The Awaited Imam, The
Living Hujjah
The Holy Prophet [s]
said: "The person who dies and has not known the Imam of his time (Imam
Mahdi [a] is that of the present time) has died the same as one who died
during the Age of Ignorance."
Musnad-i-Ahmad-ibn-Hanbal, vol. 2, p. 83; vol. 3, p. 446 & vol. 4, p.
96: Sahih-i-Bukhari, vol. 5, p. 13 & Sahih-i-Muslim vol. 6, p. 21,
No.1849
Who is the Imam Mahdi that the Holy Prophet is talking about? Do we know
who our Imam is? What exactly is an Imam? An Imam literally means a
leader or someone who guides. Imams can be of three types: The Imam who
leads prayers, the political Imam and the other one is an Imam for
mankind. The third definition is what is going to be our main topic.
Allah (swt) sends down prophets to guide the people to the straight
path. Each prophet was given a task that is to preach the oneness of
God, to maintain law and order in humanity. And the prophets may provide
rules and regulations for the people to observe this humanity.
When the last prophet, Nabi Muhammad (saw) was sent down, the religion
was make complete, there isn’t a need for another prophet to come down
for it is completed. So where do the Imams come into the picture? After
the Holy prophet's demise, there is a need to make sure that Islam
remains protected and secure and that it is spread around to those who
haven’t heard of it. And for this task, there is a need to have trusted
people who can do this job well and they are the Imams.
There are 12 Imams in the line of the imamate and Imam Mahdi (the Guided
one) is the twelfth Imam. There are many titles attributed to him that
includes Al Muntazar (the awaited one), Sahibuz Zaman (the Lord of the
Age), Al Qaim etc. The proof that Imam Mahdi (as) exists can be referred
from the Holy Quran and the ahadeeth:
Yet We desired to
be gracious to those who were abased in the land, and to make them
leaders, and to make them the inheritors. (28:4)
For We have
written in the Psalms, after the Remembrance, 'The earth shall be the
inheritance of My righteous servants.' (21:105)
Abdullah Ibne Masood quotes
the Holy Prophet as having said:
" Even when the entire time of the world’s
existence will have been already exhausted and one solitary day left to
embrace the eve of Doomsday, God will expand and make that very day
swell to such a length of time as to accommodate the ultimate reign of a
person out of my holy progeny who will be called after my name. He will
then make the earth abound with peace and justice as it will have been
fraught with the injustice and tyranny before him."
He was born on 256 AH in Samarra, Iraq. His father is Imam Hasan
Al-Askari (as), the eleventh Imam and his mother is Bibi Nargis Khatoon
(as).
The birth of the last Imam
was kept in top secret because the authorities from the Abbasid regime
are out to kill him. The reason was because they do not want another
Imam that would topple their kingdom, nor give rulings and laws that
would make their life uncomfortable. But the Imam was given divine
protection and by Allah's will, he went into a minor occultation (Al-Ghayba
Al-Sughra) on the 8th Shaban, 260 A.H. (872 A.D.) when he was
five and he went into another occultation, the greater occultation,
(Al-Ghayba Al-Kubra) which took place
on 10 Shawwal, 329 A.H. (939 A.D.) The Holy
Imam (as) will reappear during the end of the world where he would fill
the earth with justice and equity after it being filled with injustice
and oppression.
May Allah SWT hasten the
reappearance of the Awaited Imam (as)! |