Chapter Five: Mentioning the events and stories of those, who went before Imam Zaman (mgehr) in the Major Occultation
It Includes all of those who already knew him when visited him, or those who got to know him after the visitation based on the definitive evidences; or those who faced a miracle by him; whether they were awake or sleeping. besides, those who met a trace of his blessed existence.
Indeed, our Shaykh [Mirza Husayn Nuri] in the book al-Najm al-ThÄqib, has narrated 100 anecdotes in this topic. But in this blessed book, we will suffice to mention twenty-three of these anecdotes, also two of them are mentioned in the book MafÄtīḥ al-JinÄn, which contain the anecdotes of Hajj Ali BaqdÄdi and Haj Sayyid Aḥmad Rashti.
The first anecdote: The story of IsmÄ’īl Herqali
In the book Kashf al-Ghumma The grand scholar, Ali Ibn ‘Isa al-IrbiliÌ„, has said, ‘A group of reliable brothers have narrated the story of a person in the city of Ḥillah. He was called IsmÄ’īl ibn Haá¹£an Herqali. He was from a village named Herqal and passed away in my time. But I had not the chance to visit him.
his son, Shams al DÄ«n explained to me:
[Once,] my father told, when he was young, he had got a wound called “Tuthah†[A thymus-like fleshy wound]. The wound was as big as a human’s hand, and it was on his left thigh. Each spring, his wound would burst and blood, and pus would come out of it. Its pain had made him unable to do any job! However, he went to Ḥillah, visited Radhi al DÄ«n [mgbph], Ali ibn ṬÄwÅ«s and complained against it.
There, the Sayyid [ibn ṬÄwÅ«s] called for all of the surgeons in Ḥillah. They visited him and agreeably claimed, ‘This Tuthah is just on the brachial There is no cure for it, except for cutting it. And if we do that, the vessel may be cut and if so, he [IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l] will lose his life! As it is a big risk, we will not commit it.’
Yet, the Sayyid told IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l, ‘I will go to BaqdÄd, and then take you there too. I want to ask the doctors and surgeons in BaqdÄd to visit you. May they know more [than those of Ḥillah] and they can heal it!’
Anyhow, after the Sayyid asked them to visit [IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l] in BaqdÄd, all of them came to the same conclusion and excused him! Well, IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l got disappointed. The Sayyid told him, ‘The Almighty God will accept your prayer, though there is such an impurity that can be infected too! Now if you tolerate it, you will be rewarded by God!’
IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l opened up, ‘I will go to SÄmarrÄʾ and please The [infallible] Guiding ImÄms (pbu th).’ Then he headed to Samarah
The author of Kashf al-ghumma said, ‘I heard from his son, that his father said, ‘When I reached to that enlightened Holy Shrine, I went to visit the Holy Shrine of glorified ImÄms, ImÄm AlÄ« an-NaqÄ« (pbuh) and ImÄm Ḥasan AskarÄ« (pbuh). Then I went to Sardab1 and I stayed there overnight; supplicating the Almighty God and calling Sahib Al-Amr (mgehr) for help. The next morning, I went to the Tigris, washed my clothes there, performed pilgrimage Ghusl2, filled my ewer with water, and then headed the Holy Shrine to visit there again.
Before reaching the castle, I saw four riders getting near. Since a group of nobles was living there, I thought that they might be one of them. But when they got close, I saw that there were two young men carrying swords, one of them was a teenager, and the other was an old man with a pure face and holding a spear. There was also another man, hanging his sword belt over his shoulder, covered it with a cloth, and wearing a turban while allowing one of its ends to hang down over his front. He  he was holding a spear.
I was standing there until they went out of my sight. I was deeply sorrowing, sitting there for an hour, then I came back to Mashhad. ‘You seem overwhelmed, is there anything wrong with you?’ the people of Mashhad said as soon as they saw me. I replied, ‘No’. They asked, ‘Have you argued or had a fight with anyone?’ I responded, ‘No, just tell me did you see the horsemen who passing by here?’
They said, ‘They were grandees’. I replied, ‘They were not grandees, one of them were the Imam (pbuh)’. ‘The Shaykh, or the one with the Thawb?’ they asked. I said, ‘The one with the thawb’. They wondered, ‘Did you show him your wound?’ I responded, ‘Yes, he squeezed it and it hurt a lot. He untied my leg bandage, there was no sign of that injury. Due to my great astonishment, I did doubt and I opened the other dressing around my thigh, but saw no trace!’
Meanwhile, the people rushed at me and tore my clothes to pieces. If the people of Mashhad did not save me, I would be suffocated under the people’s rush. The commotion reached a man who was the supervisor of Mesopotamia, he came and heard the story, and then went to write about what happened. That night I stayed there and in the morning a group of people came to farewell me. Two men accompanied me, and others went back.
The next morning as I arrived the entrance of Baghdad, I saw many people have gathered at the bridge. They would ask the name and lineage of whoever arrived! As I arrived and they heard my name, they rushed at me and tore the clothes, I had recently worn.
They returned, ‘Yes’. He asked about the remedy for it. They all claimed, ‘The only way is to cut it, and if we do so, it is unlikely for him to survive. He asked, ‘If he survives by fate, how long does it take for this wound to be healed?. They said in response, ‘That injury will last for at least two months, after which it may heal, but it will leave a white scar that no hair will grow over it. He asked again, ‘How many days have you not seen his wound?’
They said, ‘It is the tenth day.’ Then the minister called them forward and bared my thigh. But they saw it does not differ from the other thigh, and there is no trace of the injury! There, one of the doctors who was a Christian, yelled of surprise and wondered,
‘By God, it has been done by Christ!’.
He meant, ‘I swear to God that, it cannot be healed, but by the miracle of [prophet] Jesus, the son of Mary (pbuh)’.
The minister said, ‘Now that it is not done by yours, I know who has done that’. When the Caliph was aware of the story, he asked for the minister. Then the minister took along the doctors to Caliph. There, Al-Mustansir asked me to tell the story, and when I told him, he ordered his servant to bring a sack containing thousands of dinars. Then he advised me, ‘Spend this money for yourself’. I returned, ‘I can not spend even a bit of it’. He said, ‘Who are you afraid of?â€.
he returned, ‘Of the one who has done it! Because he stated, ‘Don’t get anything from Abu Jaʿfar!’ And the caliph became sorrowful, and cried.
In addition, the author of Kashf al Qammah mentioned, ‘One of the good events, happened when I retold what happened to a crowd, one day. When I ended it, I realized that a person in the crowd was Ismael’s son, Shams al Din Muḥammad. Well, I hadn’t known him. So, I was shocked and wondered, ‘Did you see your father’s thigh, when it was wounded?’ He replied, ‘Those days, I was a small boy! But when he got over, I saw his thigh. The hair grew from there, and there was no trace of any wound.’’
Every year, my father used to come to BaqdÄd and head to SÄmarrÄʾ. He would stay there for a long time, cried, regret and hoped to visit the Excellency [ImÄm MahdÄ« (mgehr)] once again. He would walk here and there, but he didn’t have that blessing chance again. As far as I know, he visited SÄmarrÄʾ for forty times more and had the honor of that pilgrimage. Yet, he left the world while he regretted seeing SÄhib al Amr [ImÄm MahdÄ« (mgehr)].
- Sardab means the basement or cellar of a building. In Shia history, the Holy Sardab refers to the basement of His majesty Ḥasan Askarī’s (pbuh) building in Samara. It is a holy place because ImÄm AlÄ« an-NaqÄ«(pbuh), ImÄm Ḥasan AskarÄ« (pbuh), and ImÄm MahdÄ« (mgehr) were living there.
- A Ghusl that is performed before visiting a holy Shrine of an ImÄm.