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I will cite some instances of tahrif, of which a few relate to the events that occurred before \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Ashura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\', some that occurred during the Imam\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s way, some during the days of his final halt at Karbala\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' in the month of Muharram. I will also mention some of them that relate to the days of his family\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s captivity and some about the Imams who lived after the event of Karbala\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'. However, most of them will relate to the day of \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Ashura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' itself.
It is essential to mention a point at first, and that is that the people are responsible in all these cases. You folks who attend the majalis sessions imagine that you have no responsibility in this regard, and think that it is only the speakers who are responsible. The people have two major responsibilities. The first is that of nahy \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'anil-munkar (forbidding what is wrong) which is obligatory for all. When they find out and know-and most of the time they do know!-that a narrative is untrue, they should not sit in that gathering. It is forbidden to sit in such gatherings and one must protest against them. Secondly, they must try to get rid of the eagerness and expectation which the hosts as well as the audience attending the majalis have for the majlis to become fervid, that there should be impassioned mourning and the majlis should get feverish with cries of the mourners. The poor speaker knows that if he were to say only things that are true and authentic, the majlis would not get into a frenzy and the same people will not invite him again. Hence he is compelled to add something.
The people should get this expectation out of their heads and refrain from encouraging the kind of fictitious narratives which kill the soul of Karbala but work up the mourners into a frenzy. The people should hear the true narrative so that their understanding and level of thinking is elevated. They should know that if a sentence creates a tremor in one\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s souls and attunes it with the spirit of Husayn ibn \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Ali and, as a result, one small tear were to come out of one\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s eyes, it is really a precious station. But tears drawn by the scenes of mere butchery, even if a deluge, are worthless.
The expectation of the people that the majlis should go wild with mourning is itself a source of falsehoods. Accordingly, most of the fabrications that have occurred have been for the purpose of drawing tears, nothing else.