Arba'een Pilgrimage

Arba'een Pilgrimage
Millions of Muslims gather around the Husayn Shrine in Karbala after making a pilgrimage on foot during Arba'een
Status	active
Genre	religious gathering
Date(s)	Arbaeen
Frequency	Annually
Country	Iraq, Nigeria, UK, US
Participants	Shia muslims, Some Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis and etc
Capacity	Unlimited

2015 Arbaeen pilgrimage, Najaf-Karbala road.

The Arbaeen Pilgrimage is the largest religious gathering that is held every year. It is held at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, the religious ritual for the commemoration of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hossein ibn Ali's death in 680. Arba'een marks a "pivotal event in history" in which the pilgrims make their journey to Karbala on foot, where Husayn ibn Ali, the third Imam of Shia, and his army were killed and beheaded by the army of Yazid I. Some of the pilgrims make their journey from cities as far as Basra, about 500 km away by road

Background

Millions of Shia Muslims gather around the Husayn shrine in Karbala after making the pilgrimage on foot during Arba'een, 2013.

Jabir ibn Abd Allah was the first pilgrim of Husayn ibn Ali in the Arba'een of 61 AH. According to narrations, the custom of performing the pilgrimage on foot was forgotten during a time period after Morteza Ansari and it was revived by Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi in an Eid al-Adha who repeated this action every year performing the last one by 1319 AH. Some other scholars and Marja's kept on the same manner in Arba'een up to the Saddam's time during which the pilgrimage was banned although some people used to perform it secretly. It was revived just after Saddam's overthrow in 2003.

Analysis

A little girl participating 2015 Arbaeen pilgrimage with her mother.

handicapped men participating Arbaeen pilgrimage, going from Najaf to Karbala on foot.

Over 19 million people from 40 countries of the world participate in this occasion, making it the second largest gathering in the world. The figure reached 22 million pilgrims according to Iraqi state-run media. Even though the Hindu Kumbh Mela is larger in population, it is only held every three years, and hence the Arbaeen pilgrimage is the largest gathering held annually.

Some Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis and people of other faiths also participate the festival. Ali Moamen, Academic and former director of Al Najaf Satellite TV Channel, said:

"What is interesting about this human crowd is that all society segments take part in it. Despite its religious character, nonreligious people also participate in it, in addition to illiterates and holders of high academic degrees, and ordinary people and leaders of the country."

According to Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi, writing for The Huffington Post:

Arbaeen should be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records in several categories. The biggest annual gathering, longest continuous dining table, largest number of people fed for free, largest group of volunteers serving a single event, all under the imminent threat of suicide bombings.

The pilgrims face dangers such as "attacks that have been blamed on Sunni extremists, who have routinely targeted the pilgrims" using car bombs or rockets. The pilgrimage is performed under "tightened security" guarded by tens of thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers backed by armored vehicles and military helicopters to protect the pilgrims. Iranian advisers also help protect the visitors through a joint operation room. On November 20, 2015 a major bombing plot in Hussainiya in Iraq, Baghdad have been foiled by the Iraqi police, where 18 booby-trapped dolls were seized by the security forces. Stuffed with bombs, were meant to be scattered on the roads leading to Karbala during Arbaeen.

Political dimensions

The ritual is no longer considered a purely cultural ceremony while ISIL, the group who regards Shia as apostate, has launched a wide offensive in Iraq, and hence the presence of such a large population of Shia is of a political importance. According to Ali Mamouri writing in Al-Monitor, the pilgrimage is "a show of force against those hostile to the rise of the Shia in the region." After the fall of Mosul to the ISIL "and the subsequent massacres of Shia soldiers and civilians", the gathering took a political form for the first time for the Shia, who use mourning rituals as a way to condemn the injustice and express their social power. "The second sign of Arbaeen's political shift was the regional message conveyed by Shia to their opponents: The Shia Crescent," Mamouri added. As the third sign he pointed to "a message exchanged between regional forces" and "unprecedented Iranian presence" which led to "a feeling of solidarity between Arab and non-Arab Shia."

Pavilions and free services

Arbaeen pilgrims waiting for receiving free food from mawkibs.

A man holding a plate full of dates on his head waiting for passing arbaeen pilgrims have them, Arbaeen 2015.

Along the roads to Karbala, many pavilions are devised with the aim of providing "accommodation, food and beverage and medical services," and practically anything else the pilgrims need for free. 7000 number of such mawakeb were set up in city of Karbala in 2014.

Around the world

Besides Iraq, the pilgrimage is performed annually around the word in countries such as UK, US and Nigeria.

UK

The "Husaini Islamic Trust UK", organizes the procession in UK where thousands of people take part and the organizers deiced to condemn terrorism following the recent ISIS attacks in Paris in 2015. Mr Waqar Haider, the organizer, said that the procession failed to gain coverage by the mainstream media because of the "stereotyping". "I think it's because of stereotyping. People see the entire Muslim community as one community," he said.

Nigeria

Shia Muslims in west of Africa can't take themselves to Karbala because it is very far for them. So, the Pilgrims from Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Togo head toward Zaria in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria to be addressed by the Shia cleric Ibrahim Zakzaky.

See also

• Mourning of Muharram