Astan of Imam Reza Holy Shrine to Serve Arbaeen Pilgrims in Iraq

Mohammad Hossein Ostad Agha, the head of the Karamat Razavi Foundation, mentioned 15 Arbaeen charity stations that will be set up across the Iran-Iraq border while speaking at a gathering to welcome donors for Arbaeen, saying that the central charity convoy of Imam Reza shrine will be stationed at the Mehran border to prepare and distribute over 600,000 meals and roughly one million ice slabs in total.

He added that approximately 14 additional stations will serve pilgrims on the country's eastern, northern, and western borders to provide free meals.

The custodian of Imam Reza shrine indicated that over 40 charity stations from the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad will also be stationed in the Iraqi cities of Karbala, Samara, and Kadhimiya.

Ostad Agha stated that more than one million bottles of water and roughly 50,000 slabs of ice had already been donated to serve the Arbaeen pilgrims.

He continued that the majority of the stations in Samara, will be Iranian, adding that 50 Imam Reza shrine employees will travel to Iraq to thank the Iraqi charity stations for hosting the Arbaeen pilgrims.

The long treks of Arbaeen will be destined to Karbala, where Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), is laid to rest. Arbaeen marks an end to the 40-day mourning period following the martyrdom of the Imam and his loyal companions in the Battle of Karbala on Muharram 10 in the year 61 AH (680 CE).

This year's congregation of Arbaeen will fall on September 17.