Experiencing Muharram 2022

The martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the grandson of Muhammad, together with his seventy-two companions at Karbala, stands out as a critical point in world history for the Shi’a community. It is commemorated each year with a period of intense mourning during the first ten days of the month of Muharram, culminating in the Day of Ashura, the day of the massacre itself, which is in turn followed by a further period of mourning for another thirty days. To learn more about the events, see my article on this site Hussain, the grandson of Muhammad: contemporary reflections on the struggle for justice and also the section on “Hussain&Justice”.

Something had gone terribly wrong within the Muslim community that saw the massacre of the grandson of the Prophet within less than fifty years of his own death. This massacre at Karbala is lamented by both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, who make pilgrimage to the shrines there, especially for the commemoration of Arbaeen, which completes the final period of mourning. This pilgrimage currently attracts around twenty million participants each year.

Safeer TV based in London, which is the English-language wing of Karbala TV, part of the outreach administered by the shrine itself, invited Dr Chris Hewer to present ten fifteen-minute talks to be broadcast on the opening days of Muharram 2022. They can be accessed by clicking on the links that follow.

For Teachers and Course Facilitators

The Complete YouTube Video Playlist for this Series.

Individual Episodes