Ziyarat Arba'een (Arabic: زیارة الأربعین) is an annual pilgrimage that takes place in the holy city of Karbala in Iraq. It is the world's largest pilgrimage, reaching an estimated number of over 22 million pilgrims in 2023. The pilgrimage seeks to honour the death of the third Shi'ite Imam, Husayn ibn Ali, who was a grandson of Muhammad. Husayn was killed during the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD. In Arabic, "arba'een" means "forty", reverting to the 40th day after Husayn's death, and "ziyarat" means "visit".[1] While the visitation of Husayn is not considered an Islamic obligation, like the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), it plays an integral role in the religious life of Shia.[2] The culture as stated by a researcher provides ways to express social emotion [3] and from sociological perspective, feelings rules are ″appropriate ways to express internal sensation".[4] So, also the ziyarat is directly or indirectly used to express the mourning of Imams.[1]
^ abMohd Faizal Musa, 'Axiology of Pilgrimage:Malaysian Shi’ites Ziyarat in Iran and Iraq', Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2013), pp. 67-84.
