By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) is on record as saying that if a believer were to visit him – as well as pilgrims visiting his grave – the rewards from God Almighty are manifold, including intercession in the Divine Court for forgiveness of faults and the blessings of Paradise.

The Messenger of Mercy also enumerated the Divine rewards reserved for pilgrims to the shrines of his Immaculate Descendants who sacrificed their life in the way of God against tyrants and unjust regimes that make a mockery of Islam. 

Islamic history is replete with the immortal epics of the martyrs whose shrines continue to provide solace to the souls of the faithful as well as inspiration to them for victory in the struggle against tyranny and violation of human rights.

This has unnerved bloodthirsty despots in every age and place, beginning from Mutawakkil – that most infidel of Abbasid rulers – over a millennium and two centuries ago, to the repressive Aal-e Kalifa minority regime of Bahrain of our own times.  

The Abbasid tyrant had levied heavy taxes, including amputation of limbs, in a bid to discourage pilgrims from visiting the shrine of the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS), in Karbala, and when these brutalities failed to deter them, he had the sacred mausoleum of the Prophet’s grandson sacrilegiously destroyed.

Mutawakkil was killed by his own son, and soon his realm that stretched from Central Asia to North Africa passed into oblivion with no traces left of the Abbasid palaces, let alone the graves of the rulers, while Karbala, Najaf, Samarra, and Kazemayn blossomed into thriving shrine cities beckoning pilgrims from all over the world.

Similar is the saga of the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad, Khorasan, which was destroyed by Sabuktagin the brutal Turkic slave who became king of Ghazna (in what is now Afghanistan), only to be restored to its former pilgrim glory by his son, the famous Sultan Mahmoud.

In 1926 the Wahhabi clans of Najd on their occupation of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina had indulged in all sorts of blasphemies, including destruction of the sacred Baqie Cemetery and the grand mausoleum housing the blessed tombs of Four of the Prophet’s 12 Infallible Heirs, but their banning of pilgrimage to these sites had no effect on the faithful, who continue to throng the roofless graves, and are all confident of rebuilding them on a grand scale, as Saudi Arabia has no other choice today except to yield to their Islamic aspirations.

Over half a century ago in 1969 when the Godless Ba’thists seized power in Baghdad and imposed their tyrannical minority rule on Iraq, they had restricted pilgrimage to the holy shrines and banned observance of many rituals, but with the fall of Saddam, Najaf, Karbala, Kazemayn and Samarra regained their past glory and are now the focus of millions-strong marches of pilgrims from all over the world.

In view of these undeniable facts, the recent retrogressive decision of the Aal-e Khalifa regime of pirate origin, to ban Bahraini Muslims from visiting Iraq and Syria for pilgrimage, is actually an indication of its own fast approaching end, similar to what had happened to the powerful tyrants of the past. 

The morons in Manama, who are living in a fool’s paradise by thinking they are secure under the protection of the US 5th Fleet, coupled with their slavish subservience to the illegal Zionist entity, had earlier banned the Bahraini people from visiting Iran for pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Mashhad and Qom.

The Aal-e Khalifas, which this year have earned the epithet of “one of the most repressive regimes on the Planet” from the Human Rights Watch, are afraid that the hundred-thousand plus Bahrainis who yearly perform pilgrimage to the holy shrines of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt to firm up their faith and avail of the promised Divine rewards, will be inspired to step up their peaceful uprising for achievement of their denied birthrights, end of dictatorship, and establishment of democracy.

They seem to be blind to the writing on the wall and no matter what crimes they commit against humanity, the ignominious end of the Aal-e Khalifas is nigh, while it is the long oppressed people of Bahrain who will soon be victorious, thanks to their steadfast adherence to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and their staunch faith in the rewards reserved for pilgrims, who if banned from travelling cannot be stopped from saluting the martyrs from the privacy of their homes.