Arba’een (Arabic: األربعين ,Persian: چهلم ,Urdu: چہلم” (the fortieth day”, is a Shia Muslim religious observance that occurs 40 days after the Day of Ashura to commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (PBUH) which falls on the 20th day of the month of Safar. Forty days is the usual length of the time of mourning in Islamic cultures. Arba’een, is one of the largest pilgrimage gathering on Earth, in which over 25 million people go to the city of Karbala in Iraq. The occasion reminds the faithful of the core message behind Imam Hussain’s (PBUH) martyrdom: Establishing justice and fighting injustice, no matter what its incarnation—a message that strongly influenced subsequent Shia uprisings against the Umayyad and Abbasid rule.
In the first Arba’een gathering in the year 62 AH, Jabir Ibn Abdullah, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was one of the people who performed a pilgrimage to the burial site of Imam Hussain (PBUH). His visit coincided with the surviving members of the Prophet Muhammad’s family and Imam Hussain’s (PBUH) son, Sajjad (PBUH) who was the leader (Imam) of Muslims after his great father Imam Hussain (PBUH). Every year, many pilgrims travel miles on foot to reach Karbala in Arba’een day. Arba’een is consistently among the largest peaceful gatherings in history. In Arba’een 2016, over 25 million pilgrims reached to the Karbala, Iraq. 1
- The Twelfth One: Imam Mahdi (PBUH) in the Bible, Quran, Islam and other Religions as the Promised Savior (and His Enemies and Friends), Seyed Muhammad Hossein Mousavi[↩]
