The historicity of the month of Muharram

I know that you know these – that the month of Muharram is the first of the twelve months in Islamic calendar. That the first ten days of this month are said to be those of the best in which the Almighty granted special favours to humanity. That the ninth and the ten days of this month- yesterday and the day before, going by the current Islamic calendar- are known as Tasuah and Ashurah.

But apart from all those things that we know, there are some other things we should keep ‘knowing’ – that it was in this month of Muharram that Mariyah, mother of Ibrahim, the Prophet’s (s.aw) wife died; that it was in this month that the Prophet went to war in Khaybar in order to defend Islam; that it was in this month that the Prophet completed his marital rites to Safiyyah bint Huyay ibn Akhtab. Among those events of great historical importance which took place in this month, so says tradition, was the victory granted to Prophet Musa (a.s) over the impunity and impudence of Fir’awn.

What a story that is to remember- the story of Prophet Musa. The story of a mother (Prophet Musa’s) who found herself in a war in support of the Almighty. The story of a mother who had to surrender the care of her male child to the custody of his enemy. The story of a friend of the Almighty who had to be raised in the house of His enemy.

Exactly what other wonders are there apart from these from the Almighty. He it is who nurtures the way He likes and with whatever He desires. Prophet Musa could have been nurtured and raised in his mother’s house and still be commissioned into Prophecy. But that would have yielded no patrimony, ‘perquisite’ or aplomb. He could have been nurtured and raised on the street and still enjoyed divine rescue; that would have been one of His ways- the unknowable ways of the Almighty. But He, the Almighty wanted to show Fir’awn that there could be no frustrating the Will of the Immaculate. He was told, so says the story outside the Tanzil, that a young boy through whose mission his hegemony in Egypt shall come to an end would soon be born. He therefore instructed that all newly born male children should be killed. “Verily” so says the last testament, ‘Fir’awn exalted himself in the land and made its people sects, weakening (oppressing) a group (i.e. Children of Israel) among them, killing their sons, and letting their females live. Verily, he was of the Mufsidun (i.e. those who commit great sins and crimes, oppressors, tyrants, etc.). –Quran 29 verse 4.

Such is the way of the powerful in power; the style of the despots when they become unaware of the impermanent in their handsthey become oppressors and tyrannical; they impugn the sacred and invite the Almighty to a battle.

What a story that is- of the boy who would become a man and the man who would become the Prophet. Whenever we say we detest our enemy and loathe their existence, what if in their very existence lie our prosperity? Prophet Musa spent his youthful years as a prince in the house of the King; the king whose suzerainty of error and terror had been destined to an end sooner than he imagined.

Yes, we never know the child we have brought to the world. His mother never knew, like Maryam the mother of prophet Isa (a.s), that her womb had just birthed the new world in which sons and daughters of Israel would find solace and comfort.

You remember the story? Yes. How he eventually led the children of Israel to the shore of the sea. There was Fir’awn, on his horse, seething with anger and hatred. Hatred for the choice of the Almighty; loathsomeness for what the Creator had preferred. Rejoice in the blessings in the hands of the other because He who has granted it to the Other is capable of granting something better to you. Your refusal to stand with Him in His choice for you means your decision to stand out His canopy.

No. Fir’awn wanted to destroy that which he could not create. He wanted to destroy the beloved of the Almighty. Thus in the month of Muharram, in the year not dated because it is simply undatable, the Almighty told Prophet Musa to beat the ocean with his stick. And the ocean became divided into two; mountain of water on the right, mountain of water to the left. And the instruction came- “O! Musa, journey in-between the waters in peace- not fearing peril”. Yes. The stick did the miracle! No. Never. It was the Almighty in action; it was faith in the inestimable power of the Eternal that did miracle. The stick was nothing. It was like the sperm that got mixed with the egg that became this writer that became this reader. It is He alone, the Almighty who could do something from nothing; it is He alone who could build a skyscraper of unfathomable levels out of nothing that could do that. Ponder the heavens. Ponder your nature. It is one of the lessons that the month of Muharram is here to teach to us.