Aashura: (alternative spelling)
Date: 7th January 2009
Around this time Gambians may fast
for 2 or 3 days in succession though this is voluntary. The word
Ashura is Arabic for tenth. The day is indeed the tenth day of the
month.
In the
month of Muharram 61 AH (about the 20 October 680 AD), a battle took
place in Iraq at a place known as the Battle
of Karbala (also spelt Kerbala) on the bank of the Euphrates
River.
 A large army led by Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad was mobilized
by the Umayyad regime besieged a group of people numbering less than a
hundred and pressurized them to pay allegiance to the Caliph of the
time and submit to his authority. The small group resisted and a
severe battle took place in which they were all killed. The leader of
the resistance was the prophet Mohammed's
(pbuh) grandson,
Hussaine ibn Ali. Ashura or Ashoura is the day held to
commemorate his martyrdom.
With the passing away of his brother
Hasan (A) in 50 AH, Husain (A) became the leader of the household of
the Holy Prophet (S). For Shia Muslims, commemoration of Ashura is not a
festival, but rather a sad event, while Sunni Muslims view it as a
victory God (Allah) has given to his prophet, Musa. This victory is
the very reason, as Sunni Muslims believe, Muhammad mentioned when
recommending fasting on this day.
According to Sunni Hadith, Ashura was already known as a
commemorative day during which some Meccan citizens used to observe
customary fasting. In hijrah event when Muhammad led his followers to
Medina, he found the Jews of that area likewise observing fasts on the
day of Ashura. At this, Muhammad (pbuh) affirmed the Islamic claim to the
fast, and from then the Muslims have fasted on combinations of two or
three consecutive days including the 10th of Muharram.
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