The activist Al Hajj Malik al-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and the boxer Muhammad Ali were two early adherents of this movement who later embraced orthodox Islam. Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Lure of the Other, Routledge, 2017, p. Although there are no special times for visiting this or other shrines, it is customary for pilgrimage traffic to be heaviest during Shia holy periods. Pilgrimages to these shrines and the hundreds of local mamzadehs are undertaken to petition the saints to grant special favors or to help one through a period of troubles. Pilgrimage to the shrines of imams is a specific Shia custom, undertaken because Shia pilgrims believe that the imams and their relatives have the power to intercede with God on behalf of petitioners. In virtually all towns and in many villages, there are numerous lesser shrines, known as imamzadehs, that commemorate descendants of the imams who are reputed to have led saintly lives. Since the nineteenth century, it has been customary among the bazaar class and members of the lower classes to recognize those who have made a pilgrimage to Mashhad by prefixing their names with the title mashti. For-profit institutions will have to negotiate for permission to copy.

The shrine’s endowments and gifts are the largest of all religious institutions in the country. Pilgrims serve as major sources of information about conditions in different parts of the country and thus help to mitigate the parochialism of the regions. Another religious institution of major significance has been the hoseiniyeh, or Islamic center. Another major religious institution in Iran is the shrine. It is a religious endowment by which land and other income-producing property is given in perpetuity for the maintenance of a shrine, mosque, madrassa, or charitable institution such as a hospital, library, or orphanage. Historically, the most important religious institution in Iran has been the mosque. At the same time, weekly mosque attendance rate in Iran has been very low compared to other Muslim countries. In towns and cities, congregational prayers, as well as prayers and rites associated with religious observances and important phases in Muslim life, took place in mosques. From 1979 to 1982, the number of talabehs in Qom more than tripled from 6,500 to over 20,000. As of the early 2000s, there were just under 25,000 talabehs at all levels of study in Qom seminaries, as well as about 12,000 talabehs at seminaries in other Iranian cities.

Custom ads aren’t only lucrative for businesses; politicians have found them useful as well. Since that time, the mosques have continued to play important political and social roles, in addition to their traditional religious functions. In addition to the usual shrine accoutrements, it comprises hospitals, dispensaries, a museum, and several mosques located in a series of courtyards surrounding the imam’s tomb. Whereas piety is a motivation for many, others come to seek the spiritual grace or general good fortune that a visit to the shrine is believed to ensure. Peyote, eaten in the ritual context, enables the individual to commune with God and the spirits (including those of the departed) in contemplation and vision and so to receive from them spiritual power, guidance, reproof, and healing. All of which is to say that I think the moral and spiritual crisis is real and that it’s far deeper than we often realize.

Maktabs started to decline in number and importance in the first decades of the twentieth century, once the government began developing a national public school system. The government’s interference with the administration of vaqfs during the Pahlavi era led to a sharp decline in the number of vaqf bequests. A mutavalli administers a vaqf in accordance with the stipulations in the donor’s bequest. The vaqf is a traditional source of financial support for all religious institutions. Institutions providing religious education include madrassas, or seminaries, and maktabs, or primary schools run by the clergy. Nevertheless, maktabs continued to exist as private religious schools until the Revolution. Because the overall emphasis of public schools has remained secular subjects, since 1979 maktabs have continued to serve children whose parents want them to have a more religious education. Technically, Canada exists as a separate constitutional monarchy from Great Britain, but by agreement, their succession rules are the same, so they will always have the same queen.