Editors Notes

Author’s Preface

Chapter Three: The Proofs About The Reappearance of The Mahdi,

Section One

Section Two

Section Three

Section Four

Section Five

Section Six

Section Seven

Section Eight

Section Nine

Section Ten

Section Eleven

Section Twelve

Section Thirteen

Section Fourteen

Section Fifteen

Section Sixteen

Section Seventeen

Section Eighteen

Section Nineteen

Section Twenty

Section Twenty-One

Section Twenty-Two

Section Twenty-Three

Section Twenty-Four

Section Twenty-Five

Section Twenty-Six

Section Twenty-Seven

Section Twenty-Eight

Section Twenty-Nine

Section Thirty

Section Thirty-One

Section Thirty-Two

Section Thirty-Three

Section Thirty-Four

Section Thirty-Five

Section Thirty-Six

Section Thirty-Seven

Section Thirty-Eight

Section Thirty-Nine

Section Forty

Section Forty-One

Section Forty-Two

Section Forty-Three

Section Forty-Four

Section Forty-Five

Section Forty-Six

Section Forty-Seven

Section Forty-Eight

Section Forty-Nine

Section Fifty

Section Fifty-One

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

This text, which is available in two volumes and is authored by
Ayatullah Lutfullah as-Safi al-Gulpaygani, presents a handful of
precious narrations about the 12th Awaited Imam. The narrations in this
volume focus on the reappearance of the Awaited Imam and this text
presents the implications and interpretations of these authentic
traditions.


Selected Narrations about the Twelfth Imam volume 2

Section Thirty-Seven
====================

The traditions that indicate he will return the people to guidance, the
Quran, and the sunna

Comprised of many traditions

682. Nahj al-balāgha[^1]: One of his sermons, peace be on him, in which
he mentioned the bloody battles:

He will direct desires towards guidance while people will have turned
guidance towards desires, and he will turn their views to the direction
of the Quran while the people will have turned the Quran to their views.
[Before this enjoiner of good, matters will deteriorate] until war will
rage among you with full force, showing forth its teeth, with udders
full of sweet milk but with sour tip.

Beware! It will be tomorrow and the morrow will come soon with things
which you do not know. The man in power, not from this crowd, will take
to task all those who were formerly appointed for their ill deeds and
the earth will pour forth its internal treasures and fling before him
easily her keys. He will show you the just way of behavior and revive
the Quran and the sunna which have become lifeless [among people].

The topic of this section has been mentioned in numerous narrations.
This is because returning the people to the Book [of Allah] and the
Sunna is one of the greatest feats of the Mahdī, peace be on him, and
one of his main tasks. One can rarely find a tradition that doesn’t
directly or indirectly establish this fact.

Thus, only the person who fulfills this promises can be the Mahdī. He
will not rise except to establish the Truth and he will not make the
people rise but to return them to the Book of Allah and the Sunna of His
Prophet. The world will not be filled with justice and fairness except
through him. Allah’s affairs will not be manifested and Islam will not
defeat the other religions except by the return of the people to Allah’s
Book and the Sunna of His Prophet. Reformative actions will not be
accomplished but through him and he will not appear, rise, and emerge
except for the establishment of the sharia and for the implementation of
the laws of Allah and His religion.

[^1]: Nahj al-balāgha, trans. Sayed Ali Reza (Iran: Sayed Mujtaba Musavi
Lari Foundation), sermon 138; Yanābī\` al-mawadda, chap. 72, p. 437,
which says: “The Mahdī will direct desires . . .”; Shaykh Muḥammad
\`Abduh—the Egyptian jurist—and ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd have both stated that
this section of Nahj al-balāgha refers to the Mahdī.


