feeling the passion of religious pilgrims

I'm not a religious person, but still find it interesting to hear about others' beliefs, and enjoy visiting their cathedrals/mosques/temples/shrines and witnessing their ceremonies.  I particularly like Shia mosques, which are incredibly ornate and beautiful.  & the southern part of Iraq is full of Shia mosques and shrines (like the above mosque of Imam Ali in Najaf) so I was in my element visiting the region on a guided tour last month.

But it wasn't just that the buildings were beautiful.  These were the most important buildings in the world for Shia Muslims - the mosques and shrines comemorating Imam Ali (Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, whom the Shia believed should be the one to succeed him as leader of the faith - who eventually became the fourth caliph but was then assassinated) and Hussein (Ali's son, killed and decapitated).  To my surprise, we foreigners were allowed into these buildings (provided we were properly covered) - not just into the courtyards but right into the interiors, to the shrines where we were surrounded by very emotional people stroking and kissing the bars of the tombs, some of them in tears with the intensity of their emotions.  & this photograph (the tomb of Muslim ibn Aqeel, cousin of Hussein) in Najaf nowhere near captures the heightened emotions - the pushing and shoving as well as the crying - of devotees who had made the pilgrimage to visit such places, as the shrines of Ali and Hussein were simply too crowded for photography.


But no-one minded my being there.  Even when prayers started when I was still in one of the mosques, I was able to simply sit quietly next to a wall and observe.


I must admit, however, that I was not as respectful as I perhaps should have been in every way.  Like every other female member of my tour group, I was totally smitten by the image of Hussein - an image that was everywhere, on posters on the walls and on flags fluttering from every building (the Shia like their flags) - Hussein with his eyeliner (I've liked men in eyeliner since I was a young girl) ...

So I shall end this post with an image of the gorgeous Hussein!


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