By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“Certainly, We had written in the Psalms, after the Reminder (Torah); Indeed My righteous servants shall inherit the Earth.” (Holy Qur’an 21:105)
“We desired to show favour to those who were abased in the land, and to make them Imams (Leaders), and to make them the inheritors.” (Holy Qur’an 28:5)
The above Ayahs are self-explanatory. They refer to the Divine Promise to make the faithful the eventual victors and inheritors of Planet Earth, which for millenniums has been wantonly looted of its rich natural resources by oppressors all over the globe, who subjected fellow humans to untold injustice. The sworn enemies of humanity in our own times are the devils in human forms, such as the Takfiri terrorists, the Zionists, and the US, which is called the ‘Great Satan’.
Ever since the creation of the first pair of humans – Adam and Eve – God Almighty had sent a long line of Prophets in all parts of the Earth and in every age in order to guide mankind and to confront the likes of such tyrants as Nimrod, Pharaoh, Hamaan, Herod, and Abu Jahl, culminating with the universal message of Islam entrusted to the Last and Greatest of Messengers, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
As the Mercy unto the Creation he excellently accomplished his mission. Since the end times were still away and there were more trials and tribulations in store for humanity, especially for Muslims, at the hands of Chengiz Khan and the European colonial powers, on God’s commandments the Seal of Messengers explained every minute matter in detail before his departure from the mortal world so that mankind could avoid the fate that befell the nations of the past.
Among his admonishments was his exhorting of his companions to hold fast to the “Thaqalayn” (Two Weighty Things), that is, the Book of God – the holy Qur’an – and his progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt. He told them in explicit words that Muslims will never go astray if they follow his instructions, because the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt are inseparable from each other.
Did the Muslims follow the instructions of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA)?
The answer is obvious: Some did, while many of them did not, otherwise the Ahl al-Bayt would not have been deprived of their right of political leadership of the Ummah.
The All-Wise God, aware of such sedition and the seditionists, who would violate their own oaths of allegiance to Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), sworn so ardently at Ghadeer-Khom on 18th Zilhijja, 10 AH on the Prophet’s proclamation of his cousin and son-in-law as Vicegerent, decreed that the Redeemer of the human race will have to wait for advent. He will eventually reappear in the end times to fill the Earth with justice, although he would be born in the full limelight of history on the 15th of Sha’ban in the year 255 AH (869 AD), to the Prophet’s 11th Infallible Heir, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), in the city of Samarra, in Iraq.
Irrespective of the frequent manhunts launched by the self-styled caliphs of the usurper Abbasid regime to try to locate and destroy the Prophet’s 12th and Last Successor, let us go through some hadith in both Shi’ite and Sunni sources concerning the rising of Imam Mahdi al-Qa’em (AS), whose reappearance we are eagerly waiting. We ardently look forward to his promised advent, no matter if the tyrants of our age deny him and seethe with anger at the mention of his name, impose sanctions on his steadfast followers, hire thugs and traitors to undermine Islamic societies, and try to label altruist organizations and the selfless defenders of humanitarian values as ‘terrorists’, just like the oppressors of the past had done.
The words of the Prophet of Islam found in the hadith books of the Sunnis and Shi’as alike, are a firm refutation of the claims of those who deny the coming of the Mahdi as well as of those who allege that he has not yet been born and would be born in the end times.
For instance, in the book “Fara’ed as-Samtayn”, a famous hadith through Sunni sources reads:
“The Prophet said: My Caliphs are my legatees and the proofs of Allah upon the creatures; after me they are Twelve. The first of them is my brother and the last of them is my (grand)son.
He was asked: O’ Prophet of Allah, which brother of yours.
He replied: “Ali Ibn Abi Taleb”
Again he was asked: And which (grand)son?
He said: “Al-Mahdi is the one who will fill the earth with justice and equity as it was brimming with injustice and tyranny. I swear by the one who has sent me as the giver of good tidings, even if a single day were to remain for the world (to end), Allah shall prolong that day till he sends my son Mahdi. Then Ruhollah Jesus son of Mary will descend and perform prayers behind him. The earth shall be illuminated by his radiance and his authority shall stretch from the east to the west.”
Abu Dawoud, the compiler of the one of the six collections of hadith revered by our Sunni brethren, quotes the Prophet in volume 4 of his “Sunan”:
“Even if a single day remains for the Day of Judgment, Allah will send a man from my Ahl al-Bayt. He will fill the earth with justice just like it was filled with tyranny.”
In the book “Ikmaal ad-Din”, compiled by the famous Iranian Jurist Shaikh Sadouq over a thousand years ago, we come across the following hadith from the Prophet:
“O Ali, know that the strangest of the people of faith and the greatest of them in certitude are those people who will be in the end times. They will not meet the Prophet, and their Imam will be hidden from them, but they will believe on the basis of black upon white.”
The Prophet’s 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) explaining this hadith says: “The “black upon white” means the writings on paper. It means that these people will believe in the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the Prophet’s practice) as recorded in the books, even though they may not see their Imam.”