It was really interesting for me how the Iranian USA peace deal largely came into force on the first day of Muhurram.
The following is a quote from wikipedia:
Muharram[a] (Arabic: ٱلْمُحَرَّم, romanized: al-Muḥarram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in Islam. For Sunni Muslims, the day commemorates the parting of the Red Sea by Moses and the salvation of the Israelites, observed through voluntary fasting and other permissible expressions of gratitude. By contrast, Ashura is a day of mourning for Shia Muslims, who annually commemorate the death of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the third Shia imam. Husayn was killed, alongside most of his relatives and his small retinue, in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE against the army of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiya (r. 680–683). The Shia rituals span the first ten days of Muharram, culminating on Ashura with mourning processions in Shia cities. Also in Muharram, the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was initially set as the direction of prayer for early Muslims.
These are some poems I penned about Karbala many years ago:
Poem 1
In every place and time there lies a blood stained land
Where people die with martyr´s blood which stains the yellow sand
Perhaps a place within our minds which kills all false ideas
But with it love and peace are pushed to fall and disappear
Like Hussain on the battlefield or Hasan´s poisoned cup
we seem to live history anew by thoughts which do corrupt
Silently we think our thoughts from places dark inside
which reaps a battle outwardly which never does subside
And then we mourn as saints the men whose blood they left behind
not knowing we ourselves did kill by our false thoughts in mind
Poem 2
Karbala
Tall Dark Shadows, Soldiers Walk by
another boy screams, his mother has died
the army still kills, while the scholars still sigh
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala
I want them to learn respect for a man
invaders from darkness, who march on our sand
but they never could take this sanctified land
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala
Ignorantly calling "fighting will cease"
but thats just a promise, not a release
come take my oil, for you'll never find peace
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala
Blood which was shed in an age long ago
long before Oprah, or News at One Show
lies in the desert like a fresh fall of snow
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala
Built upon hope yet the place lies in gloom
only a message of hatred and doom?
an a saints Garden under Eid Moon
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala
Did Hussain teach us to hate all who come?
or martyr ourselves or go on the run?
surely a message of Peace is undone
as I walk through the plains they call Karbala