English - The Story of Ahikar, Grand Vizier of Assyria.pdf
The purpose of life during the occultation of
1. The Purpose of Life during the Occultation of the 12th Imam Why is this Topic Important?
2. Purpose of Life What do you think the Purpose is ? Look around yourself
3. Let’s ask the Holy Qur’an وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ [51:56] And I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should Worship Me.
7. Why does the Imam not come? What have we learnt from History? Are we ready to receive him?
8. What should be our Role? Have a correct World View based on our Purpose of Life Work towards growth in all areas; the primary growth being Spiritual “What are my talents?” “How can I use my talents to benefit my community and humanity at large”
9. Reading List The Awaited Savior by AyatullahBaqir As-Sadr AyatullahMutahhari Imam Al-Mahdi – Just leader of Humanity by Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini
Editor's Notes
Start with Football match exampleWhy is this topic important?Purpose of Life: As Human beings it is innate in our nature to know what our purpose in life is. Without a purpose life seems meanlingless; which causes one to feel empty and sad from inside. It is something as Human Beings we need to knowAs Shias we believe that Allah (swt) always has a representative on this earth to guide mankind. At this point in time the representative is the 12th Imam and he is in Occultation. So it is important to ask ourselves what are our responsibilities during this time? What do we have to do that aligns ourselves with the purpose of our life?Let us Start by discussing the Purpose of Life
What is your opinion about the Purpose of Life. Observe yourself & the world around you. You see everything is moving in a direction of growth. The Big Bang Universe, Stars, Planets, human beings, animals & plants. An element that is common is growth. We all give different levels of importance to growth. Some give to physical, some financial, some spiritual, some to their ego. Let us look at the Qur’an what it talks about the Purpose of Life and the kind of growth we should give.
Though there are several verses that talk about the Purpose of Man, the one that is more explicit and clear is this one. The Purpose is to Worship. What does Worship mean? I used to think worship means to say prayers all the time. But is that Worship? AllamahTabatabai gives a very good Explantion of this. He poses the question “What’s so great about Islam compared to other religions?” All religions say to do good things, so what makes Islam better than the others? The creed of Islam is “There is no God but Allah” other religions when the followers worship idols or imperfect images; their growth is limited only to the extent of the image that they have of their God. If we worship Allah, then our potential of Growth is infinite; therefore we can grow infinitely and become better, while others will be limited in their growth.
Starting from the time of Prophet Adam we see that God did not send down the Qur’an to Adam. He just gave him basic laws ‘cause at the time mankind was a baby. Examples you find miracles of earlier Prophets, Prophet Noah and Prophet Ibrahim to do with Nature. The flood and turning fire cold. As time progressed we see there is some level of sophistication to the messages of the Prophets and their miracles. The Miracles became more complex in line with the progress of man’s mind. People had some command over nature, and they were building tools & tall structures. Accordingly their miracles become to combat that. Prophet Musa’s staff turned to a Snake. He didn’t just bring simple laws; but more complex ones to address the needs of the people.When Prophet Isa came; he brought back spirituality in the people; and the miracles were more to do with medicine. Prophet Mohammed’s time the level people had risen. They arrived at a stage where they appreciated literature & intellectual arguments. Accordingly the miracle was also an intellectual one which in the form of the Qur’an.Imam Ali – Contribution to Political Theories & Law in socieitesImam Hassan & Hussain – Protecting the Ummah from M + Y; and giving a grand unmatched sacrifice that became an inspiration for future revolutions in the world. Indian Freedom movement; Islamic Revolution; HezbollahImam Zainul-Abideen; Contributed spirituality dimension into religion through the suffering he went throughImam Ali:He guides the Muslim community in Social Values & what a Just social system should be like. Social Morality & Social Equality. What are the rights and responsibilites of a Muslim Leader; what do we understand by government. The Muslim community would be not where it is today. Imam Hasan & Imam Hussain:Without them, it would have been Yazid & Muawiya's Islam that would have been prevailing today. Yazid: Tied horses on the grave of the Prophet; drank Alcohol in the mosque of the Prophet; In Mecca they raised the Kabaah to the ground. Had Imam Hussain would not have been there, what would have been the state of Islam?Imam ZainulAbideen:The Huge contribution he give to Sprituality. How do you personally connect with God. For a person who has lost everything; his family killed and mutialated; he acquires such a bearing soul that he pours out this grand ocean of strength within himself because he totally connects himself to Allah. He established a School; whose graduates one of them is the 5th Imam. Spiritual Growth5th & 6th Imam:Political Turmoil, warfare. They focus on Intellectual development and go about setting the Intellectual identity of the Muslim Community. Theologically and Legally. Kafi, hadith are from the era of 5th & 6th Imams. Even the people 4 schools of thoughts of the AhleSunnah, were students of the 6th Imam. So we see Intellectual GrowthWe'll give up temporaralleadership & take up spiritual leadership7th Imam:Foreign ideas were being imported. InstitutionizedKhums at the level of the Government. Collected money to build roads, infrastructure, Schools.We see in the rest of the Imams that when the Muslim community was facing Political, Legal, Social, Economic, Intellectual, Theological challenges the Imams were guiding the community and giving it an identity. 9th10th & 11th Imams are wrapping it up. They're saying during our absense look at the people who are narrating our sayings. It is as if by that time that everything that the Muslim community needed was potentially there. Shias were expected to evolve with it over time
We see a future where all the efforts of the Prophets and Imams come to a fruition during the time of Imam Mahdi. A very hopeful future where the Imam will establish a Just Social & Economic System, where spirituality values will reign. Let us look what our scholars have said about how the Human civilization will be like when the Imam will be ruling:<excerpt from Book 1><excerpt from Book 2>At this stage we ask ourselves, why does the Imam not come now? Hasn’t he been in Ghaibat for long enough, 100s of years.
Why does the Imam not come?Just like we have seen that Allah sent Prophets and messages only when the minds of the people are ready and matured enough to receive it. So we ask ourselves, are we ready to receive him? Are our minds mature enough to help him establish a Just Government for Mankind? Have we become spiritually pure and intellectually developed to establish with him the vision? If not, then we will waste him just like we wasted the past Imams.Unfortunately the kind of Intizaar we do of our Imam is a very passive one; while we should be doing an active intizaar. We should be preparing the ground for the Imam to bring out the revolution of a Just . As followers of Imam Mahdi the savior of mankind; I ask:“Why are we not excelleing? Why are we not contributing to Humanity?”“Where are those minds who would engage with the Qura’an and Hadith and would say to this world that we can give to you & create a Just Economical System”Where are those minds who can engage fully with the human learnings with the added bonus of the light of the Qur’an and HadithWhere are those minds that talk of Human rights in the United Nations and the need for spirituality and spiritual excellence.Where are those philosophers that promote morality at the level of Humanity beyond the considerations of heaven and hellWhere are those engineers, where are those scientists, where are those astronomers to explore Mars, Venus and beyond.I’m not asking these questions to the broader Muslim community, but to the followers of Imam Ali, Imam Jafar and Imam Mahdi (as). If we are preparing for our Imam to establish a Global system for Humanity, why have we failed to produce any of these? Do you not feel our Imam (as) will need mature minds to bring about his revolution?Let us read some of the quotes of our Scholars have said how we should be like for the Imam to come:“:”
Now we’re not going to get scientists, astronomers, economicsts, business all in one day. This is a process that takes time. What is most important as a first step is to have the vision of the world that Imam Mahdi (as) will bring about and to acknowlege that we have to embrace our purpose in life that is to grow and mature our minds so that we have the capacity to receive him.Once we acknowledge this; then we start taking action in the right direction towards growth in all areas of life. Ask yourselves “What are my talents?” then “How can I use my talents to benefit my community and humanity at large”
