In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Imam Mahdi, the promised existent
Chapter One
General Leadership (Imamate) in The Shia Religion – 2nd part
Imamate and installation according to Imam Reza (the eighth Imam of the Shia religion)
Among the people of Marv, the followers of the imams believed that the imam should be installed by God Almighty and take charge of the province. But others said that the imam is determined not by divine appointment, but by the people’s choice, and he is actually the people’s lawyer.
Imam Reza, after coming to Marv and knowing about this issue, said: They did not know the Imamate until they knew the Imam. Just as God is known by divinity, Imam is known by Imamate. Then He listed the characteristics of the Imam: The Imam is the only one of his era.
The appointment of an imam is not only to organize the individual or social practical aspects of the people, but also to explain the divine teachings, explain the jurisprudence and legal rulings of Islam, judge and adjudicate, enforce the limits, punishments and defend the universe, opening the scientific and practical difficulties of people are also his duties.
On the other hand, just as humans need Imam, angels also need him. Because the Imam is the teacher of God’s names, and the angels take knowledge from him and solve their scientific and practical problems in his light. Almighty God said to Adam that you are my caliph and the imam of this era, so inform the angels about the report of the divine names: “O Adam, inform them of their names” (Surah Baqarah, verse 33).
The imam is a perfect innocent human being, the embodiment of the great name, and he is the greatest of the names.
Divine names have every need, they are provided by the blessing of the great name and its manifestation. This is a manifestation of the Imam’s high position. Just as no one can observe the farthest stars in the sky, let alone reach them, the intellect of a person cannot understand the imamate of any imam.
Human intellect has never reached the height of the sky of Imamate, and its thought never reaches the height of that lofty position to be worthy of appointing Imam.
Imam Mahdi argument on the non-determination of the imam by the people
Saad bin Abdullah Qomi asked Imam Mahdi why people can’t choose their own Imam? He asked if he meant a reforming Imam or an unworthy leader who causes corruption? Saad said that he meant the reformer Imam. Then Imam Mahdi said that no one knows what is going on in another person’s mind regarding the idea of goodness and corruption, so is it possible for people to elect someone who has the idea of corruption in their head? He said yes. Then Imam Mahdi said: The reason is that I told you with argument so that your intellect will be assured.
Reasonable life is the result of knowing the Imam
Shia and non-Shia have mentioned about the blessed existence of Prophet Muhammad, whoever dies and does not know the Imam of his time, his death is the death of ignorance. If a person dies while he does not know the Imam of his time in order to be obedient to him, he has died an ignorant death.
General Leadership
Ignorant death is a sign of ignorant life. Because death is the essence of life. He who lives well dies well, and he who lives badly dies a bad death, because death is nothing but tasting the juice of life. It seems that life becomes a syrup that a person tastes when dying. If it is nectar, it is the product of his sweet work, and if it is sharp and bitter, it is the result of his lifetime. “Everyone tastes death” (Surah Al-Imran, verse 185). Death means transformation. Man moves towards the eternal world and tastes and digests the transformation and after death reaches the world of eternity and stability.
Man after death is free from any voluntary transformation. Before tasting the wine of death, the way is open for changes, but after death, there is no opportunity to repent and reconsider, and there is no opportunity to ask for respite and do righteous deeds.
Another thing is that we taste death, not our death. We kill death, not death, because God Almighty did not say that death will taste man, but He said: Man will taste death. The truth is that death does not destroy man, but it is man who destroys death once and for all. As the taster of water digests it, and water does not digest the taster.
In the culture of the Holy Qur’an, death is like an extract in a cup that a person tastes and swallows and digests, and whoever lives in this world is like a fertile seedling that bears fruit after growing. Then they pick the fruits of this flying tree and pour its juice in a cup and feed it to humans at the moment of death.
General Leadership
The one who is a fruitful tree with sweet fruits for his community during his life, whose juice is nectar and sweet, and death is sweet for such a person, but the one who is a sapling of a tree with bitter fruit and lives with bitterness and abuse and cruelty to others and misbehaving with himself, the family, the environment, the Islamic state, etc., its product is only bitterness, and such a fruit is not pleasant, and death is hard and bitter for such people. He who lives well dies well and he who lives bitterly dies bitterly.
If the result is a thorn, you have planted it yourself, if it is silk, you have woven it yourself (Iranian poet Ferdowsi)
Man is like a weaver or a gardener who weaves clothes or plants seedlings. If the weft and weave is silk, the product is a rich weave that will feel soft when worn. If in life with false thoughts, bad morals and ugly actions, he makes blades, spears and swords and attacks others, and with his words, he takes away the reputation of others and hurts someone or harms the Islamic system, this blade and dagger will have nothing but a land full of blades, and when it is placed in it (when he dies), it will not find comfort.
How to be comfortable? How to sleep comfortably? The one who makes a bed of thorns (Diwan Shams Tabrizi)
If the bed is full of razors, if a person rolls in any direction, the razor will hurt him. In a bed filled with razor blades, side to side will not be useful.
Anyone who does not know the Imam of his time and does not establish a relationship with him has not followed the will of any of the prophets. Let alone the order of God Almighty. And his death is the death of ignorance, and since death is the essence of life, when death is ignorance, it turns out that life was also ignorance: as you live, you die, and as you die, you are resurrected. And because his life is ignorance, all his life will be spent as ignorance.
It is not possible for someone’s life to be a reasonable life and his death to be an ignorant death, because an ignorant death is the result of an ignorant life and a reasonable life has no result other than a wise death. Whoever does not know his imam, will not wait for him, and not waiting for a true reformer is a sign of ignorant life.
General Leadership
It is possible for someone to serve the Holy Qur’an in appearance, or to pray in the Prophet’s mosque, but in the place of the Prophet, but his life is ignorant. As it is mentioned in Fadakiyeh’s sermon, the protest of the best woman among the women of the world, Fatima Zahra (daughter of Prophet Muhammad) during the unjust establishment of the Caliphate and Imamate, in the mosque of Medina, she testified to this verse: “Do they want the ruling of ignorance? and for a people who are certain, whose ruling is better than God’s ruling?” (Surah Ma’idah verse 50), therefore, if someone does not know the Imam of his time and does not wait for him, his life will be ignorance and, consequently, his death will also be ignorance.
Anyone who knows his imam and knows that he is aware of his actions by God’s permission and accepts that the imam is the embodiment of “He watches over the actions of every human being” (Surah Ra’ad, verse 33), will inevitably wait for him. It means that he will pay attention to the demands of that imam, which are the orders of religion, and in this way he will be obedient to his imam, and then his life and death will be wise. to be continued…
