Ayatollah Kamarehyi's Interpretation of Imam al-Husayn's Phrase Shudhadh al-Ahzab

The late Ayatollah Sheikh Abbas Qummi’s book Nafas al-mahmum was an authoritative account of the event of Karbala such that it received various Persian translations by several great men of religious scholarship, e.g., the late Ayatollah Muhammad-BaqirKamarihyi. To render an exact Persian translation, he gave some interpretations of certain Arabic phrases out of Imam al-Husayn’s sermons. One of such phrases was the Arabic term “al-ahzab”. He reasoned that “al-ahzab” was a term that used to be applied to the learned sessions that used to be held at mosques in the early Islamic period. His argument was that people’s keeping away from such learned sessions was a factor that led to their breaking with Imam al-Husayn and opposing him. The arguments are supported by other contextual evidence, lexicographical citations, and further context clues.