 Is it necessary for us human beings to have a representative or a self-representation enough through personal achievements? Can any ordinary person become a representative of mankind? Is this position granted by a higher authority on earth or is it a divine position given by God for the reformation of the corrupted societies? Who are the indefinite representatives over mankind? When the Almighty God proposes the necessity of having a leader who will guide his followers to perfection, is it safe to consider the current rulers and kings as leaders? Or is there a different type of leadership intended? If so, where is this leader and what are the reasons behind the long absence? Is it possible to follow someone who we never seen or heard from? Who is intended by the famous narration of the greatest messenger which states whoever departs from this world not acknowledging the Imam or the leader of the time will die the death of the ignorant? Such questions have been asked on a daily basis and the answers have become repetitive when it comes to the existence of such an important character. Respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to the third episode of The Awaded Apostle. Respected viewers, welcome back once again. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to the third episode of The Awaded Apostle with me, your host, Ahmad Ali. In the previous episode, we talked about and examined the life of various individuals in history, prophets and messengers who lived a very long time and went into occultation and compared it with the life of Imam Al-Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance. But for the sake of tonight's episode, I am honored to host this episode once again with my dear guest, Sayed Muzaffar Al-Qazwini. As-salamu alaykum Sayedna. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Yesterday's talk was very interesting. We had various evidences regarding the long life that Imam Al-Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance. But Sayedna, we want to move on to a different topic today, inshallah. Which is the importance and the significance of representation. We do find that a lot of people lack and when you ask them who represents you, they go into silence, they don't know what to answer with. So Sayedna, what is the significance of representation? Well, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, after starting with the name of Allah, representation in the life of the ordinary man is something very significant. Who or what represents us or to whom or what we represent. In any field in life, representation could either make it individual or a person cannot reach his goals and destinations without the right representation. For example, if you're going for a job interview, basically what represents you is your CV. And prior employers, contacts whom you know, if you've been employed in America or anywhere in the West, usually they ask you to write three different contacts in your resume where the new employer could call and acquire about you. Even if it's a scholarship or a degree, at the end of the day, this is what represents you. It's another form of contact. You have a scholarship from this university. Basically, you're being referred back to this university or college. So it's also another form of representation. When you go ask someone's hand for marriage, they'll usually ask you who do you know, who sent you, who could represent you, who could represent your family. We don't know much about you. We need to ask about you and so on and so forth. A person by himself, in society, does not stand too valuable. You have to be represented by someone or something. It's an important aspect of life. This is how the nature of every single human being is. It doesn't matter whether what your religion is or whether your ethnicity or not. No, this is how we're created. This is what our innate is and our nature is. When our created created us by nature, our nature is... We give representatives and we acquire representatives. So it's much more clear when you're living your everyday life. But what people do not understand is when it comes to religion and belief, if you see yourself as a believer, whether you're a Muslim, a Jew, Christian, a Hindu, a Buddhist, any religion that it could be, who represents you based on your religion and faith, who represents you today? It's not who represented you 1400 years ago or 2000 years ago, 3000 years ago. Who your prophet is or who the messenger was that came with your religion. But who is your representative today? Who represents you? Who's your representative to your Lord and who's your Lord's representative today? This is something that's very important for Muslims, especially Shia Muslims. Muslims all agree that there has to be a representative, a divine representative of Allah SWT at all times. Now the differences is what we will mention in sha Allah in upcoming episodes. The difference between Shia and Sunni understanding is whether he's born or not born and so on and so forth. But we got into that in the first episode and we will keep clarifying in the episodes to come. But for example the hadith by the prophet says man mata walam ya'arif imam zamanihi ma tamita tujjahiliya and this hadith is given to us in the book Tabaqatul Hanafiyah page 457. He who dies and does not know the Imam, the representative of his time, he will die the death of a pagan, the death of a person who did not believe in God or any of his religions. There's no difference between him and idol worshipper. So those who claim to be monotheistic and believe in one God and so on and so forth that you need to have someone represent you all the time. Why is this important? Now to clarify this issue is you know some would say that there is no problem as for our Sunni brothers and sisters. They'll say from the time of the prophet and then to the Messiah. So during this time who is your representative? You know we mentioned in the first episode that there cannot be a time in which there is no Khalifa, there is no representative and vice-gerent on earth representing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So according to this hadith if you don't have someone to represent you then what is the outcome? What also falls under that category is the infallibility leadership and role model and a prime example of that if you want to take it into consideration. If a person wants to you know have a surgery when he goes to a hospital or a clinic to get that surgery done and there's 50 doctors in that same field. He's going to look for the best fit doctor that can you know do the surgery perfectly. He goes to the first doctor and sees that he's not you know it doesn't have experience. So he goes to the second one who has a lot of experience and had made no mistakes. And he goes to the third one he says you're the one I'm looking for. Goes to the third one and sees that he's also perfect but only had one mistake. So at the end he's going to find and he's going to choose the one that's most fit to do the surgery because he wants to ensure his health. The same way this example is illustrated when we want to choose our leaders our role models our representatives the same way and this is why when you want to choose who represents you it's important to look at their life and to look at who they actually are. When we for example if we want to look at the representative of our time inshallah we'll get into that more. We have to find are they perfectly fit to be the leader to be the representative of us and hence we have to make the right choice to ensure that those representatives are the actual role models that bring us closer to the Almighty God. Another hadith with similar meaning from the book of Musnad Ahmad volume 4 page 96 man matab ghayri imam matamitata jahiliya which also refers to the same meaning the person who dies in this life and he does not have imam representing him he does not have a vice gerent in his life which he believes that he's the representative of Allah during his lifetime dies the death of a pagan and as the Quran says in surat al-asra verse 71 yawmanadu kulla wanasim be imamihim that on the day of judgment we will summon every you know group of people nations after nations by their imams by who they took as leaders and who was their leader at the time so you know first it's very important to have a leader and a representative in this life because the one who represents you in this life will represent you on the day of judgment now this relationship this relationship between you know us normal individuals and this Messiah the Messiah that will come to bring peace and justice to this world is it based on you know relativity that he's my relative yes a lot of people you know people a lot of people have this misconception that just because if I'm related through the scriptures that you know maybe he's from the lineage of David or from his from the lineage of Muhammad peace be upon him or he's from the lineage of a smile you know that this is enough is it being related to that person meaning that because you're related to this Messiah that he's your Messiah and he's your representative or is are there more values behind in what a person should carry and have to be represented by someone and have them to be their representative in this life and in the hereafter so just like I mentioned like people who think they are Sadat say it's because they're related to Rasul Allah sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi then their Messiah should be the Mahdi is this correct or is this not correct you know people who are you know following the Ismaili school of thought and you know have basically narrowed down the capability of the Messiah being from the sons of Ismail only and their Imams being from the sons of Ismail only is it just based on lineage or what is it based on you know as if a person wants to represent you or have this representation or is it based on the value the message that this Messiah brings that this vice-gerent of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and God brings do we follow him and place him as a representative because we're related to him or because of his message because of his values because of his teachings because of who he represents thus the Quran says that don't think that just you being related to Rasul Allah sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi has any value when you don't follow his ethical values his Islamic values what he's preaching and what he's teaching you know what he has brought from his Lord if you're not following the commandments of his Lord and the teachings of his Lord then you know you being related to Prophet Muhammad or to you know Prophet Dawood or Ismail and so on and so forth has no value and another beautiful hadith by Amir al-Mumineen alayhi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says the one who takes Muhammad as a representative or Muhammad represents him and he's his his representative is the one who was obedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even though their flesh is far away you know they're not related by blood and flesh and the enemy of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi is his enemy even if their flesh was you know if they were blood related or not you know if they were blood related but he was like the one who was the enemy of the Prophet and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then this does not mean anything yeah I mean just to add a point and a point is that it's funny to see that because even among sadaq alayhi sallam when they were asked who's more related to the Prophet and he says blood relation had nothing to do with it the same way you said it the closer you are to Allah the closer you are to the Prophet and yet no perish the hands of Abu Lahab yet he is the uncle of the Prophet and Salman is from us Ahl al-Bait and how far is Salman from Prophet Muhammad yet because of the message that Salman Farsi took him and never refuted you know having a representative is very important you know just like you need a representative in your everyday life yes you know you want to go buy a house you need a bank to represent you yes you know you you want to buy things that are very expensive you need a company to represent you and this is just how life works so why we as human beings don't think about this issue that who represents us to our Lord and who is our Lord's representative to us right now the year 2016 who represents mankind to their Lord you know and and who's the representative of our Creator today 2016 who's the representative that all these sons of Adam will say this is the person that represents us and if you have no clue this is a big problem it is and one of the misconceptions that is raised is that the narration you brought manmaata when a manmaata is a man whoever departs or dies and does not know the Imam the leader the representative of his time he will die the death of pagans of the people prior to Islam the ignorant people some people say when you ask them who is the Imam of your time they say well the king of this country or the ruler he's my leader I mean how can we you know dissect this and refute it the difference you know what we need to clarify about this issue that it cannot be any regular man you know this position of representation of Allah SWT the person who represents Allah SWT has to be worthy of representing Allah SWT you know I keep going over this that if you if a prophet or a messenger a representative of Allah SWT if he makes one simple sin then you know just the goals behind Allah SWT created everything perishes and vanishes Allah SWT God speaking about God God would not create heaven and hell and send your representative that is not infallible representative that makes mistakes and then hold you and I accountable of the same things that the representative did in his life it does not make sense you know so if we find it in some books it's the reason is because even the people of these books agree that their books were tampered with by kings by priests by rabbis and so on and so forth they know there is something wrong with the books and logically if you use your logic and if you're a firm believer of a God who is merciful who is you know pleasant who is merciful he would never punish those who he created for you know giving them the wrong representative representation he tells you not to drink not to fornicate but the representative that he has said is doing X Y and Z and you know and so on and so forth and that's an important issue so this is why you know it cannot cannot happen a king today can you give me one king that is clean you know and honorable the kings we speak about today are bombing you know poor and innocent people in Yemen for no reason you know they're waging wars they're waging battles in Iraq whether you know whether it's a queen whether it's a king you know they all have a hand and mischief and destruction in this world definitely but inshallah we'll continue the discussion after the short break if you all say it now respected viewers right now the discussion is very interesting regarding who actually represents us but inshallah we'll continue this discussion after the break short say it respected viewers welcome back hope you inshallah enjoyed that short reports but before we went to break we discussed the importance and the significance of representation so let's continue the discussion with my dear guest Sayyid Mullahfar Salam alaikum Sayyidina welcome back Sayyidina before the break we talked about the importance of representation but unfortunately right now there's a misconception within the youth also elders it's safe to say in the west they lack the ability of you know representing who represents them that may sound confusing because you know some people have tattoos on their bodies of ma'm Ali or whatever they are they have billboards hung up pictures on their cars whatever they have that they try to show who represents them but is this what Islam intends when they say that there's an Imam there's a leader there's a representative that should represent them is this a sort of representation? No this is you know shallow very shallow if a person believes that a picture or a tattoo or you know a car emblem is representing you know their Messiah or representing their you know whom they believe is the representative of God it has to have much more value into it you know basically you're living your life as you know a non-Muslim no different than any average American or average Canadian average British or you know average Aussie and just having a tattoo that says la fatah illa Ali or the sword of Dhul-Faqar which we find on most of our youth today boys and girls you know on their Twitter or Instagram accounts you see them without a job not living a Slavic life but you'll see that you know they've written live like Ali die like Hussein and it's not these small things that will represent you or you know and they're not the connection that you need with your Messiah so this is something that you know our dear brothers and sisters need to realize is that this is not enough this is not what Islam wants Islam has you know certain values that a person must carry and inshallah will again to this in our later episodes of what kind of characteristics what kind of values and merits should a person carry to show that he represents the Imam of his time and who represents him so that is also important and it's good that we cleared up that misconception but there's also a misconception other misconception which is related to all the religions revealed today every religion has its own Messiah we know that but some even you know Sunnis they claim that how can a prophet pray behind a non-prophet which is an Imam I would like to mention this narration by Jabir Ibn Abdullah Al-Ansali the great companion of Prophet Muhammad who lived up until on Baqarah which is a very long period of time he says a group of people of my ummah is Prophet Muhammad saying a group of people of my ummah will fight for the truth until near the day of judgment when Jesus the son of Mary will descend and the leader of them will ask him to lead the prayer but Jesus declines and refuses saying no verily among you Allah has made leaders for others and he has bestowed his bounty upon them so through this we find that no not every individual religion or not every individual human on this planet has his own Messiah they all come under the banner of one Messiah which is the Mehdi how can you comment on that if we get to this topic through different religions and faiths you'll see that yes they all do believe in a savior they all do believe in a Messiah but you know the translation of the word or the understanding of this phenomena differentiates sometimes very similar the core of the subject is very similar this person will bring is very similar but there are simple aspects that are different than other religions as for Judaism as for Judaism the difference between Judaism and Christianity Judaism also does not believe that the Messiah is a God or you know part God like Christianity so they believe the Messiah will be a great as I'll read you a verse from Jeremiah 235 the Messiah will be a great politician leader descended from King David so this is part of the Jewish belief that he will be a great politician and a leader and a descendant of King David now you know does it have to do anything with Allah SWT does it have to do anything you know as a divine representation this is you know not mentioned as if you could see now you'll be a great political leader you know so any person they feel like is a great political leader might you know fit the category and another verse in Jeremiah 3315 he will be a charismatic leader inspiring others to follow his example he will be a great military leader who wins who win battles for Israel he will be a great judge who makes righteous decisions so these are you know the criteria of what they believe will be in their Messiah he will be a charismatic leader he will inspire others he will be a great military leader and he has to win battles for Israel so is it for God is it for mankind no they specified and make it specific that he has to win battles for Israel he's a great judge who makes righteous decisions so if you could see there is you know similar similar aspects of you know that people will be inspired by him you know all religions will accept this he will you know make righteous decisions he will be a great judge you know you have to be a great judge to you know remove injustice and and tyranny if you if you're not a great judge and you're not a fair judge then it does not make sense for you to be in the position to represent God so the difference between Muslims and Jews when it comes to the aspect of Messiah is his lineage they believe he's from David we believe he's from Muhammad and again they believe that they don't know when he was born or when he will be born so the same you know question falls upon them that since Moses and since the last prophet that our Jewish brothers and sisters had told today who was the representative of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon man the connection between this earth and the heavens between man and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but just to add upon your point Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala states in the Holy Quran in chapter 21 verse 105 the chapter of prophets he says and we wrote in Psalms after the reminder that surely my righteous servants will inherit the earth so we do find that Psalms is also mentioned in Christianity that the righteous servants of Allah will inherit the earth and remove all the impurity and justice from it so they go hand in hand with all religions so they all intertwine with each other and when it comes to the point where you know not knowing whether he's born where he will be born maybe later to come and so on and so forth we see the similarity with Sunnis where you know they also mainly don't believe that he was born and he will be born you know at the end of time and so on and so forth but difference is with Shia Muslims we believe that humans sons of Adam need a divine proof and a vice-gerent and a representative of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at all times to exist and to represent them and to represent Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and without the Imam as we mentioned in previous episodes that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will never keep a man existing if he does not have a representative upon this earth because you know he could no longer hold them accountable now we also mentioned why yesterday the purpose of occult reiba occultation and the reasons behind it so his existence we believe in 100% but his reappearance is what we pray for and what we wish for and this is something you know we wish for his reappearance they wish for his birth they wish that you know he's given birth to and he's born and he comes as a savior but as a matter of fact when people especially Sunnis when they say that he is yet to be born Sahih Muslim mentions explicitly in his book I didn't write it down but if my memory is perfect Sahih Muslim in his book he says that the Mehdi of Muhammad the Mehdi of the Holy House of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him will come at the end of time and he is the son of Al-Hasan al-Asqari so right there we have indication that from their own books inshallah tomorrow if respected viewers need references I'll bring references tomorrow to discuss this but Sayyidina something that goes on with our discussion I know we have a couple of minutes left but Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his purified household he says even if the entire duration of the world's existence has already been exhausted and only one day is left before the day of judgment Allah will expand that day to such a length of time as to accommodate the kingdom of a person from the holy household from my holy household who will possess my name he will fill the earth with peace justice and tranquility after has been filled with injustice and tyranny so we are promised with someone he's not saying the birth of a Messiah and this is in Sahih Muslim in Bukhari and various books from the Sunni text but he's not saying the birth of someone he is saying that the Allah will extend to accommodate the kingdom of a person who will come and possess my name as Muhammad and if we go into Christianity the term Messiah is merely another name for Jesus the son of Mary Messiah means that the person who came and gave his life sacrificed himself to save the sons of Adam from their sins so this is the belief in Christianity that yes he was crucified then he was resurrected from the dead and he will once again return to as a Messiah again to save humanity from their sins and he is the sacrifice of God so this is the Christian translation and as for Buddhists the matriah yes and for Hinduism the kalaki the human and 10th avatar of Vishnu so you know if we go to worldwide religions then you'll see that every single religion faith and belief has this concept of a savior but we as human beings we need to come together and to see what we can do to hasten the appearance of this person who will bring justice and tyranny and injustice on this earth you know if you go to India you see poverty is you know overtaking the whole country if you go to Africa you'll see the same if you go to China you see that you know it's the same everywhere you go you know one third of this planet is below poverty levels and wars and battles and butchering and killing and it's taken over the whole world so we as humans when will we realize that we need to you know call upon our savior is it the same person is it you know different individuals when will we sit down and realize that we need to work upon the savior and his you know reappearance as a messiah to bring peace on this world now in inshallah in further episodes we'll speak about the duties of those who are awaiting their messiah what we need to do to hasten his appearance as Muslims and non-Muslims and what we need to do to avoid and delay to avoid to delay his reappearance and you know as my advice that there is no difference in between you know whether you're a Muslim or Jew or Christian because you know the things I'll mention are basically you know marital acts that people need to carry in everyday lives and conduct to re hasten the appearance of the messiah inshallah thank you very much Sayyidina for joining us tonight Sayyidina in respect to the viewers I would like to conclude tonight's episode by one narration hadith by Imam Ali bin Abi Talib who says when the supporter of the family of Muhammad peace be upon him may Allah hasten his reappearance rises Allah will unite the people of the east and the people of the west together so we do find that Allah will unite everyone under the banner of Imam al-Mahdi inshallah so thank you very much Sayyidina for joining us tonight respect the viewers thank you very much for joining us tonight may Allah once again I do repeat that every episode may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us the ability to improve ourselves for the hastening of the 12th Imam's reappearance thank you very much for tuning in wa salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Peace be upon you Sayyidina Thank you very much