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The Undeniable Hussain 
By: Farhad Shafti

Prologue:
During the past many years, in a number of occasions I was asked to share my take of the story of Hussain ibn Ali and the tragic event of Karbala. In many of these occasions, my main concern to bring unity and peace between sects prompted me to remain quite general in my words. I always thought I should once make this clear so that I do not feel in-debt to myself for not sharing, categorically, what I consider to be the truth of the matter. Being at the start of the month of Muharram seems to me as a good opportunity to do this. The following is an expansion and further development of one of the answers I wrote about this subject. Five points before sharing my views:

1. History is not the source of understanding Islam. 

2. In the hereafter we are not going to be asked about our views on personalities who lived in the past. Our views about them are not criteria for going to heaven or hell.

3. Any views we have today about personalities in the past inevitably are based on those historical records that we rely on. Historical records are often inconsistent and each of us choose the version that we believe is more reliable. Having said that, I have done my best to make sure what I have written here is based on commonly accepted facts of history.

4. This is simply a writing about how I see Hussain. My intention is not to defend or criticise any religious sect.

​5. Some readers may find the latter parts of this article to be a bit emotional, and therefore quite different from the rather rational style of writing that I try to adopt in Exploring Islam. I think they will be right in thinking so. However I also think that sometimes, and for particular topics, blending the thought with sincere emotion is itself rational. The story of Karbala is in deed one of those particular topics.  

With the above points in mind, I proceed to express my views on the subject.
​​... (read the full article here)

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