Imam Khomeini (May God Rest His Soul)
Wrong Inferences from Imam Mahdi’s May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent Expectation
“Some people regard the expectation of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent as gathering in mosques, prayer places and houses and praying for his Auspicious Advent. These people are righteous with such beliefs. I knew a man who was very righteous. He has bought a horse and he had a sword while waiting for Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent. Such people did their religious duties and enjoined people to do good deeds and prohibited them from doing evil deeds. But they did nothing else!”
“Another group was waiting for Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent while arguing that no matter what is happening in the world and we are just doing our duties and the very Imam will appear to handle the situation of the world and we just have to pray for his Advent. That’s it! This group was another righteous people.”

“Another group of people believed that Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) will appear if the world is full of sins and they also argued that they should not enjoin people to do good deeds and prohibit them from doing evil deeds so that great sins prevail in the world and then Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent is about to happen!”
“Another group thought quite differently. They said we have to redouble our efforts to spread sins throughout the world to hasten his Auspicious Advent. There were some deviant and simple-minded people among them.”
“Such activities are contrary to the holy verses of Holy Qur’an. It is not possible to prevail sins in the world to hasten Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent! Is it possible? Imam Mahdi (Peace Be upon Him) is going to appear to fight injustice and corruption; thus, Are we going to fight with him? We cannot encourage people to corrupt. For example, can we pray for Seddam Hussain or the USA to spread corruption all over the world to hasten Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent to eliminate cruelty and corruption? Of course not! It is not possible! It is a wrong idea! We have to fight injustice and corruption with our power as much as we can but we cannot achieve this goal just like Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent)! But it does not mean that we have to stop fighting for justice. That is a mission! Do not shirk!”
(2nd April 1988)
Imam Khamenei – the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran
False Propaganda
“That is a point here. In the past, the matter of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent was wrongly propagated in Islamic societies which argued that no action must take before his Auspicious Advent and people must let the world be full of cruelty to pave the way for hastening Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Auspicious Advent. But no inaction has been said or written in all accounts of his Auspicious Advent and as history recorded many times, the world was full of cruelty at different ages e.g. Pharaoh and other tyrannical regimes eras; thus, there must be a divine power to eliminate cruelty, corruption, coercion and discrimination. But all of us as Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) followers, must take necessary actions to generalize and globalize his Auspicious Advent.”
Reference
“Leadership and Government” Book taken from Imam Khamenei’s declarations – the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran
Being Inactive does not mean expectation of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent!
“In our religious remarks, expectation of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent is a supreme effort. So what does it mean? What kind of expectation? There was a wrong inference about the expectation that spread by unaware and ignorant people misinterpreting the true meaning of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent. This false inference was an emphasis on being inactive before the Advent. Fortunately, our Islamic revolution eliminated such false inference (1st March 1990) the expectation of his Auspicious Advent does not mean inaction! And also it does not mean being inactive, but we have to try to reform our world as much as we can! Not just looking forward to seeing his Auspicious Advent! On the contrary, expectation means divine power to hasten his Auspicious Advent to bring justice to the world and eliminate cruelty with the help of loyal followers. Imam Mahdi’s May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) mission is to spread monotheism and we have to get ready for the very divine mission. Formation of the Islamic republic of Iran is regarded as one of the plans for such great movement. Every effort can be a step in establishing this expectation. Expectation does not mean inaction! It means achieving an exalted purpose. Expectation means getting ready deep inside! And knowing that nothing can be automatically achieved! Expectation means action and movement and getting ready to keep faith around our environment and Iranian people could step in doing this thanks to God’s will. This is the meaning of the expectation. The expectation means getting ready to Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) uprising that is the very great world revolution promised by God. His uprising is to bring justice to the word to show us human life, divine life and divine servitude. This is the real meaning of the expectation.”
(17th August 2008)
Abusing Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Name
Of course, the account of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent was distorted by some self-seekers. They just pretend to follow Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) and they claim that they have contact with him but their goal is to abuse Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) name. Such claims are shameful. Such false claims are just fake reflections of expectation. All people must notice that these self-seekers want to achieve their evil goals and their claims are false. But our prominent figures that their lives were more valuable than ours never made such false claims. Maybe some pious persons can reach such place to have contact with Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent), but they do make not such claims, because they are modest and never want to abuse such position. So, those who abuse Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) name are liars and we have to avoid these people.
(17th August 2008)
Shahid Motahari
Destructive Expectation
Some people have a different inference from Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent so that they argue that this type of expectation is destructive and it results only from spreading cruelty, discrimination, corruption and injustice. At that time, goodness, justice and human right will be forgotten by all people and badness prevails and nobody is truthful. So this group believes that this destruction appears because there is no goodness in the world. Evil deeds spread and injustice prevails and the world will be full of badness! This destruction is just like an explosion! Now, it’s time to explode i.e. the Advent of Imam Mahdi (May God hasten his Advent)! But this group is wrong. Because they just increase corruption and injustice! And they feel animosity towards people who rejoin others to do good deeds and prohibit them from doing evil deeds! Such inferences are regarded as quasi-dialectical ideas that are different from dialectical ideas and the difference is the fact that in dialectical ideas, some people disagree with reforms to redouble efforts in struggle. But this type does not have such advantage and it just stimulates people to corrupt; therefore, such ideology is not compatible with the Islamic and Qur’anic principles and it leads to sins at last. Hence, such expectation is destructive.
Reference
“Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten his Auspicious Advent) Uprising and Revolution from the Viewpoint of History of Philosophy” Book, Shahid Morteza Motahari, Publisher: Sahra Publishing House
Ayatollah Al-ozma Javadi-e Amoli
Everybody will die as same as they lived.
“As the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) stated: “If you do not know your era’s Imam, you will die with ignorance. And everybody will die as same as they lived. If a person lives with ignorance, he/she will ignorantly die because it is impossible to live wisely but die ignorantly. The verses of Holy Qur’an emphasize the importance of living wisely and avoiding ignorant death (Ra’d Chapter, Verse 33) and that is the very meaning of converting to Islam before death. If we know our contemporary Imam , we can easily avoid ignorant death as a real Muslim and also we can eagerly look forward to seeing his Auspicious Advent.”
Here the gist of the argument is neither knowing Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) according to historical proof nor knowing him because of his Holy Family and ancestors, but the real understanding of Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) divine place requires strong belief in his divine leadership and also obedience to his certain rules; otherwise, the former rulers such Abbasid caliphs and other cruel monarchist governments were aware of superficial aspects of contemporary Imam of their era.
Reference
Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) – Divine Promise, Ayatollah Al-Ozma Javadi-e Amoli
Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi
Real Shiites or Registered Shiites?
We cannot consider ourselves real Shiites and followers of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) by making claims. We cannot call ourselves Shiites as it is registered in our ID cards. And do our Imams (Peace Be upon Them) accept us as their followers? What about Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent)? They do not follow our ID cards, and there are some people without Shiite names but they are dearer to our Imams (Peace Be upon Them). If we want to take step towards real Shiites, we have to know that Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) is aware of all of our activities. So, we have to control our behavior and actions and do our best as much as we can.
Our Imams (Peace Be upon Them) emphasized the importance of some subjects but unfortunately we are not doing them properly. For instance, we are not fair to our families, relatives and children. Good deeds are not just prayers. Although the value of prayers will be appreciated by God, the Islamic orders must be followed together by every Muslim. A real Shiite is a person who does any good deeds and avoids temptation to sin. If we just obey one aspect of religion, we will be similar to a body with incomplete organs! So, we have to do our religious duties regularly and thoroughly.
Anyway, helping each other is one of the activities that makes Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) pleased with. So, as God stated, if you expect to be forgiven by God, you have to forgive, love and help each other.
Reference
“Sunlight of Divine Leadership” Book, Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi, Publishing House of Imam Khomeini (May God Rest His Soul) Research and Educational Institution
Ayatollah Makrem Shirazi
Hope is the Necessity of an Effective Expectation

When corruption prevails in the world, and the majority of people get engaged in corrupt practices, some righteous people are confronted by a dilemma resulting from being disappointed with reforms. Sometimes they think that they cannot reform and their efforts are too useless to be righteous. Such disappointment may gradually lead them astray and the minority of righteous people may prefer to go with the flow. The only thing can bring hope to them and keep them self-confident is to believe in “Ultimate Hope” i.e. Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten His Auspicious Advent) Advent. Only in this case, righteous persons do not stop trying to keep the faith.
As we know, the Islamic orders and doctrines regarded disappointment at not being forgiven by God as the greatest sin and some unaware people may wonder how such disappointment is very important even more important than other sins – and that’s why sinners make no effort to repent of their sins or at least stop committing sins; so, they do not look forward to seeing Imam Mahdi’s (May God Hasten his Auspicious Advent) Advent, because they are disappointed at being forgiven by God but another viewpoint causes a mental effect on believers to look forward to seeing his Advent while corruption prevails in the world and such strong beliefs protect them against corruption. This group are not disappointed; on the contrary, they are hopeful of seeing his Advent and also redoubling their efforts to hasten this great Advent.
Reference
“Global Government of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten his Auspicious Advent)” Book, Ayatollah Al-Ozma Makarm Shirazi, New Generation Publishing House

Imam Ali (Peace Be upon Him) said the following words about the verse of “Noor”:
“Kukab-e Durri” in this verse means the very man of justice .” (Bahar-al Anvar, vol.90, p.21)
Imam Sadegh (Peace Be upon Him) stated:
“Everyone who is willing to be a sincere and loyal follower of Imam Mahdi (Peace Be upon Him) must keep waiting for his Advent and behave piously and righteously.” (Bahar-al Anvar, vol.52, p.140)
Imam Sadegh (Peace Be upon Him) stated:
“The best state to get satisfaction from God is established when the divine proof is beyond the rich of people so that they are not aware of his place while they believe in his Auspicious Advent and look forward to meeting him at any hour of the day or night.” (Bahar-al Anvar, vol.52, p.145)
Imam Reza (Peace Be upon Him) stated:
“Patience for Imam Mahdi’s (Peace Be upon Him) Auspicious Advent is a good feature. So, did you hear God’s remark about this? God stated: You need to wait for his Auspicious Advent as I do. So, be patient, because his Advent will be realized after an era of despair.” (Qurb-Al Asnad, p. 380)
The Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) stated:
“O people! I want to give you the glad tidings of Imam Mahdi’s (Peace Be upon Him) Auspicious Advent. Be sure that God’s promise is not false and His commandment is not changeable because God is aware of all things and the divine conquest is about to happen.”
“We are looking forward to seeing Imam Mahdi’s (Peace Be upon Him) Auspicious Advent. The very expectation is a sign of His Advent. Also, this expectation is a hopeful and promising sign. This sign prevents terrible feelings of disappointment, confusion and futility.”
Declarations during a Meeting with Researchers and Personnel of Dar-al Hadith Institution and Qur’an and Hadith Research Institute on 10th January 2014
It is true that the world will be shone with His Auspicious Advent, but it does not mean that we should wait for His Advent in the dark.
Said by Imam Khamenei – the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran (on 3rd April 1988)