Question 282 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 3

Supporters Response:

Mr. Timothy Furnish, cordial greetings. Thank you for contacting us and for your interest in our cause. The answers to your questions are as follows: I informed you in previous messages that Sayyed Ahmad al-Hasan, the promised Yamani, was sent by Imam al-Mahdi Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (a) to the Muslims, by Jesus (a) to the Christians, and by the prophet Elijah (a) to the Jews. The objectives he seeks to achieve are the same objectives the prophets and messengers sought to achieve. I will quote some of his words for you: ‘Jesus (a) said, “The son of Adam does not live by bread alone, but by the word of Allah.” I, the servant of Allah, say to you: by bread the son of Adam dies, and by the word of Allah he lives. ‘My call is like the call of Noah (a), the call of Abraham (a), the call of Moses (a), the call of Jesus (a), and the call of Muhammad (s). ‘That monotheism spread over every part of this earth-the goal of the prophets and successors is my goal. I explain the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, and that over which you differ. I expose the deviation of the scholars of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, their departure from the divine law, and their opposition to the commandments of the prophets (a). ‘My will is the will of Allah, Glorious and Exalted, and His will: that the people of the earth desire only what Allah, Glorious and Exalted, desires; that the earth be filled with equity and justice as it has been filled with oppression and tyranny; that the hungry be fed and no poor person remain in the open; that the orphans rejoice after their long sorrow; that the widows find what meets their material needs with dignity and honor … that … and that … and that the most important things in the law-justice, mercy, and truthfulness-be applied’ (^[279]). This blessed call began in Iraq during the rule of the tyrant Saddam. Sayyed Ahmad al-Hasan (a) and the supporter brothers were then pursued by the security and intelligence forces of the Saddam regime, especially after his public objection to the crime the tyrant Saddam committed when he defiled the Noble Quran with his blood (^[280]). The call began in the holy city of Najaf, the principal center of the Shia religious seminaries. In those days, the supporter brothers knocked on the doors of every Shia religious authority and religious scholar, giving glad tidings of the call that humanity had long awaited. They argued against them using the many proofs, some of which I will present later in this message. But these jurists, who betrayed the trust of the prophets and successors and found pleasure in the broad authority and vast wealth they had collected in the name of Imam al-Mahdi (a), disliked that the divine choice should fall upon anyone other than them. They therefore adopted a position of rejection and stubbornness and blocked their ears from hearing the supporter brothers’ proofs. More than that, their media machine and the apparatus of benefiting agents connected to them began promoting lies and malicious rumors with the intention of turning people away from the blessed call and distorting its lofty divine objectives. The struggle with the evil jurists did not stop there. Those who greatly fear for their false thrones would never surrender to the intellectual defeats the blessed call inflicted upon them or to the wide spread of its ideas among different classes of society. They therefore resorted to the weapon of those who are intellectually incapable: the weapon of the tyrants. They incited the government that flatters them and the parties orbiting around them to attack the supporters and the mosques of worship they had built with their own money. These incitements always found their way into implementation on the ground in various forms, including the repeated arbitrary arrests to which the supporters were subjected, the repeated demolition of their mosques, and assassination attempts and threats that never stopped. The supporters confronted all this with statements of condemnation and denunciation and marches affirming the call’s peaceful and intellectual path. Perhaps the government, and behind it the evil jurists, saw the call’s peaceful reaction as a sign of weakness. They imagined that intensifying the pressures and escalating the means of terror would be enough to eliminate the call that had deprived them of sleep. In the month of Dhu al-Hijjah of the previous Hijri year, the Najaf religious authorities held what they called the Conference of Preachers. Some satellite channels connected to the religious authorities and the parties sustained by their support broadcast its proceedings. Their words at this conference explicitly urged the state to uproot the call and the supporters by force. Indeed, as soon as the conference ended, the various state security forces began a campaign of nighttime raids on supporters’ homes throughout Iraq’s provinces. This resulted in the arrest of dozens of supporters, the displacement of others, and the terrorizing of their children and women. The series of arrests and pursuits continues to the very moment at which I write. You can certainly judge our call by observing the reality of this call, which is more than eight years old. You perhaps need no one to remind you that the nature of the objectives our call seeks to achieve is utterly incompatible with a method of violence. What need does a call founded upon convincing people of a particular thought have for violence? Indeed, let me add that what our call has always suffered from is violence-rather, the terrorism practiced by the authority of the religious establishment, the parties, and the government behind them. Yes, the government delights in attaching the description of violence to us, but this is something you should understand. This is the constant practice of tyrannical governments: they cannot confront thought with thought, so they resort to the old pretext of attaching the description ‘movements outside the law’ to their opponents in order to prepare public opinion for eliminating them by force. You should also note that the religious authorities always like to appear before the people in the garment of purity and innocence. They therefore must have a means or pretext for confronting their opponents. Here comes the old-new argument: the allegation of religious apostasy and danger to the people. Yes, you may say, ‘But you bore arms on the tenth day of Muharram.’ You must know that in this action we were only defending ourselves. The criminal authority had reached the point of no return in the matter of eliminating us and eradicating our call. You may know that the method followed by divine calls is dialogue, demonstration, and proof. This method can change in a case of legitimate self-defense, when tyrants are confronted with the same weapon by which they attack. Mr. Timothy, it would have been helpful had you explained to us your opinion of this media farce broadcast by the authority’s channel. You could have compared this play with the plays broadcast by the television of the tyrant Saddam, whose victims were the very executioners of today. I have no doubt that you would arrive at a scenario as close as possible to fantasy or black comedy! The man called Abu Sajjad-who, incidentally, is an intelligence officer and was previously a member of Muqtada al-Sadr’s group-says that we gave him thousands of dollars. This is a lie that even the reeds with which we built our mosques would not believe. He says that we were involved in all the murders that were in fact committed-as is known to everyone-by the parties fighting over influence in Basra. The continuation of assassinations at full force up to this very moment is enough proof of his lie. He also said that we use a cartoon film as evidence for our call! Do you think this last point deserves comment? As for when the Mahdi will appear publicly, this is connected to Allah’s will alone. In any event, his appearance (a) has conditions and signs, most of which have been fulfilled. On this basis, we always repeat: ‘They see it as distant, while we see it as near.’ As for how people recognize the Mahdi (a), I will first quote for you this example given by Sayyed Ahmad al-Hasan (a): ‘If a person owned a ship, factory, or anything in which a group of people work, would he not be expected to appoint a captain for the ship, a manager for the factory, or a leader for those people? If he omitted this and the ship sank, the factory was ruined, or some harm occurred, would his action not be described as foolish or lacking wisdom? ‘Then if he appointed a captain for the ship, a manager for the factory, or a leader for those people, but that person was not the most knowledgeable of them in captaining the ship, managing the factory, or leading those people, and the factory’s production declined or some emergency caused specific harm-such as the ship sinking because of this leader’s ignorance of the factory’s operating system or how to handle the emergency-would his action not be described as foolish or contrary to wisdom? Would wisdom not require choosing the most knowledgeable person present or providing the chosen person with the necessary knowledge so that he would be the most competent and able to captain the ship and bring it safely to shore, and to manage the factory and achieve the best production? ‘Suppose that this person appointed a captain for the ship, a manager for the factory, or a leader for those people, and that person was the most knowledgeable and capable of captaining the ship and managing the factory, but he did not command the people to obey this captain, manager, or leader. The people acted according to their own desires and wishes because they had not been commanded to obey the appointed leader, and chaos or harm resulted from his not commanding them to obey the captain or leader. Would he not be described as having departed from wisdom into foolishness? Then what benefit is there in appointing the most capable leader if he does not command the people to obey him?! ‘I do not think that any rational, wise person would say anything other than this: a leader must be appointed; he must possess, or be provided with, all the knowledge he needs; and those whom he leads must be commanded to obey him. ‘This is found in the Quran. With the first vicegerent of Allah, Glorious is He, upon His earth, He established this law: the law for recognizing Allah’s vicegerent and His proof over His servants. Indeed, it is the law for recognizing Allah, because Allah is recognized through knowing Allah’s vicegerent. ‘The appointment of the Imam, leader, and vicegerent of Allah is in the Exalted’s words: “When your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I am placing a vicegerent upon the earth,’ they said, ‘Will You place upon it one who spreads corruption and sheds blood, while we glorify You with praise and sanctify You?’ He said, ‘Indeed, I know what you do not know’” (^[281]). ‘This vicegerent’s being the most knowledgeable is in the Exalted’s words: “He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels and said, ‘Tell Me the names of these, if you are truthful’” (^[282]). ‘The command to obey this vicegerent is in the Exalted’s words: “When I have fashioned him and breathed into him from My spirit, fall down before him in prostration” (^[283]). ‘Indeed, whoever consults the Torah and the Gospel will find many texts that agree completely with the Quranic text in explaining that the law for recognizing Allah’s vicegerent-or the law for recognizing Allah-consists of these three matters that I have explained.’ Here ends the quotation. In this quoted text, Sayyed Ahmad al-Hasan (a) points to the most important matters through which the Mahdi (a) is recognized: he is designated in the heavenly books and the hadiths of the previous prophets; he is also the most knowledgeable of the people of the earth concerning everything in all the heavenly books; and he is the bearer of the call to Allah’s governance upon the earth, which is realized only by obeying the one whom Allah made ruler. He can likewise be recognized through the many hadiths that left nothing concerning him unexplained: his moral and physical attributes, his place of residence, and many other matters specific to him. He is also recognized through heavenly visions seen by the believers; in some of them, certain believers saw Jesus (a), and it was he who commanded them to follow him. The Scientific Committee Supporters of Imam al-Mahdi (may Allah establish him upon the earth) Mr. Abu Muhammad al-Ansari