Ashura Offers a Timeless Framework for Social Reform: Scholar
Mohsen Esmaeili, a professor at the University of Tehran, made the remarks during a local conference on Tuesday on the enduring relevance of the 7th-century uprising led by Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Ashura, commemorated annually by Shia Muslims, marks the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, in which Imam Hussein and his companions were martyred.
“Ashura is a school and a classroom, not an incident,” Esmaeili said, quoting the well-known phrase ‘Every day is Ashura and every land is Karbala’. “The message is that the Ashura school can never be shut down. It will continue to teach humanity until the Day of Judgment.”
Referring to Imam Hussein’s will to his half-brother Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, Esmaeili said its opening lines lay out the intellectual foundations of the movement, including affirmations of monotheism, the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH), and belief in the afterlife. He cited the Imam’s declaration: “I did not rise out of arrogance, rebellion, corruption, or oppression.”
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According to Esmaeili, the Imam sought “to reform the ummah of my grandfather” — a term he distinguished from individual Muslims. “The ummah is the collective face of the Muslim community,” he said. “Imam Hussein wanted to change the prevailing discourse, not just correct the behavior of certain individuals.”
He argued that the first operational step in this reform was enjoining good and forbidding evil, a principle he said had been narrowly interpreted in modern times. “We have confined it to matters that only harm the individual, but evil here includes the destruction of national resources, embezzlement, theft, and the corruption of rulers,” he said.
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