Why Do We Cry So Much For Imam Husayn (A)?
As-salamu alaykum, wa Rahmatu Allah. Why do you Shi'a cry so much? Come on, everyone around us cries a lot. It is not just us. Everybody hurts at some point or another. There are people out there crying on the most trivial things. At least when we cry, we cry in honour of a personality who gave back humanity; in a way that none of us can ever be grateful enough for. When I hear that there are people who cry because their football team got relegated, or I hear that there are people who may cry, for example, because a particular singer has just died, I can, in a way empathise, but in another way they will also appreciate that crying is a natural emotion.
There is a form of catharsis there. Sometimes the letting out or shedding of some grief or some tears at that moment helps each and every one of us. And it is a prophetic tradition. When we say it is a prophetic tradition it, is because we recognise that there are prophets of God, peace be upon them, who have cried at different moments and different intervals in their life.
When you look at me crying for Imam Al-Husayn in the month of Muharram. Remind yourself of Adam, alayhi as-salam, when the tears trickled from his eyes, when he asked God for forgiveness. Remind yourself of Noah who wept profusely. Remind yourself of Jacob when he cried for Joseph, or Joseph when he cried for Jacob. Did not Nabi Yaqub, alayhi as-salam, cry so much that he eventually lost his eyesight?
Remind yourself at the same time of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, when he would cry for his sons when they died. Or when he would cry when he would look at the face of Imam Al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, recognising that one day that head that he would be looking at would be severed on the plains of Karbala. Remember Fatimah az-Zahra', alayhi as-salam, when she cried remembering her father, and the list goes on.
And that is why the Imams of Ahl Al-Bayt, alayhum as-salam, when they tell us about the importance of crying. That is to remind us that part of the spirituality of the human being and the growth of the human being is that sometimes they shed tears. Does not God in the Qur'an mention to us that the Christians are the closest of people to us? Their monks, their priests are humble human beings, and when they hear what has been revealed to our Prophet you, will see that their eyes will overflow with tears.
Why did not God just say that you should not cry? Or the Christians should not cry, or that the Prophet should not cry? Or that Yaqub should not cry? Therefore, when I see Imam Zayn Al-'Abidin, alayhi as-salam, crying after Karbala, having seen the members of his family butcher in front of him, it becomes a teaching for me and for all my community forever. That these tears that we shed for Imam Al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, actually are a cure for us and they maintain our spirituality. Wa as-salamu alaykum, wa rahmatu Allah.
