A very auspicious day

Today is the 9th of the month of Rabi al-Awwal, and we are not felicitating to you on the execution of the perpetrator of the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, Omar ibn Sa’d, who was brought to justice on this day by his own brother-in-law Mokhtar ibn Abu Obayda.

Although the meting out of the capital punishment to the killer of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), is indeed an occasion to rejoice, our celebrations this day is for a more spiritual occasion. It is the start of the Imamate of the Prophet’s Twelfth and Last Infallible Heir, Imam Mahdi (AS), who is currently in occultation, and will reappear in the end times to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. So listen to a special feature on this blessed day.

 “And We desired to show favour to those who were abased in the land, and to make them Imams, and to make them the Heirs;”

What you hear was ayah 5 of Surah al-Qasas of the holy Qur’an. It is a reference to the Divine commitment to salvage humanity by granting the deserving status of the leadership of mankind to those whom the tyrants had oppressed and tried to sideline. God’s promise is true. Whatever the arrogant and the ignorant do, with all their material and military power, they cannot belie it. Today, the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Omayyads, the Abbasids, the Ottomans, the British and all other empire-builders have long vanished from the world scene. Soon, tomorrow, it will be the turn of the United States of America – so far the most satanic of world powers – which is all poised to fall into the dustbin of history, despite its arsenal of doomsday weapon and its monopolization of global economy.

According to Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the Gateway of the City of Wisdom and Knowledge, the above cited ayah that God Almighty revealed to His Last and Greatest Messenger, refers to the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), whose rights were usurped and the day will come when the 12^th and Last Infallible Heir of the Seal of Messengers, will appear to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.

Yesterday, on the 8^th of Rabi al-Awwal we commemorated the martyrdom of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the Prophet’s 11^th Infallible Heir, who was forced to leave the world in the prime of his youth, at the age of 28 years, through a fatal dose of poison administered on the orders of the arrogantly ignorant Mu’tamid, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. The head of the superpower of those days then launched a manhunt in vain for the son of his victim, on learning that the Prophet’s 12^th Heir, the Promised Mahdi al-Qa’em, who would rid Planet Earth of corruption and oppression and whose birth he had tried to prevent, was already born. Unable to find any trace of the 5-year old orphan and deeming him too weak to pose any danger to their rule, since his mother had predeceased his father and his uncle Ja’far was also against him, the Abbasids continued their misrule of sins, corruption and oppression for a few more centuries, until another bloodthirsty tyrant, the Mongol Marauder Hulaku Khan, thrust the so-called caliph into several sacks and trampled him under the hooves of horses. 

As for the boy-Imam, God Almighty – Who had given wisdom to Yayha (or John the Baptist) while still a mere child and entrusted prophethood and the scripture to the infant Jesus with the miraculous power to speak from the cradle when the Israelis tried to slander his virgin mother, Mary – ensured that Imam Mahdi (AS) grows into youth and manhood during the Minor Occultation (Ghaybat as-Sughra). After this period of some seventy years started the lengthy period of the Major Occultation (Ghaybat al-Kubra), despite which the Imam of the Age continues to guide the faithful all the time, like the resplendent sun on cloudy days.

Over a century before the birth of Imam Mahdi (AS), the Prophet’s 6^th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (AS), was expounding to a group of faithful the hadith “the earth has not been devoid of a representative of God, since God created Adam; a representative that was either visible and well-known or invisible and concealed. (Likewise) The earth will not remain devoid of such a representative of God till the occurrence of the Hour (Doomsday), for if it were to remain without God’s representative, then God would not be worshipped!”

A person asked: So how does mankind benefit from an invisible and hidden representative?

The 6^th Imam replied: “Just as they benefit from the sun when the clouds hide it!”

In the light of this interesting discussion, it is crystal clear today that for the past 1178 lunar years, the devotees of the Ahl al-Bayt have continued to benefit from the presence of the Imam of the Age, while eagerly awaiting his reappearance for materialization of God’s promise to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. So firm has been their faith that they have not just weathered the storms of seditions generated by the enemies of Islam and humanity, such as the modern day Wahhabis and Takfiris, but have spread the liberating ideology of God’s promise to make the weak inheritors of the earth when the promised Redeemer of mankind reappears – as is evident by the tens of millions of Nigerians who have become devout followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt with readiness to face oppression and martyrdom.

It is interesting to note that once Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) once said to his divinely-designated vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS):

"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 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."

Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) explaining this hadith has said:

The "black upon white" means the writings on paper. It means that these people will believe in the Qur’an and the sunnah as recorded in the books, even though they may not see their Imam.

The 6^th Imam has also said:

"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."

AS/SS