Recognizing the symptoms of the Reappearance
Recognizing the symptoms of Imam Mahdi’s Reappearance is one of the important duties of the awaiting people during the occultation, especially those signs which our Imams have informed us about.
The book Mikyal-al-Makarim
Everyone is needed to pledge allegiance to Imam Mahdi after his Reappearance and this is impossible without having knowledge about the Reappearance.
Imam Sadiq says: "Five symptoms are inevitable before the Reappearance of Imam Mahdi which include: “Yamani, Sufiani, a loud cry from the Heavens, the murder of the pure soul, and the ground subsides in the area of Al-Bayda."
Kamal al-Din and Tamam al-Nimeh, chapter 57
Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani says:
"Recognizing the symptoms of the Reappearance is obligatory."
Almsgiving on behalf of Imam Mahdi
This work is one of the signs of amity and friendship toward Imam Mahdi. One of the recommended tasks ordained by God in his Book to his servants is to do almsgiving on behalf of the (Islam’s) Prophet’s kinsmen and relatives. You don’t notice that whenever you worry about your child or dear ones you pay alms in order to keep them safe from dangers? Thus, your Imam is the most deserved for such a deed (almsgiving).
As evidence to what we mentioned, we can refer to Sheikh Saduq who writes down a document referring to the saying of Prophet: “No one has believed faithfully in me unless he loves me more dearly than himself, and my family more than his and my progeny and kinsmen more than his, and my own self and his own self.”
We can infer from this Hadith that expressing affinity toward him (Imam Mahdi (PBUH)) is as pleasant as the extent that a believer is fond of his kinsmen, children and family and expresses his affinity toward them.
Mekyal al Makarem
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