The role of pilgrimage on political training of the pilgrims

Pilgrimage means to make attempt and intention. This term has been used by Muslims since the early Islam. In the Islamic instructions, a lot of rewards and virtues have been promised for making pilgrimage to the shrines of the Exalted prophet, the infallible Imams and their descendants. Thus, the religious scholars and researchers have studied different aspects of this worship. One of the main aspects of this pilgrimage is the training and human developing as well as social domain. In Shia narrative sources, making pilgrimage to the infallibles is reaffirming the commitment to the Imam and declaring their adherence to the commitment made. In other words, it refers to the political aspect of pilgrimage and its role in political training of pilgrims and preparing him/her to enter the political scenes. The present study, which adopted a library-based approach, investigates the role of making pilgrimage to the infallibles in training the pilgrim, and through analysis of qur’anic data and narratives sاow that making pilgrimage to the infallibles can positively affect the political training of the pilgrim that is to make him/her know the political goals of the visited one (such as to promote virtue and prevent vice, to fight tyrannies, to know friends and enemies and to achieve political understanding.)