Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's Diaries - visit to the Holy Shrine of Fatima Masumeh (SA) in Qom:

Visit to the Holy Shrine of Fatima Masumeh (SA) in Qom:

I encountered a group of pilgrims who had returned from Karbala in the courtyard. Some of them gifted me the blessed cloths they had brought back.

After the prayer, I went to the shrine of Hazrat Masumeh (SA). The crowd of pilgrims expressed intense emotions. [Mr. Javad Fayez], the 30-year-old son of Mr. [Ali] Meshkini, [the head of the Assembly of Experts], who is a war veteran, was engaged in fervent prayer in a corner.

I inquired about him after Mr. Meshkini. They said that due to a war injury, half of his brain was damaged, and his worldly desires were diminished, leaving only his spiritual aspirations. He prays for about eight hours daily.

I also recited the Quran at the grave of the late Hajieh Valideh [Mah Bibi Safarian] and offered Fatiha at the grave of my brother, Haj Ghasem, in the large courtyard. In the courtyard, I encountered a group of pilgrims returning from Karbala. Several offered me the blessed cloths they had brought back, which I gratefully declined, asking them to keep them.

I visited the new cemetery, [located on Arak Street in Qom], to visit my late father's grave and offered Fatiha at the grave of the late Agha Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Marashi - my wife's father - in the Abu Hossein cemetery. On my return, I inspected the unfinished square in front of the shrine; unfortunately, it has been halted due to disagreements among officials.

During my presidency, I had allocated funds for a square similar to Imam Square in Isfahan to be built. In Qom, due to differences in taste and the multitude of power centers, such projects encounter difficulties.

I inspected the route from the shrine to the Haram. It was initiated during my tenure and during the Leader's visit to Qom, with the assistance and management of Tehran Municipality. A significant amount of property along the route was purchased and demolished.

However, the project was halted due to the problems faced by [Mr. Gholamhossein Karbaschi], the mayor of Tehran, causing significant problems and distress to the people living along the route. The plan is to connect the shrine of [Hazrat Masumeh (SA)] to Jamkaran. The city council also requested my intervention in their meeting last night, asking either for Tehran Municipality to complete the project or transfer it to Qom Municipality, along with its funding, or to take it over after completion.

Mr. [Ibrahim] Amini, [the second deputy speaker of the Assembly of Experts] visited. We had breakfast together and discussed the secretariat, the deliberations of the Assembly of Experts, and matters related to the [Qom] seminary. We had Assembly of Experts sessions in the morning and afternoon.

The presidium held a meeting in the evening. Engineers brought the blueprints for the Assembly of Experts building. We acquired a 10,000-square-meter plot of land from the estate of the late [Abolfazl] Tooli in the early years of the revolution for the Assembly of Experts, which has not been built yet. Some modifications were suggested to the proposal. Then, we decided to shorten the duration of the Assembly's session from five days to three days. I inquired about the well-being of my family in the evening. I was supposed to go to Tehran tonight, but I changed my mind.