HASAN AND HUSAYN Islamic tradition has preserved numerous anecdotes depicting the tender care and love which the Prophet showed Hasan and Husayn. They were both born in Medina, and thus knew the Prophet only as children. It is therefore with the intimacy and love of a grandfather that the early life of the two Imams is coloured. Once more, these family anecdotes also reflect clearly the theological and political tension within the community, a tension which largely centered around Hasan and Husayn. One such anecdote is the following. The Excellences of the Imam Husayn in Sunni Hadith Tradition HUMAN history may be seen as a record of the eternal struggle between right and wrong, virtue and vice, good and evil, and righteousness and wickedness. This struggle was decreed by God when Adam, an earthly creature, was sent to earth to engage in this eternal battle. It is through this struggle that human beings can earn their eternal bliss in the Gardens of Paradise, or their eternal punishment in the Fire. In the history of nations this struggle often attains universal significance as that moment of the struggle can speak to all subsequent times and situations. Thus the Qur'an urges us over and over again to ponder the end of those who were before us, and how God dealt with them. In every case, moreover, a prophet or messenger of God was rejected by his people and killed or driven out. In this sense, therefore, the struggle is in the end between God and humankind, between truth and falsehood, and between right guidance and manifest error. Tales Narrated by Grand Ayatullah Sheikh Bahjat Sheikh Misbah says, “Ayatullah Bahjat used to quote the late Qadi saying, ‘If one of you performs the obligatory prayer in its early time and does not reach high stations, let him curse me!’ Or, according to another version of the narrative, he said, ‘Let him spit in my face.’”
There is a great mystery in the early prayer time, and there is a difference between “Safeguard the prayers” and “Uphold the prayers”.
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