The family chat ended and I left home aimlessly and went downtown. After walking along a few streets I found myself at the entrance of the Baqir-al-Ulum Institute where I had taught English to the Iranian seminary students and Farsi to the non-Iranian ones. I decided to enter and visit my friends there. After sitting on a chair and being offered a cup of tea, the clergy in charge of teaching programs at the institute put a chubby envelop on a plate on the table before me. Then he continued, “Please pardon us. You have taught languages to the clergy students who are the soldiers of Imam Zaman (A.T.F), so we cannot compensate your struggles. This little amount of money is only a small gift from the treasury of Imam Zaman (A.T.F).” Then he added, “We have provided residence in Mashad for the lecturers of the institute and their families for the summer holidays. If you wish, we will introduce you to the man in charge there, and you can stay with your family as long as you desire.”

The envelope contained 20000 Toomans, the amount of money sufficient for the bus fare. For me, it was a dream. Both of the problems were solved. I returned home happily and suggested my family to get ready for the journey. They were surprised. When I told the story, they became very happy too. Maybe, that day or the day after we set off for Mashed. We stayed there for about ten days. The days were passing and the last day was approaching hurriedly. On the last day we were standing in the street circling the holy shrine and watching the golden dome when I felt lonely and a shadow of strangeness covered my heart. Behind my tearful eyes my sincere heart began whispering, “O Imam! They say that if the one visiting your holy shrine for the first time wishes any thing, you will grant those wishes. Now I’m the one visiting your holy shrine for the first time with my family, please grant my wishes. I would like to have some relatives in Mashad. I would like them to be Sadat (descendants of the Holy prophet) and clergies. Then as a teacher I wish to pass my last years of educational services in Mashad, near you.”

The following day we left for Qum. Some years passed. Our children grew up. Our elder son Abdul Karim who was studying in the third grade of high school wished to marry. It was a bad situation. He had not even got his diploma, and could not even earn his own living. Who would agree to get married to him? No family would allow their daughter to get married to him. But he insisted on fulfilling his wish and we had to do something for him. We visited a few families to seek their daughters marriage to‘Abdul Karim, but none of them agreed.

One afternoon when I returned home from work ‘Abdul Karim came to me and began talking, “Today I gave a ring to Ayatollah Khamenei’s embassy in Qom and said that according to Islamic rules it was obligatory for one to marry if one feels that he needs to marry. The clergy on the phone replied that it was the holy verse of the Qur’an that instructs this. When I said that I could not afford to run a family and no family would agree to have their daughter get married to me, he replied that God would grant by his grace and then continued if I would like to marry a girl from Mashad.” I asked ‘Abdul Karim about his opinion. He said that he would leave his answer until later.

He gave me a telephone number. It belonged to another clergy man who could arrange the case. I called that clergy man and investigated the proposal. He said that a great clergy Sayyed from Mashad had asked him to introduce a good young boy from Qom to marry his daughter. As we were a well known family in Qom it took only a short time before the two families were introduced to each other and ‘Abdul Karim became their son-in-law.

When the two families became relatives they sat together and said strange stories. Two of the stories which were really strange were told by my daughter-in-law's mother. She said, "I had decided not to allow my daughter to marry the boy who was coming from Qom, but my decision could only last until our doorbell rang and I went to the door to open it to the new guests. Just at the moment that I glanced at the face of the young boy, my heart changed deeply. I welcomed my new guests and went to my daughter in the next room and said that I had changed my mind. When my daughter asked the reason I could only say that I didn't know why, and I continued that he was a lovable boy." He also said another strangest story," None of our relatives knew anything about the marriage. After the marriage ceremony was held, one of my brothers who is a panegyrist (maddah) came to our house and investigated what events were going on in our house. I replied that nothing was going on in our family. He said in a mocking way, ‘Do you really believe that I'm unaware of what is going on here?’ I asked him to tell us what was going on in our family then if he knew. He continued, ‘Marziah has got married.’ When I asked him in a denying mood who had said that, he continued, ‘Last night I dreamt that Marziah was sitting in the holy shrine of Imam Riza (A.S) beside a young boy and they were reciting the prayer for pilgrimage together. I got angry with my niece sitting near a non-mahram young boy. I went to them and asked the boy why he was sitting by my niece while he was a non-mahram to her.  He pointed to me to keep quiet. And while pointing to the burial chamber he continued that Imam Riza (A.S) had declared their marriage oration (Khotbah).’ Then I had no choice but admitting that it was true."

Two of my wishes had been granted by the merciful Imam (A.S). In 1379 (2002), 8 years of my educational services were left before retirement. Some uncontrollable problems were growing among our relatives which influenced our family, too. The days of our lives were passing bitterly. One day while the family were sitting around in a room and talking about those problems and of our inner suffering I suggested the family to move to another city. At first it seemed to be a joke but as the dialogues proceeded the idea changed into a real decision and the whole family agreed on it. Regarding the cities, there were three choices, Tehran, Shiraz, or Mashad. In Tehran the costs of living was very high, in addition, the cultural atmosphere there did not correspond to our style of life. The second choice was also rejected because ‘Abdul  Karim was living and studying  in Mashad.  If we moved to Shiraz it meant that a distance of more than 1000 km. between us would change into more than 2500km. All agreed on moving to Mashad. I said that the whole family should take an oath to stand against the problems of such a decision. They did so. I wrote a letter of request to the director general of the educational general office of the province and requested a move to Mashad. When I met the director general and offered the letter, he was amazed. I had an important post at the general office. He asked me to give him a window of one or two weeks in which to announce his decision. After about ten days I met him again and sought his agreement on the request. He said," If you had decided to move to any other city I would never agree on it. But in the case of Mashad, I'm unable to disagree with it."

The next day when ‘Abdul karim rang and his mother told him that we had decided to move to Mashad, he said that he was aware of our decision. When he was asked how he knew that, he replied that the night before he had dreamt that he had met me on a street in Mashad and asked me what I was doing there. I had replied that we had moved to Mashad.

 Everything went well. We rented a good villa house where we lived for eight years. In Mashad, I was appointed as a high school boss, the nearest high school to the holy shrine of Imam Riza(A.S). It was only on the first days that the head of the regional educational department took me to the holy shrine of Imam Riza (A.S) to introduce me to one of the high ranking officials of Astan Quds Razavi. When I announced that I wished to have the opportunity of giving services to the pilgrims of the holy shrine of Imam Riza(A.S) voluntarily, he permitted me to go there and help him with his work.

My third wish was also granted. Now that I'm approaching the end of my educational services before my retirement, I feel that Imam Riza(A.S) has received me with open arms and has granted my wishes in the best way. Although there were thousands of people waiting in turn to be accepted as a Khadim of the holy shrine, he accepted me in his own special way as a formal volunteer Khadim of his holy shrine. Thanks to God  thousands of times.

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