The Last Leader

 

We are free of the worship of mortal men. Let us cast aside the propensity to follow blindly and irrationally. Let us set out in conquest of the truth and embrace it wherever it may be found so as to attain to the heights of human dignity and emancipate ourselves from servility and worship of Man.

Leader and Its Significance in Islam

Let us see what Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself has said on this subject, which is as follows:

He who dies without recognizing the Imam (leader) of his time, is as one who dies in the days of ignorance¹

It would appear that it is the matter of greatest importance to recognize and know the leader in whatever time of age he may live. When he spoke of the ‘days of ignorance’ the Prophet implied that it is only the ignorant who would fail to recognize such a leader, stressing therefore, how vital it is to be able to know the leader and to die in the ‘days of ignorance’ means to die before having realized and been fulfilled in knowledge, to die as if prior to the days of Islam, a pagan’s death. In other words his Islam is not truly acceptable until and unless he has seen the length by a recognition of the leader, his Imam.

Who Is the Present Imam?

According to indications which have come down to us from the Prophet and the sayings of the Imams, the present leader of the Islamic world is none other than Muhammad bin Hassan al-Askari.

Roots of the Belief:

The birth of Imam Mahdi (PBUH) and the reality of his existence is a thing agreed upon and acknowledged by all Islamic sects, Qur’anic verses, the Prophet’s traditions and the sayings of his successors, the Imams, all bear indisputable testimony and have been recorded both in the books of Shias and Sunnis. Debates and discussions are redundant in the light of the consensus to be found in such testimony. The Prophet introduced and identified his successors, the Imams. To quote from texts of his own word, he said as follows:

The Imams are my successors and they are 12 in number² and the foremost among them is Ali³ while the last is Mahdi Abul Qasim Muhammad bin Hasan al-Askari⁴. He is my 12th successor and deputy⁵. He is the 12th authority of God unto the people⁶. His occultation will be long and will be a test and trial unto the people of that age⁷. Some people will be firmed on their faith, some say he has not born, some other say he was born but died and some people say the 11th Imam had no child⁸.

The 6th Imam of the Shias, Imam Sadiq (a.s) says:

Whoever determines the time of appearance of our Mahdi, he may regard himself an associate and partner of God in his knowledge because, in other words he has been able to come by the Divine Knowledge hidden from Man.⁹

Imam Ali (a.s) says:

Know that whoever among the Shias is firm in faith, never deviates from the path of Islam, nor goes astray deviating into error and his heart remains the same during the absence of the Imam, he will be close to me and attain to a grade equal to mine on the Day of Resurrection.¹⁰

Now that we know from what roots the belief in the last leader (Imam) derives, logic dictates that it is incumbent on us to publicize and propagate this truth.

1. A’lam al-Wara by Shaikh Tabarsi p.415 and Kafi by Kulaini

2. Yanabi al-Mawaddah p.445; A’lam al-Wara p.362/366; Kamaluddin p.150 by Shaikh Sadooq

3. Yanabi Al-Mawaddah p.447; Kamaluddin p.164; A’lam al-Wara p.375-378

4. Yanabi Al-Mawaddah p.487; A’lam al-Wara p.399

5. Yanabi al-Mawaddah p.488

6. Yanabi al-Mawaddah p.487

7. Kamaluddin p.167 by Shaikh Sadooq and Kafi by Kulainil vol.2 p.169

8. Montakhab-al Athar by Safi Golpaygani p.260

9. Behar al-Anwar New Edition. vol.53, p.3 by Allama Majlisi

10. A’lam al-wara p.400

www.babandbaha.com