Ibn Qulawayh narrates from Muhammad Ibn Ja’far al-Qurashi al-Razzaaz from Muhammad Ibn Husain Ibn Abi al-Khattaab from Abu Saeed from some of his people from Abu al-Jaarood that Imam Ali Ibn al-Husain viz. Zain al-Aabideen (a.s.) who said:
Allah made the land of Karbala a sanctuary, a place of amnesty, and a blessed land, 24000 years before He created the Holy Kaaba and made it a sanctuary. When Allah, Blessed and High be He, will send earthquake upon this earth and will destroy it (i.e., when the Day of Judgment will arrive), then this land – i.e., Karbala al-Moalla – will be raised as-is along with its soil in a condition wherein it will be shining with light and purity. Then, it will be placed among the best gardens of Paradise and will be the best of all abodes. None will stay in it except Prophets and Messengers or the Ulul Azm Prophets. This land of Karbala will shine among the other gardens of Paradise just like the brightest of all stars in the sky shines for the people of the earth. Its light will bedazzle the people of Paradise and the land of Karbala will call out, “I am the holy, pure and blessed land of Allah to whom the body of the Chief of the Martyrs and the Chief of the youths of Paradise was entrusted.”
[Kaamil al-Ziyaaraat, chapter 88, p. 268, H. 5]
From this tradition of Imam Sajjad (a.s.) it is absolutely clear that no other land can be compared to the holy land of Karbala. Not even the Holy Kaaba – which Allah chose for His House, declared it as His sanctuary, a Qibla, and commanded all Muslims to prostrate in its direction. It also has its merits and excellence but 24000 years after the land of Karbala al-Moalla.
May Allah grant us the opportunity to witness the day when the grandson of Imam Husain (a.s.), the Imam of our time, His Eminence Imam Mahdi (a.t.f.s.), rests against the wall of the Holy Kaaba, faces the land of Karbala, narrates the oppressions which befell his grandfather Imam Husain (a.s.) and we would be with him.
Aameen, O Lord of the Worlds!