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Al-Serat Journal Vol. V. No. 3 and 4

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Al-Serat Journal Vol. V. No. 3 and 4 In the name of ALLAH, the Merciful the Compassionate Quarterly magazine Vol. V. No. 3 and 4 Muharram 1400/November 1979 Page Verses from The Holy Qur’an ... 2 Al-Husayn, The Ideal of the Hero in the Swahili Epic ... ... ... Dr. Jan Knappert 3 The Illustrious Imamat — period of Imam Zaynal ‘Abidin ... ... ... S. Saeed Akhtar Rizvi ... 16 Al-Husayn — The Truest Demon- stration of Faith ... ... ... Dr. I. K. A. Howard ... 22 Al-Husayn, the Martyr and his Ideology ... ... ... ... Mirza ... Ali Azhar ... ... ... 27 Western Attitudes to Islam ... Prof. C. F. Beckingham ... ... ... 34 Imams — Clear and Coherent Policy ... ... ... ... S. ... J. Hussain ... ... ... ... ... 33 EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY THE MUHAMMADI TRUST OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND 9 MOUNT PLEASANT ROAD, LONDON NW10 3EG, ENGLAND TELEPHONE: 01-451 1562 1 In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate Our Lord, we have heard a caller calling us to belief, saying, “Believe you in your Lord !” And we believe. Our Lord, forgive Thou us our sins and acquit us of our evil deeds, and take us to Thee with the pious. Our Lord, give us what Thou hast promised us by Thy Messengers, and abase us not on the Day of Resurrection; Thou wilt not fail the tryst. And their Lord answers them: ‘I waste not the labour of any that labours among you, be you male or female — the one of you is as the other. And those who emigrated, and were expelled from their habitations, those who suffered hurt in My way, and fought, and were slain — them I shall surely acquit of their evil deeds, and I shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow.’ A reward from God! And God — with Him is the fairest reward. Sura III v. 190-195 the Koran interpreted by A. J. Arberry Contributions to Alserat express the views of their authors and not necessarily the views of the Editorial Board or the Trustees. 2 AL-HUSAYN (HUSENI), THE IDEAL OF THE HERO IN THE SWAHILI EPIC Dr. Jan Knappert After publishing an article in Al-Serat about a well-known Swahili epic on the death of Al-Husayn,1 I discovered another manuscript in Arabic script, containing a totally different version which had never come to light before. In this study I can only give a selection of the best stanzas with, English translations, adding a few appraising or critical notes on the contents and the imagery of the poem. This manuscript opens with the scene of the encircling of al-Husayn’s army by the Umayyad troops, and ends with the death of al-Husayn. The article on al-Husayn in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Vol. 3, p. 610-611) gives a good summary of the final stages of the battle of Karbala’, which I will summarise here, so that the reader may follow the thread of the story in the selected stanzas that are given below. After Al-Husayn’s speech the community of the Talibiyya perform the noon prayers. It was later on that afternoon of the 10th of Muharram that Husayn’s party became narrowly encircled, and the massacre began. The first to fall at the sacrilegious hands of Shamir, Ibn Sa’d and Ibn Ziyad, was ‘Ali al-Akbar, the son of al-Husayn, then the sons of ‘Abd Allah b. Jafar, then Qasim, the son of al-Hasan, the senior male descendent of the Prophet. He was a handsome lad. When he was mortally wounded, he called to his unde, al-Husayn. As the dust deared, al-Husayn could be seen taking his nephew’s body in his arms, cursing the murderers, and laying it gently down in front of his tent, next to ‘Ali’s body. Then al-Husayn, overcome by thirst, made his way towards the Euphrates but was prevented from reaching it; wounded in the mouth and chin, he sent up a fervent prayer to God. There, his brother, al-‘Abbas, trying to join him; was surrounded by the enemy and killed after fighting courageously to the end. (His tomb was erected on that spot later). Finally, Malik b. Nusayr al-Kindi wounded al-Husayn on the head so that his hood was filled with blood. (God cursed Malik with poverty for the rest of his life.) Al-Husayn withdrew to the tents where a child had just been born. The child was placed in his arms and he walked out with it. In his arms, the child was hit by an arrow, so that it died. Al-Husayn poured its blood on the ground, cursing the attackers. Shamir came up and cursed al-Husayn, but he did not dare to attack him. Al-Husayn was assisted by a boy, whose hand was cut off in the fighting. There were only three men left now. They fought to the death. Al-Husayn’s body was left naked on the battlefield, despoiled after he had fallen on his face, wounded several times. Sinan b. Anas cut off his head. More than any other hero in the rich tradition of the Islamic literatures it is al-Husayn who has been sung by the bards in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Swahili. His tragic death at the hands of the Caliph Yazid’s soldiers has been the subject of many books, historical, moral and theological. At least two Swahili utenzis have 3 been written on al-Husayn.2 In the following pages passages will be quoted from the unpublished short version which is really not more than a fragment. However, in many ways these stanzas stand out as poetically more powerful than those of the published version. There is more concentration on the tragic aspect of the story, one might say it is intended to be more “tear-jerking”. In reality it seems that a different theological conviction was the motivation for writing it. Al-Husayn’s death at Karbala’ was exploited by the partisans of his family, the descendants of ’Ali, to organise themselves into a powerful party which fought the reigning caliphs and sultans of Islam until it founded a state of its own, Persia, in 1501.3 The influence of this sect, the Ithna ashari branch of the Shi’a, on Swahili literature is still an open field for research. This book, however, is more concerned with literature than with the history of religions, so the question can be left here. The Utenzi Wa Kufa Kwa Huseni, “the Epic of al-Husayn’s Death” is available in a manuscript now in S.O.A.S. in the handwriting of Yahya Ali Omar. It contains only 93 stanzas, so short that one must conclude either that it is only a fragment of the whole epic or, alternatively, that this text was used for liturgical purposes. We know that the Ithna ashari prayer-leaders recite the history of al-Husayn’s life and death during and after the procession on ‘Ashura-day on the 10th of Muharram.4 The utenzi opens with the central point of the Shi’a doctrine concerning al-Husayn i.e. that a grandson of the Holy Prophet is more than an ordinary human being and that killing him is thus more than murder: it is sacrilege. The scene of theutenzi is set for Islam’s worst tragedy: The great disaster in the month of Muharram (which befell) the seed of our honoured Prophet when he entered the region erf Karbala’ (Although) the sacred tradition had told them (the enemies) that the Holy Prophet had charged his followers: “Love my offspring” — they had followed the opposite principle. After 661 A.D.5 the government of the State of Islam i.e. its Caliph Mu’awiya and his party, endeavoured to destroy the party of the family of the Prophet since they constituted a threat to his political hegemony. The question as to what extent this view is an exaggeration of the historical reality can here be left unanswered. For the Shi’a party there is no doubt that their view is the correct one. And for the purpose of studying the utenzi as epic literature, that view is a suitable point of departure since it is the essential part of the myth that the Shi’a belief is based on. And the contents of epics are myths, not necessarily historical facts, which are accidental to the kernel of a religion. History has revealed many heroes as irresolute men of weak character, but myth has made them into heroes who die for the sake of their faith 4 and are thus worthy of imitation. Epic poetry is about these heroic characters, not about the weaklings of history, for the listeners need shining examples. Here is al-Husayn then, on his way to defend the faith, conscious of his duty: Husayn was on the way hoping to protect the religion of Islam, to thwart the Satans, and restore peace on Earth. Al-Husayn, the hero, is surrounded by enemies who are hatching evil: Wakamwandalia vita They prepared a war against him’ na mengi mno matata and many other pitfalls, uwovu na usalata evil and hostile acts, for husuda ikadmia their jealousy was complete. Kwa moyo uso imani They had no faith in: their hearts majeshi washika kani they readied their armies for the hostilities... na damu waitamani for they lusted after the blood ya thuriya ya Nabiya of Husayn, the Holy Prophet’s grandson! Some of the Swahili words that express feelings of hatred in general are extremely difficult to translate. Matata literally means “entanglements”, here it means intrigues, plots, schemes hatched out by evil minds to prepare the hero’s fall.
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