01/08/2024
Sharing with you a profound and thought-provoking excerpt from Sr. Zermina’s talks:
“This remembrance is a revolution. We need to understand it better, we need to understand it deeper, we need to let it affect us, and when we come to these majalis, with the right mindset, with the right mentality, these gatherings have the potential to change our lives forever.
This remembrance has the potential to help us become who we were meant to be, to reach that potential inside of us. But it’s not always about becoming something, sometimes it’s about unbecoming something, unbecoming all those things that do not align with our fitra, unbecoming all those things that do not align with the values we learn from Karbala.
This process requires deep introspection and honesty.
When we understand Karbala, when we understand the criteria it is communicating to us, we’ll be forced to ask ourselves some very uncomfortable questions.
Is there a Shimr inside of me? Is there a Umar ibn Sa’d inside of me who, if faced with a choice, would choose this dunya over the akhira?
Perhaps we’d like to tell ourselves that such a possibility is unimaginable and impossible. However, as many of you know, Shimr fought alongside Amir al-Mo’minin in the battle of Siffin. He not only fought against the army of Muawiya but was also wounded in the process. Umar ibn Sa’d was a childhood friend of Imam al-Husayn. These individuals knew the Imam, they were well aware of the virtues of the Ahlulbayt (a), and they witnessed firsthand how the Holy Prophet (s) cherished Imam al-Husayn (a).
But look at their actions on the day of Ashura?”
