"Imam Mahdi Sahib Al Asr Wazzaman (aj) Helps all Those Who Call on him When in Distress"

By Prof Ghada Ramahi

Prof Ghada Ramahi, Palestinian born, received her formal education in the U.S.A. Upon finishing her Ph.D. training in molecular genetics and virology, she realized that Western science is neither "objective" or value-free, rather it is highly subjective and used for political agendas. Her teaching and research interest include: multicultural perspectives on science and technology; history and philosophy of Western and non-Western sciences; technology and society.

Ghada Ramahi currently works at Zayed University in the U.A.E.

She has narrated about the help of Imam Mahdi (aj) to her in the Bait Allah Al-Haram during the Hajj pilgrimage.

For a period of time, I have been enduring a big test and great ibtela'. I have asked Allah (swt) to deliver me from this big test for the fear that I might fail and not pass. My waseelah to Allah (swt) was Ahlul Bait ('a). I learned from books that Sahib Al Asr Wazzaman (aj) is always in Hajj.

So, when my husband and I made the niyyat to make Hajj last year, involuntarily I found my heart supplicating "Ya Allah, if you accept my Hajj and if it is in Your Will to deliver me from my test, please give me a sign from my Imam, Sahib Al Asr Wazzaman (AJ), no less I will accept" My heart said "Ya Allah, He is the Imam of my time and am his mwaleyyeh, please ya Allah". In all honesty, I surprised myself with my daring to insist on Allah (swt) with such a request, but I knew that when Allah (swt) wants to grant his servants something, Allah (swt) makes a dua' for that purpose available and He even puts the words in one's heart.

Longing for the sign from my Imam Sahib Al Asr Wazzaman (aj), I went through all the preparations for Hajj.  Of course 'he' is every place, but Hajj places are different than all the other places. I was longing for Baitullah Al Haram, but I have seen it before: this was my second time to Hajj, and third Omrah.

Once the journey started at the airport, my heart started searching and looking around. Perhaps 'he' is giving ghowth to someone, perhaps 'he' is present amongst hujjaj for some reason or another, perhaps,... perhaps... 

The feeling when one is searching for the Beloved Imam (aj) is difficult to convey, it is the heart, or rather the soul  that is looking through the eyes. Just like it says in Dua' Al Nodbah,... difficult to see people and not see 'him'...

Upon reaching Al Madeenah Al Monawwarah, my soul became in perpetual search, just saying to myself that 'he' is here and he is the only living 'person' who belongs to and deserves being here around 'his' grandparents ('a). I was seeing every thing through thinking of 'him' as if 'he' became the lens of my heart and soul. This was so intense as I did all my ziyarat to Holy Prophet ('s), to Imams ('a) in Al Baqee' and during all the 'amal and 'ibadah, especially those during Thursday evening when all the shia'ah hujjaj gathered between the Green Dome and Al Baqee' to read Dua' Kumail and make 'aza and latmeyyeh. It was impossible not to feel 'his' presence there.

Not for a second did I have 'him' out of my soul and could even see 'him' through the darkness of the night on the road to Mecca Mukarramah.. Upon arrival to Meccah, my husband and I wanted to rush to Al Haram Al Shareef to make Omrah, the rest of the group wanted to catch up on some sleep. For me, I felt I was getting closer and closer to the Imam (aj). I thought no closer point will be than that of Baitullah Al Haram and so I wanted no rest, but to reach that point. We finished our Omrah and I was content with the feeling that 'he' was there.

Next day, my husband and I took three Iraqi sisters with us to the Haram. It was salah time for thohor and it was very crowded, oceans of hujjaj, we were very lucky to find a nice space for the five of us on the doorsteps to Al Haram just exactly under one of the towering minarets. And as I was sitting there, I was reminded, divinely, of some previous feelings I had once in Dubai while making dua'. It shook me for a bit and made me tremble. The feeling in Dubai was inspired by dua' Al Sabah of Ameer Al Mo'meneen ('a) when he says I have knocked the door of your mercy with the hand of my raja'...

So whenever I asked Allah (swt) or stood in front of Him, I always pictured myself as an infinitely negligible creature sitting at the doorstep of a huge big gate, that of the kingdom of Allah (swt). So finding myself on the doorsteps of that big gate of Al Haram Al Shareef under the minaret was some sort of a sign for me that gave me chill. After salah, my husband, the sisters and myself decided to rush inside to go to the second level of the Mosque.

Now the crowd was unfathomable and we already started going up the stairway on the left side beside its rail. I was worried that the sisters would get lost and would not know what to do. So I was insisting on them that if any separated, one should recite "Ya Ab Salih Al Mahdy" (aj) and I was just saying that to them over and over like a mantra.

My husband was in front of me and the three sisters behind me. It was becoming so tight and clustered that it made it so difficult to breathe. There was one sudden moment where I could no longer keep track of my husband who was in front of me, this happened exactly as I was making the turn to the second level of the stair way where I was squeezed between the marble turn of the rail and the people. I became facing the wall and was pressed very hard against the rail where my left breast felt literally stabbed by the pointed rail.

The pain was beyond any description and I was afraid to look and be embarrassed of the blood gushing on my white ihram clothing. I could no longer breathe, my lungs collapsed, my eyes could no longer see and I knew that my time arrived and so I just submitted.

I started getting weaker and weaker and my legs let go, my face was against the wall, there was a moment where I thought I was gone...finished... but all of a sudden a hand with a very unusual indescribable feeling and energy circled and grasped the middle part of my upper right arm and pulled me out in the most bizarre way.  It did not just pull me by the arm, no, my whole body was pulled out in complete submission like a feather in that grasp and it would never be possible to describe the energy that I felt in my body. I was not feeling real at all, I did not know what to feel, I was doubly shocked not knowing what was going on, I was breathing again, but the first thing that rushed to mind was to thank this gallant man who rescued a woman from death and did not hesitate to touch her for that purpose. But, as I quickly turned my head to look for him, every thing felt unreal and racing and all of a sudden things were strange and all the crowd was kept away from me, at least about half a meter in distance, and all along the stairway. It looked like they were kept away with an invisible divider.....,

EXCEPT, there was one very distinct unusual man I was able to distinguish, as he was some how outside this invisible fence but making his way through it and vanished in the crowd as I was watching and trying to trace him....he literally disappeared in his place in a strange way. But when I saw him, it was from his right side, his silhouette, eastern looking complexion, glittering black hair with a perfectly groomed rich black beard with very distinct 2-3 grey hairs in the centre of the cheek part. He was 38-42 years old. I saw him clearly, he was very distinguishable, tall, slender, handsome with serious (somehow burdened) look on his face, like a gaze in the far distance.

He vanished in the crowd as I stood there trying to see how he could vanish and disappear while I kept my eyes fixed on him. I looked for my husband whom I just found in front of me! I started saying

"The man......, the man saved my life, the man...."

Everything was rushing in my head and things became so compressed and extended in time, the first thing that raced in my head was how did that man see my face that was against the wall and how did he know I needed help even though I had no energy even to breathe let alone cry for help? Who was that man with the strange grasp, how was it possible for one man's hand to grasp that way and to circle my arm with that abnormal energy that went through my whole soul and why did my whole body respond in complete submission and not just my shoulder, while all of this raced in my mind?

I was looking at my dress to see the blood coming from the wound in my left breast, but there was nothing, not even a wrinkle on the dress. I felt like being intoxicated of I did not know what, but there was a different beat to my heart than that I lived with all my life.....my whole body was feeling like energized in a way I cannot describe..... so I walked to the second level of the mosque in a daze and started realizing who that man was. Some inspiration came to my head to give me one explanation and to point out to me all the little evidence around the circumstance....

I found myself getting very quiet and having an amazing feeling of never experienced, uncontrollable joy. I later tried to explain to my husband but it was way overwhelming and too intense for him...I was unreal for quite sometime, just wanted to close my eyes and go back to those seconds, I kept on putting my left hand where that grasp was. I asked my husband to hold my arm so I could compare, but no comparison whatsoever! I went back to my living quarters to check for  bruised skin, but there was absolutely no trace nor even a scratch, not even pain........Dazed, I laid down in bed gazing up at the ceiling trying to figure out what really happened.....

Is Allah (swt) accepting my Hajj? Is He delivering me from my trial? Was this the sign I asked for? Was it my Beloved Imam (aj)? Did 'he' really grasp my arm to rescue me?........It was, still is and till  the day I die, be beyond overwhelming.

A few days after this encounter and on the first day of stoning Iblees, I experienced another kind of karamat related to the Beloved Imam (aj) but not as personal.

One thing for sure, since that personal encounter, my existence is no longer the same ! When I make dua' or ziyrat for the Beloved Imam (aj) or when I ask Allah (swt) for something, I hold that place of my arm and sob uncontrollably. Was it really true that 'he' clasped 'his' holy hand around my arm to save my life? Did Allah (swt) grant my wretched soul its wish?

Was Aba Salih Al Mahdy that close to me when I was teaching the sisters how to call on him when in a distress?

Was I such a significant creature for the Beloved (aj) to rescue my life? Was this all real? Did I imagine it ? Why would I and how could I possibly invent something as beautiful as this encounter? How did I know that it was 'him'? All those questions accompanied with the burning longing tears for 'him', they never cease. I know one thing for sure, it was real! It was 'him'!

Why would it not be 'him'? Allah (swt) is so gracious, and Ahlul Bait are so generous to their followers. It was 'him'.

This is my personal account of the karamat I encountered, this is how I lived it and this is the only ability I have to describe what I experienced. I ask the forgiveness of Allah (swt) and apologize to my Beloved Imam (AJ) if I have fallen short in my description and/or if I have conveyed things not as accurate as 'he' would have wanted it to be.

This is precisely why I was unable to write this account for a long time. Writing it meant relying on and limiting it to my miserable faulty human capabilities. It was beyond words, above description and very divine, and so is 'he'.

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