ZIYARAH ON THE DAY & NIGHT OF BE'ASAT (PROCLAMATION)

The third form of timed ziyarah is that dedicated to the Divine Mission Day (yawm al-mab’ath) and the night before it. For this day, which is the twenty-seventh of Rajab, three forms of ziyarah have been reported.

The first form is called al-Ziyarah al-Rajabiyyah (The Ziyarah of Rajab), which begins with the following statement:

This form of ziyarah has been previously mentioned in this book as the seventh of the general recommended acts in the month of Rajab (pp. 530 of Vol. 1).

The author of al-Mazar al-Qadim and Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Mashhadi have regarded this form of Ziyarah as one of the special forms for the Divine Mission Night. They then added that one may offer a two-unit prayer after accomplishment and pray Almighty Allah for one’s desires and requests.

The second form of ziyarah that is dedicated to this day begins with the following statement:

In his book of al-Tuhfah, Shaykh al-Majlisi has made this formula with the untimed forms of ziyarah, but the author of al-Mazar al-Qadim has mentioned that it is dedicated to the Divine Mission Day. Following this, I have added this form to the other forms that are dedicated to this day in my book of Hadiyyat al-Za’ir.

The third form of ziyarah has been mentioned by Shaykh al-Mufid, Sayyid Ibn Tawus, and al-Shahid in the following form:

When you intend to visit the holy shrine of Imam ‘Ali Amir al-Mu’minin (‘a) on the Divine Mission Day or the night before it, you may stop at the gate of the holy dome, facing the holy tomb, and say the following:

You may then enter the shrine, stop at the tomb, turn the face toward the tomb and make the kiblah direction between your shoulders, and repeat the takbir statement one hundred times:

You may then say the following:

You may then put your right and then left cheeks on the tomb, turn to the kiblah direction, offer the Prayer of Ziyarah, and supplicate for anything you want.

Then, you may say the (famous) Tasbih al-Zahra’ litany and then say the following words:

It is narrated through an authoritative chain of authority that when Imam ‘Ali Amir al-Mu’minin (‘a) was martyred, al-Khazir (‘a) hurried to his house weeping and mentioning Almighty Allah for this calamity. He thus stopped at the door of the house and said the following words:

He also mentioned many of Imam ‘Ali’s characteristics and merits. However, the statements of this sermon are to a certain extent similar to the statements of the abovementioned form of ziyarah. It is thus appropriate to consider these statements to be a form of ziyarah this is advisably said on the day of Imam ‘Ali’s martyrdom. In my book of Hadiyyat al-Za’ir, I have written down these statements.

It is also worth mentioning that in the previous chapter of the merits of the Divine Mission Day, I have mentioned the words of Ibn Battutah, a famous Arab explorer, about the holy shrine of Imam ‘Ali (‘a).