Sayed al-Safi: The total funds disbursed on the projects of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine during 13 years is only one billion dollars.

The Senior Official of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine His Eminence Sayed Ahmed al-Safi had made a welcoming speech at the inauguration ceremony of the expansion project of the holy shrine of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon him) by roofing its holy sanctuary, held Saturday evening the 19th of Jumada II 1438 AH corresponding to the 18th of March 2017. Stating several points that are as follows:

1. In this blessed night, we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Our Lady the Immaculate, the human nymph, the martyr Fatima (peace be upon her), asking the Almighty Allah by her blessings and the blessings of her father, husband and children and the hidden secret in her to bless all of us by the security, safety and wellness and to cherish our hearts by the gorgeous appearance of her grandson the awaited Imam (may Allah hasten his holy reappearance).
2. On this night there are many victories achieved by the fervent sons of Iraq while defending this sacred soil with their bodies and blood, drawing an unforgettable history and amazing glory while they are racing to martyrdom and shedding their blood for the sake of the country's dignity, and in compliance with the great Fatwa issued by His Eminence Sayed al-Sistani. Praying the Almighty Allah for their accelerated brilliant victory and bestow upon this country the security, safety and stability.
3. We thank the noble attendance for accepting the invitation for the inauguration of this project of roofing the holy sanctuary of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon him), which is complementing the expansion project. I do not want to go into details of the project, but I would like to focus on the following two points:

• The design of the roofing project has taken from our time almost two years, as it is the basis of the project, and because the project's design lead to many functions, most importantly that the holy sanctuary remains free of any column for its small area. And thankfully the design was viable and was implemented in this way.
• We have tried to make this project similar to the sanctuary's roof through the implementation of the mirrors pieces that is done by gluing them using gypsum, but when we have done the engineering calculations we found out that we will need 75 tons of this material to glue the mirrors, which is very heavy method, so we have chosen another material that is lighter and stronger, using fiber glass that is a modern method manufactured in Malaysia. Thus, we would like to praise the efforts of the designer and the brothers in the Engineering projects Department for their tremendous efforts to achieve this roofing that was installed in an utmost precise manner, as the brothers took the measurements and sent them to the companies and communicating with them until receiving the iron structures matching the plans made by the brothers, and we have started installing it during the days of the holy month of Ramadan.

4. And I will explain for whoever interested to know the answer to some questions, we are honored to be in the service of the holy shrine since 2003, and we state that the total funds disbursed on the construction and service projects of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine during 13 years is only one billion dollars, and if we divide this sum, we will have expenses of 76 million dollars per year, noting that the holy shrine has more than 150 projects and 40 ones that are still at the Ministry of planning because of financial problems, and other projects that were approved by the Shiite Endowment but still wait for the financial liquidity.
5. My thanks to all our dear brothers who have contributed in these projects specifically the Shiite Endowment with its two directors Sayed Saleh al-Haidary and Sayed Alaa al-Moussawi, and also the dear brothers in the shrine administration, especially Sayed Mohamad al-Ashiqar who was the vice head of the engineering projects Department and then all praise to Allah he became the new Secretary-General of the holy shrine.

At the conclusion of his speech, Sayed al-Safi said: "I would like to thank all the dear brothers the servants of the holy shrines who exerted tremendous efforts in order to develop this shrine especially my brother His Eminence Sheikh al-Karbalai at the service of the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussayn (peace be upon him), and the holy shrine of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) and the holy shrine of Imam al-Kadhem and Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon both of them) all of which are promoting an urban and service renaissance by the support of the distinguished Shiite Endowment, praying the Almighty Allah the continuous support and success.

I would also like to thank all the brothers who were unidentified soldiers behind the completion of these projects. And thankfully we are witnessing now this architectural masterpiece.