During my stay in Najaf al-Ashraf in Muharram 1358 A.H., flagellating, chest beati ng and taking out of processions was banned by the Iraqi government. On Ashura night, in order to ensure that there is no chest beating in the holy mausoleum, the holy sanctuary and compound were closed since early evening and all the doors were locked. The door being closed last was Baab Qibla. They had closed one flap when suddenly a chest beating group crowded and entered the compound and turned to the holy sanctuary and finding it closed continued their rituals in the compound itself.

Some policemen arrived and an officer in long boots entered the hall and ordered the constables to arrest the chest-beati ng men. Members of the group surrounded him and threw him into the compound; then they beat him up badly, but when they reali zed that it was possible that they would use their official position to harass and take revenge, they looked at the door of the tomb with utter helplessness and humility and said:

O Ali, open the door. We are mourners of your son.

Thus, in one moment all the doors of the sanctuary, passage and the compound opened. Some reliable gentlemen present there, narrated to me the eye witness account. The iron hinges automatically separated from the walls and chest-beating groups immediately entered the tomb. When other residents of Najaf al-Ashraf learned of this, they also gathered in the compound and the policemen disappeared.

When this incident was reported to Baghdad, order was issued that the Shia must not be restrained. That year, in Najaf al-Ashraf and Karbala, the rituals of mourning were performed with more fervor and the poets recounted that miracle in their poems. A prominent Arab gentleman had the couplets inscribed on a plate and fixed it to the shrine. I memorized some of those couplets immediately.

The last couplet said: The fact is that if His Eminence, Amir ul-Mu’minin ('a) had not made this bestowal, a great mischief would have occurred and there would have been a lot of bloodshed.