Dying with love for the Master of the Age
By: Ayatullah Shaheed Syed Abdul Husayn Dastaghaib Shirazi
One of my friends related to me: Fifty years back, his 18 years old brother had learnt the Ziyarat Jamiah by heart. The Twelfth Imam had taught it. At last he fell ill. On his deathbed he recited the Ziyarat Jamiah and names of the twelve Imams. What is wonderful is that he said he was in bed for two months due to his serious illness he had becomes like a skeleton, unable to move. But at the last moment of his life when he recited that he remembered all the twelve Imams and so also Imam Mahdi, he got up from his bed. I do not know what this eagerness was, if not the eagerness of love, which makes a dead person alive! How much affinity and affection this youth had for the Imam of the time that it made him arise from his deathbed. When he took the name of his Master he stands up quite upright. Even after that, he once again for giving respect and honor (to the Master) throws himself at the doorstep of his room saying: Welcome, O Master. Then he rises up and then passes away from this world. Such are the things and events of the pasts.
Now our faiths have become weak and hearts devilish. O God! I do not know, in this age of mine, how I shall die? God forbid, lest I be thinking of and in anxiety for this world! Even at the last moment I may worry about all about the world!
Weep for yourself in advance
During these holy nights you read: I am weeping for the hour of my death. When you die, no one weeps for you. If you have a wife, she says: The crown of my head has gone away. If you have a son, he says: I have lost my might. Someone says: My bread earner is no more. No one ever says: In what condition this unfortunate person died? What will happen to this man in his grave? Ali says: Come, for God’s sake, rush to help your dearest thing, that is, rush to help thyself. Weep for your own self. A collective supplication is more precious. It is written in Wasaelush Shia that Imam Sadiq says: If forty persons pray to God together, God answers their prayer.
O Allah! Today we have one thing to ask from You. If You give it, You will have given us everything. If You do not grant it, we are helpless. O God! Make us die with Faith. During this Friday eve, in this night, which is full of mercy, please make this group, one of those lucky ones whom You will protect from hell. On every Friday eve in the holy month of Ramadhan, six hundred thousand people get salvation.[30] Kindly make this gathering one of those lucky ones.
Here I hint towards the last moments of Husain’s life. In the solitary pit of his assassination Husain prays to his Lord: O God! No one is my Lord except You and there is no deity for me except You. He holds such sincere talks with God. O Husain, dear Husain! Neither those innumerable wounds nor the burning of your hungry and thirsty stomach, nothing of the kind, nor the separation of your near and dear ones made you unmindful of your Lord! May I be sacrificed for you, O Husain!
Friday is a holiday
Today is Friday. Islam orders that Muslims must observe it as a holiday. They should take their hands off routine jobs once in a week. Woe unto a Muslim who even on Friday runs after his worldly affairs. One week is sufficient. Reach your religion also on one day. Do universal service. Follow the commands of your religion fully.
Listen to God’s commands about the lawful and unlawful and remember them. It is said that on Friday, come to the Mosque, offer prayer, not solitarily but in congregation. Before the said two units prayer, a qualified and pious, God-fearing speaker should draw the Muslims’ attention towards God, towards the Oneness of God and guide them to correct beliefs. Also he should pay attention to their weekly affairs and political needs. Unfortunately, the Shias are deprived of this benefit of Friday prayer and so also are the Sunnis. What they offer is not the real Friday prayer. What is the most important in the Friday prayer is that the spiritual orator, during his two sermons should correct the belief of Muslims in Allah’s oneness, should awaken the sleeping souls of the audience who were negligent for a week.
They must come to masjid on Friday collectively when the preacher must teach them that this world is not everything, why so much worry and anxiety for the material worldly needs? There are real and permanent things after death. You should have provision for the life after death also.
Source: imamalmahdi.com
Other Links:
Responding to Some Points Raised By Ibn Khaldun (Part 2)
The Existence of the Mahdi is certain
Other Opinions from Ibn Khaldun
People Awaited the Appearance of the Mahdi
The Jurists of Medina and the Mahdi Traditions
