A few Afghanis came here, asking us allow them to work here. I said we do not have construction work now. They said let us come and take a benefit, leaving a fingerprint form ourselves here in this Mukeb.  
Some Iranian women living in Kuwait had come by car. We had fish for lunch when they arrived by bus or minibus. They got off here. They came to the Mukeb to pray. We asked them to stay as it was lunch time. One of the women said we do not like your fish. I asked her to eat and if you don’t like it, we will bring you another food, we spread the table and after eating the lunch, her husband came out and thanked, saying it was really delicious. He said that his wife was a doctor and a specialist in fish. I had never eaten such a fish. He asked whether we accept if he gives us a help. I said we don’t say no. He said I would like to have a share. Some 25 people were eating lunch. He gave us 1000 dollars. He said that I want to share this with you. 
That's why the food is delicious, because people make vows from the bottom of their hearts. They work heartily. We have a saying in Iraq. Our grandmothers used to say that when the walls of Najaf to Karbala are connected and the wall-to-wall rooster reaches Karbala from Najaf, then the Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will reappear. Now we have become wall to wall. We no longer have empty land; That is, there is not empty land from Najaf to Karbala, all of it has turned into Mukebs.
We held Unity Prayer here last year. The length of the congregational prayer lines was approximately six kilometers.
Last year, I talked to a man in the Mukeb. He said: I am very upset with myself. I hurt people of Iraq very much. I said: Why? He said: I am from Mashhad. I did not give the correct address to the Iraqis who came and took an address. I did not like talking to them. But in this Arbaeen pilgrimage, when I came, I felt guilty. I say God forgive me, I was wrong. I bothered all these people. But now I see how they treat us.
This route has created a family relation. Now you have come here with the family. Later, I and my family will come to you in Iran. We cannot separate from each other. The friendship of the Shiites is increasing day by day. Their relations are growing increasingly. The Iranians had no Mukeb until three years ago. They were not able to do any service, but now, the Iranians have Hey'ats here, and it is growing year by year.
On this route from Diwaniyah to Najaf, two nomadic tribes had clashes about ten years ago. One of the tribes had killed three members of that tribe. They did not take blood money from them. They said we would take our children's rights from you. We have to kill three of you. Then, the pilgrimage of the Arbaeen of Imam Hussein (PBUH) arrived. Both tribes had Mukebs. One night, the tribe that owed blood of its youths had no guests. They sent a message to the other tribe that if you send your pilgrims tonight, we will forgive the blood of your youths and forgive the blood of our youths, that is, for the love of Imam Hussein, a dispute over the revenge of the tribe that could have caused a war was over.
We are waiting day by day. We await ... we also help the popular forces involved in the war. Our love is to serve the pilgrims, but our hearts are on the border alongside the popular Basiji forces who are defending our city and other cities and these people. One of our eyes is here, the other there, because we are worried about them more. Why? They are fighting to open the way so that the Imam Hussein pilgrims can travel through those routes safely. God knows that we are waiting for the day they announce that the route has also been liberated for the pilgrims of Imam Hussein (PBUH).
Iraqi Shiites did not accept Saddam's war with Iran; but they had to; if someone did not go to the battlefield or fled, they imprisoned his family, they capture his mother, his sister so that the fugitive surrendered himself to the government. The Iraqi fronts were compulsory. It was not just two years of military service. Seven or eight years after the end of military service, they were called again to serve in the military. My uncle shot himself in the leg in a way that he is still limping, just because he could escape from going to the war. Many did so because they had to. The Shiites were forced to fight at the frontline to clash with the Iranians. They made the Shiites fight against each other but there are still some Iranians who are upset with us because they think we have killed their children. Some of them have told me this. I talked to them. We didn’t do that. Those who did this were either forced or Ba'athists. They did this in order to kill the Shiites so that they would kill each other and be reduced. I myself saw a retired Iranian colonel. He was seventy-two years old. He had come to Iraq for the first time. There were tears in his eyes. He said, "I never wanted to come to Iraq. I hated the enemies, but now that I have come and seen this love, I do not feel bad anymore."[1]