No procession for Imam Ali’s martyrdom this year

LUCKNOW: For the first time in its 150-year-old history, the iconic Hasan Mirza taboot, commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Ali (the first Shia Imam and fourth Islamic Caliph), will not be decorated for a three-day tribute-paying ritual starting 19th Ramzan, falling on May 13 this year.
The taboot will also not be taken out in a procession on 21st Ramzan.
Every year since the wee hours of 19th Ramzan until the morning of 21st Ramzan mourners used to throng the Old City’s Rustam Nagar area to pay tributes to Imam Ali on his martyrdom.
However, this year no procession will be taken out and a notice declaring that the ritual has been postponed would be pasted at the imambara.
The family which has been responsible for the three-day mourning ritual since 1870 has prepared notices to be pasted outside the premises of ‘Najaf’ in Rustam Nagar on Tuesday, telling people not to gather since the taboot will not be readied for public participation.
Imam Ali was struck with a poisoned sword while offering morning prayers on the 19th of Ramzan and he attained martyrdom on the 21st day of the Islamic month.
“Juloos of any kind have been disallowed by the government due to novel coronavirus pandemic. Thus the 21st Ramzan procession has been postponed until next year,” said S Zafar Husain, great grandson of Hasan Mirza, who had started the tradition in 1870 after witnessing it in Iraq.
“We will not even assemble the taboot because if we do so people will start coming to pay tributes and this in turn will break the lockdown,” he added.