Imam Mahdi

Martyr Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Baquir Sadr Is it possible for a human being to live several centuries as it is assumed in this leader from whom it is expected to change the world situations, whose actually his holy age is about one thousand one hundred, and forty years, what means his age is equal fourteen times as the usual of human age, who might pass through the all regular stages of the human life, from infancy to senility? The word possibility means one of three meanings: 1 - The practical possibility. 2 - The scientific Possibility. 3 - The philosophical possibility. By the practical possibility I mean. The thing is actually possible for me or you or for other by a manner to achieve it. Then the traveling across the ocean, and reaching to the bottom of the sea, or raising to the surface of the moon. Things actually became actually practical possibility. So there is somebody else that can practice this things by a way or other than it(1). And I mean by the scientific possibility. There are things which perhaps impossible for me or you to practice them by the contemporary civilized means, but the science hasn't nor it's moving intentions have the justifications to refuse the possibility of these things, and to occurrence them according to a particular circumstances and means. There is nothing in the science that refuses the occurrence of raising the human to the Venus. But the actually intentions of existing truly shows the possibility of that, and even if the raising is not actually easy for me or you, since the difference between the raising to the Venus and the raising to the moon is not except on different degrees, and the raising to the Venus isn't present unless surmounting stage that additional difficulties which are resulted from the distance is far. So the raising to the Venus scientifically is possible even if actually impossible practically, and on the contrary of that, the raising to the solar disk in the middle of the sky is impossible scientifically, and that means, the science is hopeless to achieve that. So it is impossible to be imagined scientifically, and experimentally the possibility of making that protective armor from the burning by the solar heat which seems as a blazing massive kiln with the highest degree that strike on a human mind. And by the logical or philosophical possibility I mean: The brain truly hasn't the argument to refuse the thing, and to judge by the impossibility of it. According to what it had been perceived before, from the previous laws. Dividing three oranges into two equal parts, without cutting one of them into two equal parts hasn't logical possibility, since the intellect realizes, that the three is an odd number and not even-so, it is impossible to divide them into two equal parts, since dividing them in equivalence means that they must be in two or in a couple, so they must be even and odd in the same time, and this is a contradiction, and the contradiction is logically impossible. But the entrance of a human being into a fire while it isn't burning him, and the raising of him to the solar without burning him by it's heat is not logically impossible, while there is no contrary in the assumption, that the heat couldn't be spread from the high warmth body in to the body which is less warmth, however it opposites to the experience which proves the warmth spreading from the hot body to the cool body until they become equally warm. Thus we know that the field of the logical possibility is more extended than the scientific possibility, and this more extended than the practical possibility. It is undoubtedly that the extended of the human age for thousands years is possible logically; since it is not impossible from abstractive intellectual view, there is no any opposition in the assumption of this type, since the life as a notion is not penetrating to the quick and there is no argument in that. And also there is no a doubt and no argument, that this long age is truly impossible as a practical possibility, according to the way of the practical possibilities for the descending to the bottom of the sea or rising to the moon. Since the science with it's actual present tools, and which are available through the contemporary human experience can not prolong the human's age for hundreds of years, therefore we find that the most concerned people to the life and most powerful to employ the capabilities of the science, haven't the opportunity of age unless the usual age. And as for the scientific possibility, today scientifically there is no thing that justifies the refusal of this matter from the theoretical aspect. And this research is actually corresponding to the physiological interpretation of the senility and the decrepitude phenomenon of the human. Does this phenomenon express a natural law which imposes the hierarchical on the cells and the tissues of the human body, and becomes less qualification to continue in it's work, until it becomes idle in a determinative minute, even if we separate it from the impact of any external factor? Or this sclerosis and this decrease in the qualification of the tissues and the cells of the body to raise by it's physiological roles, as a result from the struggle against the external factors as the microbes or the poisoned which ooze to the body by a food which he had eaten? Or by the work that he had done or any other factor? So this question which science puts forth on it's self today, while it is in earnest to answer it. Up to now the question is more than the answer according to the scientific aspect. If we consider the scientific view which interprets the senescence and the weakness of the senility, as a result of the struggle and friction with specific external influences, there for it means that it is possible theoretically, if the tissues which the human body is separated from those specific influences to live more and pass the senility phenomenology and get over it completely. And if we take care with the other view, which tend to suppose that the senility is a natural law for alive cells and tissues, in other word it means that it includes the inevitable vanishing seed into it, passes through the senility period and ends by the expiration. I decelerate: I am saying: If we take this view upon, it doesn't mean that there is no any flexibility in the natural law. Rather it is flexible law-on supposition of the availability of it, since we notice that in our ordinary life; and since The scientists observe in their scientific laboratories, that the senility as a physiological phenomenon not temporal, it may be appear early or it may delay, and it will not appear unless in late time, even the man perhaps becomes aged while He has tender organs and the signs of the senility will not appear on his features as the physicians had mentioned that. Yet the scientists truly could benefit practically from the flexibility of the stated natural law, so they prolonged the age of some animals for hundreds as their natural age estimated. And that was by creating situations and factors which postponed the activity of the senility law. And scientifically by this it could be proved that the deferment of this law by informing situations, and specific factors is scientifically possible order, and indeed if it is impossible for the science to practice this deferment actually relating to a perfect creature as the human. And that is not unless there is a different degree between the difficulty of this practice related to the human, and its difficulty related to other creatures, and this means that the science from the theoretical phase, and as much as the moving attitudes refer to it, There is nothing that refuses the possibility of the human age elongation in it, even if we interpret the senescence as a result from the struggle, and the forcing with eternal affections, or a produce from a natural law of the survival cell it self, which leads it forward to the expiry. In other word the length of the human age and his staying alive for several centuries is possible order logically and scientifically, but it is impossible practically, so the science direction is truly going forward in the path of actualization of this possibility through long way. And according to that, we discuss the age of Al Mahdi (A.S), and what is surrounding it of the inquiry or amazement, then we observe. After it became sure that this long age is possible logically, and scientifically, and it became sure that the science is going on to change the theoretical possibility into practical possibilities gradually, so the astonishment is becoming meaningless, unless the removal of that, Al-Mahdi (A.S) precedes the science itself, so the theoretical possibility will be changed into practical possibility in his (A.S) personality before the science reaches with it's development to the level of the actual ability for this change, and He (A.S) is resemble to who antecede the science in discovering a drug the meaning or the drug of the cancer. And if that was the case, how did He antecede Islam which decided the age of this expected leader-in the movement of the science in this change aspect? The response: That is not the single field in which Islam anteceded the movement of the science. Wasn't the Islamic law as a whole already anteceded the natural progression of the human thought for several centuries?(1) Wasn't it sponsoring with slogans which suggested plans to be pervade that the human was not mature to understand them through his distinct movement unless after hundreds of years? Wasn't it advanced with laws which were in the utmost of the wisdom, that the human can not get it's securest, and the face of the wisdom in it unless before a short time? Didn't the mission of the heaven show secrets from the cosmos which did not strike in a human mind, and then the science come to improve, and support them? If we believe in this as a whole, why do we ask God to give us more (S.W) the sender of this mission to outdo the science to determine the age of Al-Mahdi (A.S), and I never talk here unless about the priority aspects which we able to feel with it directly, and it is possible for us to add the priority aspects to that which, the mission of the heaven is telling us it self a bout. And the example for that, it tells us, that the prophet (S) truly made go on by night from the sacred mosque to the remote Mosque, and this night- Journey if we wanted to understand it within the borders of the natural laws, it utters about the benefit from the natural laws by a manner which is impossible for the science to achieve it unless after passing the hundreds of the years, so the same Divine authority which enabled the prophet (s) to move fast before it becomes possible for the science to achieve that. It made the possibility for the last stipulated caliphs of the prophet the long age, before it becomes possible for the science to achieve that. Ok, the long age that Allah(S.W) had provided for Al-Muntazar, "The expected", the savior seems a strange through the habitual limitation, even among the people in present life, and through the achieved experiments of the scientists actually. But! Wasn't the decisive alliterative role for which this savior is prepared as a strange through the habitual limitation in the people life, and what were passed on them from the events through the history? Wasn't the change of the world, and the civilization renewing according to the right, and the justice is entrusted to Him (A.S)? So why we odd if the preparation for this great role is characterized by some of the strange events, and which are out of the habitual as the long age of the expected savior? Then the strangeness of these events, and the departure of it out of the habitual, however it was hard, It will not exceed in any case the estrangement of the same great role which must be achieved by the promised day. So if we accepted that a single role historically although there is no other resembling role for it in the history of the human, so why we disagree with that long age which we couldn't find other resembling age for it in our habitual life? I don't know! Is it a fortuity that only two individuals that vacate the human civilization from its corrupted import and instructing it newly, and there will be long age for every one of them, which exceeded our ordinary ages many times? One of them who practiced his role in the past of the humanity, that was prophet Nuh, whom the Holy Quran mentioned that He lived a thousand save fifty years among his people, and it is predetermined for him through the flood to construct the new world. And the other one who exercises his role in the future of the humanity, that is Al-Mahdi who lived among his people more than one thousand years till now, and it will predetermined for him to build the new world through the promised day. So why we agree Nuh (a.s) who approached the thousand years at less estimation while we disagree Al-Mahdi? The Marvel and the Long Age We have already known until now that the long age truly is scientifically possible but for example we suppose it is scientifically impossible, and the law of the senility is strict, and it is impossible for the humanity to overcome on it today, and on it's long line, and to change its situations and conditions, so what does that mean? It truly means that the prolonging of the human age - as Nuh or al Mahdi (A.S) for several centuries, is opposite to the natural laws which the science proved by the modern tools of the experience, and the induction, therefore this case becomes a Marvel which maimed a natural law in a specific case to keep on the life of the person whom entrusted with keeping on the heaven's mission, and the Marvel is not the single from it's kind, or a strange on the Muslim's belief which is obtained from the text of the Quran, and the sunnah (Holy tradition),so the law of senility is more acuity than the law of the heat transmission from the hot body to the body which is less warmth until they will be equal. And this law is already idled to keep on the Ibrahim's (A.S) life, while the single way was to keep on the prophet Ibrahim's life, so it said to the fire when Ibrahim (A.S) was been thrown in it (We say: O, fire! be cold and peace to Ibrahim) Al-Anbia verse No 69, So He (A.S) went out of it intact as He entered before, without any harm. The examples of this are many in the natural laws that are vacated just to save the personality of the prophets, and the witnesses of God (S.W) on the Earth. The sea was been tear asunder to Musa (A.S), And is been imitated to the Greek that they captured Isa {Jesus}, while they didn't Captured him, and the messenger Muhammad (s.w) went out of his home while it was surrounded with the crowds of Quraish who remained for long hours waiting for him in order to attack him, then Allah(S.W) hidden him from their sights while He was walking among them All these cases are like natural laws which were idled to protect a person, since the authority of God seek to keep on his life, so the law of the senility as one of these laws. Perhaps it is possible for us to deduce from that with a general meaning that is when keeping on the life of Allah's Authority "Hujjatul-lah" on the ground is contingent on the natural law idleness, and the continuity of that person life is necessary to carry out his mission for which He is prepared for. The divine providence interfered in the idleness of that law to realize that, and on the opposite is some one finished for which He was prepared by the divine, so He would die or would be martyred according to what the natural laws would suggest. According to this general Conception we usually face the following question. How is it possible to idle the natural law ? And how could the necessary relationship which takes place among the natural occurrences be broken? And wasn't this unless opposition for the science which invented that natural law, and it abstracted this necessary relationship according to empiricism and inductive basics?! The response: the science itself already answered this question by the surrender from the necessity opinion in the natural law, and the explanation of that is: The natural laws truly that the science discovers them according to the trial and the regular notice, so when a natural occurrence happening could be even after another occurrence, by this evenness it would be deduced that the natural law, and that is truly when the first occurrence is found, the second occurrence is found after it, but the science did not suppose a necessary relationship in this natural law between these two occurrences which resulted from the essence of this occurrence, and it's subject, and the essence of that occurrence and it's subject; since the necessity is a metaphysical case, It is impossible for the test and the agencies of the scientific and the inductive researches to improve it, for that the response of the modern science insisted that the natural law - as the science illustrated it isn't resulted from a necessary relationship, even from a continuous junction between two occurrences, so if the miracle happened and separated the two occurrences from the other in the natural law, and that wasn't a separation for a necessary relationship between two occurrences. In fact the miracle with its religious connotation, is already became batter understandable as it was under the classical point of view for the causal relationships. So the previous point of view was already supposed that every two occurrences which the linking between them is evened, so the relationship among them is necessary, and the necessity means that it is impossible to separate one of the two occurrences from the other. But this relationship is changed in the style of the modern science into the coupling law or the sequenced continuance between the two occurrences without supposing that invisible necessity. And for that, the marvel becomes extra ordinary case for this evenness in the coupling and the sequence without the opposing with a necessity or leads forwards the impossibility. As for the logical fundamentals of induction, We agreed with the modern scientific point of view, that the induction truly didn't improve the relationship of the necessity between the two phenomenon, but we see that it shows the shared interpretation availability for the evenness of the assembly or the sequences between the two phenomenon continually, and this common interpretation as it is possible to be informed according to the supposition that a wisdom is prompted the arranger of the cosmos to combine specific phenomenon with other phenomenon continually, and this wisdom itself some time invite to the exception so that the miracle could be happened. Why is this whole desire to prolong His (A.S.) age? Now we discuss the second question that is: Why is this whole desire from God(S.W.) for this human selfsame. All the natural laws must be idled in order to prolong his life? Then why is the leadership of the promised day couldn't be late for a person, whom will be resulted by the future. And the indications of that promised day will prepare him, so He will be prominent on the area, and He will carry his expected role out. In other word: what is the benefit from this long absence and what is the justification for it? The numerous of people are asking this a question while they are hopeless to hear a metaphysical answer, rather we believe that the twelve Imams are a singular series it is impossible to change any of them, but those inquirers are truly demanding with a social interpretation for the position, according to the perceivable truths of the great change activity, itself and the understandable requisites of the promised day. by passing on this basis, we put out the characteristics aside temporarily, that we believe in the availability of in it these infallible Imams and put the following question forth: Regarding to the expected change activity through the promised day, as it is understandable in the light of the life norms and it is experiences, can we consider his long age of their preserved leader as a factor from the factors of making a success for it, which enables him to practice it and lead it by the utmost border? thus we answer that by the positive for several reasons as the following: The great change activity truly requires a unique psychological setting in the leader who practices it and which is full with the feelings of superiority and the feeling with the dwindling of the supercilious entities, for which the eliminating is prepared and change it's civilization into a new world. so as much as the leader's heart can survive, and who is the changer of the feeling with the insipidity if the civilization by whom He struggles, and obvious sense, that is just appoint on the long line of the human civilization, it becomes powerful from the psychological aspect in order to face it, and to stand against it, and to continue with his efforts opposite it up to the victory. It is clear that the desired volume from this psychological sense agree with the volume of the change itself, and what is intended to omit from the civilization and entity, whenever the meeting was to a greater entity more established, and highest, it seek a greater propel from this replete spiritual sense. Since the mission of the promised day is to change a world, which is filled up with the injustice and oppression, a general change with the whole of it's cultural morals and various entities, of course this mission is searching for individual who is greatest with his sense of that whole world, for a person who is not from the generations of that world who grew up under the effect of this civilization, for which it is wanted to be damaged. To substitute the civilization of justice, and right instead of that, since the person who grows up under the shadow of the established civilization which established the world with its authority, morals and its thoughts, who lives with the feeling of the dignity against it, because He was born while it was established and grew up since He was a little, and it was tremendous. He opened his eyes in the world, through which He didn't find unless the various appearances of it. And in a contrary of that, a person who goes deeply in the history that He lived before, and that civilization truly found the blossoms, and He saw the great civilizations which governed the world one after the other, and then they are damaged and collapsed. He saw that by his true eyes and didn't read it in the history books ......, then He saw the civilization for which predetermined to be the last section of the human story and that will be before the promised day, He saw it while it was a little seed that couldn't be seen unless by difficulty, and then He saw it while it was already taking place in the human social entrails, and while it was looking for the opportunity to grow and emerge, and then He coeval with it, while it already began to grow and advance, and attacked by the deterioration one time and got success in other time, and then He attended it while it was flourishing and became a giant, and gradually dominated on the whole authorities of the world completely. A person of these situations, who lived the whole these periods with complete insight and attention, while He was watching at this giant, which He wanted to struggle with from the corner of the long historical extension whom He lived it with it in his full sense, not through the books of the history, but He looks at it not as inevitable predestination, nor as {Jean Jacques Rousseau} who considered the kingdom in French, so it was already narrated about him that He was afraid, when He imagined France without a king, although He was one from the great philosophical, and intellectual propagandists for advancing the existing political situation through that time, since {Rousseau} grew up under the royalty, and breathed it's air during all his life. However this person who is penetrated deeply within the history, so He has the gravity of the history, and the power of the history, and the replete sense that what is surrounding him from the beings and civilization, which are resulted in one day from the history, the means are fulfilled for it and the means also will be fulfilled so it will be vanished, nothing will be reminded, from it as nothing was found from it in the nearest or Fareast recently. The historical ages of the civilizations and beings truly however they are prolonged, they aren't unless short days from the long age of the history. Have you read Al- Kahf chapter? and have you read about those youths who believed in their lord and He (S.W.) increased them in guidance?,and they faced ruling pagan regime, which hadn't mercy up on anyone and didn't stop to strangulate any seed of the monotheism and the raising from the polytheism unit, so their souls became powerless, and the desperation enters into themselves, and the vents of the hope were closed in front of their eyes, so they resorted to the cave while they were seeking a solution for their difficulty, from God (S.W.) after the solutions fatigued them, and it became greater, that the oppression is continuing to umpire to wrong and to subdue the right and to kill every one whose heart palpitates for the right. Do you know what Allah (S.W.) acted up on them? He (S.W.) had put them into a sleep for three hundred and nine years in the cave, then He (S.W.) had waken them from the sleep, and held them for the life theatre, while that being which was surprising them with his power and injustice is already collapsed and declined, and became a history that could not scare any one, and couldn't move a tranquil thing, the whole of that was for these young men to see the demise of that injustice and which his circulation power and, continuity, and to see the end of his order with their eyes, and the injustice became little in their minds. Indeed if this clear view is found for the fellows of the cave with the whole of what it was included from psychical height and impetus through that unparalleled phenomenon which prolonged their life for three hundred years, so the same thing will be occurred to the expected leader through his long life, that gives opportunity to him in order to see the giant while He is a pygmy, and the lofty tree, while it is a seed and the hurricane while it is just as a breeze. In addition to that, the experience which the escorting of these sequential cultures that provide him (A.S.) with, and the direct facing for it's movement and progressions has a great effect in the intellectual preparation, and to deepen the experience of the leadership of the promised day; since it puts the saved individual in front of several practices of the others including the whole points of the weakness and the power, and the kinds of the errors with true, which supplies the individual a greater ability to evaluate the social phenomenon with the perfect attention on its origins, and all the historical circumstances. Thus the stored change activity of the expected leader is passing on the basic of a specific mission, that is the mission of Islam, and it is of course this activity in this case requires a leader who is close to the principal sources of Islam, while his personality is already constructed a perfect structure in autonomous shape, and separated from the effect of the civilization that assumed for the promised day to fight them. Then on the contrary of that, the person who is born and grown up under the protection of this civilization, his feelings and thoughts will be effloresced within the limitation of it. Then He often can't liberate from the reminding of that civilization and its principals, even though He led a transformational charge. So in order to be sure that the saved leader will not be affected by the civilization for which He is perfected to change, it is inevitable that his personality is already structured a perfected structure within a previous cultural stage, which is the nearest in the general spirit and from the aspect of the origin for the cultural state, which the promised day moves to achieve it by the leadership of his own.