What Does Imam al-Mahdi Expect From His Devotees  [1]

Muhammad al-Ya`qobi
Sha`ban 30, AH 1425

I implore the protection of God, the All-hearing and All-knowing, against Satan, the accursed.

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.

Praise be to Allah, Who has guided us to this. We could not truly have been led aright if Allah had not guided us. Verily the messengers of our Lord did bring the truth.

All blessings and peace be upon God’s most beloved one; namely, Muhammad, the well-chosen Prophet, and upon his Household, the pure and immaculate.

Throughout ages, the following question has been always asked:

What is the reason for the delay in the advent of Imam al-Mahdi to fill the earth with justice and equality, especially he is waiting more than any other being on this globe to be granted the divine permission to reappear and save humanity from perplexity, deviation from the right, confusion, and idol-worshipping and to redeem them from injustice, persecution, and deprivation? If every individual on this earth finds in his/her conscience an amount of rage and objection to injustice and feels enthusiastically that change must take place, Imam al-Mahdi’s heart is actually bursting of the totality of such feelings that are distributed among the hearts of all human beings, because it is a praiseworthy and positive feeling.

In our belief, the positive attribute of human beings, such as knowledge, mercy, and generosity, will be accumulated more forcefully in the age of the awaited immaculate Imam. If the issue is so, then what for is this expectation?

Usually, we used to answer that one of the conditions upon which the reappearance of the Awaited Imam is dependent is that the people must return to Islam and apply it to their lives and activities when they become convinced of the failure of all the earthly systems in governing them equitably and when they believe for certain that the only path to felicity and human perfection is the path of putting into practice the divine laws, especially in Iraq, the expected capital of Imam al-Mahdi’s global government and the starting point of his blessed movement. This condition is now actualized and the whole world has confessed that Islam and its scholars are commanding the Iraqi people. Moreover, even the secularists and atheists are now frequenting to the supreme religious authorities, seeking their advices, and avoiding any issue that may enrage or provoke them. To sum it up, this stage within the stages that pave the way to the reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi has been now actualized, apparently at least.

Then we moved to a new stage of education (on the culture of awaiting the Imam) and divine test (to see whether we deserve the blessings of the Imam or not), and claimed that the Awaited Imam wants Muslims to rise themselves to the degree of perfect self-sacrifice for their religion so that they would not show any shortcoming in carrying out any order addressed to them by the supreme religious authority (as an office) in its capacity as the leadership representing the Sinless Imam, even if such order would cost them to lose their lives. As an example, let us introduce the story of a man from Khorassan (a province northeast Persia) who asked Imam al-¯¡diq to move politically for eradicating the persecution of the tyrannical rulers from the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties and claimed that there were one hundred thousand soldiers in Khorassan who would help the Imam do this mission. Surprised by this suggestion, the Imam answered, “Are there really one hundred thousand swords in Khorassan ready to be unsheathed for my sake?” “Yes, there are.” answered the man of Khorassan and added, “There is twice as much as this number!” Examining this man and showing him the truth, the Imam asked his servants to fire up an oven and ordered the man to throw himself therein. Of course, the man refused. In the meantime, Ab£-H¡r£n, the blind, one of the Imam’s elite companions, entered. The Imam then asked AbuH¡run to throw himself there, and the latter immediately responded. The Imam then began asking the man of Khorassan many questions while he was astounded by Abo-H¡run’s act. Then the Imam asked him, “How many people do you have in Khorassan like this one?” The man answered, “In fact, son of God’s Messenger, we have none!”([2])

On behalf of you all, O enthusiastic, fervent youths who are full of faith from top to toe, and hard men who are ready to do what Abu-H¡ron, the faithful believer, had done, I will answer the Imam’s question to that man of Khorassan, “Yes, we do, son of God’s Messenger! There are thousands of youths who will most certainly gladden you whenever you ask them to do what Abu-H¡ron had done. Without doubt, these youths yearn for sacrificing their souls for your sake as eagerly as a baby yearns for his mother’s breast. We have tested their patience, steadfastness, and their honest loyalty to you when their brethren rather than their enemies launched against them social fires represented by acts of calumniation, defamation, revilement, false accusations, fabrications, and injurious speech, which incense mountains and is more burning than natural fire.([3]) Nevertheless, they acted patiently and increased nothing but faith and submission and they answered back by saying nothing more than ‘Peace!’ because they have always abided by the divine education.”

Let us go back to the question involved: What is the Imam waiting for?

As we are trying to answer this question and to show what the Awaited Imam is waiting for, we only intend to get to know our duty during this stage of occultation and the things we are responsible to do in order to pave the way and prepare ourselves for receiving the Imam’s blessed advent. Before that, it is necessary to have in mind that the abovementioned presentation of our nation’s fall to such lowly levels does not mean the end of the divine test and the closing of the file of these stages of education, since such feeling is considered the initial sign of failure and deterioration, because it entails self-conceit and self-esteem, while we are required to lean on serious action lest we cannot sustain the expected good results and we will fail to stop against any attempt of descent, retrogression, deviation, and loss of the situations of perfection to which the true faithful believers have actually reached through the help of God the Almighty and the sober efforts of advancement.

According to some traditions, man will see high standings in Paradise and wish if these were his. He will then be told that these standings were decided for him when he had practiced constantly certain acts of obedience to God, such as regular reading of a certain chapter of the Holy Qur'an, but when he missed this act, he lost this high standing.

The Holy Imams have warned us against Satan and against the soul that is prone to evil. These two elements keep on making acts of disobedience to God—in their vast meaning that entails negligence of acts of obedience to Him—appear desirable in the eyes of men until they depart life. With the present expansion and diversity of the means and tools of corruption and misleading, this process has become more effective.

This point must be taken into thorough consideration. When the people attain a certain rank of perfection, this must not exempt them from the liability of supervision on their acts and painstaking work towards keeping this rank and working hard towards what is more perfect. In athletic competitions, it is said that to keep up the first place is more difficult that winning it.

Back to the answer of the question, the new rank of education stands for the stage of awareness and construction—self-construction and social construction according to the divinely ordained laws. Unfortunately, the recent stage, which followed the collapse of the regime of Saddam the accursed, has shown the failure of the people in the test under which they were put. During this stage, such undesirable things like ignorance, naivety, fanaticism, drift to emotion and passivity in behavior, and missing the true leadership—all these things have led the masses to miss even the most obvious criteria of assessment. Likewise, the availability of opportunities to hold religious, social, political, and administrative positions played a big role in brining into sight the moral diseases that were hidden in the inner selves. This does not mean that such diseases were absent and those afflicted with them could get rid of them; rather, they had no chance to demonstrate them, but when they had an area to show these diseases, they did not tarry. Therefore, mutual envy, hatred, selfishness, appropriation, arrogance, and rupture of relations floated up to great extents, which exceeded the extents of committing the gravest acts of disobedience, which God has threatened Hellfire. As a result, we have noticed leaders of congregational prayers fall in the mire of telling lies, fabricating, defaming the true believers, and calumniating them. When the Islamists, who had been working for tens of years towards making Islam rule, could come to power, they have not enjoyed any Islamic feature and we cannot see any trace of Islamic morality in their deeds and they have not seized this opportunity to spread justice, help the deprived, remove injustice, and eliminate corruption; instead, they committed the same mistakes and had no concern but how to hold by their offices.

Owing to misconduct, compliance with worldly pleasures, and negligence of God the Almighty, great figures collapsed and the people have had to undergo confusion, inconstancy, and disorder, and the seditious matters would have been about to overthrow the great entity of this nation, which was constructed by the Holy Imams and the righteous scholars with their blood, efforts, struggle, and self-sacrifices had it not been for the divine grace and the blessing of the presence of a group of righteous and aware people who could fix up the posts and entity of the truth and save it from collapse, which were about to fall.

Dear people, although they are cruel, these are the lessons we should learn and study carefully in the present stage so that we can reach a healing treatment that would remove all obstacles that stop in the face of the Imam’s advent. Still, we have to face two more tests, or opportunities, through which we can prove our success and we can advance forward in the two tests of self-building and social building.

The first opportunity is the coming of the blessed month of Ramadan, which is indeed a great opportunity to attain self-perfection and seek nearness to God the Almighty. O brothers-in-faith, we have not been brought to this world in vain and our souls have not been descended from the Supreme World and put in our bodies so that we would descend lowlier; rather, the purpose is that we should rise high and ascend in the scale of perfection. God the Almighty has said, “I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. (51/56)”

In this holy verse, God states that the purpose behind creating these beings is that they should recognize and then worship Him for their own good, because He, the Almighty, is too All-independent to need His creatures. To achieve this purpose, He revealed to them a perfect, immortal constitution to guide them to the true guidance and sent to them a noble, compassionate, and merciful prophet and inerrant guiding leaders (i.e. the Holy Imams) to explain to them what has been revealed to them. However, God has already known that this is still not enough for the majority of His creatures to attain the high ranks, because their souls are feeble and prone to following their personal instincts and lusts and they would fail before the seductive matters. He therefore decided for them certain stations for accelerating this process of self-perfection. Then, he who makes use of these stations will find shortcuts leading to God the Almighty and, as a result, some of them may cover in one day a distance that is covered in one year by others. Some of these stations are pertaining to time, such as months of Ramad¡n, Thursday nights, Fridays, the nights of mid-Sha`b¡n, the `Arafah nights, the two `«d (feast) nights, and other significant days and nights of the year. Other stations are pertaining to place, such as mosques and holy shrines. Others are pertaining to certain acts, such as the gatherings of Muslims for performing the ritual Friday prayers, the congregational prayers, the sessions for commemorating Imam al-°usayn’s martyrdom, the rainfall, and the like.

All these events should be used in the most perfect way, such as perseverance in performing all the obligatory prayers congregationally in mosques, especially the Dawn (Fajr) Prayer. This act becomes easier during the month of Ramadan, because the believers are usually awake in this very time for having their early dawn meals and doing devotional acts.

A western researcher is reported to have said, “If you want to realize the real power of Muslims, you must watch their perseverance in performing the Dawn Prayers in mosques.”

All these stations can also be obtained through the sessions of remembering and supplicating God as well as the sessions of exhortation, guidance, and listening to the life accounts of the Ahl al-Bayt in order to learn lessons from them and feel sad for their misfortunes and through the devotional acts desirably performed during the month of Ramadan. Our righteous ancestors used to make a special schedule for performing the general acts of Ramadan as well as the other acts that are dedicated to the nights of this month in general, the last ten nights in specific, and the Qadr Nights more specifically so that they would be in a state of continuous remembering of God and awareness in every single hour of this month. For instance, the twenty-third night of this month has a list of general act (that are repeated everyday in Ramadan) and special acts that are performed during the last ten nights and the Qadr Nights.

They also used to pay much attention to the instructions of the Infallible Imams on the regulations of true fasting that make them win the moral results of the duty of fasting. They therefore used to focus on the Holy Prophet’s famous sermon delivered on the last Friday of Sha`b¡n as well as other instructions totally mentioned in the book entitled Maf¡th¦ al-Jinan, the books of the practical laws of Islam (Ris¡lah), the books on ethics, and the books comprising the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt.

The most important devotional act of Ramadan, however, is the recitation of the Holy Qur'an, because the month of Ramadan is the springtime of the Holy Qur'an in the same way as everything has its own springtime. It is thus recommended to recite the Holy Qur'an wholly in this month, beginning at the first day and ending at the last.

However, the more the Holy Quran is recited the more honor is granted by God in this world as well as the world to come. It is also recommended to say the supplicatory prayers (ad`iyah, sing. du`¡') with reflection on their actual and spiritual significances. In this respect, when one says the following statement that is quoted from one of the famous supplicatory prayers of Ramadan: “O God, please heal every ailed one!” It must be understood that all moral illnesses and mental vices that result in aloofness from God and stain hearts are included. As for this statement, “O God, please satiate every hungry one!” we must understand that every seeker of the truth, such as those who seek knowledge, true perception, insight, and guidance to the true path are included. Similarly, the statement that reads, “O God, please endow every poor one with wealth!” must be understood to mean the wealth of satisfaction, dispensing with all the created beings, and the real neediness to the All-rich God.

It is further recommended to act upon the supplicatory prayer known as Du`¡' al-Iftit¡¦, which is reported from Imam al-Mahdi, so as to recognize one’s actual state and one’s duty during the age of occultation. It is also highly recommended to perform any amount of the supererogatory prayers, such as the two-unit prayer before the Midday (Zuhr) Prayer or the Afternoon (`Asr) Prayer as well as the two-unit prayer known as ¯sal¡t al-Shaf` and the one-unit prayer of ¯sal¡t al-Witr that are performed at the last hour of night with the highly recommended supererogatory Night Prayer.

Other highly recommended acts to be practiced during this holy month can be summed up in the following points:

1. Working painstakingly towards helping the brothers-in-faith settle their needs.

2. Giving pleasure to them.

3. Helping the needy.

4. Alleviating the pains of the financially deprived ones.

5. Avoiding whatever act that may take away from God the Almighty and cause deprivation of His generous bestowals.

In this respect, a tradition says, “The truly unhappy one is he who is deprived of God’s forgiveness in this great month.”

More related details have been cited in my books entitled ‘Ramadan wa’l-`«d bayna A¦k¡m al-Shari`ah wa-Taq¡lid al-`Urf (Ramadan and the Feast Days between the Laws of Islam and the Traditions of Customs)’, ‘Shakw¡ al-Quran (The Quran Complains)’, ‘Shakw¡ al-Masjid (The Mosque Complains)’, ‘Shakw¡ al-Im¡m (The Imam Complains)’, and many others.

In this blessed month, we must supply ourselves with such big spiritual nourishment and doses of true faith that help us keep up our faith and abide by the course of the Holy Qur'¡n and the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt up to the next Ramadan. In this respect, the Holy Qur'¡n teaches us saying, “Make provision for yourselves, for the best provision is to ward off evil. (2/197)”

Such doses can be obtained from perseverance in doing devotional acts and self-monition. We must not be like those who, by the end of Ramadan, forget all the devotional and righteous deeds they used to do in this month and return to their former states. Unfortunately, on the `«d days, we notice some people falling in acts of disobedience to God during the celebrations, visitations, and ceremonies of these days.([4])

The second opportunity is the imminence of the date of the public elections in Iraq. The Iraqi people and their actual leadership expect these elections to be so free and fair that all the people will have the opportunity to participate without obstacles, extortions, terrorism, seduction, or forgery so that a legal government that is originated from the people’s will and choice will come to power and act as the foundation for regaining the freedom and independency of Iraq. This government is also expected to put an end to the occupation and to the showers of blood that is illegally shed every moment under ridiculous and unreasonable pretexts and claims.

These elections are important from many aspects, some of which will be cited in the following points:

1. They are expected to establish the future of new Iraq and set up the features of this future for such a long period that none can estimate except God, because they will be the foundation of writing the constitution of this country. Although we do not have any part in this constitution or we may not be able to write its paragraphs as suitable as required, this constitution can suppress any movement aimed for reforming the community, spreading virtue, and standing against vice and corruption-matters that can be currently seen in Turkey.

2. These elections will verify the affiliation of the Iraqi people and make clear their loyalty. If the people then want Islam to be the ruling authority, they will be able, through these elections, to express this will so frankly. Similarly, they, through the ballot boxes, can express their will to choose the Islamist parties that are supported and blessed by the supreme religious authority (marji`iyyah). All the constituents of the Iraqi people, including the minorities and the non-Muslim sects, have known for sure that the supreme religious authority has been the one and only honest and loving party that acts mercifully towards them, defends their rights, and objects to any act of persecution no matter who the source of it may be and upon whom it has been afflicted. In conclusion, the supreme religious authority is the safety valve of the unity of the Iraqi people and the spread of justice among them.

3. These elections will bring to power well-qualified, observant individuals who are known for their unspoiled behavior and who work sincerely towards constructing this country and improving the conditions of its people. The achievement of this goal is dependent upon the amount of our efforts in convincing such loyal individuals to stand as candidates and in convincing the masses to vote for and support them.

From this duty, the following further duties are ramified:

A. The people must be made aware of the necessity of their participation in the elections, especially after the supreme religious authority has issued a verdict making it obligatory upon the masses to participate in these elections and arrange for all the introductory steps, such as registering their names in the voters’ lists, preparing all the required documents, and preventing any act that may hinder these elections. I was the first religious authority to declare this duty in Statement No. 60 within the series of the Speech of the Stage more than a month ago. The people are required to realize the meaning of ‘obligatory’ when it is issued by a religious authority. To explain, this means that carrying out this matter is a religious duty that it is forbidden to neglect, and it is as obligatory as performing the ritual prayers and observing the ritual fasting. If truth be told, this issue may be more important than prayers and fasting, because these devotional duties are individual, in the sense that they identify the relationship between an individual and his/her Creator, while participating in the elections identifies the destiny of the country and its people.([5])

This call must be conveyed to everyone by the religious orators, propagandists, educated people, and the devout youths, because a big section of our people live in the countryside and in the deserts and they lack a sufficient cultural level that may qualify them to understand the purport of these verdicts. Therefore, it is inevitable to undertake a widespread campaign including every one who is able to participate, making use of the month of Ramadan, because in this month, the sessions of religious sermons, guidance, and instructions reach their climax.

B. Considerable efforts must be exerted for convincing the devout, honest, and well-qualified individuals who intend good for all people to stand as candidates, declare their capacities, and introduce themselves to the people in order to elect them for the governmental offices.

C. People must be warned against the other bodies that work towards gaining their votes by means of seduction and threat while they neither benefit nor work for the good of people; rather, they only seek to gain personal interests and the interests of the parties that support them.

D. The politicians and those concerned in politics must be invited to arrange for an election list including the names of the honest individuals. Entitlements must be distributed in these lists fairly so that the supreme religious authority will nominate and support them after they make all possible covenants and assure that they will comply with the higher human goals and principles in the event that they win the elections.

Our excessive interest in these elections has not been originated from our confidence and credibility of the promises made by those in charge of these elections; rather, this is our religious duty that is aimed at releasing ourselves from this responsibility towards God the Almighty and using every possible means to give back the right to its people and keep up the unity, independence, and liberty of Iraq and its people and to make justice rule in this country.

This is one of our duties that comes from our major duty of paving the way for the global government of the Awaited Imam, because we know for sure that the expected government will be founded on the principle of distributing the entitlements among their most qualified people and putting the proper person in the proper place without comity or flattery. We also know for sure that the Awaited Imam will not establish his government using miraculous means, power of weapons, devastation, decapitation, or annihilation of everything that may stop in his face like what the terrorists are doing these days in order to deform Islam and make humankind refuse every Muslim reformist. The fact in which we believe is that the Awaited Imam will follow the course of his grandfather, the Holy Prophet, who began his blessed promulgation for Islam alone. Then, the immaculate people of sound hearts and profound perspicacity believed in him, obtained illumination from him, and gave credence to him. His promulgation therefore spread so vastly that it reached every area on this globe and even the most insolent and arrogant powers could not stop in his face. Personally, the Holy Prophet did not carry any weapon even in the most critical situations. When his companions were defeated in the Battle of U¦ud and he was surrounded by his polytheist enemies, he did not have any weapon to defend himself against them; therefore, they wounded him and shed his blood. The only one who defended him was Imam `Ali. Because he was sent as mercy to all beings, including his enemies, the Holy Prophet did not kill any individual. He was verily the best example of God’s mercy that has covered all beings. Imam al-Mahdi is in fact the son of this great Prophet, the reviver of his traditions, and the follower of his course.

Finally, I beseech God the Almighty to include you and me with the supporters of Imam al-Mahdi and those who pave the way for his blessed government, to include us with the best of His creatures who receive this holy month, to decide for us a share of what He decides for His righteous servants, to lead us to what He has led Muh¦ammad and his Household to, and to release us from Hellfire out of His forgiveness and amnesty. He is indeed All-forgiving, All-merciful, All-clement, and All-noble. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and His blessings be upon Muhammad and his immaculate Household.

[1] A statement addressed by His Eminence Sheikh al-Yaqoobi on the occasion of the arrival of the blessed month of Ramadan and the oncoming of the next elections.

[2] For more details, refer to Dawr al-A'immah fi’l-°ay¡t al-Isl¡miyyah (The Imams’ Role in the Islamic Life) by Ayatollah Muhammad al-Yaqoobi.

[3] These words were said by our mentor, Martyr Sayyid al-Sadr in one of his meetings with the students of the al-Sadr University of Religious Studies in Jumada II, AH 1419 and some parts of this discourse were published in the book entitled ‘J¡mi`at al-¯adr al-D¢niyyah al-Hawiyyah wa’l-Inj¡z¡t (Al-Sadr University of Religious Studies: Identity and Achievements)’.

[4] For more details, refer to our instruction entitled ‘Our result in Ramadan and the `«d Days’ published in the book of ‘Min Waly al-Mun¡sab¡t (Inspirations of the Celebrated Occasions)’.

[5] Further details of this point can be referred to in Statement No. 55 of the Speech of the Stage entitled ‘Political Practice; A Religious Duty’.

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