Shrine of Imam Rida
Dr.Mazhar
Naqvi
Shrine of
Imam Rida,pronounced in India as Raza attracts devotees from all over the world. He has been eulogized in both
prose and poetry by the most eminent scholars and poets. His shrine also figures
in the memoirs of several travelers of medieval India. One such memoir was
compiled by a non-Muslim Indian Mohan Lal. His work is based on his tr4avel to Afghanistan,
Turkistan, Persia, Balkh ,Bukhara, Khorasan with an English officer Sir Alexander
Barnes.He was son of Rai Budh Singh .His
grad Father was Raja Mani Ram of
Kashmir, who held a high rank, with a considerable estate, at the court of later
Mughals. His father had accompanied the Mountstuart Elphinstone to Peshawar as Persian
secretary. After receiving the ordinary Persian education at home, Mohan Lal
was sent by his father to learn English at
Persian College at Delhi. He travelled to Afghanistan, Turkistan and
Peshwar with Sir Alexander Barnes and compiled his memoirs of his travels in the
book that was originally published at Caieuiia in 1834.In his memoirs, Mohan
Lal has given a detailed description of his visit to the holy shrine of Imam
Raza at Mashhad. He is full of reverence while describing the visit to the holy
shrine and considered himself fortunate for being at the shrine of such a holy
and great personality. As he was a non- Muslim, he has committed a few minor
errors that deserve to be ignored in view of his otherwise respectful
description. For example, he has used word pinjra
(Cage) for the beautiful grills around the holy mazar of Imam. At another
place, he has contradicted himself by describing pinjra as a room. Mohan Lal has also used work perusal instead of
recitation of holy Quran at another place. In the preface of his book, Mohan
Lal has admitted that there might be errors and urged the readers to overlook
them.
He writes “In presenting to the public the following
journal of my travels, I feel it incumbent on me to state that my course of
instruction in the English language was not of a long duration, and therefore I
hope that errors of idiom, and the use of terms not strictly proper, will be overlooked
by candid readers. Even in that short period of my tuition, I was not able to
attend the college regularly, and pay close attention to my studies, owing to
the sudden change from highly comfortable and adequate means, my predecessors
having been deprived of respectable estates by Government”. His visit to holy
shrine of Imam Raza runs as follows :
“In the
evening, I had the pleasure of seeing the holy tomb of Imam Raza, which exceeds
all my
powers of
praise. The mosque is a very noble edifice ; it is situated on the right of the
Hazrat. There were many per sons there, arranged in rows, who were ardently
engaged in their evening prayers, and I imitated them. The mode of praying with
these people is quite different from that of the Indian Imamis. Their hands
hang down to their knees, and their prayers begin and end in the name of Amir-Ul- Momnin which I never heard in India.
When I finished the prayers, as the other people did, I had the honor to enter
the room where the holy body of the Imam reposes. The place was full of men,
and had a very magnificent and awful appearance The room was lighted up by
chandeliers, which brightened every spot. At the head of the Imam was a party
of old and respectable Syeds, who were engaged in the perusal of the Koran…..”
“The door
of the room, where all the people are obliged to prostrate themselves, is
almost entirely made of silver. On my entering through the cell, a man with a
green turban came to me and said, " Your pilgrimage to Hazrat will be
acceptable, if you tell me to recite the Ziyarat Namah in your name before the
grave," which he said was an important duty for the pilgrims. I gave him a
couple of qaran, or silver coins, on which he first brought me near the Pinjrah, a room made of gold and silver
sticks, and then told me to kiss the lock which hung upon the door. The lock is
opened twice in a year, for the purpose of taking out the money which the
pilgrims throw upon the body of the Imam, through the holes of the Pinjrah, or cage. The man read the
Ziyarat Namah on the four sides of the grave; it contained numerous blessings
upon the holy souls of the descendants of Ali, and the names of fourteen Masooms
and twelve Imams ; and many blessings upon their godly souls. I took leave of
the grave, after making a few bows, as the others did, and was very fortunate
indeed in not being known to the men of the shrine as a person of a different
country. (References available on request)
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