He then left with them and when they reached al-Kufa...

He then left with them and when they reached al-Kufa, one of the two servants had consumed alcohol. Before they left al-Kufa a letter came to them from the Imam -ajfj that said, ‘Send back the servant who has consumed alcohol and remove him from the service.’’ [9] The narrator of the Hadith says: ‘Ali ibn Ziyad al-Saymari wrote a letter to request a ‘Kafan’ (a shroud).

He (Al-Mahdi -ajfj ), wrote back to him, ‘You will need it in the year eighty.’ He died in the year eighty and the shroud was sent to him a few days before his death.’ [10] The End of the Minor Occultation and the start of the Major Occultation: A letter of Imam-e-Zamana -ajfj came to the last representative announcing the end of the minor occultation and the start of the Major occultation, (saying): ‘O Ali bin Mohammed Samari, Allah -azwj may give His best reward to your grieving brothers on your death, which will occur within next six days.

Thus, you better start packing up and do not nominate your deputy while making your last will. Now the Grand occultation will take place and Allah -azwj will not make me reappear until after a long time. This will not happen until people with stone cold hearts will come and fill the earth with cruelty and tyranny.

And few among my Shias, will make claims of meeting with me but, whoever claims to see me before the aggression of Sufyani (who will be the leader of the enemies of Allah -azwj ), he will be a big liar and filthy accuser. [11] The Time of Appearance of Imam-e-Zamana -ajfj : Our 8 th Imam (Ali -asws bin Musa Al-Reza -asws ) says: Allah -azwj would, through him -ajfj , purify the earth from every kind of oppression and remove every type of injustice from it.

He -ajfj is the one -ajfj about whom (his -ajfj ‘Zahoor’) people would doubt and he -ajfj is the one who would have an occultation (‘Ghaibah’) before his -ajfj reappearance. And when he -ajfj arises, the earth shall be lit-up with his -ajfj brilliance. He -ajfj would establish the scales of Justice among the people so that no one may oppress the other. He -ajfj is the one -ajfj for whom the earth would wrap itself and he -ajfj would not throw a shadow (onto the earth).

And he -ajfj is the one by whose name the caller would call out from the sky inviting people to the Imam -ajfj which all the people of the earth would be able to hear.