Imam Hasan Askari's Birthday & A Great Initiative

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

Anjuman Ghareeb-Ul-_Aza took a very praiseworthy initiative in Kanpur on Sunday. Under the leadership of Maulana Qambar Hussain Qambar, members of Anjuman(Society) organized a grand function to celebrate birth anniversary of Imam Hasan Askari at Badi Karbala in Nawabganj. Several prominent orators and poets attended the program and covered various aspects of holy Imam’s noble life in their speeches and Qaseedas.All of them were unanimous in their views that though the 11^th Imam lived a short life of 28 years only but it was full of glory and befitting the exalted status of an infallible Imam.

Maulana Qambar in his address said “Abbasid caliphs persecuted  and caused great hardships to Imam  Askari and confined him to Sammra .Yet  many students benefited from his God gifted knowledge and later became scholars in their fields. Imam  discussed with agnostics of that age many times about the existence of God and the reasons for the necessity of the Prophets and Imams and many atheists changed their minds and converted to Islam. Thus ,his contribution to growth of true Islam remains matchless till today”. Among the poets,  Faiz Kanpuri, Jafar Kazim, Intikhab Alam, Taj Kanpuri, Mumtaz Hussain and Shabroz offered tributes to Imam.

Amanat Hussain, one of the organizers, revealed that a program dedicated to Imam Hasan Askari was organized for the first time at Nawabganj Badi Karbala and it evoked good response from momneens despite cold weather. He claimed that Anjuman has an ambitious plan to take the program to great heights in the days to come with the blessings of Imam-E-Zamana. The program has become the fourth noteworthy of its kind in Nawabganj Karbala. About two decades ago, there used to be no grand programs at Karbala. But after its renovation and expansion, Shia Yuva Unit began organizing 18- Bani Hashim  during Ayam –e-Aza every year. It is now considered to be one of the largely attended  mourning assemblies. It was followed by Yaum-e-Rasul program under the aegis of Maulana Kalbe Jawwad Fans’ Association. The 12^th edition of program was organized at Karbala on January 1, 2017.Traditionally, only ‘Paikis’ used to converge on Shabe-Ashura to pay their tributes to martyrs of Karbala  at Nawabganj since the inception of shrine on the bank of Ganges.(References available on request)