Qualitative analysis of the effect of Coronavirus outbreak on pilgrimage patterns in the holy shrine of Imam Reza

Social phenomena are so complex that one cannot gain an understanding of all their aspects by a specific approach or a single discipline. Turning to pilgrimage action when there is the possibility of catching a dangerous disease before, during, and after the pilgrimage, the study of such phenomena requires taking a deep interdisciplinary and qualitative approach. With the prevalence of Coronavirus in Iran as a Muslim country, there are controversies over the conflict of observing hygienic rules or performing religious rites, especially regarding the presence of the Imams in the shrines. To investigate the effect of coronavirus outbreak on the rites of pilgrimage to the Imam Reza shrine via a qualitative approach and content analysis method. Accordingly, 46 pilgrims to the Imam Reza shrine were interviewed to investigate the reasons for their presence in these special circumstances and examine their pilgrimage methods to the Razavi shrine. The findings show that four categories of pilgrimage justification styles were obtained in the mental dimension, which include traditional-devotional, mitigation-denial, compulsion-imitation, and rational styles. These four styles are distinguished from each other based on the degree of attention paid to the earthly matter (i.e., the disease and its seriousness).