Imam Hossain (RA), the beloved grandson of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) was viciously trapped, with his near and dear ones at Karbala on the bank of the river Forat, denied water and food and done to death by Yazid, the pretender to power.

The moral of the tragedy is threefold: first, it must be seen as a supreme example of an uncompromising stance taken not by the sword, but with the sheer will of the mind, against usurpation of state power by the vilest of means conceivable. The martyrs, by keeping to the dictates of Islam requiring its adherents not to capitulate before what is wrong and unjust but to fight all that, till their last breath, took the spiritual experience of sacrifice to an exemplary height. Secondly, the episode established the noble principle of faith under attack being more valuable than life. Thirdly, Yazid might have emerged as a mundane winner but the glory of the day belonged to those who died for a cause, triumphant as a moral victor.

The messages to be drawn from the tragedy of Karbala are timeless and, in that sense, the latter has an universality of appeal amongst the forces of good, righteousness and rationality. What we see today is using the name of religion for expedient purposes and, even worse, topping it off with violence. Ashura takes us to the glory of true Islam.

In some parts of the Islamic world we see sectarianism raising its head with the Shi'a-Sunni divide yawning and breeding tension in societies. To our great pride, Bangladesh has traditionally been an abode of communal harmony. It is only lately that a reactionary and orthodox group of people has launched a campaign against the Ahmaddiyas. For the love and respect of Islam, such an expression of intolerance in a fit of persecution mentality must be done away with.