SAFINEH
Year:2006 | Volume:3 | Issue:11 (SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE MAHDISM)|Papers Count:7

There are two views about the origin of knowledge about God, and the kind of Divine Guidance granted to the human beings.One view states that the humam knowledge about God is obtained through the human efforts and mental activities The next view believes that the human knowledge about God is a Divine gift created by the act of God, that without any contingency or obligation, just as a sign of His favor, grants His creatures. The responsibility of the human being, toward the Divine favor is "acceptance" "confirmation", and "Submission". Then the Almighty God will "reward" those people who carry their responsibilities. the respected writer, is this article tries to show that the Qur’anic verses and Islamic traditions classified under the title of knowledge about God, confirm the latter view. He provides eight verses, and 16 traditions. then he extracts 10 points as conclusion. he has also provided some explanations about the initial and complementary "Guidance". The writer, then has brought 1 verse and 15 traditions that the advocates of the first view usually use to support their standpoint. But, this time, the writer interpretes them according to his own view. Then he shows the common points found among the two groups of the Qur’anic verses and the Islamic traditions. In fact, this essay may be evaluated as a complementary part to the writer’s extensive article titled as, "a glance at the traditions about the recognition of God", appeared is volumes 7 to 10 of Safineh.

The respected writer, in this essay, tries to show the firm and Qur’anic stems of "Mahdism" in the holy Qur’an (some of the verses of Qur’an which are related to the subject of Mahdism, are discussed in this article). According to the writer, these verses are titled as "the secondary verses". In other words, these traditions that attribute the verses to the subject of Mahdism in the shia collections, are narrated from the Sunni refernces (Part I). And other verses that their corresponding traditions to Mahdism subject in the Sunni collections, are narrated from the Shia sources (Part II). the latter part, part II, has found subdivision: A. Interpretation of the words of the verse(s);B. Interpretation of the implication of the verse (s);C. To choose the applicable verses;D. parables and testimonial cases and verses;In this article 36 Quranic verses, and 74 traditions are brought. The standard and reasons of selection has been explained in the similar article, in our previous issue (No. 10)

In this essay, you will find explanations about 42 collections and books from the Sunni writers and scholars, who have had independent books, in the Arabic language, about Imam al- Mahdi. Those books are not familiar, or any copy of them is not available. But their names and characteristics have been mentioned in other valid and well known books.This essay is prepared by the application of the late honorable bibliographer Ayatollah TabaTabaei’s book, "The Prophet’s household in the Arabic literature".The translator has provided a short biography of the author in his article which has been published in the previous issue of "Safineh" (volume 10).From among the introduced books and writers in the above essay, the following ones are more noticeable. -"Akhbarul Mahdi" by Ebad Ibne Yaqoub Rawajani (died in 250 A. H.).He had written his book before the birth of Imam al- Mahdi.- "A reminder of Mahdi and his characteristies", by Abu No’aim Esfahani, (died in 430 A.H)- "al- Borhan fi Alamat Mahdi Akhar al- Zaman", by J. Siyouti (died in 910 A. H)- "al- Bayan fi Alamat Mahdi Akhar al- Zaman" , by Ibne kamal Pasha Hanafi, the religious leader of Constantinople (died in 940 A. H)- "Eqdul Jawaher & Dorar", by Ibne Hajar;- al- Mohda ela ma warada fi al- Mahdi ", by Ibne Touloon Hanafi (died in 953 A. H).

The cellar (sardab) of Samera has been a part of, and a place in the house and residence of Imam al- Hadi, and next Imam Hasan al- Askari (p.b.u.t). That house was the place of birth of Imam al- Mahdi (p.b.u.t). His holiness spent his childish years over there. In fact, it has been the place of worship and praying of three highly respected, divinely appointed, and infallible Imams. Therefore, that holy place is highly regarded by the Shia peoples. Some of the radical Sunni writers have claimed from the 7th A.H. century on (eight centuries ago), that the Shia people believe that their 12th Imam, Imam al-Mahdi is hidden in that cellar. So, the Shia groups go to that place, day by day, and invite their Imam to come out of the cellar! The writer, who is one of the contemporary scholars of Najaf, has traced this claim in the popular Sunni works written by Yaqout al- Hamavi, Ibne Athir, Ibne Khallakan, al- Qazwini, Ibne Taimiya, Ibne Qayyam jouzi, Safi ad- din Hanbali, Ibne Batouta , and al- Qermani al- Demashsqi. They lived during the 7th A.H. century and there after. Despite the above writers, we do not observe such views and statememts in the books and works of the Sunni historians and writers who lived before the 7th century (A.H), such as Ibne Houqel, al- Bash’shari, al-Moqaddasi, Ibne Jobair, etc. The interesting point is that the first responses and reactions to such negative observations have been given by the Shia scholars in the 7th century.From the recent Shia scholars, the late traditionist, Mohaddeth Nouri has provided comprehensive answers to those Sunni claims, and has also stated that the said cellar in Samera had been restored by the order of the governing Abbasside Caliph, al- Naser le din- ellah, in 606 A. H.

The Samera school includes some of the Shia Jurisprudent and traditionists of the 13th & 14th A. H. centuries. Samera school was established by the migration of Mirza Muhammad Hasan Shirazi from Najaf to Samera. this school of thought in addition to the methodologic and jurisprudential aspects, has had its characteristics in acceptance and confirmation of the principles of Imamat and Mahdism. The writer has tried in this article to introduce 10 known scholars of this school, their belief in, and their acknowledgement about the necessity of promotion and propagation of the Islamic principles of Imamat and Mahdism. The bases of this conclusion are the works of those scholars, or other works written about them.The writer has stafed in his introduction about his reasons for choosing this subject of investigation, and difficulties of such a research, and in the last paragraphs he has indicated his viewpoint and conclusion about Samera school of thought.

The poem "Wasilatul Fawz wal Aman" is one of the most famous Arabic compositions is praise of Imam al- Mahdi (p.b.u.h). It has 63 verses, and was composed by the Shaikh in 1031 A.H.The said poem has been very intersting to both the Shia and Sunni educated people, so that it has been frequently explained, and some other poems have been composed by usage of chosen verse(s) of the above historical poem.In this essay, that is, in fact, an abstract of the writer’s graduate course project, after a short intraduction, she has provided the main text of the verses of poem, along with Persian translation of the poem, and explanations about the some difficult words.Then she has given a short explanation about the poem, and has shown the application of Qur’anic verses, traditions and words of the infallible Islamic leaders in the poem, and the skill of Shaikh Ameli is the scientific courses such as mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, etc.