The Sala ritual has been held annually for over three centuries just after the beginning of Muharram – the first month of the Islamic calendar – to mourn for Imam Hussein (AS).
The ritual symbolically is held to get permission from the eighth Shia Imam to mourn for Imam Hussein – the third Imam of Shia Muslims.
During the ritual, the eulogists and servants of the Imam Reza shrine move across the holy shrine chanting “Hussein, Hussein” and eulogizing the third Imam.
Also, during a ceremony held a day earlier, a black flag was raised on the dome of the Imam Reza shrine to make the holy shrine ready for holding the Izn Aza ritual.
Izn Aza is a ceremony in which servants ask for Imam Reza’s permission to start a 10-day mourning period for Imam Hussein (AS) and his companions who were martyred in 680 AD in Iraq’s Karbala.
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