“It attracts both the religious and the non-practising and is an act of community and gathering. Religiously, it is what defines Shiism and, for [Shiite] individuals all over the world, it is a cherished practice,” Ms Al Shammary said.
However, politically, it is a “representation of overcoming oppression and has been utilised as such by savvy politicians over the years”
The pilgrimage consists of a long walk from different areas inside and outside of Iraq.
“The whole thing started when people used to make the visit. First of all there was no cars. Those who owned a camel or horse or any other form of an animal would take that and those who [did not] would walk,” said Abbas Kadhim, director of the Atlantic Council's Iraq Initiative.
Walking allows pilgrims to feel the suffering of Imam Hussein's family, who walked from Damascus to Karbala, Mr Kadhim said.
“It is said the family of Imam Hussein, after they were released from captivity, visited the place and they walked there. People say I’m going to share with them that pain and experience,” he told.
Irfan Gangjee is one of the millions of Shia Muslims who have travelled on foot for days to reach the holy city of Karbala in Iraq to participate in Arbaeen – one of the largest annual religious events in the world.
The Pakistani citizen, who lives in the United States, started his journey on Monday in Najaf – 180 kilometres (111 miles) south of the capital city of Baghdad – walking nearly 80km (50 miles) to reach Karbala on Thursday, the site of al-Husayn’s shrine and resting place.
“The experience was surreal … there are oceans and oceans of people here. People on crutches and wheelchairs were walking with us … women and children too,” the 35-year-old Gangjee, on his first Arbaeen in Iraq, told Al Jazeera.
The occasion is observed 40-days after Ashura – the commemoration of the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Husayn, in the Battle of Karbala, which took place in 680 AD on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.During the reign of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the pilgrimage was “heavily surveilled by the government”.
“In some years, it even tried to ban it as it brought a lot of trouble to participants,” Ms Al Shammary said.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 ended Saddam's three-decade rule, during which he persecuted groups such as the Shiites and Kurds.
“After 2003, the first pilgrimage was a mass outpouring for people who had wanted to participate for years but were unable to,” she said.
Additionally, “Iraq was no longer a pariah state so foreigners could also come and participate”, she said, adding that the pilgrim numbers grew every year.
Husayn and his small party were vastly outnumbered, and killed after a short battle against the forces of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I .The event is regarded as one of the foundational moments of Shia Islam.
In 2019, it was estimated that the annual pilgrimage had brought together more than 14 million people from across the world, including Iran, Lebanon, Indonesia and the US.The journey can be strenuous.
Sara Mushtaq, a 35-year-old woman from Karachi, Pakistan, said at one point during the walk that her “feet just wouldn’t move” and described briefly collapsing on the side of the road.
“Physically it’s a pain I have never felt before, but spiritually I have never felt more alive,” Mushtaq, a henna tattoo artist, told Al Jazeera.
The journey is especially challenging during daytime, when temperatures range between 36 and 41 degrees Celsius. Together with packed crowds, reports of people fainting due to exhaustion or feeling dehydrated are not uncommon.
To facilitate zaireen (pilgrims), local volunteers, as well as foreigners, setup mawakeb (rest areas), makeshift stalls and clinics all along the roads to provide essentials such as food, water and beds.
“This one mawakeb I stayed overnight had served some 1,000 people a day. And its all for free … they don’t ask for anything in return,” Gangjee, a finance professional, said. “It is hard to fathom the scale at which this gathering is taking place.”
According to Mehdi Hazari – a Shia religious scholar and the head of education and research at the Imam Mahdi Association of the Marjaeya (IMAM) in the United States – a major reason for the non-obligatory pilgrimage is “searching for “inspiration in this world for which Imam Husayn died for”.
“In this world where there is so much noise … things are happening everywhere. Today we can hear about one event in one part of the world to the next with the press of a button our phone. It creates a blindness of sort … we have become complacent,” he said from North Carolina.
“So the walk … is where a person can find their heart awakened … meaning there is this sense overwhelming sense of giving, of sharing without asking for anything in return that creates this humanity, a type of brotherly and sisterly love.”
