I congratulate you for the birth anniversary of the 12th Imam, the saviour of the time and we beg Allah Almighty to hasten his reappearance, so will benefit the whole world, the whole universe, the whole humankind benefits from the justice and truth that will be explained and followed in his time. Brothers and sisters, we know for sure that no Prophet, nor messenger was sent by Allah (S.W.T) but they were challenged, some were slain, some were belied and in all cases, when you read the history of the Prophets, we see that whatever they did, for example Nuh (A.S) 950 years were very, very hard to bring people from darkness into complete light and illumination, but still people did not listen to him. The same applies to all other Prophets. Ibrahim (A.S), Musa, the prophet Isa, and Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W.W). So, here we refer to one Aya in the Quran and that is in Surat Al-Baqara, Sura number two, Aya 87, Allah (S.W.T) says “whenever a messenger brought to you (and this is to people) what was not your liking, you would act arrogantly and you would impugn some and slay others”. On the other hand, we see that Allah (S.W.T) promised in Surat Al-Noor, Aya 55 to allow the righteous, those who stick to the path of guidance. He promised them to inherit the earth, to have the opportunity to rule and have authority on the whole universe. That promise hasn’t been fulfilled yet and still the people are suffering from injustice, bloodshed, corruption and all types of arrogance, all kinds of misleading and evil doing. The question is: When will that promise will come true? We know that Allah (S.W.T) is not promising something that He is not going to fulfil, but it is a matter of time when that will happen. This definitely will happen at the end of the time when it is the time of the 12th Imam Al-Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance to fill the earth with justice and truth after being filled with injustice and tyranny.
Imam Ali (A.S) describes the era and the time before the reappearance of Al-Mahdi and after. Contrary to what is seen everywhere, people allow their views and their opinions to cover, and to rule the guidance and Quranic ayat. So, the Imam says hadeeth (يعطف الهوى على الهدى، بعد أن عطفوا الهُدى على الهوى) which means that the time before the 12th Imam, people unanimously agree and do their best in preventing the light of guidance and allowing their desires and wrong opinions to rule and overcome. But, when Al-Mahdi reappears with the command of Allah (S.W.T), he does exactly the opposite. He allows all views to follow the guidance of the Quran, all desires to melt and surrender to the command of Allah (S.W.T). Brothers and sisters, the belief in Al-Mahdi, the one who is guided to guide, the last divine leader from the progeny of Rasulullah (S.A.W.W) about whose birth anniversary all followers of Ahlulbayt (A.S) celebrated yesterday, although each one in their home without celebrating as they used to do every year, but each one by the hearts and in their private meeting at home, they celebrated this great event. It is not only the belief of Shia, the followers of Ahlubayt, it is an Islamic doctrine which has been proven by thousands of articles and traditions and proofs that if only one day remains from the life on earth, Allah Almighty will command an Imam, a reformer, a saviour from the progeny of Rasulullah. And in many ahadeeth we find that specifically he is from Lady Fatima (P.B.U.H), he is from the descendants of Imam Hussain (A.S). Allah will prolong that day, if only one day remains, Allah will prolong that day until this Imam Al-Mahdi reappears and takes over.
We see that the longevity of the 12th Imam has been questioned but in order to put everything in perspective we have to remember that Jesus lived far longer than the 12th Imam. According to Tabari, Al-Khidr, the gentleman from whom Musa (A.S) sought wisdom and knowledge is alive. Ilyas to is alive. And these were before Musa and even lived longer than Jesus. So, if the longevity of Al-Khidr, Ilyas, Jesus is acceptable and approved by all Muslims, what is the problem in believing in the longevity of Imam Mahdi (A.S)? When the Prophet, and the Holy Mosque of Medina told his companions that the appearance of Al-Mahdi is a must, it does not accept any doubt or hesitation at all. He said that he will go under occultation, then the famous companion, Jaber son of Abdullah Al- Ansari stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allah, how people would draw benefit from hidden Imam?” And the Prophet’s response was that in the same manner that people benefit from the sun when it is obscured by the clouds.
Brothers and sisters, many scholars elaborated on this hadeeth and Allama Majlisi, in Beharul Anwar, mentions eight different methods of interpretation and elaboration on this idea of the sun being obscured by clouds and how the similitude is made between this and people draw benefit from the 12th Imam Al-Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance when he is under occultation and not accessible for all. These are the main points that we believe and we hope and beg Allah for that day, for that period, that prosperity and blessing and every goodness will prevail the whole world will enjoy the justice of the Imam, the guidance and enlightenment of the Quran and the true Islam without going for misinterpretations that people, some people or groups of people who misinterpreted the Quranic text to match their own understandings which are wrong. Here, we notice that in the end of the time, the governance of the Imam will prove one thing as it is mentioned by Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq (A.S) and that is what Al-Kulaini records and refers to the Imam in his book Al-Kafi. He says that after all doctrines, all politicians, all schools of thought, all parties, all reformers, they try their best to reform, to present justice or to create a sound and safe society to guarantee some sort of happiness to people on earth and they prove that they failed, the 12th Imam will come to say that “I am the embodiment of truth, I am the one who is commanded to follow the light of guidance and guarantee the safety and prosperity of humankind on earth”, why? Because allowing everybody to exercise and try their opportunity and will they all failed then it is the end of the time when truth prevails and we see that Imam Mahdi may Allah hasten his reappearance is the embodiment of truth as promised by the Prophet, by all our Imams and all people all over the world wait for that day. We have to ask Allah (S.W.T) to hasten that reappearance by saying (اللهم عجل لوليك الفرج) and that Dua and supplication will definitely be answered by Allah (S.W.T) knowing that the supervision of the Imam is upon us all, without which all efforts were made in the past and present to uproot, to put an end to the path of Ahlulbayt, to the people who love the path of Ahlulbayt, to true Shias, but Allah willed to support them, to protect them and the supervision of the 12th Imam guarantees that.