As most of you know, a tragic event happened in Baghdad today. About 1,000 Iraqi’s died during a stampede in Baghdad on a bridge crossing the Tigris River. There were over 1 million Shi’a Muslims commemorating their saint, Musa al-Kadhim, as apart of an annual pilgrimage.
We often hear headlines like “1,000 people died” and we have no way to know how to wrap our minds around the fact that those are people’s children and parents and grandparents. I thought it’d be helpful if I at least wrote about the pilgrimage they were on as a way to humanize these people so far removed from us.
This is a brief history to help you understand the event:
The state of Imams leading Muslims ended not long after Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632AD. [Because every other Muslim's name is Muhammad, just calling him "the Prophet" is the most common way to distinguish him from other Muhammads.]
There was a conflict whether or not the next Muslim leader ought to be a relative of the Prophet, or just the most righteous man in the community. This was a big deal because at his death there were already about 100,000 followers of Islam.
The majority of the group elected Abu Bakr (the 1st Rightly Guided Caliph – aka Imam). Abu Bakr was a close companion, but not related. So a smaller group believed that the Prophet’s son-in-law ‘Ali should be the successor. The larger group today make up the Sunnis, and the smaller group are the Shi’as.
Among Shia’s there is another split. Whether they believe that there were 7 Imams, or 12 Imams.
Imam Musa al-Kadhim (which means one who swallows his anger) was the 7th Imam according to Shi’a Muslims. His birth is the event that Iraqi Shi’as were commemorating when the bridge broke in Baghdad.
According to the most known opinion, al-Kadhim was killed as a martyr while in prison. He had been captured by the Abassid empire’s leader Huran al-Rasheed. This was a common practice – to poison your enemy or rival. Al-Kadhim was fed poisoned dates until he died.
He had been the Imam for over 30 years when he died at age 55.
He was known for getting up every night to pray until dawn, and made sure to pray at all five of the other calls to prayer as well. Most of his lifetime he spent reciting the Qur’an and in prayer/worship. He was careful of his words because he knew that the empirialist authorities were willing to kill him at any time – so he ended up being more of a spiritual leader in terms of actions rather than words.
[photo 1: woman grieving. photo 2: bodies. photo 3: people jumping into the Tigris to save those who fell off the bridge. photo 4: the crowd in front of the shrine itself]
basementdweller: thanks for the extra insite into this very difficult thing to comprehend…4 years ago
osubeth: thanks for making the “news story” real. my flesh wants to pretend it is just a tv show. my spirit calls me to pray.4 years ago
bullmeister: Just want to say thanks for bringing this up and providing the background. Our entire front page was covered in news for the hurricane, continuing the trend that if it doesn’t directly impact us/the US, it gets far less coverage.4 years ago
faintstarlite: Sweet – it’ll be nice to see ya… and no, I don’t know Christine4 years ago
lars_viggo: Esther, I am also planning to make a trip right before Christmas up to Portland. I now have a lot of friends up there. So, I’ll probably just fly up with Christine Zitzer. Do you know her? She’s a great friend of mine here at Southwestern.4 years ago
lew829: Thanks for helping me out in my denseness!4 years ago
faintstarlite: Lew – Sunnis followed the Prophet’s friend.. whereas Shi’as followed his relative4 years ago
wednesdays_hope:
Hey Esther,
My name is Beth and I’m a friend of Jay Khatter and Shannon Lattin. Shannon and I went to Alaska this summer and Jay is just cool. I’ve heard a lot about you so I thought I’d drop a hello.
4 years ago
kathrynxa: thank you.4 years ago
strawberry14: thanks for the historical background for the tragic event. it’s crazy that someone just yelled that there was a suicide bomber and look what happened.4 years ago
lew829: BTW, I failed to follow whether the Sunni’s or the Shia’s were those to follow hereditary rights or the righteous man of the community. Which was which? 4 years ago
faintstarlite: Nathan – yeah I’ll be there & I look forward to the reunion that will take place =)4 years ago
faintstarlite: Yea, I definitely feel the same about trying to grasp what’s going on in the aftermath of Katrina. It’s all so hard to comprehend.4 years ago
lew829: Thanks.4 years ago
lars_viggo: This morning I sat at my computer reading about the devastation from this in Iraq and the destruction from the hurricane in the Gulf states. And I just cried. I didn’t know what else to do. It all seems so overwhelming. All around there is death, destruction, hopelessness, evil, and sin. What do you do? I guess I’m at a place of waiting to figure out how to really respond to the sobering reality of this crappy life. It’s frustrating because my life is personally very hopeful, very blessed and full. But how should I be able to enjoy it when the rest of the world is falling apart around it. How can I be happy? A lot of random thoughts here, and I’m sure that many of them are quite selfishly inward-focused. But that’s where I guess I’m at. Are you going to the Global Summit in Louisville? I sure hope so. I love you.- Nathan4 years ago
walkalongside: Much grieving in our world right now. Thank you for sharing the history as well as the current news. Somehow that helps in acknowledging their lives and this loss. True, it is hard to wrap our minds around the numbers and the impact. Same with the devestation in Louisiana and Mississippi.4 years ago