Sunday, January 06, 2008

INTENTIONS ONLY!

Whenever you look into the Zarih (burial chamber/cage) of Imam Reza (as), you will see lots of money as well as pieces of jewellery donated by pilgrims. On certain occasions, they collect the money and move it to a place to be added up.

Some servants are blessed to participate in a certain ceremony dedicated to this. There’s a big table servants sit around and begin their work. The ceremony is special in that once in a while, one starts reciting a ziarah, du’a, or a piece of poem in praise or remembering the grieves of the Prophet Muhammad (as) and the Ahl-ul-Bayt (his infallible progeny). Listening to this, the servants usually shed tears of both joy and grief while adding the money up.

Once being blessed to attend the ceremony, I noticed the money collected varied from a 50 rial coin (which costs nothing here in Iran) to very valuable notes, cheques and even foreign currencies. No one knew who had made the donations, the value of which depended on the INTENTIONS. Certainly there were very poor to very rich people behind the donations, but it was as if you could see a sign which read INTENTIONS ONLY at the door. Only Allah (swt) can judge the real value of the money donated according to INTENTIONS; perhaps a single 50 rial coin, or even a ‘sigh’ by one with no property to donate is preferred to millions of rials donated just to show off!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

The Best Deed

On a Monday, when at the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (as) for a voluntary service, with a deep snow in Mashhad, we were asked to shovel the snow away.

At noon, while sitting in line waiting for saying my zuhr (noon) prayer in congregation, I had an urge to weep, which is normal at holy places. The sound of the muezzin echoed in my ears, reciting at the moment HAYYA ALAA KHAYR-IL-AMAL (Make haste towards the best deed). I suddenly remembered a hadith by Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (as) saying, 'The best deed is to do good to Fatimah (as) and her children' (Ibn Shar Ashoob, Manaqib, v.3, p.326). I wondered if our shovelling away the snow for the pilgrims of Imam Reza (as), a descendant of Hazrat Fatimah (as), would be accepted as doing good to her and thus the best deed. Thinking on this, I burst into tears hoping my service to be accepted, Insha’Allah.