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Shiite Scholars Frown On Lebanese Shiite Celebrations
BEIRUT, April 3 (IslamOnline) - A leading Shiite cleric said Tuesday that the Shiite Muslim tradition of tearing one's clothes and injuring one's body with swords to show the death of a descendant of Prophet Mohammed (SAW) was unIslamic.
Sheikh Hassan Nassrallah, the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, said that Shiite masses in several Muslim countries should forsake the decades long habit, known as al-Tatber and Tazyeia that requires Shiites injure themselves to the extent of bleeding in order to show remorse for the death of Hussein, as it was "weakening for the Shiite doctrine."
"This is not an indication of sorrow or grief," Nassrallah said. "It's totally unacceptable. It's not acceptable for women either to march in such carnivals weeping, hitting their faces or beating themselves with chains."
Nassrallah was referring to the custom of Shiite Muslims celebrating the death of Hussein, the second grandson of Prophet Mohammed (SAW), dozens of years after the death of the Prophet (SAW), on the tenth day of Moharram, the first month of the Islamic Hijra year.
When Hassan died, the fourth Muslim caliph Ali's second son Hussein, became the leader of the opposition at the time. Through Hussein's claim on the Caliphate, he made clear that there was a clear division between Ali's followers and the Ummayyad Caliphs.
When Mu'awiya, the ruler then, died in 680 AD, Hussein left Medina in the direction of Kufa with the hope that he would be heard in his claim to the Caliphate. He never reached Kufa, but was trapped in the desert at Karbala by soldiers of the new Caliph, Yazid, son of Mu'awiya.
Without water and hopelessly outnumbered, Hussein and his followers fought a desperate battle, and he and many of his supporters were killed. From this point on, the Shiite became alienated, and Shiite Islam was born.
Some Western scholars have said one that of the features in Shiite Islam with roots in Judeo-Christian tradition is the focus on the trials of the martyrs (rawda kani), the exultation of martyrdom in general, the use of self-flagellation as part of religious rituals and the commemoration of the 10 days ending in the events of Karbala (ta'ziya), which are the central event of the Shiite calendar and bear significant similarities to the passion of Jesus Christ (as Christianity refers to Prophet Issa [AS]).
Several Shiite scholars in the past have tried to dissuade Lebanese Shiite from the practice, but their calls have gone in vain.
Another scholar, Mohammed Hussein Fadallah, has said in the past that one reason for issuing a fatwa against the practice was that a sword used by several men could in fact carry disease among the worshippers.
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