Mosque and Gaar Imam-e-Zamana, Hazrat Imam Mehdi (A.S.) (Lucknow) | shrine

 mosque, shrine

This is the replica of the Imam Mehdi Mosque at Sammara, Iraq.
Ghaarwali Karbala was erected by Malika Afaq Sahiba who was the wife of third king of Awadh Muhammad Ali Shah Bahadur (1837-42) -the builder of famous Chota Imambara and creator of the endowment that later on came to be known as Husainabad trust. The queen built the shrine under her personal supervision on a sprawling complex near Shia Degree College in Daliganj area. She built an Imambara on one portion of Karbala and erected Rauza-e-Askarein in the sacred memory of Imam Ali Naqi (a.s.) (10th Imam) and Imam Hasan Askari (a.s.) (11th Imam) on another part. After Malika’s death, the custody of shrine was passed to her son in-law Nawab Sir Mohsinuddaula Bahadur and thereafter in the hands of Mirza Ali Qadar. It also remained under the custody of Almaroof Wazir Begum, the daughter of Nawab Sir Mohsinuddaula Bahadur. In 1921, she however handed it over to Husainabad Trust for its upkeep and maintenance.
The trust however remained somewhat indifferent to the shrine and a large part of the shrine caved in and anti-social elements grabbed it.
The original shrine is situated in the modern city of Samarra on the bank of the river Tigris about 100 kms from Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The shrine marks the place where Imam Mehndi (a.s.) (12th Imam) went into concealment. It has a dome that is decorated with blue tiles, and beneath it is the Sardab (cellar) from where the Imam is believed to have disappeared. Devotees perform the Ziarat of Sardab by a flight of stairs.
Ghaarwali Karbala also has the similar pattern and devotees enter cave by the flight of stairs. Arrangement for holding Majlises has also been made by erecting a hall over the cave but the old Imambara is in a state of utter neglect even today