By Iqbal Suleman
Today justice seekers the world over are commemorating the day of Ashura.
The committed cadres of the Islamic Movement have sacrificed their greatest leaders and courageous foot soldiers in resistance to Israeli Zionist and American Imperial military aggression. Millions are in mourning because the Islamic Movement has sacrificed the cream of its crop for freedom and justice. There is an outpouring of tears, a tightness of throat and a heaviness in the heart on the day of Ashura in this year 2025.
But there is also a celebration of Resistance. Resistance that will not bow, will not beg, will not bend. Resistance that refuses to accept injustice. In the words of Imam Khomeini “Acceptance of injustice is worse than injustice”. The Axis of Resistance have demonstrated through struggle and sacrifice that injustice and humiliation will not be accepted. Meanwhile in the vicinity of Gaza, the rulers of Arab regimes provided five trillion dollars to the U.S. Government who have militarily financed the Gaza Genocide. These regimes are waiting to “normalize’ and “accept” the injustice of the Israeli Occupation.
Benjamin Netanyahu is similar to Yazid. He uses military force to coerce people into surrendering to his demands. He does not negotiate. Either you bow down to him and the Zionist state or they kill you, your mother, your sister, and your children and turn your city to rubble. Imam Hussein too was not given a choice. Either he surrenders to Yazid, accept his oppressive and illegitimate governance or he is killed, along with the children and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h). History will remember Netanyahu and Yazid as notorious baby killers.
Imam Hussein’s clenched fist and rallying cry for justice echoes across the fields of Karbala, Kufa, Bekaa, Sana’a, Tehran, Kermanshah, Dahiyeh, Bekaa and Gaza. The blood of Imam Hussein flows in the heart beat of all the justice seekers who are in the frontlines resisting Genocide. Hussein binds the Axis of Resistance. It behoves every freethinker to ask why is it that the ones who are sacrificing their lives in solidarity with Gaza are all inspired by Imam Hussein.
There is something that Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) says about Hussein which he has not said about any other person. “I am of Hussein and Hussein is of me”. These Prophetic words speak to an eternal bond between the Prophet and the great Imam. Why? Because Hussein has a unique place in history. Muhammad was the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Medina and Hussein was the defender of the Islamic Revolution in Karbala. Hussein screams a raging and defiant NO! He says no to injustice and hereditary monarchy, no to capitalism, no to tyranny. At a time when everyone is afraid to rise up and resist because resistance means death. When no one is prepared to speak truth to power because power is brutal and ruthless. Hussein who is anchored in the presence and the consciousness of God, sees what others cannot see. Muhammad (p.b.u.h) is reported to have said “Beware of the committed Muslim when he sees with the light of God.” This is the light that guides Hussein’s resistance on the fields of Karbala.
When the Imam is at the fields of Karbala, he chooses death. Hussein has approximately 72 comrades. The enemy has approximately six thousand soldiers. There is no chance of a military victory. There is only one outcome, death and martyrdom. Earthly logic says run away, build your movement and fight when you are stronger and have a chance of victory. Go underground. Surrender to the Genocidal Goons or you and the followers of Muhammad will be massacred. Forget about Islamic Governance, Justice and the equal distribution of wealth. You have no chance, there is no point in resisting. Capitulate. Surrender in humiliation to those in power. Be expedient and live. This is the way of the world and the way everyone else is thinking. But not Hussein.
Hussein sees things differently. Hussein is the heir to Muhammad (p.b.u.h). He cannot surrender and bow down to oppressors. He only bows before God. He knows that there will not be an immediate military victory but that his martyrdom and resistance is a catalyst for the revolutionary victory and freedom for all the people. He knows with certainty that his defiance and resistance means death and there is no possibility of coming out alive. Hussein choses death and martyrdom. This revolutionary strategy is uniquely Husseinic. It is both a historical and eternal choice because Hussein is to inspire revolutionaries throughout history. His blood bears witness and brings to the public mind an awareness of the reality of the injustice.
His fearlessness makes others lose their fear of Yazid and the oppressors. His blood inspires resistance and revolt as it exposes the brutality of Oppressor. Were it not for Hussein’s legacy many battles would not have been fought and many tyrants would not have been toppled. To be sure, Israel would not have been defeated in 2006 by the Islamic Resistance Movement in Lebanon were it not for Hussein nor would the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine have continued to resist and face off with the fourth most powerful military of the world.
Islamic Iran would not have resisted and fought back against the aggressive war initiated by Israel and the United States. The Islamic Government in Iran stood alone, there was no country that came defend Iran and its people. Iran like Imam Hussein stood alone in defiance and bravely faced off with the most powerful military in the Middle East and most powerful Empire in human history supported by all of the other Western powers. Iran sustained many blows but Iran like the rest of the Resistance Front is still standing. Furthermore, in resisting the Israeli aggression for a period of 12 days, Iran hit Israel hard with many devastating blows that had the Israeli government reeling. Iran destroyed the perception of “Israeli Military Invincibility”.
Israel is described as the fourth most powerful military in the world and is supported by the other most powerful militaries and economies in the world. Gaza is described as the biggest open air prison and concentration camp. This is akin to all of the school’s rich big bullies coming together to beat up the thin, poor, black kid in the ghetto. There’s no chance for the ghetto kid but the kid refuses to surrender and fights back. All the other kids hate the bullies and their actions but are scared of the bullies because the bullies will hurt them if they intervene. But then there are these other small kids, an Iraqi, Yemeni, Iranian and Lebanese kid who cannot tolerate this injustice, they each step in to fight the bullies and the bullies end up retreating with bloody noses.
Hussein’s resistance embarrasses and exposes oppressors and makes their dirty actions visible to the people of the world. The American Empire brings all its military hardware to the region and provides the weapons for Israel’s genocide but does nothing to save a hair on the head of a Palestinian child. These bombs kills tens of thousands of children and turn Gaza into rubble.
The one thing that binds every formation of the axis of resistance is Hussein. Every person who loves Muhammad (p.b.u.h) and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h), during these ten days of Muharram thinks about the spear piercing the throat of Ali Asghar, the baby from the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) and the fresh blood flowing out of the innocent child. They then think about the children in Gaza who are deliberately slaughtered every day by the Israeli army. They picture the tears of the noble Fatima, the mother of Hussein and think about the tears of the mothers of the babies killed in Gaza and Iran. They think about the bombs blowing the bits of every little child Muhammad and Fatima in Gaza. They think about the orphaned Zaynul Abideen on the red fields of Karbala and what his eyes witnessed when he saw his father, brothers and uncles slaughtered in front of him. Then they think about the red fields in Gaza, the innocent blood of Palestinian babies, tens of thousands of orphaned children who through the innocent eyes of a child see their parents killed in front of them by the merciless Israeli Zionists.
There is no people on planet earth today who are more fearless of death than the followers of Hussein. They have demonstrated this with their blood and martyrdom as they follow in the footsteps of the great Imam.
The oppressors thought that they killed Hussein on the fields of Karbala. Now here we are in 2025 and Hussein lives in the blood of the veins of every freedom fighter resisting Genocide. Is this not the time for everyone to learn about Hussein, to get to know Hussein and join the caravan of Hussein marching towards freedom and justice?