Imam Husain's (A.S.) Sermon on Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil

O people, take lessons from the matters that Allah has cited as warnings for His disciples when He dispraised the rabbis in His saying: Why did the men of Allah and rabbis not forbid them from following their sinful words and their consuming of unlawful gains?(Holy Qur'an 5:63)

The unbelievers among the Israelites, because of their disobedience and transgression, were condemned by David and Jesus, the son of Mary, for their disobedience; they were transgressors. They did not prevent each other from committing sins nor would they themselves stay away from them. Evil was what they had done! (Holy Qur'an 5:78-79).

Allah dishonored them because they did not forbid the wrongdoers from doing evil and committing sins while they were among them, for they had desired for gaining more gifts from the wrongdoers and they had feared them. Allah says: Do not be afraid of people but have fear of Me. (Holy Qur'an 5:44).

The believers, both male and female, are each other's guardians. They try to make others do good and prevent them from committing sins.(Holy Qur'an 9:71).

Allah has begun with enjoining good and forbidding evil because He has known that if these two matters are carried out thoroughly, all the other obligatory duties, the easy and the difficult, will be carried out thoroughly. This is because enjoining good and forbidding evil is advocacy to Islam, restoration of the grievances, opposition of the wrongdoer, (just) allotment of the booty and the spoils, and taking the alms to put them in their proper places.

You are the company that are famous for knowledge, mentioned in goodness, renowned with advice, and repected by people through Allah. The masters stand in awe of you, the weak honor you, and those whom you have not done favors and who do not need you prefer you to others. You intercede for settling people's needs when they are deprived. You walk in the ways with gravity of kings and dignity of celebrities. You have attained all these just because you are expected to fulfill the rights of Allah; yet, you omitted most of His rights when you disregarded the Imams, threw away the rights of the weak, and sought only your claimed rights.

You have not spent any wealth, risked your souls for their Creator, or opposed your clan for sake of Allah. You are looking forward to gaining Paradise, the neighborhood of Allah's messengers, and the salvation from His punishment. I anticipate you, who hope Allah, will suffer a form of Allah's retribution because you, through the favors of Allah, have attained such a rank by which you are preferred to other. You are respected among people by means of Allah. However, you notice that the traditions of Allah are omitted, but you do not move for it, while you may move when any of your father's traditions is violated. The traditions of the Prophet(S.A.W.) are broken. The blind, the deaf, and the chronically ill are left without help in the cities. You neither behave mercifully nor do you use your positions. You do not aid those who assume such deeds and you achieve your safety from the wrongdoers (or the unjust rulers) by means of flattery and cajolery. Allah has warrned you against all these conducts but you are negligent while you will be responsible more than the others because you enjoy the positions of scholars. Had you only felt of so!

Moreover, the courses of affairs and rulings are under the control of the scholars who are the keepers of the legal and the illegal affairs of Allah. This standing is surely usurped from you just because you have gone in different direction away from the right and disagreed about the Sunnah after the clear exposition of the evidences. If you tolerated the harm and bore the burdens for Allah's sake, all the affairs of Allah would arrive at your hands, emanate from you, and devolve upon you. But you have made the unjust rulers occupy your positions and handed over the affairs of Allah to them. They are acting suspiciously and pursuing their passions.

Your escape from death and adherence to this life, which will sooner or later leave you, gave them a free hand on doing so. Thus, you forsook the weak ones some of whom were enslaved compulsorily and others were suffering under the control of the straits of livelihood. The unjust rulers therefore are rolling in royalty with their own opinions and disgracing others by their own passions as they follow the examples of the evil and dare the All-omnipotent (Allah).

In every country, they are assigning an eloquent orator on the pulpits of Allah. Lands are vacant for them as their hands are prevailing on everything and people are taken as their slaves because they lack the power to defend themselves. They are either a transgressing tyrant or a domineering, coarse to the weak, and obeyed who does not acknowledge the Initiator the Recreator. How strange this is! I should astonish at such affairs when the lands are prevalied by tyrannical cheaters, wrongful bribers, or unmerciful governors. Allah is the judge in our question of disputation and His judgment will pass over our controversy.

O Allah. You know that it was not a matter of conflict for power or request of the worldly wreckage (that made me say so), but it was just for showing the signs of Your religion and spreading betterment on Your lands so that the wronged servants will be secured and Your ordinances, traditions, and laws will be acted.

Because you had not supported or treated us fairly, the wrongdoers overcame you and wrought towards extinguishing the illumination of your Prophet(S.A.W.). Allah is sufficient protector for us. Upon Him we depend, to Him we refer, and to Him will be our return.

Source:Tuhaf al-Uqool

Imam Husain's (A.S.) Martyrdom Corrected the Course of Humankind

Imam Husain (A.S.) was a heavenly candle in the stormy winds of this world whose light saved the gloomy path of humanity from ignorance and darkness and brightened the alleyway of life and belief. Drops of the melted candle of his heavenly body irrigated the sapling of Islam his celestial movement has been training devoted believers who, with their tears have been keeping his memory and the tree of faith alive.

Imam Husain (A.S.) was the third infallible Imam, appointed by God, the son of Ali and Fatima (A.S.), daughter of Holy Prophet Mohammad (S.A.W.). He, with his family and few companions, stood against the multitude of equipped transgressors and courageously resisted to their last breath. They knew, from the start, that they were going to be martyred that day the Ashura in the land of Karbala; Holy Prophet (S.A.W.), many years before, had prophesied about it. His movement was neither a revolution to occupy the government, nor a movement to gain power, but rather it was a unique, one of a kind, movement in history which occurred in order to warn human and to correct the course of humankind. He, for enlightenment of monotheist, started his movement, to revive Divine human values. Continual mourning of the Shi'ah, on anniversary of the Ashura every year, reminds humanity that Ashura is an everlasting, destiny-making and meaningful epic and it is not just another forgotten page of history.

Deceits of the power-hungry brought about circumstances by which, after Imam Ali(A.S.), non of the rightful infallible Imams (A.S.), appointed by God, openly ruled the government of Muslims and as the result today, the world is suffering from inequalities, injustices and inhumanities.

However, will it always be this way? Humanity is eagerly and anxiously awaiting the Appearance of the Saviour of humankind, the last infallible Imam, the final bridge between the Creator and the created, the one whom followed by his emergence, pure ones such as Jesus (A.S.) -with God's permission- shall return to assist and help him. At time of Mahdy (A.S.) , Imam Husain(A.S.) shall also return and so will the ones who, in any way, caused his martyrdom. Those so-called humans shall face the Divine justice of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) and his progeny (A.S.) in this world before their everlasting life in Hell. According to Qur'an, they shall say:

They shall say : Our Lord! You have made us to die twice, and You have given us life twice; now that we are confessing to our sins, is there a way out? (The Holy Qur'an,Surah Mo'men,Verse 11)

That which was done against Imam Husain (A.S.) was the most heart-breaking crime against the best creations of the Creator, in addition to that, it was the darkest crime against humanity. Like Eblis (Satan) who stood against Adam and did not recognize Adam's Divinely bestowed position, those who stood and are standing against the Ahl al-Bayt(A.S.) and did not accept and are not accepting the heavenly bestowed exalted position of the Ahl al-Bayt(A.S.), have actually been standing against God and His command, therefore, they have been blocking human's path to eternal bliss. Thus, their sin -which they have chosen to commit- is unforgivable and if one dies with this sin and belief, there shall be no way out of God's punishment.