When a believer prays, he cuts off his hope from everyone other than
Allah(God) and stretches his or her needy arms toward the Needless Allah,
and just asks Him to untangle his difficulties. Thus, one of the duties
of those who wait for the appearance of the Imam mahdi (Twelfth imam or The promised Saviour) is to pray and to
sincerely ask Allah to hasten the advent of him. Even the Imam of the
Age(imam mahdi(s.a)), himself, has recommended the Shias to pray for his advent. For
instance, he has expressed at the end of his letter to Ishāq b. Ya῾qūb,
أكثِروا الدُّعاءَ بِتَعجيلِ الفَرَجِ فَإِنَّ ذلِكَ فَرَجُكُم
“Pray for the hastening of the advent too much, indeed, therein lies
your relief.” [1]
According to the Infallible Imams’ narrations, these prayers are
one of the factors for reaching salvation in the period of the Major
Occultation.
Imam Hassan al-῾Askarī (s.a) says in this regard,
وَاللهِ لَيَغيبََّن غَيبَةً لا يَنجوُ فيها مِنَ الهَلَكَةِ إلّ مَن ثَبَّتَهُ اللهُ عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ عَلَي القَولِ
بِإِمامَتِهِ وَ وَفَّقَهُ فيها لِلدُّعاءِ بِتَعجيلِ فَرَجِهِ
“By Allah, he [Imam Mahdi] has a [prolonged] occultation in
which no one will be saved from falling astray, but the one who,
by the help of Allah the Exalted the Glorified, has stayed steady on
his belief in the Imamate of his and is made successful by Allah in
praying for hastening to the appearance of the Imam.” [2]
Moreover, there are lots of recommendations about the time and the
way of praying expressed by the religious leaders; for example, it
is mentioned in Minhāj al-῾Ārifīn: “It is recommended that individual
says after performing the Morning Prayer, one hundred times,
اللهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِ مُحَمَّد وَ عَجِّل فَرَجَهُم
“O Allah! Send peace to Muhammad and his descendants, and
hasten their relief.” [3]
Also, there are some prayers dedicated specifically to the Imam
of the Age (imam mahdi (s.a)); the most famous of which are: Nudbah [4] and ῾Ahd [5]
supplications.
Prayer is a beautiful portrayal of the way we devote ourselves to the
Imam of our time during the period of his occultation. Though the
Imam is not in our physical company, we have an opportunity to connect with him on a spiritual level and demonstrating our commitment to him by reciting the powerful words of the supplications.
Of course, it is clear that a real prayer is not done by just reciting
the words by tongue, but rather the purpose of a prayer is to attain
a deep attention by the heart to the meaning and the concept of a
supplication, and notice that the matter of religion, piety, and true
belief in the Imam (s.a) and his occultation is a difficult task in this period
which is undertaken by people of certainty and steadfastness.
Reference:
- Kamāl al-Dīn, vol. 2, P. 361.
- Kamāl al-Dīn, vol. 2, P. 384.
- Minhāj al-῾Ārifīn, P. 108.
- Al-Mazār al-kabīr, P. 573; Misbāh al-Zāyir, P. 446.
- Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 53, p. 95.
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