Is Azadari a part of Islam?

Doubt:

Lamentations, breast-beating and mourning in memory of Husain’s martyrdom are not sanctioned by Islam. Though such martyrdoms are tragic, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) has forbidden holding mourning ceremonies on the death of any person.  People of Jaahiliyyah (ignorance) used to mourn over their deceased then the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) stopped the Muslims.

Reply:

Azaadaari (mourning) is a means to express sorrow for the hardships suffered by the Ahle Bait (a.s.) at the hands of the caliphs of their time. The words of Imam of Ahle Sunnah Allamah Fakhrudeen Raazi are notable:

‘It is our firm belief that one who dies with love for the descendants of Muhammad (s) dies a martyr.’

(Tafseer-e-Kabir, vol 7, pg 390)

It is narrated by Abu Hurariah that the Prophet (s.a.w.a.) used to visit the graves of martyrs every year. When he (s.a.w.a.) would reach the entrance of the mountain, he (s.a.w.a.) would say (to the martyrs): ‘Assalamoalaikum bi maa sabartum’. This means ‘Peace be on you due to your patience and you have reached a pleasant place due to this.’ Then after the Prophet (s.a.w.a.), Abu Bakr also used to come (every year), and after him Umar used to do the same and then Usman also did the same.

(Al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah of Ibne Kasir in vol. 4, pg. 45, Beirut ed.)

Umar said ‘Whenever I venture out at sunrise, I remember the death of my brother Zaid b. Khattab.’

(Al-Bidaayahwa al-Nihaayah vol. 6 pg. 360)

Obviously the remembrance of his brother’s death did not make him laugh; he was sorrowful (azaadaar).

 

The father and mother of humanity (Hazrat Adam (a.s.) and his wife Hazrat Hawwa (a.s.)) wept for their son Haabeel for so long that their tears turned into a stream.

(Taarikh-e-Yaqoobi, vol. 1, pg. 3)

In Rauzah al-Shuhadaa, pg 30 the same incident has been quoted by Mulla Husain Waaiz Kashifi who adds:

Tears from Adam’s (a.s.) right eye were flowing like the River Dajla and like the River Euphrates from his left eye.

Perhaps the following tradition may prove more convincing:

After the burial of the Prophet (s.a.w.a.), the companions in a state of sorrow were virtually throwing dust over themselves, and were crying due to the separation from their beloved. Especially Hazrat Faatemah (s.a.) was inconsolable; she was looking at the faces of her sons Imam Hasan (a.s.) and Imam Husain (a.s.) and was crying at their plight and her own plight. Even Aaesha was continuously crying and wailing. For several days and nights the voices of crying and mourning rose from this house which became house of grief (Baytul Huzn) and separation.

(Madaarij al-Nubuwwah, vol 2, pg. 753-754)

Mulla Ali Qaari in his book Al-Mirqaat fi Sharh al-Mishkaat from a narration by Imam Ahmed b. Hanbal quotes Imam Husain (a.s.):

‘Whoever weeps and cries upon me remembering my pain and miseries, Allah shall grant him Paradise.’

(Al-Mirqaat fi Sharh al-Mishkaatwith reference to Taarikh-e-Ahmedi, pg 277, printed in Kanpur)

One can refer to the Holy Quran via this hadis in Ahle Sunnah’s authoritative work Tafseer-e-Durr al-Manthoor,  vol. 4 pg 31:

The Prophet (s.a.w.a.) was asked: What was the extent of Hazrat Yaqoob’s (a.s.) mourning for his son? He (s.a.w.a.) replied, ‘It was on par with mourning of 70 men and women.’ And what was the reward for this? He (s.a.w.a.) retorted, ‘It is on par with one hundred martyrs.’

Yusuf (a.s.) said to Hazrat Jibrail (a.s.): Is my father adhering to mourning? Hazrat Jibrail (a.s.) said: The mourning of Yaqoob (a.s.) is on par with 70 men and women mourning. He then asked, ‘What is the reward for this mourning?’

He said: The reward for this mourning is on par with mourning of 100 martyrs.

(Tafseer Khazaan vol.3 pg 253)