{"id":3160,"date":"2017-09-19T06:44:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T13:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=3160"},"modified":"2017-09-19T07:45:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T14:45:28","slug":"headed-karachi-ashara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html","title":{"rendered":"Headed to Karachi for Ashara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"moharram-7_colombo,_sri_lanka-6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Every year, I travel to attend the Ashara Mubaraka majlis (gathering), with the spiritual leader of my community, the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. Last year, I went to Dar es Salaam<\/a>, Tanzania; the year before was on my home turf of Houston. I have been attending regularly for almost a decade now – starting with Colombo in 2008<\/a>, Mombasa in 2009<\/a>, and Marol (Mumbai) in 2010<\/a>. This year, 2017 (1439H), I am headed to Karachi<\/strong>, the great metropolis of Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Ashara is many things. On the most superficial level, it is an annual excuse to travel the world and meet people, many of whom actually read this blog<\/a>. More importantly, Ashara is a religious rite, replete with sermons, elegies, and remembrance of the sacrifice of Imam Husain AS, not just for Shi’a, or for Muslims, but for all mankind.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, however, the purpose of Ashara is to mourn<\/a>. As I wrote last year, <\/p>\n

We mourn because we love. The stronger the love, the greater the mourning; the indifferent do not mourn. Love is the basis of our humanity; the very word insaan<\/em> (human) is the root of the word anasat<\/em> (intimacy) in Arabic. When anasat is betrayed, the human soul never fully recovers. The truer the love, the deeper the wound. Imagine, then, the wound upon insaniat<\/em> (humanity) itself, when the truest love of all, that of the divine, was betrayed at Karbala? The violent irony of humanity\u2019s own capacity for inhumanity is truly heart-breaking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This year, I hope to reflect more on the meaning of Ashara in a personal sense and try to capture some of that experience for my own posterity. I also will be doing some photography of Karachi and environs while I am there, since this is my first visit to Pakistan in 20 years. Bookmark my geekblog, Haibane.info, for the artsy stuff and stay tuned here at City of Brass for the pseudo-intellectual rambling \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I depart, inshallah<\/em>. More to come. To everyone else also traveling to Karachi, Dua ni iltemas<\/em> and mubarak<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Related: Reflections on Grief and the Remembrance of Imam Husain<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, I travel to attend the Ashara Mubaraka majlis (gathering), with the spiritual leader of my community, the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. Last year, I went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; the year before was on my home turf of Houston. I have been attending regularly for almost a decade now – starting with Colombo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-3160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-gates-of-ijtihad","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-ashara"],"yoast_head":"\nHeaded to Karachi for Ashara - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Headed to Karachi for Ashara - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every year, I travel to attend the Ashara Mubaraka majlis (gathering), with the spiritual leader of my community, the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. Last year, I went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; the year before was on my home turf of Houston. I have been attending regularly for almost a decade now – starting with Colombo…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-19T13:44:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-19T14:45:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/files\/2017\/09\/moharram-7_colombo_sri_lanka-6.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Headed to Karachi for Ashara - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Headed to Karachi for Ashara - City of Brass","og_description":"Every year, I travel to attend the Ashara Mubaraka majlis (gathering), with the spiritual leader of my community, the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. Last year, I went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; the year before was on my home turf of Houston. I have been attending regularly for almost a decade now – starting with Colombo…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2017-09-19T13:44:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-19T14:45:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/files\/2017\/09\/moharram-7_colombo_sri_lanka-6.jpeg"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html","name":"Headed to Karachi for Ashara - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/files\/2017\/09\/moharram-7_colombo_sri_lanka-6.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-09-19T13:44:30+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-19T14:45:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/896c5ed550badac92dc85b52c9569bef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/files\/2017\/09\/moharram-7_colombo_sri_lanka-6.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/files\/2017\/09\/moharram-7_colombo_sri_lanka-6.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/09\/headed-karachi-ashara.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Headed to Karachi for Ashara"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/896c5ed550badac92dc85b52c9569bef","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/076\/0760a0e14131eae090feb556457bfaa0x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/076\/0760a0e14131eae090feb556457bfaa0x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3167,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions\/3167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}