Wonderful Experience of Pilgrimage to Syria, Iraq & Iran

Shrine of Janabe Zainab (a.s.)

The Pilgrimage to the Shrines in Syria, Iraq and Iran was wonderful. The weather was favorable and the co-passengers were caring and co-operative with each other. We are 46 pilgrims, all from different regions of India. Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bulandshaher, Lucknow, Ajmer and Mumbai. They were all excited to be in front of the holy shrines. Ayyame Faatemi coincided our visit to Sayyedah Zainab, at the Shrine of Zainabe Kubra, the elder daughter of Amirul Mo'mineen Imam Ali (a.s.).
It took us 30 hrs. to reach Damascus from Mumbai. The flight of Saudi Airlines was supposed to take-off from Sahaar Airport at 6.35 AM on Friday 15th April, delayed for 14 hrs. and were in transit at Riyadh Airport for another 8 hrs. while normally it takes 9 hrs. including transit, to travel from Mumbai to Damascus. The reason for delay was sandstorm in Madina and in the northern part of Saudi Arabia.
Most of the tour operators to save money travel by Air Arabia, a low fare airline. The airline does not serve free meals or water in the aircraft. Even a bottle of water comes at a cost. Passengers are not allowed to carry water in the aircraft due to security reasons. Syrian government issues paper visa to the visitors coming in groups or caravans.
We stayed at the Hotel Bina al-Qasim at Sayyeda Zainab, just 200 away metres from the holy shrine.

The Begining of the Ziyarat Tour

Today we were supposed to fly to Damascus via Riyadh. But, the hailstorm and stone raining in Saudi Arabia has upset the schedule.
Hoping to reach Sayyeda Zainab (s.a.)'s shrine and pay our tribute to the brave sister of Hadhrat Imam Husain (a.s.), the fiery speaker at the court of Yazid, the accursed. The brave get inspiration from her stand against baatil (evil) and injustice. She was the true champion of the Freedom of Speech.
Remembering at the shrine, the victims of the tyrant regime of Bahrain.
InshaAllah. This will be the first lap of ziyarat itinerary. May Allah accepts this from us.

Insulting remarks by a Saudi Wahaabi cleric for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani

In a Friday sermon in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, a leading Wahhabi cleric, Mohammad al-Ureifi, called Ayatollah al-Sistani an "atheist and debauched."
Iraqi parliament called on the Saudi government to warn the clerics against making provocative statements.
The Iraqi Parliament also called on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Association of Asian Parliaments and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to condemn the remarks.

(PressTV)