by B. R. GOWANI
Every year on the tenth of Muharram, called Ashura, many Shia Muslims flagellate themselves to commemorate the tragedy of Karbala. Fifty eight years after the death of the Prophet, seventy two women, men and children were killed by Yazid’s forces, including Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein. (He was the son of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and his cousin Ali). He is considered an Imam by the Shia Muslims. In South Asia, this flagellation takes place by self beating chests or in other ways whipping oneself with chains, swords, knives, etc. This ritual is known as “matam.”
Religion has been responsible for many wars worldwide just as democracy has. However, religion has also caused many people to go to war against themselves. This happens when the believers are either made to feel guilty against themselves, through statements such as “Jesus died for your sins,” (even though Jesus died two thousand years ago), or by making you feel that you are extremely inferior in comparison to God — as if there is not already enough entities for a person to feel inferior to, as in rich relatives, nasty law officers, glamorous celebrities, political elites, etc.
Many believers take extreme measures in inflicting physical pain: in the form of starvation or by depriving self of comfort, becoming celibates, or through mortification of the flesh.
All these actions are undertaken to either please God to achieve a spiritual union with God or for the purpose of penance and repentance.
In this light, one can safely assume that Pope John Paul too must have had some sort of agony to have finally decided to whip himself.
While whipping himself, he probably thought of the following reasons:
· My Lord I did do some good today, but I did not utilize my position to do many more good deeds. For committing this sin, I need to go through penance by punishing myself. This process will be carried out in a manner whereby I will be whipping myself.
· This one is for denying pleasure to myself;
and so now this one is to stir myself up;
and many more to make up for all the lost time.
· This one is for not walking the procreation path;
· This one is for prohibiting poor helpless women from aborting unwanted pregnancies;
· This one is for not permitting the use of contraceptives;
· This one is for keeping millions of couples in miserable state by not granting them divorce;
· This one is for refusing to ordain women priests;
· This one is for not recognizing gay/lesbian civil marriage;
· This one —
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com