What is Shiasm?
Originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1The Shia children ,
To shoot this child I took her fathers permission, she knows that
what she s touching is a religious thing, and indeed it is the Taboot of Imam Hussain.
A replica of his coffin, bedecked with flowers at Kaiser Bagh before the Juloos.
A Shia child grows up fast on a fast track of Shiasm.
Her mother is the architect of her spiritual world, I say this as I watch sons wife teach Marziya to parrot words like Ya Hussain.
Marziya responds with gurgling sounds, that a normal two months old baby makes.
She is learnin grapidly she says Hi she says Hello...
And her mother takes her everyday cradled in her arms to the Majlis, the world around her, the cries the chant of Ya Hussain, all pervading her cosmic consciousness.
This is Shiasm, giving birth in the amniotic fluid waters of the euphrates held in the womb of Shia womanhood and motherhood.
We owe it to our mothers , our aunts , our grand mothers for keeping the flame alive.
The strength of our Shiasm lies in our Womanhood.
Mothers who carrying a baby on the waist two held to the hand go from one Majlis to another, poor sanitary conditions at Imambadasdoes not deter them, the kids are amply toilet trained , hardened to a life that seeks succour in Ghame Hussain.
Moharam is the pinnacle of a period od severity, no movies, no marriages , no parties, just black clothes and Ya Hussain Ya Hussain.
Before Moharam sets in the ladies of the House begin their arduous task of changing their life styles, the moth ball smelling black clothes come out from the trunks and cupboards the boys get their Zanjir blades out of the drawers still stained with dried blood of last Ashura matam , the house Imambada is decorated ,new patkas made fr the Alams, from gold brocade fabric, the Alams are sent to be silver polished..
This is Shiasm..
New Nohas , are noted down in the Byas or the Matam reading copy book..and the entire Shia household awaits the Chand of Moharam,, the Moon of Moharam.And my eyes are slowly getting moist as I remember my departed Mother who made us good human beings by just making us Shias..
Yes this is Shiasm.
Tolerance was the cornerstone of my Mother late Shamim Shakirs faith and creed.
Our house maid was an old Hindu lady we called Bai.. who would stand in a corner and slowly beat her chest repeating Ya Hussain , she taught me that Hussain is not a part of a Muslim Religion but part of a life to be lived.
Yes I am crying, as I showed the same respect to her beloved Ganesha and ate the Modak she offered me..
Yes this is pure pristine Shiasm of an ethos called Mee Mumbaikar..
This Hindu Maharashtrian lady from Colaba Military Quarters who worked at our house that belonged to the family of Nawab Kashmiri at Wodehouse Road made us what we are today, I remember her son Tulsiya too..
So simultaneously I remember my maternal grandmother Nazmi begum wife of late Daroga Nabban Saab of Pata Nala who would visit us and add the charm of LUcknow that we hardly knew I talk of circa 1955 .Or my paternal grandmother Khurshed Baji who too came to visit us from Vazir Ganj Lucknow.
All these collective memories become a part of our everlasting tryst with Shiasm.
With Marziyas birth they come out alive and her mother who has become the newest daughter of our family.
So Shiasm is feeling of self respect mutually respecting the religious rights of others and this all came to us as our ancestral heritage the gift from another Mother,
yes a Mother who lost everything the Mother of Hassan and Hussain.
Princess Fatima the erstwhile daughter of the Holy Prophet.
This is what a picture does to the poetry of my soul..
This is a poem if you read it as such.. a poem of Human life
Yes this is Shiasm a poem of human life that we call Hussainiyat...
“Shah ast Hussain, badshah ast Hussain Deen ast Hussain, deen panaah ast Hussain Sar daad, na daad dast dar dast-e-yazeed Haqu-e-binney la ilaahaa ast Hussain”
“King is Hussain, King of Kings is Hussain/ Faith is Hussian, Protector of Faith is Hussain/ He gave his head but not his hand in the hand of Yazid/ Verily, truth is but Hussain.”
“Bache toh agle baras hum hain aur yeh gham phir hai/ Jo chal basey toh yeh apna salam-i-akhir hai.“
