Q.28
Why have natural laws been suspended for the sake of this particular person? Is it not possible that the role of filling the world with justice and equity could be left to a leader who might be born on the eve of the appointed day and grow like other people?
It is true, as far as common experience and the experiments carried out so far by scientists are concerned, that this long life granted by Allah (swt) to Al-Mahdi (as) appears to be very unusual. But his role of revolutionizing the world order and rebuilding the entire system on the basis of justice and truth is also so extraordinary that it has never been experienced in history. It should not be surprising that in the preparatory stage his work is preceded by some unusual and extraordinary events, such as an unusually long life. No matter how unfamiliar these events may be, they are not more unusual than the great role to be performed by Al-Mahdi (as) on his appointed day. If we can appreciate the gravity of this role, which has no precedent in history, there is no reason why we should not appreciate his unprecedented long life.
We wonder if it is mere chance that both of the only two people who undertook to purify human civilization of all its impurities and to reconstruct the world should have had a very long life span, several times that of the usual one. One of them played his role in the past. He was Noah (as), about whom the Holy Qur'an has expressly said that he lived among his people for 950 years. He
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reconstructed the world after the Deluge. The other is to play his role in the future, and he is Al-Mahdi (as), who has already lived among his people for more than a thousand years and is destined to play his role on the appointed day and, again, build the world anew. How is it that we can accept the longevity of Noah who lived for at least about a thousand years and deny that of Al-Mahdi (as)?
We have learnt that a long life is scientifically possible, but let us suppose that it is not so and the law of senility is inexorable and cannot be defined either today or in future. All that this means is that a life spanning several centuries. Like that of Noah and Al-Mahdi (as), is contrary to the natural laws established by science through modern methods of experimentation and investigation. But there still remains the possibility that such a long life can be the result of a miracle, which suspends natural laws in order to preserve the life of a particular person entrusted with a celestial mission. This miracle is not unique, nor is it alien to the Muslim belief derived from the texts of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
The law of senility is not any more relentless than the law of heat exchange, according to which heat passes from a body having a higher temperature to a body having a lower temperature. This law was suspended to protect Abraham when he was thrown into the burning life, for this was the only way to preserve his life. The Holy Qur'an says: "We said: O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham" (21:69), and Abraham came out of the fire unscathed.
In many other cases natural laws were suspended to protect the Prophets and other Divinely appointed Messengers. The sea was parted for Moses. It appeared to the Romans that they had captured Jesus whereas they had not. Prophet Mohammed (s) escaped from his house while it was surrounded by a mob from Quraysh and other Arab tribes who were waiting for an opportunity to assassinate him. Allah concealed him, so that the Quraishites could not see him when he walked out through their midst. In all these cases natural laws were suspended for the protection of the people
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whose lives the Divine Wisdom wanted to preserve. The onset of cell senility can be just as easily suspended.
From the above discussion we can arrive at a general conclusion: Whenever it is necessary to preserve the life of one of the chosen servants of Allah to enable him to accomplish his mission, Divine Grace intervenes to protect him and one of the natural laws is suspended. On the contrary, if the period of his appointment comes to an end and the task entrusted to him by the Almighty is accomplished, he meets death in accordance with the natural laws related to life or is martyred.
In this connection we are usually confronted with the following questions:
How can a natural law be suspended and the compulsory relationship between the various phenomenon be served?
Will such a suspension not be in contradiction to science, which has discovered that a law determines the compulsory relationship on the basis of experiments and investigation?
Science itself has provided an answer to this question. It has already given up the idea of compulsion in respect of natural laws. It only says that these laws are discovered on the basis of systematic observation and experiment. When it is observed that one phenomenon invariably follows another, this invariability is treated as a natural law. But science does not claim that there exists a binding and compulsory relationship between any two phenomena, because compulsion is a factor that cannot be proved by experiment and scientific methods of investigation. Modern science confirms that a natural law as defined by it, speaks only of an invariable association between two phenomena and is not concerned with any compulsory relationship between them.
Hence, if a miracle takes place and the natural relationship between two phenomena breaks down, it does not amount to the breaking down of a compulsory relationship.
In fact, a miracle in its religious sense has become more understandable in the light of modern science theory than it was when the classical view of casual nexus prevailed. According to
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the old theory it was presumed that phenomena invariably associated with each other must have an inevitably relationship between them and this inevitability meant that their separation from each other was inconceivable. According to modern scientific thinking, however, this relationship has been transformed into a law of association or invariable succession.
Thus, a miracle need not come into conflict with inevitability any longer. It is only an exceptional state of the invariability of association and succession.
We agree with the scientific view that modern scientific methods cannot prove the existence of an inevitable relationship between any two phenomenon. But we are also of the view that there must still be some explanation of the invariability of association and succession. As this can be explained on the basis of the theory of intrinsic inevitability, it can also be explained if we assume that it is the Wisdom of the Organizer of the universe which requires a particular phenomenon to be invariably related to some other phenomenon and that in certain cases the same wisdom may require that there should be an exception. Such exceptional cases are called miracles.
Now let us take up the question as to why Allah (swt) is so keen to prolong Al-Mahdi's (as) life so that even natural laws are suspended for his sake. Is it not advisable to leave the leadership of the appointed day to a person to be born in the future and brought up according to the needs of that time? What is the justification for this long Occultation?
Most of those who ask this question do not want an answer based simply on belief. It is not enough to say that we believe it to be so. What such interrogators really expect is a reasonable and social explanation of Al-Mahdi's (as) position in the light of the tangible requirements of the great change expected to be brought about by Al-Mahdi (as).
Let us leave aside for the time being the qualifications we believe the infallible Imams (as) to have possessed and instead ask the following question: Is it likely, in the light of past experience, that
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the leader-designate's long life will contribute to his success and will enable him to play his role better?
Our reply to this question is in the affirmative. To begin with, we see that a great revolutionary change requires that its leader should possess a unique mental caliber. He should be conscious of his own superiority and the insignificance of the knotty system he intends to overthrow. The more conscious he is of the insignificance of the corrupt society he has to fight against, the more prepared he will be psychologically to wage a war till victory is won.
It is evident that the size of his mental caliber should be proportionate to the size of the proposed change and the size of the social system required to be eliminated. The more extensive and deep-stead this system is, the greater should be the psychological push required.
His mission being to revolutionize the world, full of injustice and oppression, and to bring about a radical change in all its cultural values and diverse systems, it is but natural that it should be entrusted to a person whose mental caliber is higher than that of anyone in the whole of the existing world and who may not have been born and brought up under the influence of the society to be overthrown and replaced with a culture of justice and righteousness. One brought up under the shadow of a deep-seated and world-dominating culture is naturally impressed and overawed by it, that being the only culture which he has seen and by which he has been influenced from a tender age.
But the case should be different with a person who has a long historical background, who has witnessed several great cultures successively grow and decline, who has seen the big historical changes with his own eyes, who has been a contemporary of all the stages of the development of that culture which happens to be the last chapter of human history before the appointed day and who has seen all its ups and downs. Such a person, who himself has lived through all these stages very carefully and attentively, is equipped to look at the culture he has to grapple with in its historical
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perspective and is not daunted by its magnitude. He does not regard it as an unalterable destiny.
His attitude will not be like that of Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) with regards to the French monarchy. Rousseau, in spite of being a great champion of political revolution from an intellectual and a philosophical point of view, shuddered at the very thought of there being a France without a king, the reason being that he was born and brought up and had always lived under the shadow of monarchy. But a man having a long historical background and being fully aware of historical factors will know perfectly well how and when the prevailing culture and the prevailing system came into being and developed. He will know that the historical age of all cultures and systems, howsoever long, is very limited.
One should examine Surah al-Kahf (chapter 18 of the Holy Qur'an), where there is recounted the story of a group of virtuous youths who believed in Allah (swt), and who faced an idolatrous system which ruthlessly crushed every idea of monotheism. They were greatly distressed and seemed to have lost all hope. In utter despair they took refuge in a cave, where they prayed to Allah (swt) to resolve their difficulty. They thought that the unjust system existing then would continue to prevail forever and would liquidate all those whose hearts ached for the truth. In response, Allah (swt) sent them to sleep in the cave for 309 years. He then awakened them and sent them back to the scene of life. By then the unjust regime, the power and tyranny that had dazzled them, had completely collapsed and become a part of history. This arrangement was made to enable those young men to see for themselves the downfall of the falsehood, power and grandeur which had overawed them. The people of the cave achieved moral uplift and sublimation through this unique experience, which prolonged their lives for three hundred years. The same privilege will be enjoyed by the Mahdi (as) through his long life which will enable him to see the giant dwindling into a dwarf, a lofty tree shrinking to become a mere seed and a tornado turning into a mere breeze.
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The experience gained through the direct and close study of so many successive cultures will widen the mental horizon of the person designated to lead the revolution and will prepare him better for the accomplishment of his mission. He will have benefited by the experience of others, and will be in a better position to assess social developments correctly in their true historical context.
As the revolution to be brought about by the Awaited Savior is to be ideological and based on the message of Islam, the very nature of his mission requires him to be close to the early Islamic sources and to have a personality built independently of and detached from the influence of the culture he is destined to fight. A person born and brought up under the shadow of a particular culture cannot completely escape its effects, even if he leads a campaign against it. To ensure that the leader-designate is not himself influenced by the culture he is expected to change, his personality must be built fully at a cultural stage closer in its general spirit to the system he wants to establish.
Q.29
If the Awaited Savior is Al-Mahdi (as), who was born in 256 AH, then he was at the time of his father's death a child of no more than five years of age, Clearly he could not have been sufficiently trained to become an Imam at this age, so how could he be prepared to lead the enormous task set upon him?
During the history of mankind we know that there have been children between the ages of four to eighteen who had signs of exceptional skills, which are usually only found in a highly qualified adults. Examples are:
* The German mathematician, astronomer and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was a mathematical genius when he was only a few years old. A notebook kept in Latin by him as a youth and discovered in 1898 showed that, from the age of 15, he
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had conjectured and often proved many remarkable results, including the prime number theory.
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* John Stuart Mill (1806-73), a Nineteenth century English philosopher and economist, advocated utilitarian reforms in his many writings and as Member of Parliament. A child prodigy who was taught Greek by his father at the age of three, he had mastered it by the age of seven, Latin and arithmetic by the age of eight, logic by the age of twelve, and studied political economics at the age of thirteen. His works express his social thought with great clarity and thoroughness.
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* The French thinker, Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) was scientist and a prodigy in mathematics. He has been credited not only with imaginative and subtle work in geometry and mathematics, but with profoundly influencing later generations of theologians and philosophers. Being the son of a respected mathematician provided him with the opportunity to be taught by his father. Pascal was not allowed to begin a subject until his father thought he could easily master it, but by the age of eleven he had worked out in secret the first 23 propositions of Euclid, calling straight lines "bars" and circles "rounds". Inspired by the work of Girard Desargues, at sixteen he published an essay on conics which Descartes refused to believe was the work of a youth. Pascal invented and sold the first calculating machine in 1647.
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* The Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was the greatest musical child prodigy in history. He displayed early musical gifts, playing the keyboard confidently at the age of four, composing his first pieces for it, at five, and soon mastering the violin. He began composing symphonies at nine.
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* Beethoven (1770-1827) was given his first music lessons by his father, who was ambitious on his behalf and saw him as a second Mozart. He first appeared as a keyboard prodigy at Cologne
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84. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p.717. 6th edition. Chambers 1997
85. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p.1281. 6th edition. Chambers 1997
86. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p.1427. 6th edition. Chambers 1997
87. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p.1326. 6th edition. Chambers 1997
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in 1778. Beethoven's own talent was such that at the age of 12 he was already an assistant to the organizer Christian Gottlob Neefe, with whom he studied music. The famous composers Mozart, Hayden, Johan Albertsberger and Antonio Salieri taught him music in Vienna.
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In our own time, we have seen two children (one Muslim, the other Christian) who have been recognized as being child prodigies, such as:
* The Qur'an reciter and genius Dr. S. M. Hosayn at-Tabatba'i (b. 1990-). He was born in Qum, Iran, and had memorized the Holy Qur'an in its entirely by the time he was five and a half. I have met this boy, and every time I hear his answers to the most complicated social and spiritual questions I have found him to be a remarkable genius. He was awarded an honorary diploma in Qur'anic studies by the Association of Bosnian Muslim Scholars, and a Ph. D. in Qur'anic studies by Al-Hijaz College in Canterbury, England.
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* The piano player and prodigy Wesley Chu. He was chosen to participate in the seventh Annual Vatican Christmas Concert. The event was broadcasted from Nervi Hall, within the Vatican, and consisted of several artists (of both popular and classical musical styles), performing Christmas songs with a 100 piece Philharmonic Orchestra and 40 voice choir. This concert coincided with the opening of the "Sacred Door" and the beginning of the 2000 jubilee. When asked how he felt about the invitation -he replied: "I am honored to go to such a famous great place," but proving that he is an eight year old at heart, he added "I want to talk to Mr. Pope Wesley stayed in Rome for 4 days during which he had a private audience with Pope John Paul II. The concert was part of a benefit project for raising funds to build 50 new churches in the poorer suburbs of Rome for the Jubilee Year.
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88. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p.164. 6th edition. Chambers 1997
89. Hossayn As-saleh, Alam ul-Huda. pp.46 & 54. Qum/Iran
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While not exhaustive, this list serves the purpose of demonstrating that this phenomenon occurs naturally among normal human beings from all walks of life. Scientifically speaking, it is quite possible that a child demonstrates abilities that adults cannot. Religiously speaking, anything Allah (swt) wants will happen no matter how strange. Indeed, Allah (swt) asserts unequivocally in Qur'an that if He wanted something, all He has to do is to say: "Be! And it will be!" (36:82)
Several of Al-Mahdi's forefathers (as) also assumed the Imamah when he was only eight years old and Imam Ali ibn Mohammad al-Hadi (as) when he was only nine. It should be observed that the phenomenon of the early Imamah reached its zenith in the case of Al-Mahdi (as). We call it a phenomenon, because it assumed a tangible and practical form as in the case of Al-Mahdi's forefathers (as). It was felt and experienced by the Muslims coming into contact with the Imam concerned. The experience of the people being the best proof of a phenomenon, we cannot be asked to give a more tangible or a more convincing proof of it. The following points will clarify our point.
Their Imamah was Unique
The Imamah of an Imam belonging to the Holy House was not a center of hereditary power and influence, nor did it have the backing of any ruling regime, as was the case with the Imamah of the Fatimid caliphs and the caliphate of the Abbasids. The extensive popular support and allegiance wich the Imams enjoyed was due only to their spiritual influence and the conviction of their followers that they alone deserved the leadership of Islam on spiritual and intellectual grounds.
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The Phenomena of Imamah is as Old as the Islamic Era
The popular basis of support for the Imamah had existed since the early days of the Islamic era. It expanded further during the time of Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq (as). The school set up by them assumed the form of an extensive intellectual movement, which included amongst its ranks hundreds of jurisprudents, scholastic theologians and others learned in various fields of Islamic scholarship and the humanities. Hassan ibn Ali Washsha, when visiting the mosque of Kufah, found 900 scholars all repeating the traditions narrated to them by Imam Ja'far ibn Mohammad al-Sadiq (as). The qualifications which an imam had to possess, as believed by this school and its supporters, were very high. The imam was judged by the standard of these qualifications to find out whether he was really fit to be an imam. The Shi'ah believed that the Imam must be the most learned and wise man of his time.
This Ideology required Sacrifice without Worldly Reward
This school and its supporters had to make great sacrifices for the sake of their belief in Imamah, which contemporary governments regarded as a hostile ideological line. This attitude led the authorities to presecure the followers of the Imams (as). Many people were killed. Many others were thrown into dungeous, and hundreds died while in detention. Their belief in the Imamah of the Prophet's House cost them dear, the only attraction to this belief was their conviction of gaining the favore of Allah (swt).
The Imams lived amongst the People
The Imams, whose Imamah these supporters acknowledged, did not live like kings in high towers isolated from their followers. They never seregated themselves, except when imprisoned, exiled or forcibly kept aloof by the ruling juntas. We know this for certain on the authority of a large number of reporters who have narrated
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the sayings and deeds of each of the first eleven Imams. Similarly, we have a record of the correspondence exchanged between the Imams and their contemporaries. The Imams used to make journeys to various places and appointed deputies in different parts of the Muslim world. All this meant a continuous contact between the Imams and their followers scattered all over the Muslim world.
The Imam were viewed as a Threat by the Caliphs
The contemporary caliphs always regarded the Imams and their spiritual leadership as a threat to themselves and their dynasty. For this reason, they did all they could to disrupt this leadership. In pursuance of their nefarious ends, they restored to despotic and arbitary actions. The Imams themselves were continuously harassed and kept in detention. Such actions were painful and disgusting to all the Muslims, most especially to the supporters of the Imams.
In the light of these six points we understand that achieving Imamah at an early age was a realy fact and not a fiction. It is certain that an Imam who appeared on the scene at a very early age, who proclaimed himself to be the spiritual and intellectual leader of the Muslims and who was acknowledged to be so by a vast cross-section of the people must have had great knowledge, competence and mastery over all branches of theology. Otherwise his supporters would not have been convinced of his Imamah. These supporters had continuous contact with the Imams and were in a position to judge their personalities. It is not conceivable that so many people should have accepted a boy to be their Imam and should have made sacrifices for his sake without ascertaining his real worth and assessing his competence. Even if the people made no immediate judgement, and if it is presumed that efforts to ascertain the Imams true position were not made, still the truth could not remain unknown for years considering the continuous
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contact between the young Imam and the people. Had he been childish in his knowledge and thinking, he would certainly have been exposed.
Even if it is supported that the supporters of the Imamah could not discover the truth, it would have been easy for the government of the day to expose the child, if he had been really childish in his thinking and culture. It certainly would have been in the interest of the government of the day to bring him before his supporters and others to prove that he was not fit to be an Imam and a spiritual and intellectual leader. It might have been difficult to prove the incompetence of a man of 40 to 50, but it would have been quite easy to prove the incompetence of an ordinary child, howsoever intelligent he might have been. Evidently, this would have been much simpler and easier than the complex and risky policy of suppression adopted by those in power at that time. The only explanation for why the government kept quite and did not play this card that it had realized that the early Imamah was a real phenomenon and not fraud.
The fact is that the government did attempt to discredit the young Imam but did not succed. History tells us of such attempts and their failures, but it does not report any occasion on which the young Imam vacillated or showed signs of such embarrassment as could shake the confidence of the people believing in his early Imamah. That is what we meant when we said that the early Imamah was a real phenomenon and not a mere supposition.
This phenomenon has deep roots, for there exist parallel cases throughout the history of the heavenly mission and Divine leadership. The history of religion has told us about the phenomenon of young leaders. The Qur'an gives us two examples: Jesus (as) and John the Baptist (as).
Jesus (as) became a prophet and spoke to people while he was still a baby in the cradle:
But she pointed to the baby. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah, He has given me the Scripture and assigned me to be a Prophet, and He has made me blessed
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Wherever I be, and has enjoined on me Prayer and zakah as long as I live." (Qur'an 19:29-31)
Thus Jesus (as) became a prophet and received revelation and a book while he was less than two years old.
Near to the passage just discussed, the Qur'an mentions the case of Prophet John (as), to whom Allah (swt) said: "O Yahya! Take hold of the Book with might:' And We gave him the appointment (of Prophet hood) in his childhood." (Qur'an 19:12) If a two-year old boy can become a prophet and receive revelation, then obviously a five-year old boy can become an imam.
After it has been proved that the early Imamah was a real phenomenon already existing in the life of the people of the Prophet's Household (as), as has been stated above, no problem can be found in the Imamah of Al-Mahdi (as) and his succession to his father while he was still a child.
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90. As-Sadr, Sayyid Muhammed Baqir. The Awaited Savior. pp.41-45. London: Al-Khoi foundation, 1996
