It was Never Practiced or Recommended by the Ahlulbayt (a)
by admin
Blood mourning rituals were never practiced by the founders and teachers of Shia Islam. There is not a single shred of evidence that the latter Imams (a) performed blood rituals. The modern day proponents of these damaging rituals shy away from mentioning this glaring fact.
If these rituals had any inherent merit in the eyes of Islam then they would have been practiced by the Holy Prophet (s) and the Twelve Holy Imams (a).
It is very disingenuous and an affront to the holy Ahlulbayt (a) to suggest that they did not practice a ritual that is supposedly highly meritorious. To say that that blood rituals are recommended is to infer that the Imams (a) refrained from a recommended act.
The Ahlulbayt (a) are divinely guided role models for Muslims and it is an obligation upon us to try and emulate them. Therefore it could be argued that the best way to mourn Imam Hussain (a) is by emulating the mourning of Ahlulbayt (a). Since they (a) did not perform these rituals, then the Shia should walk in their footsteps and refrain from performing them. A Shi’i who keeps away from blood rituals is closer in action to the Ahlulbayt (a) than one who performs them.
Considering the very controversial nature of the rituals, it wise to refrain from them and to carefully follow the practices of Ahlulbayt (a) in the manner that has been recommended by Imam Ali (a):
“Look at the people of the Prophet’s family. Adhere to their direction. Follow their footsteps because they would never let you out of guidance, and never throw you into destruction. If they sit down, you sit down, and if they rise up you rise up. Do not go ahead of them, as you would thereby go astray and go not lag behind them as you would thereby be ruined.” – Nahj al-Balagha, Sermon 96.
Some of the proponents of blood shedding say that the rejection of the rituals cannot be justified on the basis that the Imams (a) did not perform them because there are many things that we do today (e.g. drive cars, fly planes, use the Internet etc.) which the Imams never did. This of course is very primitive reasoning. Blood shedding cannot be compared to these other things because: 1, It was available during their (a) time whilst these other things were not. 2, The Imams (a) put a great deal of emphasis on mourning for Imam Hussain (a) and never made use of blood shedding even though it was available to them. 3, Blood shedding rituals almost always violate certain Islamic principles and these other novelties don’t.
Imam Ali (a) said:
“Do not fear except of your own sins and do not hold out hope except in God.”
Salam brotherThank you for this enclleext article. You should use the opportunity this Muharram to inform people of this. We shia need to do what our imams expect us to do at this time: mourn and educate ourselves to become better Muslims and better Shias. Why don’t we use Muharram to improve our Salah for example, didn’t imam Husssain AS stop during the battle and started congregational prayers while the arrows were hitting them left right and centre? Would those who do tatbir do the same. Some take Salah so lightly while tatbir so seriously.Anyway, jazak Allah bekhair.
Salam brotherThank you for this enxcelelt article. You should use the opportunity this Muharram to inform people of this. We shia need to do what our imams expect us to do at this time: mourn and educate ourselves to become better Muslims and better Shias. Why don’t we use Muharram to improve our Salah for example, didn’t imam Husssain AS stop during the battle and started congregational prayers while the arrows were hitting them left right and centre? Would those who do tatbir do the same. Some take Salah so lightly while tatbir so seriously.Anyway, jazak Allah bekhair.
Salam un alaikum! May Allah (swt) bless you for all your eftfros! I had the fatwas available in farsi, but what you have done i have never seen before! This is very much needed! May Allah give you towfiq to do further work like this! Jazakallah Ajre shoma peeshe khuda!
May Allah Subhanahu wa Tala reward you for this deliated and analytical scholarly article.You have used the beautiful tools of Jurisprudence of Quran,Ahadis,Aql,Ijma and painstakingly collected all arguments and replies.reminds me of a saying of Imam jafar al sadiq a.s. to Mumin al Taq about his discussion with Zayd ibn Ali a.s.The Imam (a.s.) said, “You surrounded him from his front, back, left,right, above and below and did not leave for any way out. Jazakallah
In His nameSalaam alaikum,JazakaAllah! May Allah(SWT) rerawd immensely all those who have put their efforts into making this great website! We need more and more such good . detailed, logically understandable, in depth websites which trace and investigate the issues in a systematic academic manner and go to the very roots of the issue.JazakAllah al khairWasalaam
Dec02Zeynep Salam Alaykum Sisters and Brothers, I wanted to ask if you can inrfom me about the Program at the day of Ashura, like..where will it take place, wenn does it start and end.And is the program in English? Unfortunately I dont understand Arabic or Farsi.. just Turkish or English.
ALL LIES, THE IMAMS DID DO TATBIR AND EVEN BEFORE ASHURA HAPPENED MANY OF THE PROPHETS HAD CONTRIBUTED IN DIFFERENT WAYS, FOR EXAMPLE FALLING TO THE GROUND OF KARBALA TO SHED BLOOD FOR IMAM HUSSEIN (AS)
Whom ever denies this truth will suffer
kindly do give references if you think any imam a.s had done tatbir…
kindly do give references if you think any imam a.s had done this act !!
It’s in biharulanwar that Zainab salamullah alyeha brock her for head for mourning of imam check history of tatbir on Wikipedia
This is a very weak and unreliable report. You must read the rest of this site to see that we have spoken about it already.
Admin : The above mentioned act has been mentioned in total 9 authentic books & including 2 times in Bihar al Awar also. So on what basis YOU claim it to be as weak & unreliable report.Kindly do not spread false news through this website, its a sin.
Below is the list of the books confirming the above incident.
Bihar Al Anwar, Vol. 45, Pg. 115
Bihar ul-Anwar, vol 35
Ferdous al-A’laa, page 19
Majales ul-Faakhera, page 298
Jalaa al-Oyun, vol 2, page 238
Zaynab al-Kubra, page 112
Asraar al-Shahadah, page 474
Al-Muntakhab, vol 2, page 478
Nusrat ul-Madhlum, page 18
Those books all take the narration from Majlisi’s book.
This can’t be clearly stated that Imam never performed tatbir, because many books written during era of Imams have not been able to reach to us, many were burnt or intentionaly misplaced. So we should not say with surety about this act being not practiced by our Holy Imams.
If it is not stated in any of the books clearly because the books were burned or intentionally misplaced as you say then isn’t it better to refrain from it because you don’t know and because the act could be potentially harmful and not a part of Islam at all ??? Please don’t do things because you think they might be right….just follow Islam on the basis of what we do have this way there is less confusion and you know for sure what you are following is correct. I have heard some mullas (I won’t call then maulanas) even say that if you don’t do it or if you don’t beleive in tatbir then you are a kafir forget about being Muslim…comments like these make me realize that there are extremists that belong to both the shia and sunni groups not just sunni
This is a very reasonable article with regards to the practice of self-flagellation.
The tazieh and mourning ritual is really a pre-Islamic, and was taking place in Iran, for Siawush, a hero, before Islam came to Persia. Later it was during the the Qajar and Safavid rulers sponsored tazieh’s for the tragic event of Kerbala & it got connected with mourning for Imam Hussain a.s.
The majority of the Ulema are against the drawing of blood, but they do not object to mourning & chest beating, reciting nauhas and qasidas etc.
Thanks to those who perform tatbir, the most widely published photos of Ashura are those of deranged looking men whipping themselves bloody. Or worse, slicing of children’s scalps.
If you are lucky enough to be able to shed a few litres of blood, please go donate it. You may save a life.
true . somebody shuld have told Imam Zain ul abedin to not shed tears of blood while he remembered karbala, but instead donate.