The suffering and martyrdom of imam Husayn, the son of Ali b. Abi Talib and Fatima al-Zahra the daughter of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ, may God’s peace and prayers be upon all of them in the 10th of Muharram 680 AD should be considered the biggest crisis in the history of the Muslim community.
While the greatest calamity remains the passing of the prophet Muhammad saws himself, the martyrdom and suffering of his grandson imam Husayn and his family was catastrophic for different reasons. The assassination of the second caliph ʿUmar b. al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, was by a non-Muslim.
Meanwhile, the murder of the third caliph ʿUthman b. ʿAffan, may God be pleased with him, was at the hands of rebel Muslims and the assassination of imam Husayn’s father, our master Ali b. Abi Talib, peace be upon them both, was at the hands of the heretic Abu Maljam.
On the other hand, the massacre of imam Husayn and his family, peace be upon them, took place at the hands of none other than a Muslim army, sent by the self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslims Yazid. The political and theodicical ramifications of this travesty should not be lost on any Muslim: a Muslim army had massacred the descendants of its own prophet.
This bloody event at Karbala proved its magnitude shortly thereafter, when the very birth of Islamic theology was catalyzed at the hands of Wasil b. ʿAtaʾ and the birth of the first school of Islamic theology, Muʿtazilism.
In response to the Umayyad crime against the family of the prophet saws and their later claim to divine authority as rulers of the Muslim community, the Muʿtazili school regarded free will as a central pillar of their theology: human beings have absolute choice in their actions and God will necessarily punish those who commit crimes in this world – read Umayyads.
But the mystics among the Sunnis, collectively known as ahl al-taṣawwuf, perceived the story of imam Husayn’s martyrdom differently. While acknowledging the suffering of ahl al-bayt (the prophetic household), peace be upon them, they also recognized and emphasized the inherent metaphysical triumph: imam Husayn will forever be commemorated and Yazid cursed. Not only is imam Husayn and his family’s suffering perceived as a prophetic inheritance but also a means for an eternal spiritual victory.
Al-Shaykh al-Akbar (The Greatest Master), Muhyiddin Ibn al-ʿArabi, one of the most celebrated Muslim saints and mountains of Islamic thought, has a lot to say about the lofty status of the prophetic household and Jesus Christ. In the next few paragraphs, I would like to paint a portrait of the intimate relationship between imam Husayn and Jesus Christ, peace be upon them, in the writings of this prominent Muslim polymath.
Ibn al-ʿArabi holds, as is normative Islamic belief, that Jesus Christ will return as the Messiah. However, whereas his first coming was as a prophet immediately preceding the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them, Ibn al-ʿArabi states that his second coming will be as a Muslim saint, since there can be no legislating prophet after the prophet of Islam, peace be upon him. For this reason, Ibn al-ʿArabi says that Jesus will have two resurrections: first as a prophet and secondly as a saint from the Muslim community.
As a prophet, Jesus Christ peace be upon him is an archetype of wirātha (spiritual inheritance), as Ibn al-ʿArabi states. Every Muslim saint necessarily inherits from one or more prophets, as well as al-salaf al-salih (the pious predecessors) among the early generations of the Muslims, during their journey to God, eventually reaching the station of Muhammadan inheritance where they inherit directly from the prophet of Islam, peace be upon him. Prior to that, they inherit from him indirectly through the mirror of all the preceding prophets and messengers, including Jesus.
The signs of this inheritance manifest in miracle performance (e.g., resurrecting the dead, curing the lepers, parting the sea) and reliving the life of the prophet in question. For this reason, the life and suffering of imam Husayn has often been compared to Jesus Christ, since both share the sign of crucifixion and suffering.
Although Jesus was not crucified physically, according to Islamic belief, Ibn al-ʿArabi explains that Christ’s description as kalimatullah (God’s Word) in the Quran alludes to an etymological relative, kalim (wound). In other words, Christ might have not been crucified physically, but he himself is a spiritual crucifixion.
The Andalusian mystic explains the kalim (wound) inherent in kalimatullah (God’s Word): The Divinely created Words wound the empty canvas of non-existence just as pen wounds a paper. Incidentally, the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him also established similarities between imam Ali b. Abi Talib, imam Husayn’s father, peace be upon them and Jesus. The prophet saws stated in the hadith: “The likeness of you [Ali] is like that of Jesus: people will either love you so much so as to worship you or hate you so much so as to try and kill you.”
However, if Jesus returns as a Muslim saint, that means he himself will inherit from Ahlul-bayt. This is the completion of the cycle of time as the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him stated during the last sermon: “Indeed, time has cycled in its original form on the day God created the heavens and earth”: Imams Ali and Husayn inherit from Jesus the prophet and Jesus the Muslim saint inherits from them in return.
But what and from whom will he inherit, peace be upon him? According to Islamic belief, Christ’s return will be alongside the Mahdi (rightly guided) descendant of the prophet Muhammad, from the genealogical line of imam Husayn, peace be upon them. If as the Biblical narrative states, that Jesus’ first coming was as a lamb and his second as the ‘lion of Judah’, then the inheritance which the Messiah carries is one of justice, of standing alongside the paragon of Ahlul bayt, the Mahdi peace be upon him, to complete the story of the prophetic household, rendering every suffering lamb a triumphant lion of God.
Perhaps it’s not without a reason that one of the nicknames of Imam Ali (A.S) is also Asadullah ( The lion of Allah)
Very clearly written and educational.
-Ibrahim R