The true sense of “waiting for the appearance of the Present...

The true sense of “waiting for the appearance of the Present Imam” also has a similar meaning. “Waiting for the Imam” does not mean that we should just let the affairs of ourselves, our family, our community and society go on from bad to worst, hoping that the Imam would come and reform all the corruption and disorder.

If our “waiting” is based on true belief in, and knowledge of, the Imam, we will try our best to reform our behaviours, our way of living, our way of thinking, etc, hoping that when the Imam appears, he shall be pleased to see us. Going back to the example given above, before our family member or friend returns back from where he is working or studying, we stay in contact with him by the means of correspondence and telephone.

In the same way, during the period of the occultation of the Present Imam, there exists a “postal system” between the Shiahs and their Imam. Of course, in this “postal system” only we write the letters; nay, rather our actions and deeds write the letter on our behalf. To understand this more clearly, read the following: According to our ahadith , every Thursday night, the scrolls of deeds of all human beings are presented to the Present Imam.

The cause of our Imam’s happiness and pride or sorrow and grief (whatever the case may be), are the scrolls of deeds of the Shiahs. When he looks at the scrolls of deeds of the Shiahs and finds that most of them are full of wrong and un-Islamic deeds, his sorrow and grief know no bound. So, in other words, these scrolls of deeds are the weekly letters which we send to our Imam during the period of the occultation.

If we want to keep the Imam happy and proud, we should write good news in our letters to him; and that means we have to be careful in our daily lives and see that whatever we do is not against the laws of Shariah. In conclusion, we can say that the one who is truly waiting for the Imam ( muntadhir ) is one who feels the presence of his Imam all the time, and tries to live in such a way which would make the Imam happy.

At the end of this article, I would like to present the translation of an invocation ( du‘a) which has reached to us from our Present Imam, Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi (may Allah speed his appearance). By reading this du‘a’, every member of the Islamic community can understand what the Imam expects from him. O Allah!