The Awaited Imām Mahdī

Abstract

"The gist of the discussion is that the Prophet’s declaration at Ghadīr Khum proved forever that ‘Alī’ s spirit ual sovereignty is in fact the Prophet Muhammad’ s spirit ual sovereignty. As the door of prophethood was closed after the Holy Prophet () , Allāh () has opened new avenues for the continuation of the Prophet’s blessings till the Day of Judgement. Some were blessed by an external stat us whilst other s by an internal status. The hidden avenue is known as spirit ual sovereignty and ‘Alī al-Murtadā () was its f ir st Imām. Then this chain of sover eignty was passed down to the Prophet’ s family and f inally to the t welve Imāms. Besides the t welve Imāms there are thousands of other pious individuals who r eached the stat us of sainthood. They have held high ranks of sainthood ( such as ghawth, qutub) and have enlightened the lives of millions of people through the internal light of wilāyah, taking them out of ignorance and astray. Yet all of them gained their spir itual st atus f rom the spir itual sover eignty of ‘Alī al-Murtadā (), be it directly or indir ectly. No one was self- suff icient and independent from the wilāyah of ‘Alī al-Murtadā () and this chain will continue up to the Day of Judgement until the appear ance of the last Imām ( spirit ual leader ) and the centre of spir itual leadership. He will be Imām Muhammad Mahdī (), the t welfth Imām and the last caliph. In his person, the external and the unapparent caliphates which r an par allel to each other will come together. He will be the spir itual as well as the political 1. Shaykh Ahmad Sarhandī , Maktūbāt (9:173#123). Preface 13 inher itor, and he will be the last person to hold the offices of khilā fah and wilāyah. Anyone who denies Imām Mahdī () will deny both the external and unapparent forms of I slam. This will be the climax of the exposure and disclosure of the Prophet Muhammad’ s blessing. This is due to the f act that, he will be named Muhammad and he will also r esemble the Holy Prophet () in moral excellence. So the wor ld should know that this Imām is the r ecipient of both the external and internal inher itance of the Prophet’s blessings. That is why the Prophet () said, “ Anyone who denies Mahdī will be a disbeliever. ” At that time, he will be the focus of all saints on earth, and, being the leader of Prophet Muhammad’ s Ummah, prophet ‘Īsā () will offer his pr ayer behind him and in this way, he will announce his leader ship to the whole world. So we should r ealize that ‘Alī al-Murtadā () and Mahdī () of the earth and heavens — the father and the son — are both Allāh’ s fr iends and the Prophet’s inher itors. It is therefore compulsory on every believer to acknowledge their exceptional status. May Allāh () give us the ability to gain blessings from these fountainheads of wilāyah. (Āmīn! with the intermediation of the Leader of the Prophets ())."(pg 12-13)