Muslims Mark Arba’in in Nigeria

Rasa – Muslims in Nigeria held the annual Arba’in (40 days of mourning for Imam Husayn after he was martyred on the day of Ashura over 13 centuries ago) mourning rituals.

News ID: 1819

Date: 14 December 2014 - 18:35

RNA – Shi’ite Muslims on Saturday gathered in the city of Zaria to hold processions along with fellow countrymen, Press TV reported.

Hujjat al-Islam Ibrahim Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, said that attendance was considerably remarkable.

According to Shaykh Zakzaky, Imam Husayn (A) wanted to bring change in the Muslim community at a time when Islam was in need of being purified.

“It ended up with those in power killing him and members of his household and his companions. And he called for help, nobody helped him. That call for help did not die. It is still being raised today,” he said.

Millions of Muslims in Iraq who rallied from the city of Najaf to the city of Karbala arrived in Karbala city on Saturday to mark Arba’in.

Nearly 20 million of Muslims from across the world, including Iran, attended the 100-km rally, while hundreds of thousands more joined them on the way to Karbala and to the holy shrine of Imam Husayn (A).

Analysts believe the rally is unique in terms of quality and also the number of its participants. It started from the holy shrine of Imam Ali (A) - the first Shi’ite Imam - and ends up in the holy shrine of Imam Husayn (A).

Large numbers of different student and popular groups are still joining the rally.

In November, Shi’ite pilgrims of Iraq and other countries, including Iran, flocked into Karbala, some 100 km South of Baghdad, and into Kadhmiyah in Northern Baghdad to commemorate Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (A), grandson of Prophet Muhammad (A) and the third Shi’ite Imam.

Imam Husayn (A) was martyred in the 680 AD battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that’s home to the Imam’s holy shrine.

In the battle, Imam Husayn (A) was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid’s armies. All of Imam Husayn’s male family members, relatives, friends, soldiers who all together formed a 72-member army were beheaded in an unequal war with a 30,000-strong army of the enemy in the desert of Karbala.

The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson for the Shi’ites.

Imam Husayn’s martyrdom - recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song - remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to Shi’ites, who make up a majority of the Muslim population in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Bahrain.

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