learning more about the promised saviour.

And it has been mentioned in a narration by Saqr Ä«bn Abi Dolaf, that he said:

[Once] I asked his majesty ImÄm Muḥammad TaqÄ« (pbuh), ‘Why did they call his Excellency (mgehr) “QÄ’imâ€?

His Majesty stated: “Because he will still be ImÄm, [even] after his remembrance is forgotten, and after most of the people who believed in his ImÄmate, turn apostate.

Also, ʾAbÅ« Ḥamza al-ThumÄlÄ« said:

I asked His Majesty ImÄm Muḥammad BaqÄ«r (pbuh),’ O’, [grand] son of The Messenger of God (pbuh&h)! All of you [12 infallible ImÄm] rise by righteous, don’t  you?’, His majesty reacted: “Yes, we all rise by righteousâ€. I kept on: “So, why did they call just the Excellency SahÄ«b al ‘Amr (mgehr) as “QÄ’imâ€?

His Majesty stated: “When my grandfather, ImÄm Ḥusayn (pbuh) martyred, angels began to cry and lament to God, and said,’ O’ God, our Lord! Are you going to ignore those who slayed the one you selected “grandson of your beloved prophet (pbuh&h) and the best of creaturesâ€?

Then, the Almighty God stated, ‘O’ my angels! I swear by my honor and glory, I will verily avenge him, even if it lasts too much!

There,  the Almighty God removed the obscuring barrier and revealed the lights of ImÄms who were ImÄam Ḥusayn (pbuh)’s offspring, and the angels become happy. Then they saw one of the lights among them praying. There, The Almighty God stated, ‘I will avenge them, by mean of the standing one.

FaqÄ«r said, ‘In the sixth chapter, I will mention words that necessitate the people to stand up as praising him, when they hear this blessed name [“QÄ’imâ€].’

Seventh is Muḥammad (pbuh&h). It is the best, main and divine name of The Excellency (mgehr). In addition, based on both private and public successive narrations, the Messenger of God (pbuh&h) stated, ‘MahdÄ« (mgehr) and I have the same name’.  And in …it reads, ‘Abu’l- QÄsim, Muḥammad ibn al- Haá¹£an. He is Hujjat Allah al- Qa’im.

 

Mind that, according to many reliable narrations, the sanctity of this blessed name is to be honored. So they ought not to use it, in every councils and forums, until The Excellency (mgehr)’s very delighting emergence. This rule belongs to The Excellency (mgehr), and it is definite by Imamiyah1 elders who are Islamic jurists, Mutakallimūn[2] 2, Muḥaddithūn[3].

Moreover, based on the words of the chief Shaykh, Haá¹£an ibn MÅ«sá an-NawbakhtÄ«[4], this rule is a feature of Imamiyah religion. None of them [the followers of the religion] have told something against it, till the time of Khawaja Nasir al-Din al-TÅ«sÄ« [5]. The late [Khawaja] gave the permission. Again, no one after him said something against it, but the author of “Kashf al-Ghummaâ€[6],

 

 

1-     It is one of the schools found in the Shi’a besides Zaidiyah and Ismailiyah. Imamiyah is also referred to as the Ja’fari school or the Twelve Imams (Itsna Ashariyah). Followers of the Imamiyah sect believe in twelve Imam Maksum after the Messenger of Allah. In the Imamiyah Shi’a school, the use of Shi’a words and terms absolutely refers to this school of the Twelve Imams; but in the field of theology this term is a general term which includes three schools of Shi’a.

2-     Murtada Mutahhari describes KalÄm as a discipline devoted to discuss “the fundamental Islamic beliefs and doctrines which are necessary for a Muslim to believe in. It explains them, argues about them, and defends them. (see also Five Pillars of Islam). There are many possible interpretations as to why this discipline was originally called so; one is that the widest controversy in this discipline has been about whether the “Word of God”, as revealed in the Qur’an, can be considered part of God’s essence and therefore not created, or whether it was made into words in the normal sense of speech, and is therefore created. Now, the people expert in KalÄm are called “MutakallimÅ«nâ€.

3-     MuḥaddithÅ«n are expert and knowledgeable in AḥÄdÄ«th.

4-     He was a Persian and leading Shi’a theologian and philosopher in the first half of the 10th century. The NawbakhtÄ« family boasted a number of scholars famous at the AbbÄsid court of HÄrÅ«n al-RashÄ«d. Al-Haá¹£an ibn MÅ«sá is best known for his book about the Shi’a sects titled Firaq al-Shi’a.

5-     He was a Persian polymath, architect, philosopher, physician, scientist, and theologian. One of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam, he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. He was a Twelver Muslīm. The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) considered Tūsī to be the greatest of the later Persian scholars.

6-      “Lit: lifting the hardship in knowing the Imams†is an Arabic book by Baha’ al-Din ‘Ali b. ‘Isa al-Irbili (d.692/1293), one of Shi’a scholars in the 7th/13th century. This book includes biographies, virtues and miracles of the Fourteen Infallibles (pbu th) and is organized into two sections.

 

 

 

To be continued…