UNDERTHESHADEOFAHLULBAIT

It is Muharram once again. Muharram 1431 exactly 1370 years since the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (A.S). We start our yearly commemoration of the event. Why do we do it? Millions of Shias all around the world celebrate this event in different ways. Let me try to analyse why do we do it? I think it is important for everyone who participates in the commemoration of this event to be very clear about whay he or she is participating in this event. Suppose I ask myself why I am doing so? Do I have an answer. It is 7.30 PM and I am sitting before a computer not at my home but in the library of Escorts Hospital and have just finished hearing a lecture of Syed Ammar Nakshwani. Why am I doing so? Is this a ritual I follow because I was born in a Shia family and have been doing so since my childhood. In other words is it just a habit? There are people in the world who perform many rituals out of habit just like they brush their teeth every morning.I have seen many people in Saudi Arabia e,g prayi...

The events in Iran have taken a nasty turn. Demonstrators outside Tehran University finally crossed what could be the redline in this whole dispute. They publicly tore the poster of the Leader of The Revolution, Imam Khomeine and trampled it. The response has been swift and predictable. Even Mr. Musavi has sensed the seriousness of this episode and has tried to say that those who did so cannot be students and that they are all followers of Imam's line and ready to lay their lives for him. However even if Mr. Musavi is right one thing is clear that majority of his followers and supporters who have been at the centre of these demonstration are supporters of system change who fundamentally want to change the system and are not subscribers of the doctrine of "Willayat-e-Faqih". This event might prove to be the last limit of tolerance of the regimen. The statement of the Leader which came out today has a very different tone than his previous statements where he used to sound p...