Glance at Ashura-centered masterpiece- 2

Believed to be at the top of the list of films depicting the Ashura tragedy, ‘The Fateful Day’ takes a Christian’s journey on the day of the event, to Karbala, where the son of prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was martyred by the most cruel people in history.

Abollah, who is a Christian-newly-turned-Muslim, actually fell in love with a Muslim girl, so much so that he proposed 37 times, before he got the go ahead.

Now, this new Muslim, whose converting to Islam was basically a matter of his falling in love with the Muslim girl, hears a divine voice, when a man calls for help. Here’s the rest of the story.

As Abdollah embarks on the road to Kufa, he comes across a caravan, attacked by pirates. He rushes to help them, and after being about to be killed, he manages to kill all the bandits. It’s then when a sandstorm impedes him from proceeding into the desert. Afterwards, he meets two tribes on his way, who head for Karbala, to fight Imam Hossein (AS); they’re lost in the wilderness. They capture Abdollah, but in a fight over whether to abandon their ill wish to combat the Imam, Abdollah gets a chance to escape.

That’s when he faces people coming from Karbala; those who have fled the war and left their beloved Imam behind. They say the enemy has surrounded the Imam’s camp, but Imam has rejected to pledge allegiance to the tyrant ruler, Yazid.

Abdollah learns he’s a short distance away from the destination, just before his horse falls down, and dies of fatigue. He starts walking in an oasis, just to meet nomads who say the Imam passed by their place 7 days ago. They tell him the Imam has informed them of his arrival, and left a horse for him there. The oasis tents hosted the Imam, and now they nomad women are mourning. According to an old belief, they say there would be two sons in the sky, on this day. Abdollah departs the oasis and carries on toward Karbala.

As he approaches the battlefield, he can hear the violent sounds of people attacking, women screaming, and horses neighing. They enemy has conquered the Imam’s small army of believers, and is transferring the captured women and children.

Abdollah witnesses the heads of the martyrs on spears, and that the enemy is setting Imam’s camp tents ablaze; there are surprisingly two suns in the sky. Eventually he meets an ironsmith who had heard a similar divine call for help, like him, and is covered with wound blood, and dying at the moment.

That’s when Abdollah witnesses the truth of his dream, and achieves the most sublime place an ordinary man could, to bear a super-strong testimony that the cause for his being a Muslim is Imam Hossein (AS). He verbalizes an affidavit, stating he saw the truth in chains, and torn into parts, upon spears.

Thursday will mark the anniversary of the Ashura tragedy, in which Imam Hossein (AS) and 72 of his faithful companions were martyred in Karbala, upon an order and in an unequal war, by the tyrant of the time, Yazid.

MF/MF