Faithful Abbas Faithful Zuljana
Taboot
Taboot of Ali Akbar
Parchame Abbas
Taboots moving out
Motherhood the Fountainhead of Shiasm
The Alams
The Flags of Honor
This ends a long series , I have never shot Mumbai Moharam , as I shot Lucknow in 4 days..
Posted by photographerno1 on 08 Jun 2007
Filed Under: hazrat imam hussain, imambada meeransaab | No Comments »
AliAsghars Cradle
With this lot I complete the entire Moharam segment of Lucknow.
All these Cds were lying with me for several months,but they saw daylight anyway.
The Juloos at Imambada Meeran Saab, was to pay tribute to the Fourth Imam Zainul Abedin and the rest of the kith and kin of Imam Hussain.Here on display were the replicas 18 in number, with the Amary.After the juloos was the usual scourgings that I missed as my memory cards were full.I did not carry my Nikon F100 or I would have shot negatives too.
Most of the videographers who shoot all this sell the clips , which will be added to the VCDS of Nohakars of Matam and Marsiyas.
As this is a Shia affair , hardly anyone else shoots it, at the Shia Mosques and Imambadas , non Muslims are strictly not allowed, so all these years of shooting Moharam,mostly in metropolitan cities Moharam is shot on the streets, during Ashura and Chehlum.
The Indian newspapers , give limited space or maybe just a stray mention about Moharam.The Urdu newspapers avoid Moharam, as most of the Urdu newspapers are mouthpiece of Wahabbism thought that considers Moharam a Heresy and the Shias as Heretics.
I have never given my Moharam or my photo journalism pictures to the press.
Very early years I did give some to Hindustan Times Lucknow edition, but the curiosity at that time was my Bollywood status as a designer of actor Govinda .I am now a tailorman.Govindia wears whites he has become a politician and Neta No1 of the masses.
So in retrospection I think the Imambada Meeran Saab juloos at Muftiganj,, the Hazrat Qasim Mehndi, the Bada Imambada Ag Ka Matam, the Darya Wala Alam of Hazrat Abbas Juloos, 9 th Moharam Juloos from Nakhas , the 10th Moharam Ashura Juloos from Nakhas ,the 11th Moharam Hazrat Abbad Dargah juloos is what comprises 11 days of Mahram in Lucknow , commemorating the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain erstwhile grandson of the Holy Prophet of Islam..
Zuljana
Any Moharam Juloos in India is incomplete without the participation of a horse that symbolises Zuljana the steed of Hazrat Imam Hussain.
His faithfulness is the tragic story of Karbala.The valiant steed protecting his Master till the very end,his symbolism is not the fleshiness of a horse, but his qualities that all be it were lacking in Islamists that made up Yazids superior army.
This was the Might of the Ummayad Caliphate brutalising all the five pillars of Islam.
So whatever accusations are hurled at Shias for being Imam Hussains killers, or being Jews , whatever crap, the Sunni fact remains Yazid who pulled the trigger was the killer of Imam Hussain.
He could not have been a Shia..as the word Shia denoted anyone who was a follower of Ali.
Many a times any group with a revolutionary agenda to misguide Islam, would be given a derogatory title, the most common hackneyed one was Shia.A criminal was simply called Shia.
For 100 years from Sunni minarets of the Caliphates Alis name was taken abusively, his followers persecuted, so the Shia took up Taqqaiya , he hid his religion to save the lives of his loved ones..Taqqaiya was justifiable in such circumstances, I am not a historian nor an Islamic scholar, but this is what I have gathered from the discourses of other scholars in the Majlis.
So guys at Allah Ho Akbar .net get overexcited, almost jumping out of their shrunk pajamas in dengrating this vibrant Prophet s progeny following sect.Believers of Ahle Bait and above all Allah the Omnipresent and Omniscient.
Well cyberspace is the new Karbala and Hussainiyat lives in a click of a Mouse , at the same time Yazid the cyborgean monster is reborn thanks to websites of Shia hatredness ,all I can say…Truth triumphs in the end.
Ya Hussain is a cry of Truth triumphing over falsified hopes of kurtas of overstretched imagination warped in a weft of self hate..
I take a bow.
Posted by photographerno1 on 08 Jun 2007
Filed Under: allah ho akbar., hazrat imam hussain, imambada meeransaab, shiasm, taqqaiya, zuljana | No Comments »
Posted by photographerno1 on 05 Jun 2007
Filed Under: badshah ast hussain, hazrat imam hussain, imambada meeransaab | 3 Comments »
These are pictures shot at the Juloos of 18 taboots at Imambada Meeran Saab..The smoke is the incense, it adds the surrealistic spirtualism to shiasm ..a single word that defies time and space outliving generation after generation bound to like a banyan tree of faith in Ahle Bait…silence seamlessly reverbrating humanity…Ya Hussain.
This was shot through the viewfinder of my human soul.. verily this is wordless shia poetry…
the taboot or coffin of Hazrat Imam Hussain.
Posted by photographerno1 on 05 Jun 2007
Filed Under: hazrat imam hussain, imambada meeransaab, shiasm | No Comments »
This is the last segment of the Juloos of Zainul Abedin the Fourth Imam and the 18 taboots at Imambada Meeran Saab at Muftiganj.
Maulana Kalbe Jawad finishes the Majlis and the Juloos starts.
Ouside in the courtyard the Amary or Caravan consisting of camels is being decked to take part in this awesome procession.
This juloos is packed with men women and children..
The Amary
The Amary
The Amary
The Banner of Faith
Alam Abbas
The Amary Procession
The Taboots
The Amary
The Hazri
The Hazri
The Taboot
Watching the Juloos Room with a view.
The Amary
The Juloos
shia mothers shia kids
taboot
taboot alam
Watching the juloos
Posted by photographerno1 on 24 May 2007
Filed Under: imambada meeransaab, zainul abedeen | No Comments »
I keep telling you through my various posts on Moharam, the incomparable contribution of Shia motherhood to the life line of Shiasm.It is our Mothers who keep Hazrat Imam Hussains covenant of Hussainiyat alive, no Mullah can translate Shiasm the way the mother does , not by words by actions, of taking her brood from one Majlis to another, she is the fundament of our Faith, she is the unshakeable Fountainhead of our Faith.For me Shia Womenhood is collectively a Motherhood of Faith.
I was standing above Maulana HassanZaheers house watching the Juloos of the Fourth Imam and the 18 Taboots at Imambada Meeran Saab, the women were all ears to Maulana Kalbe Jawads Majlis, he recites to the galleries of Shia womenhood, he has in his discourse something to impart to our women..yes women need guidance to in a changing cybernetic world.The Mother has to carry the child her vision of Islam into the brave new world.
I was shooting the majlis , but my viewfinder , was pulling me towards the kids, static in one place for almost two to three hours, restless but disciplined, they did not know I was on the roof above but something attracted them to me..I give them another hope of being seen, in a world beyond their own.The World of Photographer No 1 at Word Press.
Yes this is dedicated to Shia Mothers and Shia kids.
Once the Juloos moves in the women will get up, move to one side doing Ziyarat with their kids.
I shall show in the next lot.
Posted by photographerno1 on 24 May 2007
Filed Under: imambada meeransaab, shia kids, shia mothers | No Comments »
This was a massive Juloos at Imambada Meeran Saab Muftigang a day before Ashura I think, I am bad with dates.Here it was a display of 18 Taboots of Hazrat Imam Hussains male family members and a few of his brave warriors, I was assisted here by the younger brother of Maulana Hassan Zaheer Saab who was in Iraq.He took me above his house I shot the entire sequence on Raw format, I had to abort this Juloos as the memory cards were all full, so I did not shoot the Zanjir Matam completely.
Here too there was a Majlis by Maulana Kalbe Jawad Saab, the Shia women were in great strength, with their little ones , asleep on the fooor, this is the bulwark of our Faith.Shia women are the main power of Shiasm, it is solely because of them that the covenant of Hazrat Imam Hussain is alive.Thess brave women undaunted by climatic conditions, or other womanly hardships, carry their kids to attend Majlis, despite the horrendously horrifying crowds.
This is the earliest school of learning of our kids,these women brave everything that comes their path, these women who are braver than the bravest Shia men, this is the true Fountain head of our Faith.The house stoves for 10 days are in mourning too, no cooking, its only the Niyaz that comes from the Majlis that becomes holy bread , honestly there is so much Niyaz that you dont need to cook at home.Call it a miracle of sorts.I am talking of Lucknow.
I shoot this spirit of the Shia women, this spiritual force that commands attention in my pictures too.
I remember a Khoja kid outside the Bandra Khoja Mosque who was quite offensive as I was shooting a child doing matam on a womans lap, this is the misguided myopic vision of the new custodians of Shiasm the Khojas.If only Qums was not the stumbling block…I completely stay away from Khoja Mosque , because of the extreme politicisation, the poverty of a thinking mind of a commercially gifted race.I have nothing against the Khojas, I have best friends , but its just a few who cut the branch of the tree they are sitting on.
Well I will shoot an aspect people should read the story within the image.
It is our Mothers , our sisters , our daughters , our daughter in laws , that keep the flame of our Faith burning , we all owe it to them.Even the Mullah owes his earliest upbringing in Faith to his Mother.
Yes our Faith is that unfortunate Mother , that noble Mother , who sat on the grinding stone to grind the wheat , to feed her beloved Hassan Hussain, yes this Mother , this primal force the daughter of the Holy Prophet , who worked on the Chakki, this was the stepping stone, this was Righteousness , the wealth of her Mother Lady Khadija still remains unaccountable, but utilised in propagating Islam they say.
It was Politics of Power that gave birth to an Axis of Evil, the birth of sectarian Hate .
Simply renamed Shia Sunnis.
This Mother was given a raw deal, by the Caliph of his time , on 31 May we will be commemorating her death…this is Motherhood…our parentage to True Islam.
Maksade Fatima.
Our Women Fountainhead of Faith
Majlis Maulana Kalbe Jawad Saab
Majlis in Progress
The Juloos Gettting Ready
The Standard Bearers,, Alamdars
Posted by photographerno1 on 24 May 2007
Filed Under: fourth imam, imambada meeransaab, maulana kalbe jawad, zainul abedeen | No Comments »
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