Ashura service at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge.

DEARBORN — If you are unfamiliar with the rituals of Shi’a Islam, Ashura gatherings might seem like funerals. But the mourning congregations in Ashura are to commemorate a man who died more than 1,300 years ago.

Ashura is one of the pillars of the Shi’a religious creed. 

Yazid, the sixth Caliph in Islam, killed Hussain, the grandson of the prophet Mohamad, for refusing to pledge allegiance to him in 860. Shi’a, who believe that the prophet’s descendants are the legitimate Caliphs after Mohamad’s death, allocate the first 10 days of the Islamic lunar calendar to mourn and pay tribute to Hussain’s sacrifice. 

Hussain was killed in the battle of Karbala on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year. Karbala is a town on the Euphrates River in what is now Iraq.

Shi’a believe that Hussain’s death, which led to a series of rebellions that eventually overthrew Yazid’s Umayyad Dynasty, preserved Islam.

After the death of Imam Ali, the fourth Islamic Caliph, one of his foes, Muawiya, assumed the Caliphate. Shi’a believe that Ali’s son, Hassan, Hussain’s older brother, agreed to a truce with Muawiya; Hassan would recognize Muawiya as Caliph as long as he succeeded him after his death. Muawiya killed Hassan via poison, according to Shi’a belief.

When Muawiya died, the Caliphate was passed to his son, Yazid, establishing the Umayyad Dynasty. It was the first time that a Caliph inherited power through heredity. 

After Hussain was asked to pledge allegiance to Yazid, whose capital was Damascus, he started getting letters from the Mesopotamian town of Kuffa, where Ali had based his Caliphate, urging him to start a rebellion there. Hussain marched to Kuffa with his friends and family, but by the times he arrived in what is now southern Iraq, he discovered that the people of Kuffa had turned against him. He set up a camp in Karbala, where he was killed along with all of his combatants. The women and children were taken prisoners to Damascus. 

Grand Ayatollah Abdul Latif Berry, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Institute of Knowledge, said Hussain refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid because he was “corrupt murderer and not fir to be Caliph.”

“Hussain wanted to reform the Islamic nation,” Berry said.

Every year, Shi’a commemorate Hussain’s death for 10 days. They focus on the human suffering of the story. They recount how Hussain was kept away from the water, making his camp suffer unimaginable thirst, then later beheaded. His months-old child was also killed.

Many Shi’a wear black for 10 and sometimes for 40 days. Some Dearborn residents have hung black flags mourning Hussain on their homes, religious centers and cars.

Berry said Ashura is observed to recall Hussain’s message and follow his example in demanding reform in our society and state.

“Husain’s uprising was to preserve Islam’s spiritual values and spread the philosophy of reform,” said Berry. “He did not revolt to fight. He wanted to avoid violence and even refused to attack Yazid’s army first.”

Although Ashura is mostly commemorated by Shi’a, Berry said observing the occasion does not divide Muslims.

“Sunnis did not kill Husain,” Berry said. “Imam Hussain is a revered figure to all Muslims. Invoking the memory of Hussain is a call for unity of all sects and all religions. Even secular people and Christians respect Imam Hussain; his values are the same as those of Prophet Mohamad, Jesus and Moses.”

Chanters read Hussain’s biography in a lamenting, poetic tone in Ashura commemorations. They describe his death in graphic details that often bring worshipers to tears.

Berry said crying over Hussain is a natural human reaction.

“What happened to Imam Hussain and his friends and family is a grave matter. It was a tragedy,” Berry said. “Tears are an expression of sorrow and a form of condolences to the prophet’s family. Sometimes you see a touching movie and you cry.”

As for the large flags hung on homes and religious centers, Berry said they are cultural expressions of grief, not a part of the Shi’a Muslim faith.

“It’s folklore,” Berry said.

Some Shi’a practice self-harming rituals during Ashura, including self-flagellation and wounding their heads with a razor blade, then hitting the injury to draw blood all over their faces.

Berry insisted that these rituals do not belong in Islam. 

“Anything that harms the picture of Islam is haram (religiously forbidden),” Berry said. “When these people spill their own blood and harm themselves, they show Muslims as irrational. They portray Imam Hussain as violent and bloody; he was not.”

The grand ayatollah, whose rank among Shi’a clergy allows him to declare a fatwa to ban or allow practices based on his interpretation of the religious scripture, said he personally denounces these rituals as haram.

“I don’t denounce self-harm in the name of Ashura out of my personal taste, but I denounce it based on the Qur’an and the teachings of the prophet,” he said. “These practices are closer to paganism than they are to Islam.”

Shi’a rarely celebrate weddings or birthdays during Ashura. Berry said while it is not religiously forbidden to hold celebrations during the first 10 days of the Islamic lunar year, some people refrain from collective expression of joy during Ashura out of respect for the sorrowful occasion.

Iraqi Shi’a serve food at Ashura congregations, while Lebanese Shi’a make and distribute harissa (oat in chicken broth) to poor people during the 10 days.

According to Mahmoud Tai, one of the organizer of the Caravan of Imam Hussain’s Servants, an Ashura congregation in Detroit, dozens of Shi’a youths from around the country come to Dearborn and Detroit at the beginning of the Islamic year to commemorate Ashura with the region’s large Shi’a community. 

Ali AlNassir, a Saudi student who lives in Ohio, drives to Dearborn everyday to attend Ashura commemorations. 

He said he heard about the Ashura programs in Dearborn through social media.

“We feel at home here, among our people,” he said. “I grew up absorbing the values of Hussain. I will do the impossible to pay tribute to his memory in those 10 days.”