HOLY QOM, Iran: Anniversary of inauguration of the famous Jamkran mosque was held with prayers and enthusiasm during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Jamkaran Mosque in Jamkaran, Iran (on the outskirts of Qom) is a popular pilgrimage site. Locals believe that the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi (p), twelfth Imam from the progeny of Prophet Muhammad (p) once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran.

The mosque, six kilometres east of Qom, has long been a sacred place, at least since 373 A.H., 17th of Ramadan (22 February 984 C.E.), when according to the mosque website, one Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani is reported to have met Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi along with the prophet Al-Khidr. Jamkarani was instructed that the land they were on was "noble" and that the owner — Hasan bin Muslim — was to cease cultivating it and finance the building of a mosque on this sacred land from the earnings he had accumulated from farming the land.

Sometime in decade of 1995-2005, the mosque's reputation spread, and many pilgrims, particularly young people began to come to it. In the rear of the mosque there is a "well of requests" where it is believed the Twelfth Imam once "became miraculously unhidden for a brief shining moment of loving communion with his Creator." Pilgrims tie small strings in a knot around the grids covering the holy well, which they hope will be received by the Imam Mahdi. Every morning custodians cut off the strings from the previous day.