Quote of the day

The Shia branch of Islam is a very fascinating religion. While reading Elias Canetti's 'Mass and Power' I fell over this beautiful quotation - and, yeah, a bit macabre as well:

'For a Shiite it is impossible not to cry. His heart is a living grave, the real grave for the beheaded martyr's head.'

For general ignorants about Islam like myself, this quote might throw some illumination on the yearly processions in the Iraqi Town of Kerbela, where the heir to Muhammad Hussain was killed, beheaded and trampled down into the earth by horses. And you thought the Catholics were melancholic!

By the way, the murder was perpetrated in the month of muharram, on the tenth day, ashura. The legend goes that if you are buried in the holy town, you won't be questioned on the day of reckoning and go directly into paradise. Therefor quite a large industry of burials evolved in Kerbala. In that aspect it seems quite similar to the Indian city of Varanasi.

Elias Canetti, 'Masse og Magt' (København: Samlerens Bogklub, 1996)