Hamasa-e-Hussain is the title of Karbala and the personality who present this event with this tile and made it popular was the great Shia Martyr, Marty of Islam Allama Murtaza Mutttaheri. A collection of his speeches related to recognition of Karbala, Ashura and Hussain is titled as Hamasa-e-Hussaini. Hamasa is not a word common in Urdu, English literature and specifically in common man’s speaking it is hardly used.

Hamasa is from the same root from where Hamas is made, that is the Palestinian organization very common in news these days.

Hamasa is an Arabic word that is used for a specific meaning. Hamasa refers to a particular step or an act that possesses certain specialties in it:

A. First speciality is that it is an act and a step

B. The second specialty in the meaning of Hamasa is presence of movement in the step or act; and should not have stillness. It is evident that when there is movement all the things essential for that movement should be present.

1.                       For a movement there is a need for someone who motivates or one who initiates action or the one who gets into action.

2.                       The second element is acquaintance with the purpose for which the movement is done.

3.                       The third element is the path that needs to be traversed to reach the purpose.

Thus movement is the name of traversing a path to achieve a certain purpose. Therefore the second specialty of Hamasa is that it belongs to the tribe of action and it’s a step of movement. It should be from the family of movement and should be considered as a movement, it should not have stillness and stagnancy because generally stillness and stagnancy are also considered as some form of actions. Like when it is asked; what are you doing these days? The answer is that these days we are quiet; so being quite and not doing something is also considered as an action of human being, but the soul and introduction of Hamas consists of movement.

C. The third element of Hamasa is bravery. An action would be termed as Hamasa only when it possesses the element of bravery inside it; this means a brave act and a brave step is Hamasa.

Actions and Steps are of different types; some acts are such that bravery gets clearly manifested in them whereas in some acts cowardliness is clearly seen. Similarly there are some human beings who possess bravery whereas there are some others who don’t have the element of bravery inside them. Similar are words also; some words result into brave sentences and some are cowardly like when you read columns in newspapers there are some writers who write brave columns whereas some write cowardly columns. Even in ordinary conversations of two persons if the discussion is about righteousness and rights; and if person has to acquire his rights from someone then he will adopt two types of tones; he can adopt a valiant tone or a cowardly tone. He can talk with a brave accent or a cowardly accent. You would have noticed that in general talks as well sometimes people have brave and courageous discussions and talks, whereas some others are indulged in cowardly and disgraceful discussions. Hamasa is that step in which bravery, courage and valour is present.

D. The fourth element that makes an action as Hamasa is the element of resistance (Moqawamat) and perseverance (Istiqamat). That action which has the element of resistance inside it would be termed as Hamasa or in other words this action has been done to stop something (or resist something). Man performs several actions out of which some acts are to reach somewhere, some are to identify certain things, some are to acquire something, some are performed to give something to someone but some acts are also to resist or stop something. As an example if a flood of water approaches; man takes some steps to stop it from coming forward. This is the act that is termed as resistance (Moqawamat). This implies that you can create such a barrier in front of it that would stop the water from passing through, and this would be termed as resistance (Moqawamat) and perseverance (Istiqamat).

When these four mentioned elements combine in an act then the act would be termed as Hamasa. Thus summarizing, an act of Hamasa has four elements: An Act, Movement, Bravery and Resistance.

If these four things enter inside any act today it makes it a Hamasa else the act won’t be Hamasa. Every action is not Hamasa, every resistance is not Hamasa and every act of bravery is not Hamasa.

Hamasa is an Arabic word but very frequently used in Persian and not common in Urdu and English. Since the word Hamasa cannot be translated into a single word in Urdu and English it needs explanation and there is a need to open this word. It is necessary to understand the number of meanings and factors of understanding hidden inside Hamasa.