Pilgrimage

It was the first year of the war. We went to one of the heights in the north of the Gilan Gharb region with the forces of the Andarzgu Group. It was early morning. We were on top of one of the hills overlooking the border. The border outpost was in the hands of the Iraqis. The Iraqi vehicles were moving without difficulty on the roads around it. Ibrahim opened a prayer book. We read “Ziarat Ashura” with the soldiers. After that, while I was looking at the areas which were under the influence of the enemy with regret, I said, “Dear Ibram, see this border road. The Iraqis are moving around easily.” Then I said with regret, “Is it possible that one day our people will move on these roads easily and go to their own cities?!”It was as if Ibrahim wasn’t paying attention to my words. He was looking at the future! He smiled and said, “What are you saying?! A day will come when our people travel to Karbala from this road in groups!” On the way back I asked others, “Do you know the name of this border outpost?” One of them said, “This is the Khosravi border.”Twenty years later we went to Karbala. I looked at those same heights. The same place where Ibrahim had read “Ziarat Ashura”! It was as if I saw Ibrahim who was seeing us off. Those heights were exactly in front of the Khosravi border area. That day the buses were moving towards the border. Our people were going on pilgrimage to Karbala in groups from that same road! Whenever we were in Tehran, Ibrahim’s Friday night program was to go on pilgrimage to Hazrat Abdolazim. He used to say, “Friday night is the night of God’s mercy. It is the night to go on pilgrimage to Aba Abdallah (Imam Husayn) (a). All of the great religious men and the angels go to Karbala. We also go to a place that the Household of the Prophet (a) said has the reward of going on pilgrimage to Karbala.” He would read the Kumayl Supplication there. He would come back at one a.m. in the morning. When the Basiji program started, he would come straight back from the pilgrimage to the Mosque and the Basijis. One night we came out of the shrine together. Since I was in a hurry, I went on the motorcycle of one of our friends to the Mosque. But, Ibrahim arrived two or three hours later. I said, “Dear Ibram, you are very late!?” He said, “I walked from the shrine so that I could make the pilgrimage to Shaykh Saduq as well; because, the elders in Tehran say that the “Imam of the Time” (Imam Mahdi) (a.j.) makes the pilgrimage to Shaykh Saduq on Friday nights.” I asked him, “But why did you walk all the way to here?!” He wouldn’t give a correct answer. I said, “You were in a hurry to come to the Mosque, but you walked here. You must have had some reason!?” After I had asked many questions, he answered, “When I came out of the shrine a very needy person came to me. I gave the bunch of bills which were in my pocket to him. When I was getting on a taxi, I noticed that I don’t have any money. So I walked here!” Towards the end, we made this pilgrimage every week together; and, in the middle of the night we would go to the Behesht Zahra Cemetery to the martyrs’ graves. Ibrahim would read eulogies for us. Some nights he would go into a grave. He would read the Kumayl Supplication there in a plaintive voice with amazing emotions, and cry.