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August 19, 2020

Muharram the of Mourning RIDDLES Dear youngsters, could you Salaam dear young friends, and hope you are all in the best of answer the following ques- health. May protect you from all calamities and especially CO- tions. VID-19 pandemic. 1. I smell like blue paint, Well friends, today is the last of the lunar hijri , pours like green paint, and I which means the day after Friday marks the 1st look like a red truck. What am of – the month of mourning and the month in which blood I? triumphed over swords to shatter tyranny and oppression. 2. I fly to any foreign parts, assisted by my spreading For the information of readers of this column who live abroad, es- wings. My body holds an hun- pecially in the West, the Islamic Republic of has fully prepared dred hearts, Nay, I will tell you itself to greet Muharram. Religious and health authorities have is- stranger things when I am not sued some additional health protocols for this mourning month. in haste I ride, and then I mend Social distancing should be maintained and precautionary mea- my pace anon. What am I? sures like the sanitization of the area plus wearing masks and gloves 3. If you drop me I’m by the devotees of Ahl al-Bayt (Household) of Prophet sure to crack. But give me a (SAWA) should be fully observed. The mourning ceremonies should smile and I’ll always smile not last long for more than 2 and many more things which can back. What am I? reduce the spread of coronavirus should be considered. 4. Weight in my belly, Well friends, do you know how we (devotees of Ahl al-Bayt) trees on my back, nails in my throughout the world observe the first month of the Islamic calendar. ribs, feet I do lack. What am I? Yes, you are correct. The followers of the Ahl al-Bayt do not wel- 5. Blade to blade I al- come Muharram as the of Jahiliyya did, and as the reactionary ways win, my foe laid low and Arab regimes of our own do – with wine, gambling, feasts, even. Yard by yard through womanizing, and all other un-Islamic frivolities, on the pretext of thick and thin, I’m busiest in . What am I? or the start of the New of the Hijra calendar. We do it with black 6. I start in little but I banners, with prayers, with supplications, with elegies, and with dis- JOKES end in full, you’ll find me in courses that reaffirm our allegiance to the dynamic tenets of . half and complete. What am I? How come, the 1st of Muharram is the new Islamic Year? Did the A customer ordered a cup of coffee in a restaurant! The waiter served the coffee. The customer found a Prophet migrate from to on this day? Does Islam al- fly in the coffee. He called the waiter. Answers to last ’s ques- low to indulge in depravities – like the West does on Christ- tions: mas and January 1 – but frown upon celebration of the Prophet’s Customer: How do I drink this coffee! 1. Is birthday and other auspicious occasions, or mourning for the Proph- Waiter: Don’t you know how to drink a coffee? 2. Blank et’s oppressed Ahl al-Bayt on anniversaries of their martyrdom? 3. Light Customer: Waiter, see, there is a fly in my coffee. These and other questions flash across the minds of all conscien- 4. Radish tious people, irrespective of their religion, when they see the - Waiter: Oh yes sir, you are right! There is a fly in your coffee. 5. Closet 6. Billiard Table ists funding terrorists to shed innocent blood as their financiers Customer: Waiter, I said, there is a fly in MMY coffee (He stressed the word MY) dance and drink on the of Muharram, while calling “bid’a” or un-Islamic innovation, the expression of grief and natural beating of Waiter: Oh don’t worry sir, the fly won’t drink much! chests by mourners pouring tears on the calamity that befell Customer: Waiter, it is swimming in my coffee. Send your jokes. Heard any Husain (AS), his family and his steadfast companions. Waiter: Sir, do you want me to get a lifeguard for the fly sir? jokes lately? Well, try and make The answers are obvious. The Prophet did not migrate to Medina us laugh too! from Mecca on the 1st of Muharram. It was on the eve of the 1st of (Annoyed) Customer: the fly dead, it’s irritating! Don’t hesitate! Mail it to us. Rabi al-Awwal that his auspicious Hijra took place. Unfortunately, Waiter: I guess; it doesn’t know how to swim properly. the Second Caliph, although he accepted the proposal of the Com- Kayhan International ad- Customer: How do I drink this coffee? mander of the Faithful, Imam (AS), to the Islamic calendar dress: Ferdowsi St., from the Hijra of the Prophet, stuck to the old pagan practice of Waiter: Don’t you know how to drink? I will teach you! Shahcheraghi Alley, starting the year on the 1st of Muharram instead of Rabi al-Awwal. He drank the coffee! And said, this is how you should drink a coffee. Tehran. Our young friends, whether in Iran or in other lands, very well know that if it wasn’t for the sacrifice of Imam Husain (AS) at in 61 AH, including the martyrdom of his 6-month infant son, Ali Asghar (AS), in the state of acute thirst, Islam would have become extinct long ago. Thanks to the Internet, TV satellites, and The Wolf and the Crane other forms of modern means of communications, they have come to A Wolf had been gorging on an animal it had realize that it is the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) who killed, when suddenly a small bone in the meat manifest the truth of Islam and have bequeathed humanitarian values stuck in its throat and the Wolf could not swallow it. to posterity; and not their stone-hearted foes in whose steps tread The Wolf He soon felt terrible pain in its throat, the terrorists of today, masquerading as Jihadists to deceive ignorant and ran up and down groaning and groaning and Muslims and to tarnish the image of Islam. seeking for something to relieve the pain. Thus, when we mourn Imam Husain (AS) and shun all festivities in It tried to induce every one he met to remove the Muharram, we are actually promoting humanitarian values in obedi- bone. ence to the commandments of God Almighty to stand firmly against “I would give anything,” said the Wolf, “if you all forms of oppression and deviation. would take it out.” Ponder over these points dear friends, until we meet again next At last the Crane agreed to try, and told the Wolf to week on the threshold of the Day of . lie on his side and open its jaws as wide as he could. Then the Crane put its long neck down the Wolf’s throat, and with its beak loosened the bone, till at last it got it out. “Will you kindly give me the reward you promised?” said the Crane. The Wolf grinned and showed its teeth and said: “Be content. You have put Imam Ali (AS) your head inside a Wolf’s mouth and taken it out again in safety; that ought to be “Every person who is tempted to go astray does not deserve reward enough for you.” punishment.” MORAL: “Gratitude and greed go not together”