 Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. As-salamu alaikum. I'm Professor Adnan Ali from National University of Modern Languages, Lahore Campus, working as a teacher-trainer in applied linguistics and its related various subjects for the last 14 years. And this is the first time I've visited the holy city of Karbala to pay my special request to Imam Ali Maqam and his great followers and his children and his dear ones who made such a great sacrifice at the hot desert of Karbala. The moment I entered Karbala, there was a strange feeling of entering a place so well populated and so crowded with so many multiracial and multilingual people. But the moment I walked more and more into the cities and on the roads of the city, a certain feeling began to rise inside me that with each and every step I walked, I was getting closer and closer to the holy shrines of Imam Ali Maqam, Babul Hawaijab al-Fazlil Abbas and the other followers and the other great martyrs who had made history and who had cherished Islam with their blood. This is a feeling that is hard to explain in words, but the most important thing which I've felt here so far, the greatest thing in my life I could ever see that is that all women are properly covered in hijab. All men have very modest look in their eyes and everyone seems to be covered with a spiritual emblem of spirituality and holiness. This is something that cannot be explained properly in words. It's beyond words and I think that if you really want to see what I have seen so far, you yourself must visit Karbala, you yourself must come over here and just give yourself away to the holiness of the city and you will experience the same thing, the spain spiritual enlightenment which I have experienced so far. The same, they're equally enlightened and they feel equally spiritually uplifted and they feel like never leaving this place in their life. They wish they could live forever here. My wife has summarized all my feelings in such words. She says it's heaven on earth, it's paradise on earth. They're all already waiting for me that as soon as I got back to Pakistan, I must share my experiences with them. They want to listen to me and they want to learn from me what I have experienced here, how I felt over here, how my kids felt over here. Alhamdulillah both my kids are Hafaz-e-Quran. I come of a religious family. Me and my wife equally share our spiritual association to the holy city of Karbala and the events of history that lie herein. So my friends and my relatives, they are keen for my return to Pakistan and they are very very inquisitive to learn about my experiences over here. They are already motivated. I mean I don't need to motivate them. They are already motivated, they have already expressed their desire to visit this place every year. They want me to bring them here every year and perform the masjid and perform all the religious rituals which are a part of paying respects to these holy martyrs. The people who hold those mawakib, they are very good hosts and despite the thing that there's a great language barrier between us and the people of Iraq, but still they accommodate us well. They do not let us feel that we are at a strange place. They are very good hosts. They serve us well and it seems that they are trying to serve us, the Zavars, in such a way that we are the most respectable people for them. I mean every Iraqi citizen tries to attend to us as we are his personal guests. I mean they pay us respects as the guests of Imam. They pay us respects as the guests of the holy city of Karbala and they bring food to us. They try to comfort us by providing us water and tea and they offer us eatables and they try to offer us services. For example, the first day when we arrived at the holy city of Karbala, a young Iraqi boy offered to carry my luggage to my hotel. I mean they are just trying to do it all just for the sake of earning Sabaab-e-Darain and this is something that is very strange. I mean you do not know a person. You do not know his language and still he is willing to help you and he tries to attend you like his own brother. I mean this is something on the part of the Iraqi people that I have experienced for the first time and frankly speaking I cannot adequately thank the Iraqi people for this kind of an attitude, for this kind of a service, for this kind of a combatability that they have shown towards us, the pilgrims. That's really awesome. Well you see if you ask for my opinion the incident of Karbala is in itself a complete university. It teaches us countless numbers of lessons. It teaches us unity of Allah, oneness of Allah. The first and the prime lesson that we learn here at the city of Karbala, every prayer we read, every book we read, it starts from the belief in the oneness of Allah, the last prophethood. This is the second most important faith and welcoming everyone to reach the destination of spirituality. This is a universal lesson that the event of Karbala and the teachings of Imam Ali Maqam have given to anyone. I mean you are a Muslim, you are a Christian, you are a Hindu, you are a Parsi, you belong to any religion, you belong to any sect, you belong to any part of the world, you belong to any region of the world, you are welcome. They embrace you, they welcome you beyond any prejudices, beyond anything that the western mediums order to say is trying to propagate Islam in terms of a very narrow minded and a very prejudiced manner. This is not Islam. Islam is peace. Islam is brotherhood, Islam is strength of commitment and welcoming everyone as our guest, as our brother. This is what Islam is and this is what we see being truly practiced here in the city of Karbala. You may belong to any part of the world, you may hold any kind of passport belonging to any country but the people of Iraq, they treat you as their guests and they treat you with respect and honor. The first moment you tell them an azair, the second thing they say, this is the next, very next impression that oozes out of their mouth the moment you tell them that you are a pilgrim of Imam Ali Maqam. So this is the true lesson given by Islam in the form of the teachings of Imam Ali Maqam that is being practically practiced over here in the holy city of Karbala. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. My name is Sajjad Alawi. I'm from the Netherlands, 21 years old and I'm a student at the university. What motivates me to visit Karbala again is of course Imam Al Hussein alaihi salam and the atmosphere which I will be in. The walk of Arbaeen was a magical walk and I would like to do it every year again. When I first visited Karbala that was in 2008 I was I think 12 years old and at that time I didn't know, I didn't know a lot about Imam Hussein but not as now and it was a different experience. My aim to visit Karbala is supporting my holy Imam and showing my respect to the holy imams alaihi salam. My opinion of a quality that visitors of Imam Hussein alaihi salam should have is that they should be humble, respectful and they should have patience at all time. I am here with my friends. I came here with three brothers and they made the trip for me more easier. Okay for me the most spiritual trip to Karbala was during the time of Arbaeen because the Arbaeen walk gives you a special tint to the spirituality you have when you go to Karbala. If I would tell my friends, family, colleagues about the Arbaeen walk and my trip to Karbala I would tell them it was the most fantastic trip because you'll see everything which you haven't seen before. You see the most poor people who will give their life for free, who will give everything they possess for free. They open their houses, they give food for free. You'll see this never in the world at any places. The reason why people do this trip and take the hardships is because Imam Hussein is all worded. He has done so many things for humanity which can be reached. We can't make it up to him. This is at least we can do by coming to him and supporting him and showing our respect. My feelings, what I did here, I learned to be patient. My trip here learned me to be very patient because really you go through hardship but it's all worded. You will forget it the next day because you know you are closer to Imam Hussein and if you compare it to what Zaynab had experienced, our hardship is nothing. I would blame myself if I went to Karbala and didn't visit Talha Zaynabiya because that's one of the most spiritual places and it shows your respect to Zaynab. We did a lot for us and it's by her that we are still calling Yahu Hussein every day. I interact the most with Abul Fazl al-Abbas alayhi salam because he showed the true, the true the most, excuse me, the character I interact the most with at the holy land of Karbala is Abul Fazl al-Abbas alayhi salam because in my personal life he meant a lot to me and he is the one who showed loyalty to the fullest. He stand by his brother till he literally died and he was thirsty. He was there for his brother. He was really the backbone till the end. The part that moves me the most of the tragedy of Karbala is the part of Zaynab when she was all alone. She had seen her brother, her nephews, her nephews and nieces all endure pain and she endured pain too but she had to be patient for all the women alive, for the children of Imam al-Hussein alayhi salam. She had to be the backbone. She had to be strong so they wouldn't endure more pain than they already had so she showed us patience even through the hardest times.