By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“And We desired to show favour to those who were abased in the land, and to make them Imams, and to make them the Heirs;” (Holy Qur’an 28:5)
God’s promise is true. Whatever the arrogant and the ignorant do, with all their material and military power, they cannot belie it.
Today, the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Omayyads, the Abbasids, the Ottomans, the British and all other empire-builders have long vanished from the world scene.
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of the United States of America – so far the most satanic of world powers – which is all poised to fall into the dustbin of history, despite its arsenal of doomsday weapons and its monopolization of global economy.
According to Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the Gateway of the City of Wisdom and Knowledge, the above cited Ayah that God Almighty revealed to His Last and Greatest Messenger, refers to the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt whose rights were usurped, and the day will dawn when Prophet Muhammad’s 12th and Last Infallible Heir will appear to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.
Yesterday, we commemorated the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the Prophet’s 11th Infallible Heir, who was forced to leave the world in the prime of his youth at the age of 28 years through a fatal dose of poison administered on the orders of the arrogantly ignorant Mo’tamed, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime.
The head of the superpower of those days then launched a manhunt in vain for the son of his victim, on learning that the Prophet’s 12th Heir, the Promised Mahdi al-Qa’em, who would rid Planet Earth of corruption and oppression and whose birth he had tried to prevent, was already born.
Unable to find any trace of the 5-year old orphan and deeming him too weak to pose any danger to their rule, since his mother had predeceased his father and his uncle Ja’far was also against him, the Abbasids continued their misrule of sins, corruption and oppression for a few more centuries, until another bloodthirsty tyrant, the Mongol Marauder Hulaku Khan, thrust the so-called caliph into several sacks and trampled him under the hooves of horses.
As for the boy-Imam, God Almighty – Who had given wisdom to Yayha (John the Baptist) while still a mere child and entrusted prophethood and the scripture to the infant Jesus with the miraculous power to speak from the cradle when the ever rebellious Israelis tried to slander his virgin mother, Mary – ensured that Imam Mahdi (AS) grows into youth and manhood during the Minor Occultation (Ghaybat as-Sughra) before start of the lengthy period of the Major Occultation (Ghaybat al-Kubra), guiding the faithful all the time, like the resplendent sun on cloudy days.
Over a century before the birth of Imam Mahdi (AS), Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (AS), was expounding to a group of faithful the hadith “the (Planet) Earth has not been devoid of a representative of God, since Adam’s creation; a representative that was either visible and well-known or invisible and concealed. (Likewise) The Earth will not remain devoid of such a representative of God till the occurrence of the Hour (Doomsday), for if it were to remain without God’s representative, then God would not be worshipped!”
A person asked: So how does mankind benefit from an invisible and hidden representative?
The 6th Imam replied: “Just as they benefit from the sun when it is hidden behind clouds!”
For the past 1183 lunar years, the devotees of the Ahl al-Bayt have continued to benefit from the presence of the Imam of the Age, while eagerly awaiting his reappearance for materialization of God’s promise to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.
So firm has been their faith that they have not just weathered the storms of seditions generated by the enemies of Islam and humanity, such as the modern day Wahhabis and Takfiris, but have spread the liberating ideology of God’s promise to make the weak the inheritors of the Earth when the Promised Redeemer of mankind reappears.
No wonder, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) said to his Divinely-designated Vicegerent:
“O Ali, know that the strongest of the people of faith and the greatest of them in certitude are those of the end times. They haven’t seen the Prophet and their Imam is hidden from them, but they believe (only) due to black upon white.”
Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) explaining this hadith has said:
“The “black upon white” means the writings on paper. It means that these people will believe in the Qur’an and the Sunnah as recorded in the books, even though they may not see their Imam.
The 6th Imam has also said:
“When the Qa’em shall arise, he will rule with justice, the tyrants of his time shall fear him, the righteous will be safe, the earth shall reveal its treasures, all the truth-seekers will seek his company and no follower of any religion would remain except that they see Islam and declare their faith in it.”