Re: Ban on processions-Religious rulings?
لَا يُحِبُّ اللَّهُ الْجَهْرَ بِالسُّوءِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ إِلَّا مَنْ ظُلِمَ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ سَمِيعًا عَلِيمًا
[4:148] Allah does not love the public utterance of hurtful speech unless (it be) by one to whom injustice has been done; and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.
Allah (swt) loves the public utterance of speech if done to protest against injustice. Now slaying of Prophet’s family (love of whom is a demand of Allah Himself) is a major injustice if not the greatest. Not to mention imprisonment of the others including the children and womenfolk of the Prophet’s family who were made to travel more than 1,500 kms on the back of camels (one may still visit graves all along the route), paraded through public and denounced as ‘rebels’ against the accursed caliph of time, Yazid ibne Muawiya, before being put in prision.
These public processions are symbolic reenactment of the tragedy as well as an everlasting shout of protest that is echoed from the every corner of world. Lovers of Prophet and his Ahlul Bayt from all the sections of humanity take part in these processions. E.g., in the Karachi Ashura bombings in 2009, out of the 43 martyrs there were 15 Sunnis, 1 Christian, the rest of the souls being Shia.
Interestingly though is it not always the case that protests of different kinds, regardless of the great causes and aims behind them, slow down and eventually die down over time! But this global protest and rememberence of this tragedy keeps growing bigger and stronger with passing time. In my view this fact is another testimony of the promise to Prophet (saw) by Allah (swt) to grant his habib (and those"of him") in ‘abundance’.
A couple of people mentioned the processions being in some way an act of the days of “Jahiliya”. To start of with, not every act of Jahilliya is automatically disliked in shariah. In fact some are emphasized by Allah (swt) and emphasized in Quran such as command forbidding war and bloodshed in certain months of year including Muharram ul Haraam (ponder on the full name of the month). Muslims terrorists, the likes who blow themselves in the middle of crowd of Muharram processions, should be reminded of this command of Allah (swt). Actually if one examines the conducts of many famous so-called Muslims from the pages of Muslim history then the CVs that come to light might put the pre-Islamic day polytheists to shame!
And if one thinks that processions were not part of life during the early days of Islam then open a good book and check again. You may wish to read the accounts of the return of Muslim armies from various battles, the event of the arrival of Prophet (saww) in Madina, the occasion of Hajj particularly Hujjatul Widda, the many funerals of notable shohada like Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib where Prophet himself ordered or even led large numbers of people in processions. And if you wish to forward time a little and you may find a certain wife of Prophet (saww) leading processions of armies to battlefields (despite explicit prohibition by Allah in Quran and His Prophet via prior warnings). The king of Syria also organised processions to lament the murdered caliph, Uthman bin Affan (see: Sunni Imam Ibn Qutayba’s Al-Imama wa Siyasa).
is reduced to the level required by deen as approved by our prophet:saw2: then inshallah things will begin to improve.