THE IMPORTANCE OF PAYING ATTENTION TO THE AWAITING LEADER (may our soul be sacrificed for him).

We should be aware that paying attention to the awaiting Imam (peace be upon him) is same as paying attention to Allah like wise paying attention to the rest purified Imams is same as paying attention to Almighty Allah.

So visiting the purified Imams and imploring with them necessitate paying attention to Almighty Allah because whoever intended Allah paid attention to them.

We read in Ziyarat Al-Jami'at Al-Kabir the following:

و من قصده توجّه بكم‏

Whoever intended Allah paid attention to them.

Verily if people paid attention to the honorable Imams he is inviting avenue of elevation to himself and clearing away all the obstacles that may hinder him from reaching an exalted ranks. To the extent that if people paid attention to our master, the leader of the time (may our soul be sacrificed for him) and other purified Imams he opens the ways of Allah, His blessing and forgiveness to himself likewise he has lifted all darkness from inside himself.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) while explaining this statement of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) "I am Allah's gate" said:

يعنى من توجّه بي إلى اللّه غفر له‏

Whoever paid attention to Allah through me will be pardon and forgiven[1]

To this end whoever paid attention to Allah, He will forgive him and take off all his obstacles.

All the infallibles (peace be upon them) possess luminance position, in this respect we need to pay attention to all of them without any exception because they were                                       acquainted with all period and time but due to the descending of position it is incumbent to be more concentrated to the Imam of the time more than other Imams (peace be upon them).

Take note of the following tradition: it was reported from Abdullah bn Qudamah Attarmadi from Abi Al-Hasan (peace be upon him) who said:

من شكّ في أربعة فقد كفر بجميع ما أنزل اللّه عزّ و جلّ؛ أحدها معرفة الإمام في كلّ زمان و أوان بشخصه و نعته‏

Who ever entertain doubt in four things has disbelieve in everything Allah has descended; one of this four things is knowing the Imam of every era, his personality and his attributes[2]

It is incumbent to know the Imam of every era, how does it possible for someone to knows his Imam (peace be upon him) and he will not concentrate on him?!

Base on this, it is not proper for someone not to concentrate on the awaiting Imam (may our soul be sacrificed for him) and not to know his attributes and his exalted position even though he concentrates on the other Imams (peace be upon them).

Therefore our duty this very time is to have special concentration on our master (may our soul be sacrificed for him) whom we are under his leadership.

We read in the supplication teaches by Imam (peace be upon him) to his companion which was revealed to one renowned scholar by name late Mulla Qasim Rashti, he said teach this supplication to the believers to enable them solve their problems, the supplication reads as follows:

يا محمّد يا عليّ يا فاطمة يا صاحب الزّمان أدركني و لا تهلكني‏

O' Muhammad, O' Ali, O' Fatimah, O' the leader of the time accept me and don't destroy me.

He said: when I was taught of this supplication I ponder over it, did you observe any mistake in it? Yes, I said to him, the statement was addressed to four people and why the verb at the conclusion is not plural?!

You made mistake, he said, because the care taker of this world at this time is the leader of the time, in the above supplication we use Muhammad, Ali and Fatimah (peace be upon them) as a mediators before him, so we obtain from him alone.[3]

It is necessary to take note of this point.

As Salman, Abu zar, Miqdad and other good friends of God during the period of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) and the commander of the faithful (peace be upon him), they concentrated on both of them likewise the good friends of God during

the time of Imam Al-Mujtaba (peace be upon him) and the chief of martyrs (peace be upon him) they concentrated on both of them, the same applies to those who were elevated to exalted rank in this era because they didn't forget the remembrance of the master (may our soul be sacrificed for him) thus they concentrated on him.

Thus we read in supplication of Nudbah as follows:

أين وجه اللّه الّذي إليه يتوجّه الأولياء

Where is Allah's direction by which all His good friends faces.

The good friends of God at this time concentrated on the leader of the time even though they were not known within the community but they had connection with their Imam and benefited from his words.

Thus we read in Ziyarat Aali Yasin as follows:

السّلام عليك حين تقرء و تبيّن.

Peace be upon you whenever you recite Qur'an and expound it.

Base on this, it is necessary for everyone to give special concentration on the leader of his time.

Thus we mention a narration of the eighth Imam (peace be upon him), be aware of it: From our master Imam Rida reporting from his forefathers (peace be upon them) he said:

عن مولانا الرضا عن آبائه عليهم السّلام قال: قال رسول اللّه صلّى اللّه عليه و اله في قول اللّه تبارك و تعالى: يَوْمَ نَدْعُوا كُلَّ أُناسٍ بِإِمامِهِمْ

 قال: يدعى كلّ قوم بإمام زمانهم، و كتاب اللّه و سنّة نبيّهم‏

 The holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) said regards the following saying of Allah the Most High {On the day when we shall call all men with their leader}[4]

Every community shall be call upon with the Imam of their time, the Book of God and the custom of their Prophet.[5]

The meaning of the narration is that on the Day of Judgment every one shall be asked of three questions: (1) Did you execute your duty as a follower regards to your Imam (2) The Book of God (3) The custom of Allah's Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny), Or not?!

So one will be asked on the Day of Judgment whether he knows the Imam of his time or he didn't knows him!

The best way to concentrate on the leader of the time is to offer prayers and supplications that were reported to us from the purified Imams in his regard (peace be upon him) or the one that was issued by the Imam of the time.

This was the admonition of Muhammad bn Uthman (the second deputy of Imam during the minor occultation) to Ahmad bn Ibrahim when he requested from the former a supplication for Imam.

توجّه إليه بالزيارة

Concentrate on him with supplications and Ziyarah[6]/[7]

We may deduced from this word that by offering prayers and supplications that concerns him (peace be upon him) one will be more concentrated to his noble existence.

Concentration on the Imam's personality or to feel grief and tormented is not only meant for the period of occultation rather it has been existing even during the time of other Imams (peace be upon them) and Ahlulbayt has expounded the greatness of his rank and his personality (may our soul be sacrificed for him) and manifested the grief for his occultation and separation.

In reality they did not only manifested explanation of people's duty towards the Imam rather they put it into practice by weeping and crying for his long occultation. Thus do they acquaint people with their actions, anticipation and grief for his occultation!

But very regretful that the Shi'a has neglected this fundamental issue which had great impact in their life both in this world and the world Hereafter.

The great scholar whose duty suppose to be enlightening people to this important issue also ignore it and because of the Shi'as negligence (both the previous and the present ones) to this same issue, the world had been deprived the blessing of the reappearance of the great legacy of God (may our soul be sacrificed for him). That is how the world will be governed by oppression, opulence and falsification, and the continuation of this government whose hands are polluted with blood as an affliction to billions of Muslims and none Muslims.

The community had been sunk into worldly affairs and laid importance on the causes and forget about the effect.

Never the less this world is home of causes and we need to struggle in it but it should not reach the extent we ignore the effects. The society had only paid little attention to the effect they also forget its guardians and master.

            Not being acquainted with the personality of the Imam (peace be upon him) is the important reason that leads most people not to concentrate on Imam.

It is very regretful that those whose duty is to propagate this fact to people by guiding them to the leader of this existing world were not successful in carrying out this important and vital Islamic duty.

Presently we will repeat the same statement of Prophet Yusuf's father. To this end we are apologizing to our merciful Imam seeking for pardon from him:

يا أَبانَا اسْتَغْفِرْ لَنا ذُنُوبَنا إِنَّا كُنَّا خاطِئِين‏

our father, ask forgiveness of our crimes for us; certainly we have been sinful[8]

With this pardon and forgiveness for our previous actions we hope to redress the future and put him in remembrance and try all our possible best to make people concentrates in him.