Muharram

[shaheediyan]

Some intense photo's:

http://www4.flickr.com/search/?q=muharram&s=int

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"Muharram (Arabic: محرم ) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sanctified months of the year. Fighting in this month is looked down upon and is sometimes put to the side in respect for Islam. Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, Muharram moves from year to year when compared with the Gregorian calendar.

The first day of Muharram is the start of the Islamic Year. The Remembrance of Muharram takes place during this month. The Shia Muslims celebrate in a different way in which they commemorate the Battle of Karbala and consider this a month of sadness and mourning. The commemoration reaches its climax on the tenth day of Muharram, known as Ashurah.

This is the day Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, was killed along with his family members and friends in the Battle of Karbala. This day is also important in other religions. For example, it is related to the Jews as being the time when Moses crossed the Red Sea while escaping from Pharaoh. Sunni Muslims often fast on this sacred day.

The month of Muharram also has traditions which have no support from Islamic teachings. For example, the celebration of the Muslim new year, and the partying and card giving, etc, associated with it is considered to be a bidah and even haraam to all Shia muslims because they feel it is a time to mourn and it is haraam to express any happiness.

Muharram is so called because it was unlawful to fight during this month; the word is derived from the word ‘haram’ meaning forbidden. It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. This month is most sacred to the Shi’a Muslim community and heavy mourning activities on the first ten days of the month are observed by Shi'a Muslims to commemorate the death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Muhammad. Some Muslims fast during these days but the Shi'a Muslims do not fast as they consider fasting a sign of happiness. The tenth day is called Ashurah, meaning, ‘the tenth’, and it is a day of voluntary fasting. The shia just stop eating and drinking but do not fast till the evening. The Sunni Muslims also fast during Muharram and on the ninth and the eleventh day as recommended by Muhammad during his lifetime. Fasting on the tenth day(ashura) is haram and only Yazid fasted on 10 of moharram in the happines of the death of Imam Hussien."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muharram