What is the philosophy behind the importance of “expectation” for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi?

One of the beliefs of Muslims and let’s say the followers of the divine religions is the matter of a savior that in a day he will come and fill the world full of justice, and especially in the Shia school of thought we see this matter very obvious.

There is a difference between what we as Shia believe and what some Sunni brothers believe, and that is in the matter of a savior that is alive right now, they say that he will be born in a day and will fill the world full of justice, but we believe he is alive now and he is the immediate son of our eleven Imam, i.e. Imam Hasan Askari peace be upon them both.

The matter of expecting and waiting for the twelfth Imam is so important to the extent that is it considered as one of the most precious acts in Islam.

There is a Narration, narrated from our Infallibles that shows the value of expecting the reappearance of Imam Mahdi; it says:

The one, who dies at the state of the expectation of the reappearance of the twelfth Imam, is like the one who is beside twelfth Imam in his tent.

When we say that expecting is very precious, we mean that it is not just sitting and waiting for the twelfth Imam to come, but rather it means to make ourselves and our society as much as we can ready and prepared for that worldly just government.

Expectation for the reappearance of the twelfth Imam means that you expect a worldly government which is based on divinity and monotheism, expectation for a government of the righteous people, and the fulfillment and realization of the appointment that Allah has made in the holy Quran in chapter Anbiya verse 105:

وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ أَنَّ الْأَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ

“We have written in the psalms, after the remembrance: ‘the righteous among my worshipers shall inherit the earth’ “.

We expect a government in which the monotheism is spread around the world and one rule, one just government, a government which its leader is an infallible Imam, and a government that realizes the meaning of overcoming the righteousness on falsehood and justice on cruelty.

Some people might criticize us and say that it is possible that the twelfth Imam will not reappear in our age and it is possible that he will reappear after hundreds of years, so what is the benefit of such an expectation?

We answer them that expectation of the twelfth Imam in its real meaning (which means to make ourselves and the society as much as possible prepared for that government) has a lot of benefits even though the Imam does not reappear. Let’s mention some of the benefits of that:

1) It makes the individuals and the society dynamic and full of hope, because the one that knows that all of these committed cruelties will end in a day, he/she can struggle with cruelty better and can tolerate it easier.

2) It helps us to be away from the corruption of the societies, because the real waiter of the twelfth Imam wants and tries to be ready for that very important event and to be as an appropriate soldier through not committing the sins and being spiritually pure.

3) It helps us to struggle with cruelty and not accepting that. A real waiter never submits before the cruel government.

It is interesting that the enemies of Islam have realized this important point. They mentioned it in a conference in Israel that the factor of the mobility and dynamism of Shia is because of two things, one is believing in the red uprising which means the tragic event of Karbala in which Imam Hussein and his faithful companions got martyred and this event is very meaningful and informative for the Shia, and the second factor is the green expectation which means the expectation for the reappearance of the twelfth Imam.

An interesting and hope-giving point here is that according to Shia beliefs, some of the real followers and waiters of the twelfth Imam will be resurrected at the time of the reappearance of the Imam, this belief is called Raj’at( which literally means returning).

————————–

Source:

Maaref.porsemani.ir