The closing ceremony of the 14th World Cultural Festival of the Martyrdom's Spring.

After five days of cultural, intellectual and knowledge activities varying between research conferences, poetic and Quranic sessions, visits, tours and meetings, the 14th World Cultural Festival of the Martyrdom's Spring held by the two General Secretariats of the holy shrines of Imam al-Hussayn and of al-Abbas (peace be upon both of them) under the slogan: "By al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) we make revolution and by the fatwa we are victorious", and which lasted for five days from the 3rd to the 7th of Sha'ban, concluded its activities in a ceremony held on Tuesday afternoon the 7th of Sha'ban 1439 AH, corresponding to April 24, 2018.

The closing ceremony was held in the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussayn (peace be upon him). It started with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran by the reader of the Imam al-Hussayn's (p) holy shrine Haj. Usama Al-Karbalai. Then came the word of the General Secretaries of the two holy shrines of Imam al-Hussayn and of al-Abbas (peace be upon both of them), delivered by the Senior Official of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine; Sayed Ahmad al-Safi, in which he emphasized that the Fatwa of the sufficient duty for the sacred defense is a military, sovereignty and religious fatwa, and there was no other alternative to it for saving the country and the people and it is different from the previous fatwas issued in Iraq...

This speech was followed by the word of the holy shrines in Iraq delivered by the head of the administration of the holy shrine of Imam al-Hadi and Imam al-'Askari in Samarra; Sheikh Sattar al-Murshidi, who explained the depth relationship between the love of al-Hussayn and the victory, linking the march of Arba'een gave lessons to Iraqis urging them to rush to the fronts for Jihad and win the war making the victory of Iraq..."

The House of the Iraqi Ifta (advisory opinion) gave also a speech delivered by the Acting Spokesperson of the House of Ifta Sheikh 'Amer al-Bayati, indicating that the fatwa of the supreme religious authority of the sufficient duty of defense has united the Iraqis and made them side by side sacrificing their blood to raise high the flag of Iraq...

The ceremony included a poem by the Lebanese poet Ali al-'Asaily al-'Amili, whose verses chanted the love of al-Hussayn (peace be upon him). The ceremony also included the announcement of the winners of the Imam al-Hussayn's (p) contest and the poetry competition. Then, the participating delegations in the festival came to speak. First it was the Representative of the House of Ifta in the Russian Federation, Sheikh Elham Pibasson, who expressed his happiness stating: "We have been very pleased that the Islamic nation has such spiritual and cultural resources to defeat the elements of evil..."

Then it was the turn of the English delegation to deliver its speech by Dr. Giris Hauer. (Please click here to read it).

The words of the participating delegations were concluded with the speech of the American delegation delivered by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Golnik. (Please click here to read it).

This was followed by religious stanzas [Muwashshahat] chanted by Husein al-Oqaili.

The ceremony was concluded by honoring a number of participants in the World Cultural Festival of the Martyrdom's Spring from delegations, researchers, media, poets and others.