Muharram

Every year Shia Muslims commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. For ten days the people mourn the death of the Imam, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, his family and followers who were slain in the battle of Karbala in the year 680. They wear black, attend meetings and carry out processions to express their grief. Muharram lasts 2 months and eight days and ends on the 68th day in the evening.For the first ten days of Muharram Shias attend discourses, pray and prepare themselves for mourning.

For the first ten days of Muharram the story of Karbala is broadcast over neighbourhoods with microphones as the epic is recreated with words, tears and processions. People dressed in black move from one majlis or discourse to another, bowing to alams or flags of Imam Hussain, weeping and beating their chests, a sorrow passed down, experienced and relived.

These prayer meetings or Majlis's take place throughout the period of mourning. In most Majlises, a moulvi will also preach Islam and the tragedy at Karbala.

The Majlise ends with "matam" which is the beating of the chests which signifies mourning. The sound of thousands of chests being slapped could be heard more than a kilometer away.

On the tenth day the "mourning" reaches its climax in Matam.

It was on the 10th day that imam Hussain was murdered. Thousands of people congregate in market squares or at designated areas and beat themselves with whips, chains, swords and knives.

Wire, leather strips with razors stitched into them and rawhide whips often with broken glass attached to them are used. People are often rushed to the hospital.The streets are sometimes inch deep in blood. Many mourners use razor blades that are held between their fingers and they beat their chests in this fashion for many hours, with their chests sometimes getting permanently scarred. It is not disorganized and ambulances/ first aid is readily available for those who fall unconscious from blood loss.

Muharram is not just self infliction of pain or religious ecstasy of any sort. The self-flagellation is not written in any book of Islam and it is done as a free expression of mourning by Shia men only. They do not have to do this and many people choose not to undergo the suffering. The women stand by and watch the proceeding often crying in groups.

Shia Muslims find in Muharram a release, an experience that strengthens their sense of righteous belonging to their faith and a profound sadness at the evil of the world. It is a act of a whole community and is said to strengthen their faith and bonds their community together. A shared act of suffering and mourning.

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