By Ibrahim Usman (Source: ABNA)
To mark the auspicious birthday of Imam Ridha (AS), Denmark Foreign Affairs Minister, Martin Lide Gard joined millions of people around the world on pilgrimage to the Imam’s Holy Shrine in Mashad, where he experienced divine tranquility and got accustomed with the Islamic-Iranian architecture and Muslims manners and customs.
At the end of the 45-minutes visit, Gard expressed happiness for the holy visit: “Visiting the holy shrine created a good memory for me that affected my heart. Here I witnessed a great celebration where many people participated and I really received positive energy by that.”
He viewed his attendance to the holy shrine on the night of Imam Reza’s birthday as a divine opportunity and luck, “I have been very lucky to be present in this place exactly on the night of Imam Reza’s birthday. I’ very honored to be here. I think it is the biggest celebration of Iranians and I’m happy that I was present in Mashhad and in your celebration.”
Regarding the architecture of the holy shrine, Gard said, “The arts applied in such architecture are marvelous. In this short trip I could learn about the Islamic-Iranian architecture and the different periods of Iranian history and its beautiful civilization.”
Astonished by seeing the ever-flowing crowd of pilgrims at 4 a.m. in a religious mood at the Shrine, Gard remarked, “The large number of people here has impressed me and more importantly such a vigorous presence is accompanied by tranquility and security and pilgrims do pilgrimage and worship comfortably; such a tranquility is beautiful.
While reacting to the fact that over 25 million people attend the holy shrine, he said, “The number of people who come to this place during a year far exceeds the population of Denmark”.
The Denmark Minster of Foreign Affairs was accompanied by a high delegation from the Razavi holy shrine.