 Imagine it's 1,400 years ago, it's the night of Ashurah, you see people leaving in their hundreds of thousands from the camp of Imam Hussein, you turn and look at Imam Hussein, you see the sadness and sorrow in his face, in that moment you, Mohsen, decide to stay and be the 73rd companion of Imam Hussein, now the morning of Ashurah comes, the Imam says to you, Mohsen, it's up to you to help me in any way you see fit yourself, where would you volunteer your services, how would you aid the Imam on the day of Ashurah? First of all I probably ask the Imam what he's doing and what he wants me to do, and then go forth with that, it's not negotiable, you know, what he, you know, what sort of tasks he designates to myself, but if he left it up to me and said, look, you can pick what you need to do or what you'd like to do, I would be the Imam, right, there's so much, there's so much avail, we're not saying so much avail but there's so much to do, weapons need preparing, women need taking care of, children need distracting, you know, search for food, search for water, God knows how many people are having a mental breakdown because they're about to go into war, it's not even war, it's like you're going to death, death is certain, you're not winning that, it's just, I would assume there'll be a lot of chaos, but from the narrations and the history we know that there was, people actually like, you know, stood up to the challenge, these were warriors, these weren't people who were like scared, these weren't people who were hesitant or nervous, these people knew what needed to be done and went out to execute their task, me myself if I was there, I'd, I'd, I ain't got a clue what I'd be doing, I think I'd still be in the state of shock, I think I'd be, I wouldn't know where to help people sharpen swords, prepare weapons, saddle up horses, or would I be, you know, with the children trying to tell them everything's okay, would I be helping bringing back bodies, you know, preparing graves, I honestly, I've got a clue. Suppose you finish work today, you drive back home, your mom, your dad, they come to the door, they open the door, they let you in, you see your families in a frantic state, you see everyone's running around gathering food, fruit, drinks, etc, so you ask your mom or dad, what's going on, have we got guests today, and they turn around to you and they say, a man's come to see you, and he's waiting for you in the living room, so you go to the living room, you open the door, and you see sitting there Imam Salaam, what would you want to say to him in that moment, what would you have to say to him in that moment? I thought I'd be speechless, I don't know what to say, an individual you've been hearing about your whole life and commemorating his life and his death, and his sacrifice and his honor, year after year after year, volunteering, participating in medullist and things like that, and then finally he's there to see me, I don't know if I'll be conscious or not, honestly speaking, if I was to see Imam Salaam there, I'd probably take a minute or two just to look at him, just to take it all in, who you know this is the son of Ali Ibn Abu Talib, this is you know the master of martyrs, what would you want him to say to you, what would you be happy with hearing from his holy mouth? Salaam, how are you all right, that I'll be more than enough, I don't even need anything else, just the fact that he's you know come to see me, that he acknowledges who I am as an individual, that's more than enough for me. So now you've met with him, sat with him, and it's time to say you're farewell, he's leaving your house, what would you do in that situation, what would you say to him? I wouldn't let him go, I would do my best to keep him as long as possible, but you know mature grown-ups, we understand that you know he's probably got other people to visit, he's got other people to see, and I would ask him like you know what more can I do, is there anything you need from me? I don't know, not just me, loads of us, Shabaab and the community have been serving him, I'm saying it anyway, we can for a long time, it's nice to get feedback and see that you know are we are we doing anything wrong, are we going the correct way, was there anything you personally want us to do, because we're here to serve you. So at the beginning I asked you, imagine we were on the night of Ashura 1400 years ago, came to the day of Ashura, how would you serve knowing the events that took place, it might be easy to say I would offer my services to Imam Hussain, in this manner, whether it be to gather water with Abul Fadr al-Abbas, whether it's to bring back the body of Ali al-Aqbar, whether it's to stand as a shield in front of the Holy Imam while he offers his prayers, whether it's to stand and guard the tents of the women and children, for when the army comes to beat them you say to the army if you want to hit someone hit me what's the sin of the three-year-old girl, and it might be easy to say oh you know I would have done this I would have done that, but a lot of us forget that our 12th Imam is among us, so my final question is what have you done for him, some say at least Imam Hussain had 72 companions, how many has our current Imam got, some say at least Imam Hussain was amongst family, friends, loyal companions who gave their lives, their children's lives, their wives, their daughters, their everything for Imam Hussain, what have we done, what have we given to our 12th Imam? I mean me personally I've always remembered the Imam in my prayers, I've always prayed for his protection, his safety, for his health, for his wealth and fortune, and for his reappearance, for surely this kingdom, this world belongs to him, and he rightfully so should be placed as leader, king, Khalif wherever you want to call it, and me personally I don't think I've done enough at all for my Imam, I wouldn't say I've done nothing, but looking now there's so much more I can do, understand the Imam better, recognise the Imam better, maybe there's things that he wants to see in me, things he wants to see me doing, maybe performing Salatul Alayl more often, maybe reading up on certain ayat to do directly with him, maybe passing on his message and passing on his existence and his acknowledgement to those a little younger who don't truly understand his existence, why he exists, there's a lot more I can do and as a community there's a lot more we can do, people don't really understand that when the Hebrews were praying for Moses in the time of the Pharaoh because they were collectively together so strong, Allah SWT gave them Moses 150 years earlier than he actually planned to than he was expected simply because the community was so joined and the community were just one and prepared and ready for the arrival of Moses, if you look at our people are we united on that front that we are ready and prepared for the arrival of the Imam and to do what's necessary to eradicate evil from this world, so as a community have we actually taken the steps forward to prepare for his arrival as a community, as a nation, not as individuals now there's 50 odd days remaining to this year's Arshurah, what do you think will be different this year as opposed to the other years, in terms of you and your service this year I mean Hamdullah have been blessed with the opportunity to serve in Al-Hassan and every year I try to get involved, small youth lectures or I can do some volunteering or donate money or whatever I can do and in shah this year it will be different for me because I will be hopefully taking on a new sort of platform or method to lecture which I have not seen done before in a Muharram period, not that I know so inshallah it's something I'm working on if with the correct time and preparation inshallah I'll be able to put it off as they say and I think it will be a unique experience for individuals to learn not the traditional the conventional way of someone sitting on a member and speaking but more interactive inshallah that can materialize this year as a community I think there's always room for improvement, there's always more we can do normally each Muharram is different because different issues are addressed and people always try to do something new for example sometimes people start to perform in plays and have some sort of theatrics incorporated with the mention is to enhance the emotion some people maybe would write new scripts or maybe look at new events that occurred in Karaballah which we haven't covered before and maybe in this Muharram we'll be able to get really experience and effective speakers to actually pass on a good message to our community inshallah