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The two pilgrimages

Whoever does a ritual wash with the water of the Euphrates river, and then goes to the holy shrine of Imam Hussain on foot, for every footstep he takes there will be [a reward equal to] an accepted Hajj with all its rituals.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  (Bihar al-Anwar, vol 98, p 147)

Many pieces of hadith draw analogies between the pilgrimage of Imam Hussain and that of Hajj. This suggests a special relationship between the two – as if they have similar spiritual worlds behind them. Among the surahs of the Quran, surah al-Hajj specifically deals with the rituals of the pilgrimage to Mecca. To understand what is common between pilgrimages to Karbala and to Mecca, we first need to recite surah al-Hajj.