Self-flagellation
Tonight was the fourth night of Muharram. Tonight's the night they start the really horrific intensive maatam or self-flagellation at the imambargah.
Maatam is one of the most unIslamic aspects Shi'a Islam. Shi'ite men and women slap their chests - some men even take their tops and vests off to do it.. and it ain't pretty, mate - and beat their chests with their hands. It can get much worse than this, this is just the beginning, just the warming-up, if you will. Shi'ite men flagellate themselves with metal chains [zanjeer maatam] leaving huge, bloody marks on their backs. There's even a form of maatam called talwaar maatam [sword maatam], where the men flagellate themselves with bare swords. Other men like to split their heads open with swords.. I dunno what that is called. Zanjeer maatam, talwaar maatam and the head-splitting ritual are not practised [or allowed] at the imambargah where I attend the majaalis and thank the Merciful One that they aren't!
Why this flagellation of oneself? It's not like Catholicism, where the flagellants do it to atone for their sins. No, there's no atonement through maatam. I admit, I don't know the reason behind maatam myself but my guess is that it is practised in order to make up for the absence of supporters of the Imam Husayn when the Yazeedi army was massacring him and his family in Karbala'.. in short, people feel bad that they [or their ancestors] weren't there to sacrifice their lives to save the Imam Husayn's life.
But there's a problem. The Imam Husayn never once asked anyone to flagellate themselves for him, to feel bad for not being there to support him. In fact, on the night before the massacre, the Imam called all his 70 friends into a tent, put out the oil lamp and said that they were free to go back home if they wanted to as it was the Imam's head that Yazeed wanted, not anybody else's. Needless to say, not one of them moved.
The tears that are brought on by the narration of the massacre of Imam Husayn, his family and friends - those tears are natural. It's part of human nature to feel sorry, to feel somebody else's pain. But hurting oneself is not part of human nature. It's unnatural. It doesn't make sense to do it, especially when the person you profess to be hurting yourself for didn't even ask you to it in the first place!
The video that I've linked to above shows the kind of intensive maatam I was talking about, except all men had their clothes on at the imambargah. The "singing" in the background is the recitation of a nauhah/marathiyah or elegy or dirge about the Imam Husayn and/or his family members. Notice the congruency, the rhythm. How the hands all go up at once and you hear one thwack, just one, as they land on the chests. It may be very organized, very congruent. But that's no justification for it. It still remains a very ugly expression of one's sorrow.
Tonight's English lecture wasn't very good. The speaker is very misogynistic. He was talking about the increasing divorce rates and he had ten reasons why divorce rates were increasing.. I don't remember all of them, but there were things like marrying a person because of his status, because of his wealth, because of his looks etc. He gave examples for all of them, and they all had the woman in a negative role. Bad, bad sheikh!
Maatam is one of the most unIslamic aspects Shi'a Islam. Shi'ite men and women slap their chests - some men even take their tops and vests off to do it.. and it ain't pretty, mate - and beat their chests with their hands. It can get much worse than this, this is just the beginning, just the warming-up, if you will. Shi'ite men flagellate themselves with metal chains [zanjeer maatam] leaving huge, bloody marks on their backs. There's even a form of maatam called talwaar maatam [sword maatam], where the men flagellate themselves with bare swords. Other men like to split their heads open with swords.. I dunno what that is called. Zanjeer maatam, talwaar maatam and the head-splitting ritual are not practised [or allowed] at the imambargah where I attend the majaalis and thank the Merciful One that they aren't!
Why this flagellation of oneself? It's not like Catholicism, where the flagellants do it to atone for their sins. No, there's no atonement through maatam. I admit, I don't know the reason behind maatam myself but my guess is that it is practised in order to make up for the absence of supporters of the Imam Husayn when the Yazeedi army was massacring him and his family in Karbala'.. in short, people feel bad that they [or their ancestors] weren't there to sacrifice their lives to save the Imam Husayn's life.
But there's a problem. The Imam Husayn never once asked anyone to flagellate themselves for him, to feel bad for not being there to support him. In fact, on the night before the massacre, the Imam called all his 70 friends into a tent, put out the oil lamp and said that they were free to go back home if they wanted to as it was the Imam's head that Yazeed wanted, not anybody else's. Needless to say, not one of them moved.
The tears that are brought on by the narration of the massacre of Imam Husayn, his family and friends - those tears are natural. It's part of human nature to feel sorry, to feel somebody else's pain. But hurting oneself is not part of human nature. It's unnatural. It doesn't make sense to do it, especially when the person you profess to be hurting yourself for didn't even ask you to it in the first place!
The video that I've linked to above shows the kind of intensive maatam I was talking about, except all men had their clothes on at the imambargah. The "singing" in the background is the recitation of a nauhah/marathiyah or elegy or dirge about the Imam Husayn and/or his family members. Notice the congruency, the rhythm. How the hands all go up at once and you hear one thwack, just one, as they land on the chests. It may be very organized, very congruent. But that's no justification for it. It still remains a very ugly expression of one's sorrow.
Tonight's English lecture wasn't very good. The speaker is very misogynistic. He was talking about the increasing divorce rates and he had ten reasons why divorce rates were increasing.. I don't remember all of them, but there were things like marrying a person because of his status, because of his wealth, because of his looks etc. He gave examples for all of them, and they all had the woman in a negative role. Bad, bad sheikh!