Visiting the Grave of Imam Al-Ghazali (Travel Narrative‪)‬

"I had forbidden you to visit graves, but Muhammad has been permitted to visit the grave of his mother, so visit them, for truly, they remind you of the hereafter." (Tirmidhi, Sunan, Kitab al-Jana'iz, ma ja'a fil-rukhsa fi ziyarat al-qubur) I arrived in Mashhad after a long night's journey which took place as if in a dream world, in and out of this earthly existence. I felt a stranger in the city, a poor beggar who had come seeking His bounties. I had wanted to travel from Rayy to Tus on the old caravan route, following the footsteps of countless travelers of centuries past when Tus was the regional capital and a powerful city. Then, caravans travelled between Baghdad and Tus carrying goods, merchants, scholars, students, and all sorts of other people. Today, most traffic passes through Tehran, which claims nearly one-fifth of the total population of Iran; Rayy, just outside modern Tehran, is now only a sleepy though exquisite small town. The old caravans are gone and instead a modern fleet of buses departs to all destinations from Tehran's two main bus terminals. I had hoped to at least catch glimpses of the old caravan route from the bus, but all buses left after dark and drove through the night to reach Mashhad at dawn, bringing scores of pilgrims to the most venerated site in Iran, the shrine of Imam Reza.