Lecturer: Sheikh Vinay Khetia, Academic Director, Shia Research Institute, Toronto (affiliation at the date recorded)

Duration: 1 hour 13 minutes

Date Recorded: September 2023

Subject: The intention of this lecture and study is to investigate the intricacies and substance of a genre of devotional literature and liturgical practice in Twelver Shi’ism, namely the Ziyārat (visitational eulogy) of Imam al-Husayn. In doing so, this talk presented a historical and close philological-thematic study of this ziyāra, a text that is consistently found throughout classical and contemporary Shi‘a prayer manuals and formative hadith works such as al-Kāfi. The ziyāra has been ascribed by Twelver Shi’as to the sixth Imam, Ja‘far al-Ṣadiq (d. 148/765). Unlike most studies dealing with the topic of Shi‘a devotion, this lecture shall focus on the textual history, Quranic, and mystical-theological themes which imbue this liturgy.