something invented by the human mind to explain a certain form or image that he finds difficult to understand. Hence we see that with the development of the human mind the superstition does not persist. Theprinciple as regards superstition is that it does not persist and does not remain but ceases to be when its inventor ceases to be.

Religious rituals and ceremonies however, are based on doctrine and faith, which know no imperfection or middle ground; hence they have persisted and survived. There is a difference between belief and mythology. Mythology consists of imaginings invented by man in order to arrive at what is behind natural phenomena and these imaginings are what generally drives man towards superstitions until he comes close to understanding and comprehendingthese phenomena.

Most of these superstitions are now obsolete; for instance, we can see how those who used to worship the sun or the moon are now extinct except for some in isolated places in Africa.