A Study of Suffering and Martyrdom in Islamic Ta'ziya and Christian Passion Plays
Journal Title: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature - Year 2017, Vol 41, Issue 1
Abstract
The theme of suffering and martyrdom occupies a central place in the history of religion from the earliest time. In the myths of the ancient Near East, the hero is slain, but his death, then, guarantees the revival of life. Sacrifices are means for reaching higher and loftier stages of life; the Biblical and Qur'anic story of Abraham, who so deeply trusted God that he, without questioning, was willing to sacrifice his dear son, points to the importance of such sacrifice. Greek theater, on the other hand, grew out of a religious festival, and was often concerned with the deepest questions about morality and the relationship between mortals, gods, and fate; it was theoretically a temple of the god Dionysus, with his alter in the center. Church history is also rich with examples of art enhancing religious teaching. From the beginning of early churches through to the Middle Ages and beyond, people interact with images, music, ritual symbols and drama. Mystery, Miracle, Morality, which have developed successively, have led to the creation of what is called now "the passion plays of Christ". The passion play is a dramatic presentation which depicts Jesus Christ's passion , his trial, suffering, and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition. The counterpart of the Christian Passion play in Islamic tradition is the "Ta'ziyeh" which means Condolence Theatre. It commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Muhammad. As Christ gave his life as a sacrifice for the sake of humanity, Imam Hussein is seen as having sacrificed himself for the sake of Islam. In both traditions the theme of martyrdom is celebrated through literature. The reconnection of Church and drama was a recovery of former state of affairs which had been lost. It was a dream that came true on some modern poetic dramatists. Thus, many poetic plays were written on the theme of martyrdom and sacrifice in Christian traditions. In the Islamic tradition, the tragedy of Karbala inspired some modern Muslim poets to write modern poetic dramas about it. Modern poetic drama succeeded in performing a social function by dramatizing complex states of human spiritual and moral beings and it was the fruit of the seeds planted by Christ passion plays and Islamic T'azyia. It is the role of the poetic plays to show that the true meaning of martyrdom is to sacrifice one's self to give life to others, by making use of the heritage of hundreds of martyrs who sacrificed their lives defending the peaceful life of their countries against those terrorists who have killed life and destroyed peace. It is the most suitable time now for the writers of poetic drama to show through their work the difference between the true and genuine meaning of martyrdom and the deformed one.
Authors and Affiliations
Ammar Shamil Al-Khafaji
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP388384
- DOI 10.17951/lsmll.2017.41.1.7
- Views 84
- Downloads 0
The New Consensus Movement and Its Role in Overcoming the Controversy and Conflict over the Place of Religion in the U.S. Educational System
Religion-related controversies have a long history in American public education. In the 1980s the debate was dominated by a growing concern over the failure to address the issue of religion in the educational system. Thi...
An Investigation of ELT Student Teachers’ Dictionary Ownership and Preferences
Alongside with many societal changes, technology has also started to change the teaching and learning of EFL especially since the turn of the millennium. Multimedia based and audio visual materials are now easily accessi...
The Analysis of Social Stratification in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life from a Marxist Perspective
While Industrial Revolution helped England to become a great power in the world, capitalism created a huge gap between the middle classes and working classes. Observing the condition of the society, Marx and Engels creat...
Les contextes de la déconstruction phraséologique
We propose to question the role of the cotext and/or the context in phraseology, especially in the context of syntactic and semantic deconstruction. The interpretation of these deconstructed phraseologisms reveals the pa...
La maladie comme métaphore. Autour de la somatisation du politique dans 2084. La fin du monde de Boualem Sansal
The aim of this paper is to present the interrelationship between politics and the representation of the patient’s body (pathography) in the novel of the Algerian contemporary activist and writer Boualem Sansal. In his n...