Shiite Muslims on Friday marked Ashoura, one of the most important days on their calendar, with large gatherings in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and other parts of the Muslim world to remember the seventh-century killing of Hussein, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Ashoura Commemorations
The annual commemoration is observed on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in the lunar-based Islamic calendar. Ashoura is the culmination of a 10-day mourning period and marks the day Hussein was killed alongside members of his family and companions as he fought against the army of Caliph Yazid, to whom Hussein had refused to pledge allegiance.
In the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala, large crowds of people gathered to mark Ashoura. Hussein is buried in the city where he was killed in the battle that took place in 680, and his shrine is visited by millions of Shiites from around the world every year.
In Lebanon, where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah is in place, thousands of black-clad mourners gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs at a shrine to Hezbollah’s former longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of massive Israeli strikes in 2024.
Women clutched photographs of sons and brothers killed in the war — many of them fighting for Hezbollah — while others held photographs of Nasrallah or Iran’s Khamenei, who was killed in February in an attack by the U.S. and Israel.
Nagham Jaber said her fiance was killed in the war. ‘This war was truly harsh on all of us, and now we are feeling the meaning of Ashoura more than usual,’ she said.
In the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, dozens of people gathered near the main square, much of which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes over the past weeks, with some of them inflicting head injuries on themselves to express their mourning.
Significance of Ashoura
To Shiites, who make up the second-largest branch of Islam after the Sunni majority, the killing of Hussein holds deep religious and historical resonance and plays a key role in shaping identity.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Kassem, said in a speech Friday that Ashoura is being repeated again by the U.S. and Israel, adding that his group and its supporters were subjected to a ‘war of elimination.’ ‘America and Israel also wanted to eliminate Iran by removing the regime and controlling the country,’ Kassem said.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
