Hekmat Ghasemkhani
He runs a quilt shop on Shuhada Street in Karbala, right on the corner of Saadieh Alleyway. His name is Jassim, and he has placed a sign in Farsi script reading, “Anyone who has questions about the route, please refer to the quilt maker, I only ask for prayers” in front of the door of his small shop on the quilts, so that any Iranian pilgrims who are looking for an address or a place, to see this sign in Farsi and realize that the owner of the quilt shop knows Persian and can help them.
Jassim is 73 years old and has been running this quilt shop on Shahada Street leading to Imam Hossein (AS) shrine for 30 years. He has five sons and three daughters, and one of his sons is a servant of Hazrat Abul Fazl’s*1 shrine. Jassim talks about taking pleasure in helping Iranian pilgrims; Because he has tried to serve Imam Hussain (AS) all his life. He has no fond memories of Saddam Hussein’s rule and bitterly remembers the days when he was forced to participate in the war with Iran for 6 years and 8 months. He was injured twice. The bitter days that changed with the overthrow of the Ba’athist government and caused the Arbaeen walk to return, which was done in secret until then, to become an epic phenomenon involving tens of millions of pilgrims during these years. Jassim, who has traveled to Iran twice to visit the shrines of Imam Reza (AS)*2 and Hazrat Masoumeh (SM)*3, considers helping the pilgrims of Imam Hossein (AS) to be the blessing of his life. He charges half of the market rate for his quilting and believes that serving the pilgrims of Imam Hussain (AS) and being satisfied with earning a halal* livelihood is the most important honor of his life.
- Imam Hussain’s (AS) brother who fought in the Battle of Karbala
- The eighth Imam in Twelver Shia Islam
3.Fatima Masumeh was the sister of the eighth Twelver Shia Imam Reza (AS), and the daughter of the seventh Imam Musa al-Kadhim (AS)