At that time...

At that time, one who passes by a dead body or a grave will whisper to himself: “How I wish I were like him so that I could be free from this life of abjectness!” At that time, no power, organization or system will be able to prevent all those undesirable occurences, and punish the tyrants and the powerful for their nefarious acts. No cry for the deliverance of the people will be heard.

All the self-assumed champions of human salvation will prove to be traitors and liars, and thus be marginalized, and the people will hope only for a divine savior and a miracle from heaven. At that time when hopelessness has enveloped the entire human race, by divine grace and mercy, Mahdi the Promised One, will reappear after long years of occultation and waiting, for the salvation of mankind; glad tidings from heaven will be heard throughout the world: “O people of the world!

The era of the rule of tyrants has ended and the government of divine justice has begun. The Mahdi has come!” This heavenly voice will breathe the spirit of hope into the hearts of mankind and give relief to those who were deprived and oppressed. Yes, by grasping these points, one can realize the exigency of the emergence of the divine savior and comprehend the importance and value of the justice-spreading government of al-Mahdi ( ‘atfs ).

At this point, we will examine in five chapters the chaotic conditions of the world prior to the advent of the Imam ( ‘a ) from the viewpoint of hadith s. [^1]: For further information on the concepts of guardianship (wilayah) and the guardian (wali/wala), see Murtada Mutahhari, Wilayah: The Station of the Master, trans. Yahya Cooper (Tehran: World Organization for Islamic Services, 1982); Master and Mastership, http://www.al-islam.org/mastership. (Trans.) Previous…