 My name is Shah Abbas at Imam Hussain TV in the holy lands of Karbala. Right across me we have Abu Fazl Abbas Shrine on my left hand side. I have got the master about Abdullah Al-Imam al-Hussain's shrine here. This is 2017 and we are remembering the man who made his final stand 1400 years ago, the man who gave everything that he had for humanity. He gave everything he had to protect and save God, this religion of Islam. Today millions are inspired by his. Millions and millions have started their walk from the holy lands of Najaf to the holy lands of Karbala. It's about 80 kilometers walk. The Arbaeen walk is what is called. Today joined with me is a guest, Malahat. So please introduce yourself. Tell me why what has inspired you to carry out this walk from Najaf to Karbala. Assalamu alaikum. Hussain has inspired me, Hussain Ali Imam Hussain, has inspired me throughout the years and I just felt that I needed to give back to him and all that I have at this point is my time and and I wanted to physically exert myself to come over here tired having spent those three days walking and then enter the haram and thank him for what he's done for all of us. Amazing. So what is a principle? Why do we people walk? What is ideology? What is the reason why the people walk? The people walk because of what he did for us and we want to do what we can do for him. You could hop on a flight and get here or grab a taxi or a bus but then that the devotion and the love and that feeling of having given back does not come to you. You want to enter broken and tired and fatigued. I thought personally it would be a breeze because I considered myself fit and I'll be okay but we all got sick and it was humbling and I think in reflection of blessing because we got to experience a little bit of what our Imam experienced and what the ladies experienced. They were tired and broken down not their spirit but physically and and to be tired and broken down and sick and yet continue with your resolve to walk to Hussain was important for all of us I think. Okay I think the principle itself is walking from Najaf to Karbala. It can be looked into things. Number one you can look at and say just a walk. It's not a big deal. Or number two you can look at it at a different angle of things. It is a big deal. The statement is getting made. You're walking from Najaf and you're leaving your house with the intention that you're going to see Aba Abdullah all the way 80 kilometers later. You're going to be thirsty. You're going to be dehydrated. You're going to be tired. You're carrying some luggage with you. You will be exhausted and most importantly you will most likely be physically broken. What is it that gets you going and keeps you going that whole journey? Imam was and the ladies and their and their entourage afterwards what they went through. You want to experience what they went through. You want to show them that we would be willing to do it had we been there when we say and you want to relive that memory walk in their footsteps walk in their shoes. I think it's the ultimate expression of love that we want to go through all of this misery because you all went through all this misery and it's nothing compared to what they went through. It's nothing. I think love we have to summarize is on love. Absolutely. The walk is personally what I think is a love for Aba Abdullah and people say it's love. What is love? There are levels in love. One of the levels is you could be crazy about someone. You could you could pretty much I think we went to a lecture of Oman Ashwani's lecture and he just talked about how crazy can you be for the love of Aba Abdullah and the family of Ehobit and you could be insanely in love that people decide to walk the whole journey by themselves and absolutely not even stop at all just run. And the differences you see I saw a young man ten maybe younger leading his grandfather who was blind. Wow. You know you see babes in the arms is lolling around sleeping. I saw a really old couple walking holding hands. Mashallah. And it touched me to see them in love with Hussain you know together and you know. I think this is the crazy love and then obviously the love it is taking a step further. It's been insanely in love that you forget your worldly affairs. You forget the common denominator is like the comfort. The family. You forget about clean water. You forget about comfort. You forget about your bed. You forget everything just to present you and I'm pledge your allegiance to the Aba Abdullah and say you're right I was not there 1400 years ago but guess what I am here today. I would like to make a stand alongside with you shoulder to shoulder and I would like to take myself from the whole dance of Najaf to Karbala itself. So my dear brothers and sisters if you have not experienced this walk please experience this walk. If you've done it this year go home and reflect ponder upon it. Find out what is it that you've learned. Why did you do that walk? What was your aims and what principle? What was your reasonings behind it? Think about it. Once you've thought about it see how you can implement your life. How you can change your life. There's a lot of blessings around. It's one of the lectures I was listening to before I came on trip. It says every step that you take it's like the mercy is just on you and on you. The angels protect you from the day you leave your house till your day you come back from this yara and every step you take there's like a thousand sins get forgiven and also a thousand blessings get added on and your status increases by a thousand percent. Allah is so merciful that He wants to give you blessings. He wants to find ways to give you blessings isn't it? True. And the spirit of giving that you see I think that's also infused by Imam Hussain A.S. for both the zovar as well as those who come to serve you know the locals how they drag their furniture on the road sides you know and begging you to sit on them and use it for a little while. I've heard that they have a tradition where when they get married they don't use any of their new stuff until a zovar has used it. No way. I haven't heard that. Wow. So their dinner set their furniture everything they keep it until Arbaeen time and after zovar have used it is when they use it. Wow. Share me your experience. You've done this well from Rajiv to Karbali. Is this your first time? It is. It's not the last. Talk me down. How was the experience from this start? What were you expecting before you saw this book? When you were in America what were you thinking that you're going to see? I honestly cannot compare what I thought to what I actually saw. I of course I knew that there'd be millions of people walking and you know it would be this spirit of brotherhood and camaraderie and giving. But to see it actually with my own eyes and I did think it would be a breeze. I thought it would be very easy but we all got sick the first day and then having to walk through all of that was humbling, very humbling. You get to dissect yourself and break down yourself and find out who you really are and perhaps subconsciously not actively and what you stand for and what strengths you have and what weaknesses you have and work on them and to give to others just give as much as you can to others. So when you were walking where you started the world from where you were what was your intention? What were you thinking? I was asking BB Zahra to allow me to just complete the world because I was very sick at that time and earlier every time I heard of more and more people get sick I was praying for myself to get better and not perhaps for them I was like okay walk away from them I don't want to share their germs and I felt so guilty and so bad in the middle of my second day I think and I begged for forgiveness and I said you know how is it that I'm only washing up for my own good and you know don't get sick don't get worse so I you know I think it's the people who have completed the walk I think you've done something that you never thought you're going to do physically and mentally and spiritually right people who have not done the walk I urge you to do it definitely definitely now people who made an intention to do the walk but couldn't do it because of your sickness so I have a message for you so Prophet Muhammad that was his story during Prophet Muhammad's time where a vessel currently so it's about this this is them this is the craziest lover of Prophet Muhammad so he found out that in one day that his prophet lost a teeth he just said I think it's this teeth no I'm going to break this one and he broke it and he keeps doing that pretty much most of the teeth so this individual wanted to visit at the Prophet Prophet Muhammad so he spoke to his mother and says I would like to go and visit this Prophet Prophet of Islam and his mother said no but I'm going to let you go for this certain period of time so this man says that's absolutely fine and he goes he goes to visit the Prophet Muhammad and with the intention that I am going to see the Prophet he goes he stays he waits waits and waits and he knows he has a responsibility to go back home because he made a promise to his mother he could have certainly said you know what I'm going to wait till the Prophet comes because the Prophet was not there when he went to to visit the Prophet he could have said I can go home and leave my mother or I could go home leave Prophet or he could have made a choice and said I'm going to forget about my family and I'm going to wait for the Prophet he could have yes or no right but he chose the principles of Ahlul beth he chose the principles of the teaching this family have to be looked at but he chose the value of his mother and he said I'm going to go back to my mother because my time finished I have to go back he goes back Prophet Muhammad comes back and he smells the fragrance of this man so my dear brothers and sisters if you made that intention to walk from Najaf to Karbala if you made intention I'm going to go to Karbala and walk but you could not complete the walk itself don't be saddened don't be afraid you can do it next year always remember your name has been registered and Imam Hussein is aware that you made that intention just like the way Prophet Muhammad was aware when this man came in so this is some of that I would like to say thank you very much for joining us on the show and thank you very much for sharing your experience the humble experience and I hope and I do pray that you get home safe and and get well soon thank you very much for coming on show and stay tuned we're going to have another guest joining Khuda al-afiz thank you