QUERY
Is it permissible to hold gatherings in Muharram to tell people proper narrations about Imam Hassan and Hussain and can Sunni Muslims call this one of their traditional practices and make Niyaz etc as Esaal-e sawaab for the Ahle Bait. Can a Muslim refer to this too as one of his Islamic traditions?

THE VERDICT:
There is no doubt that to remember Imam Hassan and Hussain (ridwaanullahi ta aala alaihim ajmaeen) is the manner of the Muslims. To remember the pious personalities in reality is to remember Allah.

It is obvious that the closeness that Muslims have to the pious servants of Allah is not for there personal selves. It is because these pious servants are chosen and blessed servants of Allah. They are remembered because they are the accepted servants in the Court of Almighty Allah. To remember them is to attain blessings and the mercy of Allah. It is also a means of attaining great reward.

To make their zikr (remember them) is to worship Allah and if Allah wills, then it is a means to be given salvation from punishment. Imam Sufyaan bin Uyaayna states, ‘By making the zikr of the pious, mercy descends upon you.’ And this zikr-eshahaadat is from the command of Allah.
Almighty Allah says, “And remember them in the days of Allah.” The aim of these gatherings of remembrance is for Muslims to show the excellence and piety of their great leaders. It is to show the importance of firmness on righteousness and to hate falsehood. It teaches us to dislike open sinning and corrupt ways. It is also to strengthen our faith and brighten our hearts with the love of our pious leaders. We also learn how to sacrifice our lives, wealth and everything else for the sake of our religion by studying the lives of these distinguished Imams and we learn to remind others of this.

The manner of these gatherings is a very good manner.There are numerous benefits in this for the Muslims, but the wahabis and deobandis are such enemies of the beloved and pious servants of Allah, that they do not even want to listen to their praises being read. They do not even want to hear that in the entire year a gathering was held in the memory of the pious servants at a certain venue.

Why would they want to hear this anyway, since they know that for as long as this tradition of remembering the pious is with the Muslims, they will continue to love them and for as long as the Muslims have this link to the pious servants of Allah, it will be difficult for them to trap the Muslims in their web of deceit. These Majalis and blessed Mehfils of Esaal esawaab are like the traditions of Meelad Shareef and Gyarwee Shareef which are practiced amongst the Muslims.

Who does not know that these are beneficial practices in Deen. The Wahabis look at these gatherings like they look at the gatherings of Meelad etc. (With contempt). The actual problem that they have, is their dislike for the pious servants of Allah. They say that because this is a traditional practice, it becomes haraam.

The leader of the deobandis, Ashraf Ali thanvi says the following about traditions, ‘To cook Kichra and some food and thus feed it to your family and the orphans etc and then send its sawaab to Hazrat Imam Hussain is actually from the hadith which says that on this day we should increase the food of our families and Allah will give blessing in ones sustenance for the entire year, but because this has been made a traditional practice and it is stipulated as a day to remember. It is on the basis of it being made a traditional practice that we should abstain from it.

He also states that to give people sharbat etc was allowed as it is to distribute water, and so was it permissible to say the narrations of shahaadat etc. But due to it being made a traditional event, it is not permissible. It seems that they have some hatred for traditional events, be it good or bad. According to them, if it is a traditional practice then it is bad. In reality this is not so. The actual issue is their malice against the pious servants of Allah. They are not pleased with the remembrance and the honour that is being given to the pious servants of Allah and the Esaale-sawaab that is being made. They say that Esaal-e-sawaab, the remembrance of the pious servants of Allah etc.to be haraam as it is a traditional practice, but when they started the tradition of making mureeds, then what about this? Until recently, according to these wahabis, even this was shirk, but the wahabis of this time seem to think of their predecessors as stupid since they feel that their predecessors labelled such a beneficial and profitable (to them) thing to be shirk and bid’at. 

The wahabis will say any thing which gives them financial benefit in any way, to be halaal. If they are told that all the money that Muslims spend in commemorating Majlis of remembrance for the pious, in cooking kichra, giving sharbat and distributing water etc, will be donated to their institutes etc, then this traditional act will be very good for them and there will be no objection as it will be profitable for them. 

Answer by Sayyidi Mufti Azam e Hind Imam Mustafa Rida Khan - Translated by Mawlana Afthab Cassim Ridwi