Rising To Protect Our Religion

Imam Husayn (a) goes for same reason. Why does he enter in Karbala? To rise against oppressors. Yazid ibn Muawiyah was a wretched man. He wanted to destroy Islam. You know, remember I mentioned the other day, the Prophet said: "soon monkeys would be sitting on the pulpit". It was Yazid who put the monkeys on. And Yazid used to put turbans on the monkeys, to make fun of the Holy Prophet, and then he would race monkeys on camels. He says no one has innovated this idea.

This was Yazid ibn Muawiyah, the most wretched man. He ruled, and in the first three years, he killed Imam Husayn (a). The second one, he desecrated the Holy Prophet's masjid and then he burnt the Kaaba. You could not find somebody who attacks the heart of Islam as a khalifa, than the enemy of God himself, which is Yazid ibn Muawiyah. This is how bad Yazid was. You think the Imam is going to sit on the sidelines and wait for this thing to be dismantled?

Never. Imam says impossible, I will meet the bull by the horns. This is why we honor Imam Husayn, alayhi as-salam, so much, because our Islam it is growing, it is free. It is taking the world when it comes to ethics and morality, because of the work of Ahlul Bayt. Believe me, if not for Ahlul Bayt, there would be no Islam today the way we know it. Let us not give credit to anybody.

I am telling you, the 'Bab' of 'Medinat ul-'ilm' are the Ahlul Bayt. They are the only ones who played the most critical roles to ensure the integrity of Islam, the trajectory of Islam today is only because of our Imams. No question it is the Holy Prophet, of course, who brought Islam, who grew, who laid the foundation. And he is the one who receives all the credit for the growth of Islam. But who were the gates that protected him?

These. Imam is in Karbala, for this reason. He was cornered in Karbala for this reason. And Ibn Ziyad wanted the bayah of Imam Husayn(a) as a license to dismantle Islam and give us a shell of religion so that our Qur'an should be ripped to parts and even our pulpits should become jokes.

And we would have so many traditions that today look in other parts, in other religions. Imagine if we had a Santa Claus, people would laugh at us. What kind of a religion you have a Santa Claus in your stories, a fictitious, overly heavy person flying armed with reindeers from North Pole, going through a very narrow chimney that is black, and he comes up white. What crazy things. I am not putting it down, but come on, Santa Claus does not exist.

If we Muslims had this kind of stories, I would be holding my hand. I would be gasping, what kind of religion did we evolve into? Al-Hamdulillah our Deen does not have such rubbishness. We have got morality that when we commemorate and celebrate, it is valuable. When we talk about Prophets and Imams and, we have reasons. We know how to stand upright. We do not have silly stories. So when we talk about Karbala, these are not silly stories.

These are deep. And when we cry even for a few minutes and I know my bayans will get longer inshaAllah as we get closer to the tenth night, historically. But the bayans are not for us to cry only for the sake of crying. They are for this. Let us walk out of here and say yes, my Imam suffered in Karbala when he said: "Hal min nasirin yansurna?" and many people did not reply.

Zaynab, alayha as-salam, goes to Karbala. I mean, goes to Kufa and says: shame on you people! You are crying now, when the head of Imam Husayn was brought, they were beating them, says, oh, what did we do ya Ibn ar-Rasul Allah? Woe on to you! When my brother called you, you did not reply. You ran away and you shut your doors. When my cousin, Muslim Ibn Aqeel, was there, you did not reply him. You threw him on the streets. Now you are crying!

See the problem? If the people followed Muslim Ibn Aqeel, they would have knocked out Ibn Ziyad, Karbala would not have taken place. If people obey the Prophet when he died and people who obeyed the one the Prophet appointed, this Ba'la would not be taking place in Karbala.

On and on and on. If you and I do not take proactive steps to protect our generations and to protect our future, we will suffer. But we honor people who rise to protect the impact of Shaytan.

{Ya Zaynab Ya Zaynab}