 Chapter
3 |
Victory News Magazine |
Absolute Rejection of all Oppression and Tyranny
When we are called upon to have faith in the Mahdi as a particular individual, alive, who lives like we do and waits as we wait, the purpose is to instil in us the notion that the absolute rejection of all oppression and tyranny, whose embodiment is the Mahdi, is personified, in the very present in a waiting leader who rejects all injustice and who will appear in a state when he is free from any impediment arising from oath of allegiance to any tyrant, as reported in the traditions. Faith in him stands for faith in this living embodiment of unflagging rejection of injustice and standing by his side.
The Day of Relief (intizar al faraj)
Mahdi Feels Our Pain
Similarly, we see that this embodiment gives a new impetus to the notion and transforms it, at a higher degree, into a source of resourcefulness and strength. Further, it also gives every individual taking a stand against injustice comfort and consolation and lightens the pain of injustice and privation as he realizes that his Imam and leader also shares and feels these pains as a contemporary human being, as he is not merely a notion relating to the future.
Some objections about the Mahdi ('a)
However, at the same time, the existence of
this contemporary person, has led to negative attitudes towards the
notion of the Mahdi itself among a group of people, on account of
the difficulty to conceive such a personification.
Hence they ask: If the Mahdi is a living
person who has been contemporaneous with successive generations
for more than ten centuries and will continue to be such for the
coming generations until he appears on the world stage, how is it
possible for him to live for a such a long time and remain immune
to the natural laws which cause old age and senility in a much
lesser time, leading ultimately to death. Is this not practically
impossible?
They also ask: Why should God, the Glorious
and the Exalted, be so keen in respect of this particular person
to suspend the natural laws for his sake and carry out that which
is impossible to prolong his life and save him for the promised
day? Has mankind become barren and incapable of producing capable
leaders? Why should not the promised day be left for a leader to
be born at the dawn of that era, someone who would grow up like
other people and carry out his role gradually until the world is
filled with justice and equity after having been filled with
injustice and oppression?
They also ask: If the Mahdi is the name of a
particular person, the son of the Eleventh Imam from among the
Imams of the Prophet's family (`a), who was born in 256/870 and
whose father died in 260/873-4, this implies that he was a small
child, not exceeding five years, at the time of his father's
death, and this age is not sufficient for covering the stages of
intellectual and spiritual perfection under his father's tutelage.
Therefore, how could he have acquired the preparedness for
fulfilling his great religious and intellectual role?
They also ask: If the leader is well
prepared, then what is the need for this long waiting extending
over centuries? Hasn't the world witness enough of social ordeals
and calamities that might call for his appearance on the world
scene for the establishment of justice?
They further ask: How can we possibly believe
in the existence of the Mahdi even if we were to presume its
possibility? Is it justifiable to believe in the truth of this
kind of hypothesis without scientific or religious evidence in its
favour? Do a few traditions narrated from the Prophet ('s), the
degree of whose authenticity is unknown, suffice for accepting the
above-mentioned hypothesis?
They have also questions concerning the role
he is destined to play on the promised day. Is it possible for an
individual to play such a great and decisive global role? A mere
individual, however great he may be, how can he create history by
himself and usher in a new era? For the seeds and roots of
historical movements grow and develop under certain objective
conditions and their contradictions; the greatness of the
individual only places him in a position to channel these
objective circumstances for bringing about practical changes to
achieve the sought solutions?
They also raise another question: How can one
imagine that this person will accomplish the task of bringing
about such a terrific change and achieve a decisive victory of
justice and its message over the entire systems of injustice,
oppression and tyranny, despite the fact that they enjoy authority
and influence and possess the means of mass destruction, along
with tremendous scientific capability as well as political, social
and military power?
These are questions which are raised
regarding this issue and they are posed in one form or another.
But the real motives behind these questions are not just
intellectual. There is a psychological reason behind them as well,
consisting of the feeling of awe about the reality dominating the
global scene and the slightness of any chance of altering it
fundamentally. The greater the awe produced by this reality
dominating the world through the course of history, the more are
the doubts and the questions that are raised. This is how
defeatism and the feeling of pettiness and weakness lead man
psychologically into a state of severe impotence at the mere idea
of a great global change that would liberate the world from all
its contradictions and injustices that have marked its history and
give it a new content based on justice and truth. It is this
feeling of impotence that gives rise to the doubts concerning this
picture and inspires the attempt to reject it for some reason or
another.
Here we will take up take up these questions, briefly examining each of them to the extent permitted by the scope of these pages.
| http://www.victorynewsmagazine.com |
©All rights reserved 2008. VictoryNewsMagazine.com
