TLDR;
Today, we remember Allah saving Prophet Musa from Firaun, making it a day of celebration. However, it's also the day Sayyidina Husayn ibn Ali, the Prophet’s grandson, was martyred in Karbala. While we feel sadness, we balance it with the joy of Ashura as taught by the Prophet ﷺ.
Ashura teaches us to balance our emotions and understand that victory in the eyes of Allah may differ from worldly views. Prophet Musa's victory and Sayyidina Husayn's martyrdom both show different aspects of divine success.
Keep our brothers and sisters in Palestine in your duas. Pray for their victory and peace, just as Allah granted victory and protection to Musa and his followers.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Today is Tuesday the 10th of Muharram, the day of Ashura, the most important day in the month of Muharram. And the best day in this month for us to fast.
Rasulullah wa alihi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallallahu wa barakatuh. He mentioned that those who fast on the 10th of Muharram, Allah would forgive his past years sin. So if you are fasting today, alhamdulillah, congratulations.
If you're not fasting today, there's another good deed that you can do. There's a hadith, narrated by Imam al -Baihaki. Imam al -Baihaki mentioned that those who spend for their family on this day, they treat their family well, Allah would make his provisions easy for the rest of the year.
So even if you're fasting, take your family somewhere nice, spend some money on them. And if you're not fasting, then all the more, take this opportunity. And Sufyan ibn Uyayina, he said he did that for 50 years and he did not find anything but truth in the statement that he sees that his provisions are made easier for the rest of the year when he spent more on his family on the day of Ashura.
So today is the day that Allah saved Prophet Musa from the tyranny of Firaan. Today is the day that Allah parted the sea for Prophet Musa. So today is the day of celebration. It's a day of joy. But something else happened, 61 years after Hijrah, 61st year of Hijrah on the 10th of Muharram is the day where the grandson of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Sayyidina Husayn ibn Ali was martyred, he and his family members,
the family of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, were massacred in a place called Karbala. And because of that, some of our Muslim brothers and sisters would turn this day into a day of mourning. What is the correct position with regards to the day of Ashura?
One important thing that we have to remember is that the foundations of our religion were built during the lifetime of our Prophet ﷺ. Sharia was completed with the passing of the Prophet ﷺ. Allah mentioned in the Quran:
“Today I have completed your religion and I have perfected my blessings, my bounties upon you and I am pleased for Islam to be the religion.”
So this ayah shows the completeness, the perfection of the Sharia.
And the Sharia teaches this. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told is that today is a day of celebration, today is a day of joy because Allah saved Musa from Fir 'a 'u'll. However, as someone who loves the Prophet ﷺ, we cannot but love the grandson of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
We love what the Prophet loves. We love what the Prophet tells us to love and Rasul ﷺ loves it. Husayn minni wa anamin Husayn, Husayn is from me and I am from Husayn. Allah loves people who love Husayn and Allah hates people who hate Husayn.
So Sayyid al Husayn is someone that is dear to our heart. Someone that Rasul ﷺ would kiss, someone that Rasul ﷺ would pick up. Rasul ﷺ would allow him and his brothers and his son to play on his back while he was performing salah.
This is the coolness of the ice to our Prophet ﷺ. How can we not feel sad on the day that he was brutally martyred and his family were massacred? Of course, we feel sad. We feel sad. But that sadness doesn't override the joy of the day of Ashurah that Prophet ﷺ legislated.
We celebrate today because the Prophet ﷺ celebrated. We are not celebrating today because of the death of Sayyid al Husayn. No, Allahi. We celebrate today because Rasul ﷺ celebrated. But we have that balance of feelings.
Of course, we will have that sadness in our heart because Sayyid al Husayn was massacred. How can we not feel sad? How can we not love the family of the Prophet when loving him is part, loving them is part of the teachings of our religion?
Rasul ﷺ said the Quran and the family of the Prophet al -Bait will not separate until they meet Rasul ﷺ at the howl. There is a very, there is a Sahih Harid mentioning about this. and many hadith mentioning about the virtues of the family of the Prophet to the point that Imam Shafi 'i wrote a poem, he said, Ya ahl al -baitiyeh rasurillahibukumu O family of the Prophet loving you, fardum minallahi fil qurani anzalahu is compulsory and it is revealed in the Quran.
Yaqfikumu mina al -gimil fakhri annakumu it is sufficient as a sense of great joy and pride for all of you manlam yusali aalaykum lassala ta 'laahu those who do not pray upon you there is no prayers for them, the prayers is not complete because according to Imam Shafi 'i salat on the family of the Prophet Allah wa salaam ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad on the family of the Prophet is an essential part of prayers.
Your prayer is valid but incomplete without salat on the family of the Prophet Prophet prayers upon the family of the Prophet. This teaches us the nature of life. Rasulullah wa alayhi wa sallam He was very happy with the victory in the Battle of Badr but as soon as he returned to Medina he received the news of the passing of his daughter.
He was saddened by it but he was joyous over the victory of Badr. This cycle of life teaches us that we should not be overjoyed in a state of hyper elation when we receive good news and we do not fall into the depth of depression when we receive bad news because life is a cycle.
There are days that are going to be good. There are days that are going to be challenging. Sometime the good and the challenging happens in the same day. Ashurah teaches us that balance in our emotions.
Another important lesson that we learn from the day of Ashurah is that the definition of victory in the eyes of Allah can be different from the definition of victory in the worldly sense from the human view.
We look at how Allah gave victory to Prophet Musa by saving him from frown and defeating his enemy frown drowning them to death. That is something that history would record as victorious and Allah granted that victory.
And then we have Santa Hussein. Santa Hussein was massacred. He and history will record that as a loss. But in the eyes of Allah, Santa Hussein achieved martyrdom. He achieved Shahada, one of the highest level of death.
So that is a victory in the eyes of Allah because Santa Hussein and his family were steadfast on the truth remain on the truth on the straight path despite all the difficulties the tribulations and the challenges and the corruption of their time which led to their death.
So them being steadfast on the truth which caused them in the end they're like lives, is a victory in the eyes of Allah, they attain Shahada. And this is important for us to redefine what is victory in our view.
What is it that we want to achieve? What is important is we want to be victorious in the eyes of Allah. We want to be successful in the eyes of Allah. If it so happens that victory in the eyes of Allah aligns with victory in the eyes of human beings in history like Prophet Musa, Alhamdulillah.
If it happens that victory in the eyes of Allah doesn't align with victory according to human beings like Sanah Hussein, so be it, we will always choose akhara first because Muslims are akhara centric when it comes to their worldview.
So that's a brief lesson of Ashura, but I just don't want to leave with this point today on this very day. let's keep our brothers and sisters in Palestine in our Dua, especially just before we break our fast.
Raise our hands to the skies and ask Allah that as Allah has given victory to Musa and his followers over Firaoun, that Allah would also grant victory to the Palestinians over the genocidal Israelis.
And as Allah fed Musa and his followers with Manna and Salwa, Allah would save the Palestinians from the manufactured famine for being staffed by Israel and her allies. As Allah protected Musa and his followers from intense heat in the desert, we ask that Allah protects the Palestinians from the intense bombing by Israel and her allies.
We ask that Allah grants victory and peace to Palestine and her people and we ask that Allah make us from amongst those people who contribute to this victory and peace of Palestine.
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