| Benefiting from Ashura |
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| Tuesday, 15 February 2005 | |
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Page 4 of 6 Imam Hussein (a) explains his eternal uprising saying: ‘O Allah, you know that what we did was not out of competition for worldly power, nor were we seeking the vanities of this world, but we desired to see the features of your religion and reform in your land and so that the oppressed of your servants might find respite and so that your commands and laws might be carried out.' 2. The propagation of the message of Allah - Islam - to the people of the world as a whole and instilling Islamic values and ideals. The month of Muharram can become an appropriate starting point for propagating this message and these values and ideals, which were embodied in the goals of Imam Hussein (a), to a thirsty humanity. This mission can be funded through collections at gatherings and Husseiniyas, and forming bodies, which will send missionaries to every part of the world. Benefit may be derived from the gatherings held in remembrance of Hussein in that they stir up deep emotions in the self and the occasion they provide for intellectual direction, which has an effect in changing human behaviour. Speakers should concern themselves in their sermons with showing the way to social responsibility and institutions should be established in every mosque and Islamic centre for the task of fulfilling the material needs of the people according to priorities. These may be funded by donations from charitable people and businessmen and the wealthy. Imam Hussein (a) said in encouraging donations and expending in the way of Allah: ‘Your wealth does not belong to you unless you spend it in the way of Allah. Therefore do not leave it as a store for those who come after you, when you yourself will be held responsible for it. Know that you will not survive to make use of it and it will not remain for you, so consume it before it consumes you.' Attention and concern must be paid to Islamic institutions for they continue to experience two crises; quantitative and qualitative. There is a noticeable lack in the number of Islamic cultural and social institutions and places of worship for Muslims in the Islamic world and for the Islamic communities in other countries. This quantitative lack may be filled by exploiting the occasion of Ashura so that preachers and hosts of gatherings concern themselves with setting up such institutions by encouraging and persuading the people to participate in providing the means and laying the ground work. In this way and through these gatherings, which are spread throughout the world, we will be able, each year, to found one hundred thousand institutions of differing types such as schools, mosques, Husseiniyas, libraries, clinics and hospitals, orphanages, radio and television stations, research institutes and newspapers and the like. After fifteen years this would probably equal the number of institutions the Christians have provided in Africa alone where they have founded one and a half million institutions. |