Phrasebook Shia-ism

Lucy has finally hit upon a scholarship option but she needs to prove that she is a native leader, yes very much in those “native leader” terms and I’m helping her look the most bhooka nanga (i.e. hungry naked people) out of all the bhooka nangas who will be applying. In the course of Mission: Bapu Lucy, it becomes clear that while Pakistani banks in a fantabulous display of locust mentality are showering loans for all types of cars, education expenses warrant a frosty amount of money.

Yesterday at M&M’s place I saw the video recording of that sand-weathered Shia ritual of matam, of mourning. M&M’s family are ritualistically, Shia’s by the book, the entire family gathers at the family seat in Jhelum to commemorate Ashura where they lead the whole procession from dawn till evening to their house. I was introduced to the concept of the zul juna (the horse that Husayn rode into battle) and the shibli( the likeness of his grave I think) and though I still don’t understand the significance, I saw the zanjir ka matam and somehow it didn’t look as ominous as it had always sounded, nor did it look as bloody as the mourning in Iraq. I think a lot of it was because only a fraction of the procession was lamenting by hitting themselves with chains, and that was mostly made up of the M&M clan. However, the sheer number of the people constituting the procession was overwhelming, there were guardrails demarcating the area between the procession and the Sunni observers, I guess, to ensure they did not hinder the flow. I can’t help it and I realize that being part of a discipline of study weds you to it, making you think of everything from that front, but my thoughts on the procession had more to do with “wow, what an avenue for mobilization and revolt” than the atrocious massacre that occurred at Kerbala. Mosques are pallid platforms of social gatherings compared to these processions where history is interwoven with current events to agitate emotions. The revolution overturning the Shah of Iran started from the front of a procession like this and although it sounds dangerous, the idea of people harnessing themselves to a roiling mass, the potential in this event as a collectivization front is enormous.

A minority knows of its own existence much much before the majority has an inkling of self-awareness. In grade eight I found out I was a Sunni and even if it didn't matter to me, it did matter to the Shia girl who asked me.Thankfully, my family was not the of the virulent orthodox kinds that brought children up with ludicrous myths about Shia rituals, the reason I think I wasn't aware of the distinction was because no one brought it up. A. told me the other day that when he was young, his friends used to come up and ask him if he really practiced occult witchcraft stuff (I will not mention specifics because it just reflects bad taste and a gauche paradigm) at their majlis. M&M underwent public schooling during Zia's time and he said there were times he walked into class and his name would be scrawled on the blackboard with various obscenities. Obviously at some level humanism took a real punch from parenting.Historically I'm not sure where the split comes in apart from the debate that H. Ali should have succeeded H.Muhammad in the rule of the Khilafat. However Sunni faith is comparatively more ahistorical than the Shia faith and historical sources are not a strong part of the regular teachings we undergo. Faith wise I am told, the Shia faith does not believe in predestination while the Sunni faith does. Politically it may have made sense to use predestination to justify Kerbala (Sunni front that is) but I don't see how it is tenable to regard predestination as the singular absolver of all things in this world. After all, across faiths, God "knowing" what you will do, does not in any way interfere with your decision of what to do. I mean I KNOW your hand will burn if you put it in the fire but my knowing (and keeping my mouth shut) has nothing to do with your decision to extend it into the fire or not.