Who of the religious authorities allows crawling like animals or using labels like "dog of Hussain" and so and so? Even jurists known to be staunch advocates of the Hussaini rituals have made this impermissible due to obvious reasons. One must ask: so, why does the chaos persist?
One must ask: if it is orchestrated, then who are the movers and how do they operate and how can the conscious believing public combat their devilish efforts to harm the image of God's religion and distort the legacy of the pure progeny or blemish the value of their sacrifices?
And if it is not orchestrated - which is unlikely - then what more than Islam being on the brink of collapse and the Imam of that time (a) being beheaded and slaughtered alongside his noble family and friends is needed for the Ummah to learn to respect the Islamic leadership?
Who will ask these questions if not us, as we annually commemorate the betrayal of God's representative and claim honestly to await the reappearance of that representative's successor (aj)? Life is too short and death is too close to sell the message with silence as costly.
It is the duty of every Shi'a Muslim to preserve the sanctity of the rituals and sustain the substance of the progeny's (a) legacy - not by relative ideas of what is correct/incorrect or advantageous/disadvantageous, but by compliance with the pertinent legal parameters.
The primary concern of the true lover of Hussain (a) is the survival of his vision and the preservation of its sanctity. The people of knowledge know the power of this sacrifice and its role in inviting the world to the path of God, of love, of justice, of meaning, and so on.
And for this reason, you do not find them reckless in their expressions or negligent of the indisputable circumstances. Rather, you find them wary and cautious; prepared to set an example of Hussain's (a) all-encompassing values at all times. After all, this is the duty.
This is all notwithstanding the fact that in matters that concern the image of the religion as a whole, one does not refer to religious authorities, but to the guardian-jurist, whose executive orders - should they be issued - overrule the edicts of the jurist by Islamic law.
But to reiterate the irony of the disappointing sights resurfacing every year: neither does the guardian-jurist allow such acts, nor do the other religious authorities, nor does the intellect, nor do the religious texts. So, why does the chaos persist? We should all take a stand.
