Muharram traditions: Parents lament their kids don’t know of sabeels

Both Shias and Sunnis set up stalls with drinks along procession routes for mourners.

KARACHI:

Sabeels - a Muharram tradition of setting up stalls to provide drinks to mourners - are slowly disappearing from the city. A few parents shared their disappointment with The Express Tribune when they learned their children do not even know of the concept.

“My son was completely confused when I asked him to set up a sabeel in Muharram,” admitted Nasir Ali Khan. “He asked me what a sabeel was!”

Khan recalled his teens when he actively participated in the tradition - setting up sabeels and preparing haleem on Ashura. “We tried to collect as much money as we could for decoration because our sabeel had to look better than others,” he smiled. “This was our passion and I expected my son to share the same enthusiasm.”

Khan is not the only young parent who has noticed a changed in this trend. “From my childhood to teens, I used to get together with all my friends to set up sabeels for the first 10 days of Muharram,” recalled Tariq Ayub, a resident of Gulberg. As he grew up, Ayub went on to preparing haleem with his friends. Ayub is 35 now and, for the past five years, he has neither set up a sabeels nor prepared haleem during Ashura. “Family and business engagements just don’t give me enough time.”



The young parents agreed that they only learned about this tradition because they saw their parents do this. “We saw our elders setting up sabeels and cooking Haleem but my son does not see anyone doing this anymore,” said Khan. “I don’t blame him for not knowing what a sabeel is.”

The young men would set up these sabeels by collecting donations from the entire neighbourhood and nearby shops. Since the past few years, the boys who wish to continue the trend have not been very successful with their collections. “My friends and I save our pocket money because no one donates any more,” complained 14-year-old Rizwan Ahmed, who lives in Nazimabad No. 7. “People come for a glass of water to our sabeel but they don’t give us donations.” For the past three years, Rizwan and his friends have been using their money.

Sectarian harmony

Setting up sabeels during Muharram was one of the few traditions that reflected sectarian harmony. Families of both sects would set up stalls to distribute drinks to the mourners - the Shia ones used black cloth to spread over the stall and the Sunni ones were draped in white or red.

Knowing their Shia neighbours were busy in mourning, Sunnis would set up these stalls along procession routes and outside imambargahs to quench the thirst of their Shia brothers. The sabeels were a common sight at every street corner but they can hardly be spotted now, especially in well-to-do neighbourhoods.

Religious scholars appreciated the tradition of setting up sabeels for thirsty mourners but felt the gesture should be extended the whole year. “This water is meant to quench the thirst of weary travellers so that it reminds them of the thirst the army of Imam Hussain (RA) had to undergo,” explained scholar Allama Abbas Kumaili. “People should install sabeels and offer waters to thirsty people for all 12 months of the year.”

Sunni scholars also agreed this trend should continue in the society. “To offer water to any thirsty person is humanity,” said religious scholar Mufti Munibur Rehman.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.