Hasten O Promised Saviour

Heartiest congratulations to you all on a very auspicious day when the hopes of believers throughout the world are refreshed anew for God’s Promise of the Coming of the Redeemer for deliverance of mankind from oppression, and which day is rightfully celebrated in the Islamic Republic of Iran as Day of the Oppressed.

Before we begin our special article on the blessed 15^th of the month of Sha’ban, titled: “Hasten O Promised Saviour”, we invite you to listen to or read ayah 105 of Surah Anbiya of the holy Qur’an, where God Almighty reminds the believers:

“Certainly, We had written in the Psalms, after the Reminder (Torah); Indeed My righteous servants shall inherit the earth."

The words of the ayah which you heard, are self-explanatory. They refer to the Divine Promise to make the faithful the eventual victors and inheritors of Planet Earth, which for millenniums has been wantonly looted of its rich natural resources by oppressors all over the globe, who subjected fellow humans to untold oppression and injustice – the number one enemies of humanity in our own times, are the devils in human forms, such as Takfiri terrorists, the Zionists led by the racist killer of innocent children, Benjamin Netanyahu, MBS of the British created spurious state called Saudi Arabia who is slaughtering the Yemeni Muslims with gay abandon, and last but not the least, Donald Trump of the US, Lucifer’s own misbegotten megalomaniac.

God Almighty had sent a long line of Prophets to guide mankind ever since the creation of the first pair of humans – Adam and Eve – in all parts of this wide Earth and in every age (to triumph over the likes of such tyrants as Nimrod, Pharaoh, Haman, Herod, and Abu Jahl), culminating with the universal message of Islam entrusted to the Last and Greatest of Messengers, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).

As the Mercy unto the Creation, the Seal of Divine Messengers excellently accomplished his mission, and since the end times were still away and there were more trials and tribulations in store for humanity, especially for Muslims, at the hands of Chengiz Khan and the colonial powers, on God’s commandments he explained every minute matter in detail before his departure from the mortal world so that the ummah could avoid the fate that befell the nations of the past.

Among his admonishments was his exhorting of his companions to hold fast to the Thaqalayn (Two Weighty Things), that is, the Book of God – the holy Qur’an – and his progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt. He told them in explicit words that Muslims will never go astray if they follow his instructions, because the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt are inseparable from each other.

Did the Muslims follow the instructions of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA)?

The answer is obvious: Some did, while many of them did not, otherwise the Ahl al-Bayt would not have been deprived of their right of political leadership of the Ummah. The All-Wise God, aware of such sedition and the seditionists, who would violate their own oaths of allegiance to Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), sworn so ardently at Ghadeer-Khom on 18^th Zilhijja, 10 AH, following the Prophet’s proclamation of his cousin and son-in-law as vicegerent, decreed that the Redeemer of the human race, will have to wait till the end times to reappear and fill the earth with justice, although he would be born in the full limelight of history on the 15^th of Sha’ban in the year 255 AH (corresponding to the year 869 AD), to the Prophet’s 11^th Infallible Successor, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), in the city of Samarra, in Iraq.

Irrespective of the frequent manhunts launched by the self-styled caliphs of the usurper Abbasid regime to try to locate and destroy the Prophet’s 12^th and Last Successor, let us go through some hadith in both Shi’ite and Sunni sources concerning the rising of Imam Mahdi al-Qa’em (AS), whose reappearance we are eagerly waiting, no matter if the tyrants of our age deny him and seethe with anger at the mention of his name, impose sanctions on his steadfast followers, and try to label these highly humanitarian persons and organisations as ‘terrorists’, just like the vanishing breed of the Abbasids did.

The words of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), found in the authentic hadith books of the Sunnis and Shi’as alike, are a firm refutation of the claims of those who deny the coming of the Mahdi and of those who allege that he has not yet been born and would be born in the end times.

For instance, in the book “Fara’ed as-Samtayn”, a famous hadith through Sunni sources reads:

“The Prophet said: "My Caliphs are my legatees and the proofs of Allah upon the creatures; after me they are Twelve. The first of them is my brother and the last of them is my (grand)son."

He was asked:"0 Prophet of Allah, which brother of yours"

He replied: “Ali Ibn Abi Talib"

Again he was asked: "And which (grand)son?"

He said: "Al-Mahdi is the one who will fill the earth with justice and equity just like it had been filled with injustice and tyranny. I swear by the one who has sent me as the giver of good tidings, even if a single day were to remain for the world (to end), Allah shall prolong that day till he sends (to it) my son Mahdi. Then Ruhollah Jesus son of Mary will descend and perform prayers behind him. The earth shall be illuminated by his radiance and his authority shall stretch from the east to the west."

Abu Dawoud, the compiler of the one of the six authentic collections of hadith revered by our Sunni brethren, quotes the Prophet in volume 4 of his “Sunan”:

“Even if a single day remains for the Day of Judgment, Allah will send a man from my Ahl al-Bayt. He will fill the earth with justice just like it is filled with tyranny."

In the book “Ikmaal ad-Din”, compiled by the famous Iranian Jurist Shaikh Sadouq over a thousand years ago, we come across the following hadith from the Prophet:

"O Ali, know that the strangest of the people of faith and the greatest of them in certainty are those people who will be in the end times. They will not meet the Prophet. And their Imam will be hidden from them. But they will believe (only) due to black upon white.”

The Prophet’s 6^th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) explaining this hadith says:

“The “black upon white” means the writings on paper. It means that these people will believe in the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the Prophet’s practice) as recorded in the books, even though they may not see their Imam.”

The 6^th Imam further says:

“When the Qa’em shall arise, he will rule with justice, the tyrants of his time shall fear him, the righteous will be safe, the earth shall reveal its treasures, all the truth-seekers will seek his company and no follower of any religion would remain except that they see Islam and declare their faith in it.”

The identity of the Saviour of mankind ought to be crystal clear now. He is the Awaited One, whose tidings were given by Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), who said in unambiguous words that the Mahdi will be from his progeny, the offspring of his Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), and in the lineal descent of his younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS) – the Martyr of Karbala.

Every year, the 15^th of Sha’ban makes the seekers of truth become better aware of the identity of the eagerly awaited Saviour of mankind, the Promised Mahdi. He was born in Samarra in the year 255 AH to Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) – the Prophet’s 11^th Infallible Heir, while his mother was Narjis, a noble Byzantine princess who from her mother’s side was a direct descendent of Simeon, the loyal disciple of Prophet Jesus (AS).

Now we understand why God will make Prophet Jesus (AS) reappear along with Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWA) 12^th and Last Heir to disown all those who had made him a Godson. 

Today, when cannibalistic terrorists of all hue and colour are masquerading as Jihadis on the orders of their Zionist, American, and Wahhabi masters, by indulging in the most heinous crimes against humanity on the pretext of setting up what they call a caliphate, it is only belief in Imam Mahdi (AS) and his global government of peace, prosperity, and justice that keeps alive the hopes of Muslims in these tyrannical times.

The triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 was indeed a sign of the coming of the Promised Saviour, and so are the current events in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere, coupled with the acute desperation of the fast declining American empire, definite indications that it is only Imam Mahdi who will shatter these plots by cleansing Hijaz of the filth of the Salafi heretics, and peacefully inviting all humanity towards the straight and unwavering path of God with love and affection.

The faithful throughout the world on this day pray fervently for the hastening of the reappearance of the Awaited Saviour of mankind. So, let us raise our hands and beseech God to hasten his reappearance by reciting the following supplication: 

“O Allah, for the sake of this night and for the sake of him who was born on it, Your testament and the Promised Saviour (by virtue of whose birth) You have added to its merit, thus fulfilling Your word, truly and justly: there is none who can change Your words or repeal Your signs. He is Your brilliant light, Your shining radiance, the banner of light in the pitch dark night, who is concealed and in occultation. Exalted is his birthday and honoured is his lineage.”

AS/ME