The Last Luminary and Ways to Delve Into the Light

Responsibility 61: Making Supplication for an Early Advent

Thee believers should supplicate for an early return of Imam al-Zaman (ajtf) and this should be carried out every day and night rather if possible, it should be done every hour of the day!

There are numerous supplications which have been related from the Infallibles (as) and have been preserved in the books of prayers and supplications in regards to praying for an early advent, however in this work, we relate the prayer[^1] given to us from Imam ‘Ali b. Musa al-Riďa (as):

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

“O Allah! Defend Your close servant, Your representative and Your proof over your creation, Your mouthpiece who speaks on Your behalf, the speaker with Your wisdom, Your eye that sees with Your permission, Your witness on Your servants, the master and the striver (for the sake of Allah) the seeker of Your protection, Your sincere worshipper. Keep him safe from the evil of all that which you have created and made, and that which You fashioned and formed.

And protect him from his front and from behind, from his right and his left, from above him and from beneath; with your protection that preserves the one whom you protect! And keep your messenger and his (i.e. Imam al-Mahdi) forefathers, the pillars of your religion, safe through him. Include him in your deposit that never diminishes, and with your proximity that is never covered, and with your protection and power that are never defeated!

Secure him by your impenetrable security in which one who takes asylum is not forsaken, put him under Your guardianship in which one who is put under is not left (unsecured) aid him with Your might help assist him with Your undefeatable army strengthen him with Your strength and put Your Angels at his disposal, support the one who supports him and oppose the one who opposes him, dress him with Your fortified armor, and make the Angels surround him.

O Allah! Through him, patch up the differences bring order out of confusion, eradicate oppression, manifest justice, and adorn the Earth by a lengthy life for him. Support him with (Divine) assistance, aid him by putting terror in his enemies’ hearts; strengthen his supporters, thwart his enemies, destroy those who declare war on him, annihilate those who double-cross him and through him, kill the chiefs, pillars and supports of infidelity.

Through him, crush the heads of deviation, the innovators of heresies, the eradicators of the sunnah and the supporters of misguidance. Through him, humiliate the haughty tyrants, and terminate the infidels and all the atheists (wherever they are) in the east or the west of the world, on the lands or in the oceans, in the plains or on the mountains, until You do not leave a single one of them and no trace of them is left.

O Allah! Purify your lands from them (the disbelievers) and heal your servants’ hearts from them, honor the faithful believers through him (the Imam), and through him, revive the norms of the messengers and the ways of the prophets.

Through him, renew the signs of Your religion that were erased and Your judgments which were distorted, until You rekindle Your religion through him and by his hands, as well-defined, pure and sound as it was, free from distortions and heresies, and until You illumine the darkness of injustice (by means of his justice).

Extinguish the fires of disbelief though him, and elucidate the positions of truth and the misunderstood issues of justice, for he is Your servant whom You have chosen for Yourself, and whom You have selected, and whom You have protected against sins, and from whom You have removed all defects, and whom You have purified from filth saved from all impurity.

O Allah! We shall testify for him on the Day of Resurrection and on the day when the catastrophe will take place that he: did not commit a single sin (that he did not) practice any unlawful thing nor perform any act of disobedience, nor miss any act of obedience (to Allah), nor violate any sanctified thing; nor distort any precept, nor did he change any law.

(We testify that) he is the guide and the rightly guided, the pure and the pious, the immaculate, the approved and the righteous. O Allah! Grant him for his own self, his family, his children, his offspring, his nation and all of his subjects all that which makes him delighted and all that which pleases him, put all kingdoms under the sphere of his authority, the near and the remote, the powerful and the weak, until You cause his rule to prevail on every (false) rule, and his right will overcome all the wrong.

O Allah! Lead us, through him, to the course of guidance; the greatest path; the middle path to which those who had gone too far will return to (repentant) and those who had fallen back will catch up with. Strengthen us in carrying out the acts of obedience to him and make us stand firm in following him.

Grant us the favor of adherence to him and include us with his faction as those who act upon his commands with steadfastness and are seeking his pleasure by exhorting (each other) towards him until you gather us on the Resurrection Day among his supporters and helpers and those who consolidate his authority.

O Allah! Make us do all these things without any doubt, confusion, ostentation or seeking reputation so that we do not rely upon him except for You and we do not seek from him anything other than Your proximity and put us up in his vicinity and place us with him in Paradise and protect us against weariness, laziness and lethargy.

Include us with those whom You make helpers of Your religion and whom You make the aider of Your close servant and do not replace us with others, for it is easy for You to put others in our places, but this would be extremely difficult upon us (to bear).

O Allah! Send blessings upon his (the Noble Prophet’s) representatives and on the leaders after him fulfill their wishes; increase their ages, give value to their support; make perfect for them that, which helps them in carrying out your will, strengthen their foundations.

Make us their helpers and the supporters of Your religion for they are the sources of Your Words the treasures of Your knowledge, the supports of (the belief in) Your Oneness, the pillars of Your religion, the ones in authority of Your command, the closest of Your servants, the well-chosen ones among Your creatures; the selected descendants of Your Prophet peace and Allah’s mercy and blessings be upon him and them.”

As is seen in the traditions from the Ahlul Bayt (as), we have been told that making haste in any action goes against the principle of patience and submission to the will of Allah. However, supplicating and asking Allah to hasten the advent of the Imam is not from the negative, despised and prohibited forms of haste.

Supplicating for the speedy advent of the Imam is the epitome of certainty, true faith and complete submission to the will of Allah  and complying with ‘predestination’.

In reality, these supplications are a manifestation of the truth that the advent of Imam al-Mahdi (ajtf) and the gathering of all of the causes needed for him to make his advent are only in the hands of Allah and that his advent and dawn can only be made possible through His permission. Therefore in reality, these prayers show our belief and conviction in the existence and life of the Imam and that he will make his advent.

The recitation of these prayers is a manifestation of the pure certainty and true faith in the Imam, his uprising and revolt, and is nothing other than exercising patience and submission in the presence of the wishes of Allah.

[^1]: MiSbah al-Mujtahajjid, pg. 409; Biharul Anwar, vol. 95, pg. 330, sec. 115, no. 4; Mafatih al-Jinan, sec. Three, Part Ten after Du’a al-Nudbah, Du’a al-’Ahd and Du’a al-Nur.