Imam Hussain: The Martyr of the Pioneer Culture of Mankind
Imam Hossein(PBUH): Martyr of the Pioneer culture of Mankind is a book about the incident of Ashura and the historiography of Imam Hussein written by Mohammad Taqi Jafari.
 | |
| Author | Mohammad Taqi Jafari |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historic |
| Published | 2018 |
| Publisher | S Jeyran Main |
| Pages | 211 |
About the book[edit | edit source]
The book Imam Hossain Martyr of the Pioneer culture of mankind was written by Mohammad Taqi Jafari and translated by Shahriar Fassih. In the introduction to the book, the author advises those who have a progressive culture to strive to preserve and popularize that culture, which, if doesn't take place, others will impose their own mixed cultures on them with different tools and methods. Therefore, the author has written about the distortions in the eternal event of Ashura and has properly analyzed and evaluated the nature of Ashura through documented and meticulous research.
According to the author, during the writing of the book, an attempt has been made to write the account of Ashura from another perspective, relying on obvious and clear arguments.
This book is in 211 pages and about 1,540,465 copies of it have been sold.
A review of the book[edit | edit source]
In the first part of the book, the writer speaks of the great wisdom of God; who brings the human soul from the inanimate matter to the highest degree of perfection and it is in accordance with this supreme divine wisdom that God makes the revival of Islam and its values, the result of the cruelest crime of Yazid and Yazidis to Hussain and Hussainis.
In the continuation, he outlines three basic ways to save humanity from futility and explains each of them. These three ways are:
- Providing logical teachings of the Lord
- Collecting and reviewing positive points
- The love of wise people for attaining virtues
In another part of the book, Jafari examines different views of historical events such as the death of Muawiya and the taking allegiance from Imam Hussain for Yazid. There are two views in this regard:
- The Theory of human values
- The Theory of Physical manifestations
In another part of the book reference is made to the inherent life and dignity of human beings from the perspective of universal human rights in Islam. The author points out that whoever is exposed to oppression is obliged to rise up and avert danger because life is a gift from God and its right is guaranteed to all human beings.
Then the question that "What life is that its defense is one of the basic principles of Islam and results in an event like the event of Ashura" is answered?
In the book, the author first explains the nature of life and then deals with the supreme purpose of life while mentioning the examples of great people such as Abu Dharr refer to the recognition of the value of human life.
Another lesson that humanity can learn from the constructive movement of Imam Hussein is the definition and interpretation of the true meaning of power, which the author has explained in a section containing five principles of true and false power, that are:
- Power in all its forms, is a factor of revolutions
- Power in one sense, is an ignorant truth
- Power is inherently a manifestation of the truth
- It is the supporters of right and wrong who are fighting for confrontation, not the power of right and wrong itself.
- The most valuable power is the power of self-possession
In the ninth part of the first book, the two basic personality building elements of the leading culture of humanity are introduced. These two basic elements are 1) hereditary factor, 2) education factor and the environment, both of which are about the character of Imam Hussein at the highest level. Then he explains these cases and in the continuation of this topic, he refers to the book "A radiance of the greatness of Hussein" written by Lutfullah Safi and considers this source as one of the most authoritative Islamic sources for studying the greatness and personality of Imam Hussein.
In the tenth section, the author sees the most fundamental cause of the Ashura incident as Imam Hussein's love for true Islam and considers its defense to be the most important principle. Moreover, he expects scholars of different Islamic sects and religions to pay great attention to the narrative of Imam Hussein's sacrifice in the way of saving human values and states several reasons for this expectation by explaining Imam Hussein as "being the third Imam of Shiites" to be one of the most important of these reasons. At the end of this section, a list of sources is provided to outline a sample of Eastern and Western researches regarding consequences of the spread of Islam.
The twelfth section deals with equality and alliances, which first deals with the principle of equality, referring to the meaning of equality as twelve equalities, including equality of relationship with the Creator, equality in divine wisdom, equality of human beings in the worthiness of the soul being blown into, equality in sowing the seeds of knowledge, etc., and then points to and explains three types of unity among human beings, which are:
- The Unity above oneness
- The Unity resulting from the attraction of valuable dignity
- The Unity of Group Formation
The fourteenth and fifteenth parts of the first book, introduce Muawiyah, Yazid and their deeds. The writer says about them, "Faces have emerged in the history of mankind that seeing or hearing a description of them once is enough to denote obscenity, extreme shamelessness and the intensity of their fight against the right and truth that a human being can have."
Then, in the next section, the goals and motives that caused the resistance of Imam Hussein and his struggle to become stronger and official are discussed, and it is pointed out that the roots of the uprising of Imam Hussein are deeper than that it was for succeeding Yazid, rather it is mentioned in several cases that its roots, begin with the exile of Abuzar Ghaffari to the lack of dignity for humans and sacrificing their dignity and honor for autonomies, each one being described in the book.
In another part, Jafari mentions two important theories about whether 'Imam Hussein knew that he will be martyred in this uprising' and examines both theories.
The first theory: Imam Hussein did not know that he will be martyred in this uprising (according to Ibn Khaldun)
The second theory: Imam Hussein was aware of his martyrdom
In the next section, the author refers to the phrase "the knowledge of a grown man about the remaining life till a certain point of time or his knowledge of death or martyrdom at a certain point in time, is not absolute and is specific to God" and is adamant that the Prophets, Imams and the sincere devotees of God, can understand some of the unseen truths, including death due to their purity and self-purification as well. The examples regarding these are given in the book.
Section 22 of the first book deals with the differences between the progressive culture of the follower and gives explanations for each of them. For example, life based on the progressive culture is considered to be based on four basic conditions and each of them is discussed separately.
- The verdict based on the divine book
- Rising for justice
- Believer in the true religion
- Being dependent on God
Selected Part of the book[edit | edit source]
Men in history considered their lives a medium. Life gets to the point where it becomes a medium. Firstly, in the organism of human existence, life is the highest goal. The whole life is not one step. When one goes up from a step of life, it reaches to the second step, and then to the third, fourth and fifth steps, until it reaches a place where you do not see anything except God. Each previous step becomes a medium for the next step, but this medium itself shows that it is a medium. What can we do if the material does not have a language to say that it is a medium, but the spiritual growth has a language at every lower level and says that I am the medium, pay attention! When knowledge would have really affected the human soul and the soul would have matured, the matured soul says, "Go higher, move on to the next steps.".