History Repeats Itself

We all know that the Holy Qur’an and narrations of the Ahlul Bayt (a) encourage us and give us instructions in order to reach our perfection. If, however, a person disregards this guidance and follows any other path, he will day-by-day digress and gradually go astray. In fact, such people eventually use their power to dominate over the general masses and usurp their rights in order to satisfy their own selfish desires.

This is exactly what we see in history, such as in the incident of Saqeefa or in the incident of Karbala, and many other events that have transpired in the past. But history repeats itself every day; we are constantly seeing rights being usurped in the world we live in today. Embodiments of truth and falsehood like that of Husain (a) and Yazid always exist, and it is upon us to then decide whether we strive to be on the path of truth and justice like the path of Imam Hussain (a) or falsehood and oppression like the path of Yazid.

The consequence of not following the right path is to follow in the footsteps of Yazid. Would we want to be on such a path even for a blink of an eye? We need to assess ourselves to see which path we are really treading. Eternal prosperity and spiritual perfection lies in selecting the path of Imam Hussain (a). The question to ponder upon every day is: “Am I on the truth or am I on falsehood?” Or in other words: “Am I really following Imam Husain’s path and instructions or am I deceiving myself thinking that I am on his path but in reality my speech and actions are contrary to that which he stood for?”