Lady Zeinab's Shrine

Lady Zeinab’s shrine the daughter of Imam Ali (pbuh) and Lady Fatimah Zahra (pbuh), and the grand daughter of Prophet of Islam Lady Mohammad has located in the town of ‘Sit Zeinab’, Damascus capital city of Syria, has granted her name to the town awarding it more beauty, spirituality and fame.

This was stated in a report about the holy shrine of Lady Zeinab (pbuh) published last week in Al-Ittehad Al-Emaratiyah newspaper.

The shrine with regard to its elegance, magnificence, splendor, grace, nicety, decoration and beauty is the most beautiful and marvelous not in Damascus and Syria alone but in the Arab and Islamic world, the report said.

The newspaper further narrated the history of the shrine, which in the beginning was a small room comprised of Lady Zeinab (pbuh)’s tomb and in 1840, the shrine was constructed in the form of a square-building around the tomb with wooden roof covered with clay and then in 1870, the roof was made with plaster after it was collapsed due to heavy rains. In 1925, a plan to expand the building was completed. The compound in its present form with elegant walls and roof adorned with artwork is a magnificent artistic present, and no religious building resembles this in it.

As Dr. Ali Hassan Mousa in the Arabic Visitors Guide about Damascus praises the shrine in these words that the pure gold-plated vault on the tomb when you see it in the cloudy weather it looks as it is luminiferious, transmitting the light and refulgence, then how it looks like in sunny days!!!

Some two million pilgrims annually visit the shrine especially from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia (al-Ehsa region) and Bahrain, Al-Ittehad Al-Emaratiyah said adding that when these pilgrims kiss the tomb, their eyes shed rivers of tears as if the daughter of Imam Ali (AS) Lady Zeinab (pbuh) martyred just a while before.

Aal Al-Murtada, residents of Damascus are at present the guardian of the holy compound.

Lady Zeinab (pbuh) reflected in her character the best attributes of those who brought her up. In sobriety and serenity she was likened to her grandmother Lady Khadija (pbuh); in chastity and modesty to her mother Lady Fatimah Zahra (pbuh) – the Mistress of the Ladies of the Worlds; in eloquence to her father Lady Imam Ali (as); in forbearance and patience, and in bravery and tranquility of the heart to her brothers The Masters of the Youth of Paradise - Lady Imam Hassan (pbuh) and Lady Imam Hussein (pbuh) respectively. Her face reflected her father's awe and her grandfather Holy Prophet Lady Muhammad's reverence.