 Dear viewers, my most sincere and warmest greetings to you. I am blessed and fortunate to be talking to you through another episode broadcast to you by Imam Pasain TV from the land, a piece of land which has been described as the paradise on earth, Karbala. Well, tonight we're going to have some sort of thoughtful conversation, inshallah, during which I'm going to present some questions and we will try to seek the answers. Well, have you ever wondered why is there an age of occultation at all? Why have we been deprived of direct access to the Imam during this age of occultation or hidden secretive existence of Imam Mahdi alayhi salam? Why has it been so prolonged? You may think of a number of reasons, but perhaps the best and perhaps the foolproof approach, the guaranteed approach would be to seek the answer from the fountains of infallible knowledge. As we browse the books of hadith, we come across a great body of a hadith that describe some of the reasons behind this phenomenon, the occultation or hidden existence or secretive existence of our Imam alayhi salam, Imam Mahdi alayhi salam. Why is he, why has he been concealed from our site? Well, in one hadith, for example, Mawlana Jawad al-Ayma alayhi salam says that when God actually sees that people are ungrateful towards his greatest blessing and endowment, which are us, Ahlul Bayt alayhi salam, divinely appointed imams, then he will decide to deprive people of the presence of the Imam. This is perhaps the first and foremost reason why we are now living in an age of occultation, because, well, if we trace history all the way back to the Holy Prophet, when he was poisoned and martyred, his rightful successor was not followed by so many or enough people. There were only very few people who truly supported Amir al-Mu'mineen, Salawatullahi alayhi. In the hadith read, there were like maybe 11, 12, well, not more than 20 people who were real companions and supporters and defenders of Amir al-Mu'mineen alayhi salam, I mean the real sense of Amir al-Mu'mineen alayhi salam. So that's one reason, but there are also secondary reasons mentioned in the hadith, and I'm going to recite one of the, of course, presumably one of the most important ones. In a hadith narrated by Ibn Umayr, which was a companion of Imam Sadaq alayhi salam, he narrates from Imam Sadaq alayhi salam, and his narrative begins with his words as he presents a question to Imam Sadaq alayhi salam, in which he asked Imam, why did Amir al-Mu'mineen alayhi salam, Asadullahi al-Qalib, the invincible man of battle, why did Amir al-Mu'mineen refrain from battling, or in other words, confronting with sword and thereby, of course, killing his enemies. And in the hadith, actually, the name of Umar and Ababaq has been mentioned. Why did he not confront them with his sword? Why did he not battle them with sword and thereby, of course, eliminate them and erase them, and just take back his right, claim his rightful position? Well, the Imam, of course, answers his question with a verse from Quran. So, his question was, why did Amir al-Mu'mineen refrain from battling and confronting with sword and killing, in fact, that those two, the first and second, actually figures who usurped the rightful position of Amir al-Mu'mineen and alienated him. And, of course, people followed them in the same manner. And why did he, of course, did not put an end to the matter from the very early stage? So, Imam Sader, alaihi salam, describes, actually, what happened following the martyrdom of Rasulullah. We know that he was poisoned by his family members, his wife. I do not need to mention who he, who she was. You certainly know who I'm talking about. But Imam says that, Amir al-Mu'mineen did so, meaning refrained from doing so, in respect with or in submission to a verse from Quran. And the companion of Imam Sader, alaihi salam, asked, which verse from Quran? And Imam Sader, alaihi salam, recited this verse from Quran from Surat al-Fath, verse number 25. The part of the, actually, verse goes, Well, let me give you just a brief and concise translation of this Hadith. But you can refer to the Hadith and actually read the Hadith that have been actually presented in the books of Exegesis, the books of Tafseer, Exegesis, like the Al-Burhan, in respect to this actually verse of Quran. So, basically, God says that had it not been for Raja al-Mu'mineen, the faithful men and women, that you do not know, that you are not aware of, and you may hurt them unknowingly and thereby commit a sin involuntarily and unknowingly. Then the latter part of the verse is actually the part that the narrator of the Hadith asks, what does this part mean? What does it mean? What does it mean? Had they been segregated or separated? Had they been segregated means the faithful and the unfaithful, the infidels and non-believers, the profane. Then God would certainly have sent down his punishment and eliminated all those people who wronged Amir al-Mu'mineen, but because of this Hadith, because those faithful and non-faithful had not been segregated, Amir al-Mu'mineen, did not kill those people who confronted him and usurped his right. Now, the Imam explains that this part, this segregation means that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had actually deposited the seeds of the faithful in the lineage of certain infidels or kuffar, who were later on going to be born and come to life and emerge in this world. So, if Amir al-Mu'mineen had killed those kuffar from the very beginning, these mu'mineen or the faithful, which were divine deposits of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the lineage or the progeny of these actually infidels, then these mu'mineen and the faithful would also, as a consequence, been eliminated. So, Amir al-Mu'mineen al-Salam refrained from doing so because of this very verse of Quran that the faithful and the non-faithful at that point had not been segregated yet, and there were faithful people deposited as divine deposits as seeds in the lineage of the infidels. Now, the Imam continues and says the same thing applies to Qa'emana, Imam al-Mahdi al-Salam, and he will not emerge until the time that all these divine deposits, those faithful people, emerge and are born and come to life. So, that's a very insightful hadith that explains this lengthy span of the age of accultation, that Imam Mahdi al-Salam will wait until all these divine deposits emerge and of course come to life so that they will assist him in his great cause. Well, I hope you enjoyed this beautiful and precious hadith, and I do recommend that you refer to this verse, Surat al-Fat, verse number 25, and the books of exegesis like Tafsir al-Burhan and other books of Tafsir that have of course narrated the ahadith of Ahlul Bayt al-Salam in explanation and elucidation of this verse. Thank you very much for staying tuned and have a most wonderful night.