* قل َل اسئلكم عليه اجرا ا َل المودۃ في القربى * Translation: Say, [O Muhammad], “I do not ask you[anything] for this message[reward for my duty of your Prophet] any payment[favour] but only true love to [my] kinship.” (Surah Ash-Shura 23). Imam Ahl-e-Sunnat, the great commentator of Quran , Hazrat Imam Fakhr-ud-Din Razi said in his Tafseer-e-Kabir that this verse was revealed in honor of the Holy Pious Five (PANJATAN PAK) and AHLE BAYT (Peace and blessings be upon them). This is the view of most of the commentators of the Holy Quran. If we focus and deeply think about the mentioned verse which is also called *Ayat-e-Mawwdat*, then we can easliy understand that ALLAH is saying that whatever the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his pious progeny) has done like His Highness has taught prayers, taught fasting, made people understood the necessity of Zakat, preached Islam…… He brought us out from the darkness of satanism, cruelty, etc. and enlightened us about the virtues of Islam, taught us the importance of good etiquette morality…..made us role models to the world to follow with the light of divine knowledge taught us all commandments of Islam. His Majesty made all of us perfect human beings and during this hardships that our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him and pious progeny) endured massively. Such as starvation, endured the animosities of the people, stoning of the people but still He persevered and kept patient. As it is mentioned in the famous hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon himand his pious progeny ) said: No one has suffered as much as I have suffered in the path of ALLAH. For example, the AHLE BAYT of any Prophet were never taken prisoner, nor were the daughters of any Prophet unveiled and mis treated in the bazaar. But His Highness continued to preach Islam in all circumstances and conveyed the commandments of ALLAH to companions from them generation after generation it reached to us. So ALLAH is pointing toward all these His sacrifices and saying in this verse that nothing is needed in return for all these sacrifices except that the Messenger of ALLAH (peace be upon him and his pious progeny) and his AHLE BAYT (peace be upon them) should be loved. With this we came to cconclusion that the return-reward of the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) for his prophetic duty which he performed for us is to love the AHKE BAYT( peace be upon them) immensely. What is Mawaddat (The word ALLAH uses in the mentioned verse to highlight the importance of AHLE BAYT blessings be upon them) ?The state of feelings & emotions that begins after the end of the stage of love is called AL Mawaddat. Elaborately, the feeling in which a person likes another person so much that he begins to give him superiority over himself and obey his command is called love (Al Muhabbat). Whereas Al Mawaddat is a step beyond to Al Muhabbat i.e. love. When a person begins to love someone so immensely that he is willing to give up his all for it and does not even refrain from giving his life for it. ALLAH is commanding the believers to love the AHLE BAYT (peace be upon them) in the same way as this is the requirement of faith. On the basis of the command in this verse given above, we often say that we can sacrifice our lives for our beloved Prophet and his holy progeny. The Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him and his pious progeny) commanded us to love the AHLE BAYT in so many prophetic narrations. Now is not the time to mention them. I would like to point out that those who are interested in reading those prophetic narrations can read hadiths such as the hadiths of Thaqalain and the hadiths of the sheet. It is narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him and holy hiers) said: No one can be a Muslim unless he loves me and no one can love me unless gives superiority to my family upon his own family. Therefore, the love and affection of the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) and the AHLE BAYT (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) requires & demands that when a matter/time of happiness befalls upon them, they should participate and celebrate with them in their happiness and present proof of their faith. Like if there is an occasion of Prophet’s (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) birthday or the date of the birth of HAZRAT ALI or HAZRAT SYEDA ZAHRA or HAZRAT IMAM HASAN or HAZRAT IMAM HUSAIN or any of the AHLE BAYT (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon them), then the believer should rejoice on that day. In the same way, the requirement of love and affection for the AHLE BAYT (as) is that if there is a date of the demise or martyrdom of any of these AHLE BAYT(as), Believers should express grief & sorrow, especially at the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (as). Today, the shadah of every Muslim who breathes in the shadow of faith is a blessing of IMAAM HUSAIN (as) and no one can repay this kindness at any cost. Today, if a person performs ibadah and obeys the divine commandments are blessings of Imam Hussain (as) and the martyrs of Karbala. This is very well expressed by a poet. Namaziyo pe hai farz ye KHUDA ki qasam, Bicha ke musalla kahein HUSAIN ZINDABAD. Translation:It is obligatory upon every worshipers, By God… They must say on the prayer carpet “Long live HUSAIN!” So the sign of this love is that we must prefer the grief of IMAM HUSAIN (as) over our happiness in the month of Muharram. And that’s why we abstain ourselves from all happiness. When we love someone and unfortunately any grief or a tragic incident befalls upon him/her, we accept his grief over our happiness. Therefore, in the month of Muharram, the souls of the Holy Prophet & His holy progeny (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon them) are indeed sad, and the requirement of being a believer is to offer prayers and condolences to the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him & His holy progeny) and must say from the depth of the heart: O Messenger of ALLAH, we are with you in this painful situation to share your grief. Kindly accept our condolences. The last sentence Of the Hadith in the Sahih Muslim which is also known as Hadith of Saqlain, that is, the Qur’an and the AHLE BAYT(Peace be upon them), is that the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him & his progeny) said: I warn you against ALLAH in the matter of my AHLE BAYT (peace be upon them). The Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him & his progeny) said this three times. (Hadith Saqlain narrated by Muslim). Can’t we postpone our happiness because of the grief of the Prophet (peace be upon him & his progeny) and the AHLE BAYT(peace be upon them)? infact this is the necessity of love and has been proved by the verse mentioned above from the Holy Qur’an. My question to fellow believers is that on the Day of Resurrection, if the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him & his progeny) asks you why you could not participated in our grief, what will you answer? If the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him &his progeny) asks that you were celebrating the joy of my Milad all your life, Did you share in my grand children’s grief? So what will be the answer? If the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) asked that you decorated parties in our sad dates in the world and were wishing Happy New Year, arranged entertainment, etc. Didn’t you remember our dates of grief & sorrow, what will you answer? Believers, take the blood of a little consciousness ….. This is proved by the hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) would ask the ummah about his AHLE BAYT (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him). Because in some prophetic narrations there are words that I will see how you treat my AHLE BAYT(peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him). The word “I will see” in this narration means that the Prophet (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon them) will ask questions. If anyone has the courage to answer, then he can do whatever he wants. Otherwise there is no way out of it except mourning upon the grief & sorrow of AHLE BAYT (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon thrm). In battle field of Karbala, following the same verse of mawaddat, Syeda Zainab (peace be upon her) shared the grief of HAZRAT IMAM HUSAIN (peace be upon him) by sacrificing her children upon HAZRAT IMAM HUSAIN (peace be upon him) and friends of Hazrat Imam Hussain (peace be upon him)did the same and participated in the grief of HAZRAT IMAM HUSAIN (peace be upon him) and performed the rightful duty & fulfilled the requirement of mawddat. The requirement of faith is to throw off everything in the world for the grief of HAZRAT IMAM HUSAIN (peace be upon him) and to share in his grief, to prove the faith by following the command of the Qur’anic verse and to pay the reward of the Prophethood. والسالم علیکم Seeker of the intercession of the PROPHET and his HOLY and PIOUS FAMILY, Syed Faizan Warsi ( May ALLAH Forgive him)
Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi 