Recognizing the Imam of Our Time is Every Muslim's Duty

No pretender can ever qualify as The Imam of The Time and Hujjah of The Almighty on Earth if he was not named by The Prophet SAWW. Several lists were made of Twelve Caliphs after The Prophet SAWW and none, except one of The Twelver Shi’a, could list only the Twelve Imams. Look at the Umayyad Caliphs and Abbasid Caliphs. They do not come to twelve and they include drunkards, gamblers, womanizers, blood-spillers, fools and donkeys.

If these are the guardians of religion after The Prophet SAWW, then is it a wonder that Islam has become so strange today? Everyone seems to pose as a leader and impose his brand of thinking upon everyone and pass it as Islam, so much so that the original message of Islam as The Prophet SAWW conveyed it is being lost. One reason is that Muslims at large have ignored The Prophet Saw’s hadith accepted by all Muslims that “One who dies without recognizing the Imam of his time dies the death of a pagan”. This means that unless one recognizes the real Imam, he will not know Al-Islam and will die like a pagan.

Eleven Imams came to this world one after another. They preserved and propagated the message of The Prophet SAWW and thus became a threat to the usurpers who tortured and killed each of the eleven Imams. Attempts were made to kill the Twelfth Imam AFS too because the caliphs were aware of the hadith of The Prophet SAWW that a person from his progeny would bring an end to injustice and oppression and fill the earth with justice and equity. This person is Imam Mahdi AFS from the progeny of The Prophet SAWW. Thus, like the pharaoh who sought to kill Moses who would bring him to his knees, these caliphs sought to kill Imam Mahdi AFS. So, Allah SWT sent him into ghaybah (occultation).

This occultation is not wishful thinking of the Shi’a, nor an unexpected phenomenon; rather, it was foretold by Imam Ali AS and other Aimmah of the Ahlul Bayt AS. Books were written and poems composed on ghaybah long before the birth of Imam Mahdi AFS. The famous poet of As-Sayyid Ibn Muhammad al-Himyari, who composed his poem one hundred fifty years before the ghaybah, in the days of Imam Ja’far Al-Sadiq AS, is one evidence. Himyari was born of Ibadi Sunni parents in 150 AH and became a Shi’a in his childhood. In the beginning he followed the Kaisaniyyah belief that Muhammad Al-Hanafiyyah, the son of Imam Ali AS, was in ghaybah and he would be the Awaited Qaim who would rise as prophesied by The Prophet SAWW, until he met Imam Al-Sadiq AS. The Imam AS gave him clear proofs about real Imam Mahdi AFS and Himyari left the Kaisaniyyah sect and became the follower of Haqq and Iman.Of course, as The Prophet SAWW declared Imam Ali AS was the embodiment of Haqq and Iman: “Al Haqqu Ma’a Aliyyin wa Aliyyin ma’ alHaqq” (The Truth is with Ali and Ali is with the Truth) and in the battle of Khaybar: “Barazal Imani Kullihi alaa Kufri Kullihi.”(Complete Faith is pursuing complete Non-belief). were endorsed by the great Sheikh Mufid (AR), commenting upon Sayyid Himyari’s words: “…That the Master of the affair (Sahibul Amr), and The Qaim towards whom my soul aspires jubilantly Shall have a ghaybah, it is necessary (for him) to disappear in that seclusion-May Allah then have His blessings on him, the hidden one.”, says: “Look at the declaration of as-Sayyid (the name by which Himyari was popularly known) which clearly mentions the ghaybah. How could he say it (in a such a definite manner) had he not heard it from his Imams AS and his Imams AS heard it from The Prophet SAWW. Otherwise, how was it possible for a speaker to foretell something and that thing happens exactly as portended without a single letter going wrong?” In this context, and bearing in mind the wanton destruction of Shi’a libraries from fourth century hijra onwards (When Sheikh Tusi’s libraries were burned down several times) to the present decade when the Israeli occupying forces burned down the library of the Late Allamah As-Sayyid Muhsin Al-Amini al-‘Amili in South Lebanon. These libraries housed rare manuscripts that have been lost to the world forever, as-Sayyid’s lines are enough to show that ghaybah of Imam Mahdi AFS was foretold by The Prophet SAWW and the Aimmah AS, especially as as-Sayyid mentioned that it was Imam Ja’far Al-Sadiq who had told him about Al-Qaim and his ghaybah.

However, there is a corroborative hadith also from Imam al-Muttaqqueen, Amirul Mu.mineen Ali ibni Abi Talib AS. This hadith is narrated by both Shi’a and Sunni and is reported by Kumayl ibn Ziyad) of the Du’a Kumayl fame). Kumayl narrates how he once came upon Imam Ali AS and found him scratching the ground. Kumayl asked the Imam AS the reason and the Imam AS replied…. “I was thinking of the ninth from the progeny of Husayn (AS). He is the one who will fill the earth with equity and justice, as it would have been filled with injustice and oppression. There will be for him a ghaybah during which liars will cast doubts (upon his existence). O Kumayl son of Ziyad, it is essential for the earth to have a Hujjah, either manifest with well-known personality, or hidden (and) unknown so that the Hujaj are not discontinued.”

There are also historical developments that corroborate those traditions (regards ghaybah). When our Seventh Imam, Hadhrat Imam Musa ibni Ja’far AS was poisoned by Haroon after a long incarceration, a huge sum of money (Khums) had been collected by and lying with his agents in various places. Some of these dishonest agents expropriated the money for personal use and when Imam Ali Al-Ridha AS demanded that they remit the money to him, they were caught in a dilemma. They found an easy way out. They denied that Imam Al-Kadhim AS had died and claimed that he had gone into ghaybah and that according to ahadith of the previous Aimmah AS he was the Mahdi who will reappear. This was the origin of the Waqifah sect. The scholars of this sect began to write books on ghaybah to try and apply the ahadith of the previous Imams AS to suit their erroneous thinking, just as the Wahabbi/Salafis and other misguided people do today. These books have been listed in Sheikh Al-Mufid’s al-Fihrist (The Catalogue). These traditions were also quoted by non-Shi’a which has strengthened Shi’a argument that the concept of the ghaybah existed long before the birth of Imam Mahdi AFS in 255 AH.

The eve of the Birth of Imam Mahdi AFS is the Laylatul Bar’aah (the night of deliverance) in which Allah SWT forgives sins and assigns rizq (sustenance). It is a night for worship and seeking forgiveness as well as celebrating the birth of the Imam AS who is the only Savior and Hope of Mankind and who will be assisted by one of the Ulul Azm Prophets, Hadhrat Isa AS (Jesus of the Christians) who will descend from the Fourth Heaven after the Imam AS reappears.

The month of Sha’baan is also the month of the birth of Seyyidu sShuhadaa Imam Husayn AS (3^rd Sha’baan) from whose progeny comes Al-Qaim AFS, Imam Husayn’s loyal brother Al-Abbas AS (4^th Sha’baan) whose fourteen hundredth birth anniversary will fall next year, 1426 hijra, and Imam Husayn’s son Imam Ali Al-Zaynul Abideen AS (5^th Sha’baan). Indeed, according to some narrations Imam Husayn’s sister, Hadhrat Zaynab AS was born on 1^st Sha’baan. According to historical narrations, Imam Husayn AS’ nephew Qassim ibnil Hassan, the son of Imam Hassan Al-Mujtaba AS was born on 6^th Sha’baan and Imam Husayn AS’ son Ali Al-Akbar, the Shabih (resemblance) of The Prophet SAWW was born on 10^th Sha’baan. All these personages are the martyrs of Karbala. Indeed, it is most appropriate that they were born in the month that The Prophet SAWW described as his month for they stood up against tyranny, oppression and paganism of Yazid (LA) to uphold The Prophet SAWW’s message. Indeed, the birth of Hadhrat Hujjah AFS in this month also signifies the Karbala bond for Imam Al-Hujjah AFS is the Avenger of Karbala and the restorer of the pure teachings of The Prophet SAWW that have been corrupted by usurpers, tyrants and bigots who have hijacked real Islam from the Ahlul Bayt AS.