Shia Muslims across the world mourn the death of Imam Hussain on the 10th day of Muharram.
Millions of Shia Muslims will on Friday mark the climax of the annual ritual of Ashura with expressions of suffering where they mourn the slaying of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammed. Imam Hussain was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD on the tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.
Shia Muslims across the world mourn the death of the Imam on this day which is called Ashura. They mark Muharram by flagellating themselves with sharp objects, a practice which has discouraged by many Shia clerics.
Here are 10 facts on the significance of Muharram:
1- Ashura is the 10th day of the of Muharram when Imam Hussein was killed in battle in 680 AD.
2- On the first day of Muharram, the first month of Islamic calendar, the army of Caliph Yazid laid siege to Hussain and followers in the desert near Kerbala (in present day Iraq). Hussain was killed in battle 10 days later after he had refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid.
3- Hussain was decapitated and his head was taken to Damascus, the seat of the Ummayad dynasty to which Yazid belonged.
4- Hussain's followers were those who believed that Ali, as Prophet's son in law, was his natural successor and his sons after him. They believed that Allah chose Ali to be the Prophet's successor and the first caliph.
5- After Ali's death, his younger son Hussain led his followers in a battle against Yazid and was martyred on the 10th day of Muharram.
6- The death of Hussain eventually led to the division of Islam into the two main Sunni and Shia sects.
7- Shias, which literally means followers, mourn his death every year by bloody self-flagellation or cutting themselves by sharp objects such as blades and knives to signify the suffering Imam Hussain experienced shortly before his death.
8- Muharram is a period of intense grief and mourning where people from the community gather to mark the day.
9- 10th Muharram also marks the day when Prophet Musa (Moses, who is believed to be an ancestor of Prophet Muhammad) was saved from the Pharaoh of Egypt by God.
10- Sunni Muslims mark the day by voluntary fasting as a tradition followed by Prophet Muhammad.
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