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1. Old Testament: Psalms of David, chapt. 96,97 and the book of prophet Daniel, chapt. 12.
New Testament: Mathew chapt. 24, Mark, chapt. 13, Luke chapt.21 (quoted from An awaited whom the world is still awaiting)
2. Sahih Abi-Dawud, printed in Egypt, Al-Taziyyah printing house, vol.2 p. 207; Yanabi Al-mawadda, p.432; and Noor Al-absar, chapt. 2 p. 154.
3. Other books such as Al-Bayan fi Akhabar Sahib Al-zaman, written by Muhammed bin Yusuf bin Al-Kanji Al-Shafee, and the book of Al-Burhan fi Alamate Mahdi Aakhir Al-zaman, written by Ali bin Hasim Al-deen known as Al-muttaqi Al-hindi and the book of Al-Mahdi was Al-Mahdawiyah written by Ahmad Amin from Egypt.
As for the Shia scholars, they have written many such books which to enumerate is not an easy task, such as: Al-Malahim wal Fitan, ..
4. Yanabi Al-mawaddah, chapt.76, Al-Manaqib narrated from Jabir bin Abdullah Al-Ansari.
5. Sahih Tirmidhi, printed in Delhi, year:1342, vol.2 p.26; and Masnad Ahmad, printed in Egypt, year: 1313 vol.1 p. 376.
6. Yanabi Al-Muwaddah, p.443
7. Yanabi Al-Muwaddah, p.432
8. (Ankabut:14)
9. (Saffat : 144)
If the Shia religion is the true one, then why is it that only a minority have accepted it, and majority of the Muslims all around the world have still not acknowledged it?
ANSWER:
The recognition of truth and falsehood is not based on the fewness or greatness of its followers. In todays world, unfortunately the Muslims happen to be only a fifth or one sixth compared to the non-Muslims. Most of the inhabitants of the far-east are idol-worshippers, cattle-worshipers and others who deny the true faith with their belief being attached to some baseless religion or a belief of some weird kind that we dont even know of and which only happens to be unassuming!
China, which consists of a population over one million, is part of the atheist communist community, and most of the people in India (consisting a population close to a million) are cattle and idol-worshippers.
On the other hand, being the majority is not a sign uses to be counted as the true religion. The Holy Quran often reproaches the majority and praises some of the minorities. Let us refer to some of the examples related to this subject:
1. .., and thou shalt not find most of them thankful.1
2. .., its guardians are only those who guard (against evil), but most of them do not know.2
3. ., and very few of my servants are grateful.3
After looking at all these examples, it becomes clear that a practical human being never ought to fear the number of followers, even though they be few, or even become haughty if it was the other way round. This calls for one to use his intellect when deciding between wrong and right, and derive the benefit from its light.
A man came to the commander of the faithful and said:
How can it be that the people who were not on your side in the battle of the camel, who happen to be constituted among the majority, be wrong?
Imam Ali (p) replied:
Truth and deception is not known by the number of followers; Get enlightened so that you can know who are the truthful ones and likewise, be aware of falsehood so that you can easily catch hold of the liars.
It is necessary for a Muslim to analyze this matter in a logical and scientific manner by applying the verse that follows,
This serves a torchlight to pave their way.
Furthermore, even though the Shia population is lesser than the Sunnis, an exact census proves that one fourth of the Muslims in the world happen to be Shia, living in Muslim inhabited countries5;
Along the annals of history, there have been scholars and famous writers and authors counted amongst the Shias.
It is worthy to mention that the founders of Islamic sciences mostly happened to be Shias, such as: Abu Al-Aswad Al- doali who was the founder of the knowledge of Nahw (Arabic grammar), Khalil bin Ahmad, the founder of Orud (prosody), Maath bin Muslim bi Abi Sarah Al-Kufi who was the founder of the knowledge of Sarf (morphology) and Abu Abdullah Muhammed bin Orman Katib Khurasani (Marzbani) one of the pioneers in the science of Balaghat (rhetorics).6
For further information of the vast writings of the different Shia scholars whose enumeration is almost impossible, one can refer to the book of Al-Thareekh Al-Tasaneef Al-Shia, the book of Aayan Al-Shia, and for acquaintance of the great Shia scholars and their biographies, as well as acquisition of information about the Shia history, one can refer to the Tareekh Al-Shia
1. (Aaraf :17)
2. (Anfal : 34)
3. (Saba : 13)
4. (Isra : 36)
5. For more details refer to Aayan Al-Shia, vol.1, subject 12, p.194
6. If you desire further details, one can refer to the book of Tasees Al-Shia written by Sayyid Hassan Sadr.
What is Al-Rajah and why do you believe in it?
ANSWER:
Al-Rajah in the Arabic language means return and referring it technically, it means: return of a group of people after death and before resurrection. This is known to take place concurrently with the appraisal of the awaited Mahdi (p). This is one of the realities with no disagreement regarding reason or revelation.
According to the Islamic point of view, and other divine religions, the essence of a human being is constituted by his incorporeal soul which is also expressed as self, and this remains intact even after the death of his body, continuing its eternal life.
The Almighty Lord, who is the absolute omnipotent with no impediment limiting His ability, mentions in His divine book concerning the reality to this matter.
With this brief introduction, it is quite clear that Rajah is possible a matter from the logical point of view; because when considering it, it becomes clear that the return of this group of people is much easier than their creation in the first place.
Thus the Lord who created them at the beginning, is undoubtedly able to bring them back to life again.
According to the revelation, examples of Rajah can be clearly observed in the previous nations:
As the Holy Quran says:
And when you said: O Musa, we will not believe in you until we see Allah manifestly, so the punishment overtook you whilst you turned your backs over them. Then we raised you up after your death that you might give thanks.1
And in yet another instance, regarding prophet Jesus (p) states:
.., and bring the dead to life with Allahs permission2
The Holy Quran not only approves the possibility of Rajaah, but also confirms to the mass return of all the humans after their death. The Holy Quran in the following two verses points to the return of a group of people after death and before resurrection:
And when the word shall come to pass against them, We shall bring forth to them a creature from the earth that shall warn them and show them of their disbelief, because people did not believe in our communications. And on that day when we will gather from every nation a party from among those who rejected our communications, thereafter they shall be formed into groups.3
In order to prepare a back-ground of reasoning for these two verses regarding the matter of Rajaah before resurrection, let us consider the following points:
The commentaters of the Holy Quran believe that these two verses describe about the day of judgment, the first verse talks about one of the signs before resurrection. Jalal Al-deen Al-Soyuti, in the interpretation of Al-dor Al-manthoor, narrated from Ibn Abi Shaibah from Hudhaifah says that emergence of the reptile of earth is one the incidents before the day of resurrection.4 There is no doubt that on the day of resurrection, all the human beings will be mustered together, and not a single group will be left out from any nation. Quran, regarding the inclusiveness of the return of the human, says the following:
this is a day5 on which the people shall be gathered,6 and in another verse says: And together the day on which we will cause the mountains to pass away and you will see the earth a leveled plain and we will gather them and leave not any one of them behind.7
Therefore, on the day of resurrection, all the individuals in the earth will be brought back to life and this is not specific for only a special group.
The second verse declares the resurrection of a special group and a specific gathering of nations, not all humans. This verse states,
And on the day when we will gather from every nation a party from among those who rejected our communications.
This verse clearly testifies the fact that not all humans will be resurrected
Result:
According to these three brief introductions, it is quite clear that the resurrection of a special group of humans, who deny the divine signs, which can be understood from the second verse is an accident, which will occur before the set up of the day of judgment. Therefore, the resurrection of the humans on that day includes all the individuals and is not specified to one group.
With this explanation, the clarity of our points that are based on the return of a group of humans after death and before the day of resurrection is proven: and this is the phenomenon of Rajaah.
Thus, the prophets household, who are the companions of the Quran and the interpreters of the divine revelation, have given guidance in this field, and in order to be precise, we shall limit ourselves to point out two of their traditions:
Imam Sadiq (p) says:
There are three considerable days kept for God, a day for the up raiser (p), a day for the return, and a day for the judgment.
And in another instance says:
He is not considered one of us who doesnt believe in our return.
It is worth mentioning to two points here:
1. Philosophy of Rajaah
By contemplating the aims of the return, one can observe two of the sublime goals to this phenomenon, one is demonstrating the real majesty, and greatness of Islam, and the disgrace of infidelity; the other is rewarding the faithful and good-doers, and retribution of the infidels and oppressors.
2. Apparent distinction between Rajaah and reincarnation.
It is necessary to mention that Rajaah according to the Shia, does not mean to imply to the belief in reincarnation, because the theory of reincarnation is based on denying the resurrection and considering the universe as having a continuous circulation, where each circle repeats the previous circle.
According to this theory, the soul of any human after death, will again return to this world and move into another body. So if the soul in the past was of the good doers, it will settle in the body where it shall have a blissful life, and if it was of the evildoers, it will move into the body where in the next stage it will have a difficult life. This return is considered his first resurrection! Whilst believers of Rajaah follow the Islamic religion correctly by believing in the resurrection and judgment; on the other hand, consider the transfer of a separate soul from one body to another as being virtually impossible8. They believe that only a group of people will return to this world before the day of judgment, and after attaining the wisdom and imbibing the interest concerned with this return, will once again come to the eternal world so that on the day of resurrection, they shall once again be resurrected along with the others; This is a state when not a single soul shall be separated form its original body and joined to another.
1. (Baqara : 55, 56.)
2. (Ale-Imran : 49)
3. (Naml :82-83)
4. Al-Dor Al-Manthor, vol.5 p. 177 in the interpretation of the verse 82 sure Naml.
5. (Hud : 103)
6. Al-Dor Al-Manthoor, vol.3 p. 349 has interpreted this day to being the Day of Judgment.
7. (Kahf : 47)
8. Sadr Al-Mutaliheen in the book of Asfar vol.9. sect. 8 chapt. 1, p. 3 regarding the annulling of reincarnation states: .. if a departing soul becomes attached to the another body either during childhood or other than that, this necessitates that one of the being is in potency and the other in actuality and this is impossible due to the fact that the constitution between the two is a natural union, and a natural union in itself is not possible between two matters that is, one in actuality and the other in potency!
What do you mean by your belief in intercession?
ANSWER:
Intercession is one of the fundamentals of Islam that is quite certain, to which all the Islamic sects accept with the aid of both Quranic verses and the traditions even though they might have a difference in their opinion regarding the result of intercession. The reality of intercession is that the human who is created with sublime qualities and bestowed with a special proximity and position before Allah, asks God for recompense of sins or the elevation of degree from the chosen servants of Allah.
The honorable prophet (p) said:
I was graced with five things. One of which being graced with intercession, so I limited this for my nation.1
Limitation of Intercession:
From the Quranic point of view, the absolute and the unconditional intercession is only effective if the interceder is permitted by God to intercede in the first place. The only group who have this privilege are those having spiritual proximity to God, and thus permitted to intercede others. The Holy Quran states in this regard:
They shall not control intercession save he who has made a covenant with the beneficent God.2
Yet in another verse, it says:
On that day shall no intercession avail, except for him whom the Beneficent God allows and whose word He is pleased with.3
Secondly:
The person that is worthy of receiving the intercession ought to have the merit to receive the divine grace through the interceder. i.e., his faith toward God and his spiritual bond toward the interceders creating a connection thereby. Therefore, the non-believers who dont have faith in Allah and among the sinners such as those who dont pray and commit other atrocities, like the murderers who lack the spiritual bond to their interceder, will definitely not be worthy of any intercession.
Quran, regarding those who dont pray and those who deny the existence of the day of resurrection states:
So the intercession of the intercessors shall not avail them.4
And regarding the oppressor, says:
, the unjust shall not have any compassionate friend nor any intercessor who should be obeyed.5
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