A Shortened Ziyarat and Serving Others

A Shortened Ziyarah and Serving Others

A scholar has narrated: One summer, we went for ziyarah to Mashad with Imam and several other scholars. There we rented a house. Our timetable was such that in the afternoons, after one or two hours rest, we would wake up and would head for the shrine together. After ziyarah, prayers and supplication, we would return to the house and in the pleasant setting of the veranda, we would sit and drink tea.

Imam’s timetable was that he would come with everyone to the shrine; however he would shorten his ziyarah and supplication and return to the house alone. He would sweep and wash the veranda, spread a rug, switch on the samovar (apparatus for making tea) and prepare the tea. When we returned from the shrine, he would serve everyone tea. One day I asked him: ‘What is this? You shorten your ziyarah and supplications and return home in a hurry in order to make tea for your friends?’ Imam replied: ‘I don’t consider the reward of this act to be less than that of the ziyarah and supplications.’