What is Ziyarat?

Ziyarat basically means, to visit the Shrines of the Holy Masumeen (as) or any other holy personality with proximity to ahlulbayt (as).
The Holy Prophet (saw) & Imams (as) have highly emphasized the importance of Ziyarat, in order to enable the follower to come closer to the Masumeen, to learn from their character and thereby improve their lives.
In order for the Za’er (Visitor) to make his trip successful he needs to ask & understand several issues:

How does ziyarat affect our life?

-Firstly, we go to the Shrine, and we declare and remind ourselves, the HIGH status enjoyed by the Imams:

That they are perfect models
That they are lovers of truth
That they are examples of nobility, justice, of good character, of good minds, or pure thoughts, of pure feelings, of cooperation, of love for humanity, and of all the noble and perfect virtues.

-Once we have realized fully, this high position of Imams, we try to provoke feelings in our hearts which God has naturally created, whenever we see beauty we are attracted, whenever we see perfection we are attracted, whenever we see models of goodness, justice & virtue, naturally we seek to follow.

-So having reminded ourselves of the virtues of the Imams:

We then pledge our allegiance,
We then swear our obedience,
We then make a covenant to love them, to follow them, and to always keep their pleasure ahead of our pleasure. It is these ideas and themes which are of paramount importance. They should always be on the top of our minds as we participate in the rituals of ziyarat.

Merits of Ziyarat

The Holy Imam’s tell us that whoever comes for our ziyarat:
-His/her duas will be accepted
-His/her sins will be forgiven
-One who visits us is just like the one who has visited the Holy Prophet (s)
-The reward for visiting us is that of a thousand mustahab Haj
-Or reward of making our ziyarat is thousand Umrah
-Or whosoever comes for our ziyarat deserves Sha’fah (intercession) for major sins on the day of Judgment.
-Or our shrines is part of Jannah.
-Or in our shrines numerous angels keep on descending and ascending
-Or in our shrines sins are forgiven just like the day you were born

But its important that we realize how this SAWAB is going to be given to the Za’er

When Allah makes something wajib or makes something mustahab definitely there is some benefit to that person. And if Allah makes something haram or something makruh definitely there is some harm in it.

If ziyarat has been made such a highly mustahab act and so much sawab is bestowed, definitely there must be many benefits BUT those benefits can only be derived after the conditions have been fulfilled. The rewards & benefits are subjected to the acceptance of that act from Allah.

Reward is secondary to acceptance by Allah “INAMA YATAKABALLAHU MINAL MUTAQEEN”

“Allah accepts the (Amaal / worship) of the person who has TAQWA.

So merely performing an act is not the guarantee of getting the reward. Performing it with complete accordance of Allah (swt) and avoiding oneself from the surrounding sins is also necessary.