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The Model of Moral Virtues of Imam Hussein Manifested… K. F. Mustafa et al (41
model that other countries followed. Shaykh al-Mufīd’s al-Irshād), and
Further, (approving) a person or thing that literary elegies (e.g., the works of
is considered an excellent example of Moḥammad Mahdī al-Jawāhirī).
something. For example, it was a model of However, while the broader Karbala
clarity (Oxford Advanced American event has been meticulously
Dictionary, 2011, p. 955). documented, a critical lacuna persists in
the systematic analysis of Imam
4. Āshūrā
The day of Āshūrā, the very day on Hussein’s sermons as discrete rhetorical
which Hussein ibn Ali was martyred on a and philosophical texts. His speeches—
Saturday, the tenth of Muharram in the particularly those delivered en route to
year 61 AH (Ṭabarsī, 1997, p. 459). and within Karbala—constitute a
Imam Hussein says: On Āshūrā not a manifesto of principled resistance, yet
single member of my family, lineage, or they remain underexplored in terms of
household will remain without suffering. their linguistic structure, moral
My head will be carried to Yazid ibn philosophy, and persuasive power.
Mu’awiya (Khasibi, 1991, pp. 206-207). Among the limited scholarly works
addressing this gap is Syed Muṣṭafā
Literature Review Mūṣsawī I'timād’s a Glimpse of Imam
Imam Hussein occupies a singular Hussein’s Eloquence: Speeches, Letters,
position in history as a revolutionary and Sermons, which provides a focused
figure whose martyrdom at Karbala examination of Imam Hussein’s oratory,
precipitated a paradigm shift in Islamic particularly his sermons on Āshūrā.
thought, ethics, and resistance I'timād’s work distinguishes itself by
movements. His legacy transcends dissecting the interplay between rhetorical
temporal and sectarian boundaries, devices (e.g., parallelism, antithesis, and
rendering him not merely a historical Quranic intertextuality) and moral
personality but an enduring archetype of exhortations in Imam Hussein’s speeches.
moral defiance against tyranny. Given However, while I'timād’s analysis offers
his exceptional stature, every aspect of foundational insights, it does not fully
his life—particularly his oratory— engage with comparative frameworks—
demands rigorous scholarly examination such as juxtaposing Imam Hussein’s
as a source of theological, ethical, and sermons with classical theories of rhetoric
socio-political methodology. (Aristotelian pathos and ethos) or
The Husseini narrative has been contemporary resistance literature (e.g.,
extensively studied through various Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth).
lenses, including historical chronicles Further scholarship has touched
(e.g., al- Ṭabarī’s Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al- upon related themes without centering
Mulūk), theological exegeses (e.g., the sermons themselves. For instance:
