Abstract
In The Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful
All praise be to Allah and May His peace be upon his Messenger Muhammad, his family, and all those who followed them to the Day of Judgement.
The current evidences and the Maqam (the rhythmed style) are derived from the elements in the context. They are effective in the grammatical analysis(1). They work together with semantics to clear the whole meaning, clarify what is it meant, and identify unexpected meaning is not taken, specialize the general, and finally serves verifying the significance(2). Because al-Hussein’s sermons during ‘The Battle of Al-Taff’ was not on the same monotony in the pattern and the meaning. It took a form that is in harmony with the patterns according to the Maqam used in the speech(3). For example, in his first sermon, when al-Hussein looked at the army of Omar ibn Sa’d and it was like the flood, he prayed and said, “O people! Allah, the most Exalted One, created life and made it a temporary abode, taking its people from one condition to another. Conceited is whoever gets fascinated by it, and miserable is whoever gets infatuated by it. So, do not let this life deceive you, for it shall disappoint whoever trusts and desires it!”(4).
His sermon is full with advice, reminding them with the Judgment Day, what life is, and finally the kinds of people like the conceited, the miserable, and the desireful. This sermon is characterized by advice and guidance. But in the second sermon it changed because the current and Maqam evidences became available in the two sides of the battle field. He was certain those people would never stop fighting him, taking his family as captives; therefore he used contextual references different from those in his first sermon. After he rode the horse and took a copy of the Quran which he spread over his head, he asked the people to listen to him saying, “Woe unto you, what make you don’t listen to me, then here what I say? I call you to the righteous path and he who listens was among the righteous. He who disobeys was among the perished and you all are disobeyers and don’t listen to me; your bodies are full of vices and your hearts are full with evil. Shame on you, don’t you listen? Don’t you hear?” (5). The evidence the Imam found was ‘…don’t listen what I say’ that is, they closed their ears in order not to listen; the result was, they became disobeyers of their Imam’s orders. The Imam started explaining the reasons of their disobedience like vices what blinded their eyes to see the righteous path.
That is why I chose the second sermon for my research, my way in the analysis is to divide the sermon into parts and then analyzing each part according to the tools available. I pray for God’s blessing and the Imam’s as well although I admit “And in no way I acquit myself. Surely the self indeed constantly commands to odious (deeds), except that on which my Lord had mercy.” 12:53
(1) Al-Khitab a-Husseiny fi Ma’rakat a;-Taff (Al-Hussein’s sermons in the Battle of al-Taff) p. 141-142.
(2) Athar al-Qara’in fi al-Tawjeeh al-Nahwi (The influence of evidences in the grammatical analysis) p.11-12.
(3) Al-Khitab a-Husseiny fi Ma’rakat a;-Taff p.25.
(4) Imam al-Hussein; Seira wa Maqtal (Imam al-Hussein; biography and martyrdom) p.12.
(5) Ibid p.22. |