A Mercy Case

Last year I posted something about trying to understand the discourse surrounding the Mahdi. I have thought about it so much since then. I think about how it represents the socio-political ideals of humanity on Earth, as well as the idea of spiritual perfection. There are many people who have given up on one, the other, or both. So reflecting on this state of humanity made me realize the intimate relationship between belief and hope whenever Imam Mahdi is mentioned. It is a discourse of aspiration, inherently. Recently, I came across two passages written by ‘Allamah Tabataba’i that express this beautifully, and I keep coming back to them. I hope they mean something to you, for that is why I am sharing them.

on the socio-political ideals of humanity

“ever since he has inhabited the earth, man has had the wish to lead a social life filled with happiness in its true sense and has striven toward this end. If such a wish were not to have an objective existence, it would never have been imprinted upon man’s inner nature, in the same way that if there were no food, there would have been no hunger. Or if there were to be no water, there would be no thirst and if there were to be no reproduction, there would have been no sexual attraction between the sexes. Therefore, by reason of inner necessity and determination, the future will see a day when human society will be replete with justice and when all will live in peace and tranquility, when human beings will be fully possessed of virtue and perfection. The establishment of such a condition will occur through human hands but with Divine succor. And the leader of such a society, who will be the savior of man, is called in the language of the hadith, the Mahdi.”

on spiritual perfection

“[at this stage of spiritual realization, a human being] detaches himself from all things to attach himself solely to the One God. Before His Majesty and Grandeur, he does nothing but bow in humility. Only then does be become guided and directed by God so that whatever he knows he knows in God. Through Divine guidance, he becomes adorned with moral and spiritual virtue and pure actions which are the same as Islam itself, the submission to God, the religion that is the primordial nature of things. This is the highest degree of human perfection and the station of the perfect man (the Universal Man; insan kamil), namely, the Imam who has reached this rank through Divine grace. Furthermore, those who have reached this station through the practice of spiritual methods, with the different ranks and stations that they possess, are the true followers of the Imam. It becomes thus clear that the knowledge of God and of the Imam are inseparable in the same way that the knowledge of God is inextricably connected to the knowledge of oneself.”

[both passages taken from the book Shi’ah, trans. by S.H. Nasr (Qum, Ansariyan: 2009) pp. 241-248]