Many people who have attained felicity have been in association with these books in their privacy and loneliness. Astan Quds Razavi is an organization that publishes numerous books every year.
This big religious-cultural institution has been especially effective in meeting the needs of the audiences, particularly religious audience. A special group of these audiences is pilgrims of the Razavi Holy Shrine. Among the book readers, there are pilgrims whose language and looks are different from us.
The foreign pilgrims who see a number of books in their language may smile happily and buy several of them immediately to take with themselves as souvenir.
Fine books
The Arab-speaking teenager is playing with his little brother. Their mother is watching the books and the cultural works a few steps farther. We speak with the teenager. He says: I come from Bahrain. There are fine books here and my mother has bought some for me and my little brother.
I look at his bag that contains a number of books. The titles of most of his books indicate the biography of the Infallible Imams (A.S.). He takes out the book ‘Children and the Prophet (S.A.W.)’ from his bag and starts reading. The stories of the book are very beautiful and pleasant revealing the affection of his holiness (S.A.W.).
Years of searching
An old man is resting on a seat by the book-reading fair. I approach him and ask for his opinion about the books of the fair. The university professor says: “all the books in different languages in this fair are attracting and valuable. They all offer religious concepts that are interesting to me”. After a short hesitation he continues: “I was searching for a rich collection of religious works for my friends and relatives for years and now I can see the biography of all the Infallible Imams (A.S.) in live languages of the world such as Arabic, Urdu, English, and even Spanish that are really valuable for a non-Iranian pilgrim.”
He shows the book in his hand and says: “On the other side, Astan Quds Razavi has been able to attract many readers through its high quality printing industry. I dare to say that competent graphists and agents are involved in this domain.”
The unique welcomes of non-Iranian pilgrims prompt us to talk also with Director of Non-Iranian Pilgrims Affairs of Astan Quds Razavi to know more about the productions of Astan Quds Razavi during Karamat ten-day celebrations.
Eleven New Titles of Books
Sayed Muhammad Jawad Hasheminejad said concerning the cultural products of Karamat days: “Eleven titles of books in a circulation of 128000 were published by Management of Non-Iranian Pilgrims Affairs of Astan Quds Razavi that is regarded a great honor for this office.”
“The books ‘An Explanation on Permission for Entrance’, ‘The Benefits of Pilgrimage’, ‘The Lifestyle’, ‘In this Piece of Heaven’, ‘Imam Reza (A.S.)’, ‘Book of Pictures’, ‘Ten Etiquette’, ‘Children and the Prophet (S.A.W.)’, and ‘Sanctuary of the Light’ are among the cultural products of the office that have been translated in different languages on occasion of birthday anniversary of Imam Reza (A.S.) and have been available for foreign pilgrims of Astan Quds Razavi by mail or other delivery ways.”
“The books ‘An Explanation on Permission for Entrance’, ‘The Benefits of Pilgrimage’, ‘The Lifestyle’, and ‘Imam Reza (A.S.)’ have been translated into Azeri, Urdu, Arabic, and English; the ‘Children and the Prophet (S.A.W.)’ into English, Arabic, and Urdu, the ‘Book of Pictures’ into Arabic and English, ‘Ten Etiquette’ into Arabic, ‘Sanctuary of the Light’ into English, Japanese, Azeri, and German, and ‘In this Piece of Heaven’ has been translated into English and Arabic.”
‘An Explanation on Permission for Entrance’ has been produced in a circulation of 10,000, ‘The Benefits of Pilgrimage’ in 5000, ‘The Lifestyle’ in 20,000, ‘Children and the Prophet (S.A.W.)’ in 15,000, ‘Ten Etiquette’ in 5000, and ‘Sanctuary of the Light’ has been published in 11,000 circulation”, he added.
