Shia Strength: Muslim Unite Sunni and Shia ZIYARAT (2)

A personal Ziyarat narrative of 2009 ................................ continued from Part (1).

THE PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY: ARRIVAL IN BAGHDAD

We left New Jersey on the 16^th of December onboard a Continental flight to London. From London we transferred to an Emirates flight to Dubai. In Dubai we were to meet with the rest of the group which consisted of people from Dallas, Toronto and many other US and Canadian cities. The trip was being organized by the Alamdar Group of Canada. Three days later we boarded an Iraqi Airways flight to Baghdad. This was a chartered flight run by Kazakhastan.

The moving force in the Alamdar Group is Sister Razia Dhirani who lives in Toronto as well as in Najaf and Dubai. It was her energy, drive and commitment to serve the Zaa-e-reen; and her husband, brother Asghar's quiet but relentless workings that made our trip a great success.

We arrived at Baghdad Airport while there was still daylight. The immediate reaction was the scenes of utter destruction around the airport and an eerie sense of desertion. The buses which took us out from the airport were security buses. They could only drive a few miles out of the airport. The road was bumpy and interspersed with security barriers. It was difficult to imagine that only a few years ago Baghdad was a metropolis with a thriving international airport. By the time we were at the edge of the security zone, it was dark and cold. The buses left us in an open space. All passengers and their baggage were then re-loaded into a different set of buses that were privately hired.

IN NAJAF

We arrived in Najaf-e-Ashraf after a bus ride for over an hour. The Alamdar group has its own hotel in Najaf, it is named Alamdar Hotel. It is a new purpose-built hotel. The rooms were very nice. Bathrooms were clean and modern. We had a very comfortable four-day stay in Najaf. Our specific room had a special feature: When we opened the rear window the glorious dome and the minaret of Imam Ali's shrine was right in front of us. I suppose we were very fortunate. The shrine is surrounded by rows and rows of houses and shops. IN the middle of one of such rows of buildings, the hotel stood snuggly. We could not wait any longer and after dumping our baggage in the hotel rooms we took a short walk through narrow passages and back-alleys and ended up in the courtyard of the shrine.

It was an overwhelming moment – we were standing on the dust which had touched at one time the holy feet of Imam Ali, those of Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn. It was a surreal feeling. As if to make sure, we made those trips to the shrine twice every day of our stay in Najaf.

It was this same spot that had been hidden from the public eye for at least a hundred years. It was discovered as the burial site of Imam Ali only in the second century of Hijra. Successive kings, rulers and other wealthy people who were devoted to Imam Ali and his memory had made an effort to make the shrine a glorious building which had been attracting hundreds of thousands of devoted pilgrims since.

In the fourth century of Hijra Sheikh Tusi, a devoted follower of Imam Ali and a great scholar, had established the Islamic world's greatest open university in the city of Najaf. The Iranian kings in the sixteenth century AD and the Nawabs of Avadh in the eighteenth century had invested vast sums of money to enhance the beauty of the shrine as well as the facilities for the students and teachers in the open university of Najaf. A great number of the students at the Open University are from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. The investment of Ghazi-ud-Deen Haider, one of the Nawabs of Avadh, with the British back in the 1800s, which has been paying up a sum of Pounds10,000 Sterling every year and is known as the TAQSEEM-E-HINDI still reaches the students of Indian origin every year.

Najaf is going through a tremendous rebuilding process. A new international airport is also being established. Enhancements are being done to the shrine and its precincts.

We also visited the Masjid-e-Koofa where Imam Ali was fatally wounded in the middle of a pre-morning prayer by the sword of Ibn-E-Muljim as well as the Place of Muslim ibne Aqeel, the ambassador of Imam Husayn to Koofa who was brutally killed by Ibn-e-Ziyad, Yazeed's governor in Koofa.

MEETINGS WITH THE MARAAJ^CE

The two senior most clerics in Najaf are Ayatullah Uzma Syed Husaini Seestani and Sheikh Basheer Najafi. Well, actually there are a few more but these two are significant and these two are the ones we met.

Sheikh Basheer Najafi hails from Lahore and he speaks fluent Urdu so it was easier to converse with him. He has lived in Najaf for the last forty years dedicating himself to teaching and learning. I think he is the second person from the subcontinent after the late Syed Dildar Ali of Lucknow (known as Ghufran Ma^cab) to become a Marj^ca in Iraq. I told him in so many words that it was a matter of pride for all of us, the Urdu speaking public from India and Pakistan, that a person of that origin had reached that level of learning and research in the open university of Najaf.

The meeting with the grand Ayatullah Seestani was a totally different experience.

Ayatullah Seestani is the spiritual leader of nearly two-thirds of the world Shia population. He has been very much involved in the politics of Iraq since the removal of Saddam from Iraq. He still lives as an Iranian national. The involvement of the young firebrand cleric named Muqtada as-Sadr has complicated the situation in Iraq. A number of attempts have been made on the Ayatullah's life.

With that background, it is not difficult to understand why the office of the Ayatulalh is wary of visitors and extra-ordinary precautions have been taken vis-à-vis security. The office knows that in view of the Ayatullah's strictly home-bound living style the visitors are the main line of communication between the Ayatullah and the outside world. But they also realize that visitors are the only way a would-be terrorist can get through to the Ayatullah's person. Therefore security checks are elaborate and are repeated.

We were searched three times before entering the Ayatullah's plain reception room which was furnished with just carpets on the floor. We were asked to remove all metal objects from our persons including pens and any finger-rings. In fact we had to empty our pockets completely.

Our group sat in the reception room. Moments later the Ayatullah arrived. We stood up to greet him, he greeted us. We had Sheikh Safdar Razi with us as a member of our group. Since Sh. Safdar Razi is a fluent Arabic speaker, he acted as our interpreter. The Ayatullah spoke only with the men, he did not converse with the women in the group. However, he did allow the women to hold his hand and kiss it – only after covering it with the hem of his ^cAba.

The Ayatullah spoke at length. He urged his followers to strengthen their communities wherever they live. He explained that the Shia communities of the world should learn to live independently and although the Marj^ca would always be there to guide the community, the communities should build their own individual groups and strengthen them with education. He urged everyone not to shed their original culture and language since Azadari is a part of those two.

Notwithstanding the fact that the city of Najaf is going through an ambitious reconstruction, the Maraj^ce still live in old style homes which can only be accessed by narrow passages and alleys where no vehicle can go.

Reports Time Online -The first flight from Iran in three decades landed in Iraq's holy city of Najaf today (January 12, 2009), resurrecting a direct link between the world's two major Shia communities. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article5501829.ece

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