It is often said that art and architecture mimic and mirror life.  We build the things that represent who we are as people, individuals and communities. We build things either for functionality, aesthetic, purpose or need, though often we build things for all those reasons combined as a connection to the environment in which it stands or a focal point of attention.

A minaret and dome are quintessentially evocative of Islamic architecture. Indeed the Iraqi land and cityscapes are dotted with them in great frequency. However there is something astonishingly and mesmerizingly arresting about the unique minarets and domes of the shrines of the Ahlulbayt (as). The non-believer and believer alike both recognise that something of great importance and significance must reside in that space. Though often, little do they know that these buildings of bricks and mortar, lined with gilded gold are merely secondary to what they represent. For they are but portals and gateways to the divine. It is through the ones that dwell in these heavenly shrines that a connection to God is achieved most directly. The visitors to the holy shrines of the Ahlulbayt (as) do not come to pray to the Imams and nor do they pray to the shrines, they rather stand before them, look up to the heavens while touching any part of these beautiful and sanctified structures and say in their own individual manner, “oh god almighty, in the name of these pious beings that have been purified and sanctified and whom for you they have sacrificed everything of themselves in their name and in the name of the love you have for them please grant me my needs”.

May all those who seek the intercession of the great Imams with almighty God have the opportunity .to stand beneath and beside these miraculous domes and minarets respectively.