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A letter from a friend ...

A letter from a friend ...

 

Lay down your arms, then you may enter. 

 

I am not sure how true it might be, but I have always felt a certain resemblance between some characteristics of "religion" and Hazrat-e Abbas (pbuh)... 

 

God says in the Quran that the religion is but Islam, but to surrender. To be constrained, celled in other words... "The (true) religion with God is Islam." 

 

"إنّ الدین عند الله الإسلام"

 

When you look at the religion, it is basically a set of constraints, from head to toe. It is as if you have chained yourself up voluntarily. 

 

True, it gives you a set of rights too, but this also, it seems, mingled with much obligation. A prominent example of these limitations is hijab. As much immunity it might bring, it stays a limitation all the same. 

 

Let alone shouldering daily prayers, fasting, khoms, hadj, and jihad, which will go as far as to claim your life. 

 

Now you can tell me that these all are not restrictions but freedom itself... Fine, as you say... but how I would like to see your face in the battlefield facing the barrage of bullets... Well, it is no joke; it is a war. One kills, the other falls. You have to give your life willingly and have no complaints, so that you will be rewarded. You must beg God to accept your offering, your life. 

 

All I have just said is not the religion itself but its consequences. God says that religion is the initial surrender. To entirely accept what you are said. To let go of all your authority. 

 

Religion from the outside looks pretty much the way I described it for you. A practical treatise with commands of all sorts. Looked from the outside, having not surrendered, it is as if you are being shown God with a frown on His face. 

 

He even threatens that once a muslim, you have no right to go back. If you do, you're an apostate and you are to be hanged. But as soon as you surrender, things will be different. Many things will swap meanings; Freedom with slavery... Joy with hardship... Even sanity with insanity... 

 

I am only guessing all this, I just don't know because I have not surrendered myself the way God meant it to be. I am one of those muslims described by Imam Hussain: We are not God's men but we pretend to be so, as long as it all goes well we take the time to do the prayers and to fast... 

 

"أالناس عبید الدنیا و الدین لعق علی السنتهم یحوطونه ما درّت معایشهم..." 

 

To be honest, I do not know how religion looks from the inside... Maybe I can go on a bit about it, but I have yet to see it. What I do know is that once surrendered, God shows you a different face... 

 

Many years ago, maybe fifteen or so, I started reading Maghtal-e Seyed-o Shohada. I had to read it in order to do something I had to do, that is. I read a story there which, off the top of my head, I can't say if it was in Magtal-e Kharazmi or Nasekh-o Tavarikh, but some of that story has stuck in my mind ever since.

 

On the Day of Ashura, just before the break of war, Omar-e Sa'd sent a messenger to Imam Hussain's camp. It was apparently another offer of allegiance with Yazid. 

 

The messenger approached the tents... It wasn't mentioned there who was guarding the tents, but it must have been Hazrat-e Abbas' (pbuh) responsibility... Be it himself or those under his command. 

 

Finally, they didn't let the messenger in the tent. They had told him to lay his arms down before entering. 

 

You have to give your arms to Abbas Ibn-e Ali if you really want to enter Imam's tent... First you have to endure his heavy, lowering look.  That the messenger could not and turned back.

 

This time, Omar-e Sa'd sent another messenger. 

 

The story goes that he turned in his arms and entered the tent; he delivered the message. Imam looked into his eyes, and said: 

 

"Well, you have done what you had to, now you can go." His legs had gone numb, his heart stuck... He couldn't go back... Said, "I have just found you! Where can I go?" He stayed and became one of the martyrs of Karbala. 

 

We do not really know what he saw in Imam's eyes... All we know is that he laid his arms down before Hazrat-e Abbas and entered Imam's tent. 

 

There are times I think to myself that the seeming difficulties accompanying religion do not really stem from God's do's and do not's, nor from not committing sins and observing the lawful and unlawful ... and nor from anything else... 

 

All the hard work comes down to that sole moment. The moment you want to take your sword off your waist. The moment you are to lay your arms down. 

 

All the opposition, the nagging, has nothing to do with reason or logic. It is simply down to that sword still hanging down from our waist, that guard we are still keeping up on the doorstep. 

 

You, who have yet to enter, what is it that you are against?! 

 

There is a great tradition among the pilgrims to Imam Hussain's shrine; before entering the shrine, they stop by Hazrat-e Abbas' shrine and turn in all their belongings, their "I". 

 

Having surrendered, light and unburdened, they make their way then to Imam’s shrine. 

 

Figure out in whose hands your weapon is!!!