Ya Maula Kaeem,Ajs (Ajjal Allaho Taala Farajek wa Salwat Ullah e Alaek wa Laan Allaho Aadaik)

Ghaibat (Occultation)

What it is, why it occurs and how it can end

{Pl note that all this article is written with ref to the most important books regarding Ghaibat like Kamal ud Din, Ghaibat e Toosi, Ghaibat e Nomani, Ussiratus Sawi fil Ahwal ul Mehdi ajs, Hayat ul Quloob, Payame Imam e Zaman ajs}

We very often use this word in our day to day life. Some of us intermix two words, Ghaibat and Gheebat (backbiting) because these two words have same spellings in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Kashighari languages. These two words are spoken with different aaraab and their pronunciation is well understood from the English writing. So here we are talking about Ghaibat and that also with reference to Maula Imam e Zaman ajs.

WHAT IT IS:

Ghaibat is an act when a divine personality is living:

  Away from public and beyond the reach of other human beings.

  Away from majority of the public with limited people allowed to contact.

  Living a normal life with others but the divine identification is concealed.

WHY IT OCCURS:

Allah Almighty sends divine personalities to guide, lead and coach human beings to the straight path of Allah swt. They may be having different designations like Nabi, Rasool, Wali, Wasi, Khalifa or Imam. Every Personality is sent to achieve certain specified objectives within a specified time. But most of the divine personalities had a common problem that the upper and ruling class of their society did not accept them (in general terms). Their enemies conspired to kill them. Since Allah swt wanted them to stay more in the society and not to embrace martyrdom, they were asked to take one of the two steps’

1. Migrate to some other place, within the limits of their allocated jurisdiction, where they were safe and beyond the reach of murderers. There they had more friends and followers devoted enough to protect them against the life threats.

2. Adopt occultation as with just migration, the security objective can not be humanly achieved.

Question may arise in some minds if Allah swt was not capable to defend his representatives in their native areas? Answer is that Allah swt is not so far applying the rule of force. Humanity is so far in the phase where it has been given a liberty to pick the path by choice. Rule of force will be applied in the last segment of the humanity circle. {After Zahoor e Muqaddas, people will not be allowed to think doing bad. They will be punished when they decide to act wrong i.e., before acting wrong. What a great era when there will be no tyranny at any level in any area. Lets Say Allahumma Ajjil le Waliyekal Faraj}

GHAIBAT IN HISTORY:

We very commonly use two terms, Nabi and Rasool. But most of us are not aware of the difference. A Rasool is the divine leader who has to work in the society by disclosing his divine identification while a Nabi has to do his job without disclosing his identification. So if we go by the above definition we find that out of 124000 Anbia a.s., only 313 were Rasools a.s.

Ghaibat was introduced just after the Prophethood of Adam a.s. (may be due to the sad incidence of the murder of Habil) You just calculate the percentage of 313 from 124000 and you will find how frequent was the rule of Ghaibat implemented by Allah swt. Many of these 313 Rasools also had to adopt Ghaibat once or more in their era of Risalat. Some had to exercise both, Ghaibat and migration. The history of Ghaibat among Rasools starts from Prophet Idrees a.s. and ends with our Holiest of the Prophets sAaww. Huzoor sAaww also spent initial 40 years of HIS sAaww life in Ghaibat as HE sAaww did not disclose HIS divine identity. Although we find that some of the spiritualists of that time did recognize HIM sAaww, but sAaww never said that HE sAaww is a Rasool till HE sAaww was asked to disclose after 40 years.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GHAIBAT?

There are three parties in Ghaibat. (I am unable to find a better word than parties, though I am not easy)

  Allah swt.

  The Divine Personality sua.

  Umma.

We can not fix the responsibility to Allah swt as HE jj always loves and wants that HIS jj representative should guide the humanity.

The Divine Personality a.s. feels much easier to do HIS a.s. assignment without any enmity. HE a.s performs HIS a.s duties even when Umma tortures HIM a.s again and again. So;

It is Umma which does not want to change its life style and is ready to kill the Divine Personality. Those who have accepted HIS a.s. leadership are not strong enough to defend HIM a.s from the enemies. Hence there is no other possible way to defend The Divine Leader a.s. than to adopt Ghaibat.

So it is Umma which is responsible for Ghaibat.

HOW GHAIBAT ENDS:

Historically we find three different ways. I just briefly quote the practical situations.

  Ghaibat of Hazrat Idris a.s. ended after 22 years when Umma was squeezed with constant drought and they realized that it is because of the occultation of their prophet a.s. They spread the ash of their ovens on the barren lands. Prayed to Almighty for forgiveness and promised to respect and follow Hazrat Idris a.s. Allah swt asked Hazrat Idris a.s to end his Ghaibat and return to his umma.

  Bani Israel went out of their homes. Separated males, females and children. This separation was applied even in their animals. Stayed in deserts for forty days and constantly prayed for the forgiveness and Allah Almighty’s help against the tyranny of Firaoun. Allah swt accepted their request and asked Hazrat Musa a.s and Hazrat Haroon a.s. to end the Ghaibat and to finish the tyranny of Firaoun.

  The Umma did not realize the need for a divine leader. They were happy with their daily life style. The ultimate time for the appearance of The Divine Leader sua arrived and Allah swt descended the Rasool sua; as in case of Hazrat Ibrahim a.s. and Hazrta Syed ul Anbia sAaww.

IS OUR HOLY IMAM AJS HAPPY WITH GHAIBAT?

This is the point where the heart of a true Shia wants to BRUST. I beg your forgiveness for being blunt and quote just two points.

Agha Waheed Khurasani has quoted a holy saying of Maula Imam e Zaman ajs “Ghaibat is like a prison for ME (ajs).”

Think for a while that your son, brother, father or a closet friend is in prison. What will you do? How will you feel? Do you have the same feelings with the Ghaibat of your Imam ajs? Let us all ask one question from our selves, “Shia is a very big word, can I claim that I have any love with my IMAM ajs?”

In Ziarat e Nahya Maula Imam e Zaman ajs said, “To commemorate with the blood of your wounds, I(ajs) shed tears of blood every morning and evening”

Just try to visualize and realize. You enter your home and find that some one from your closest and loveliest kin is crying. What will you do? Just ignore him and move to your

room? Or Sit with him, share and try to calm him down. Are you feeling the same with the Tears of MAULA ajs?

I love a site and visit it many times every day. It is www.bestshia .com . What I like is that even before their home page, they just give you a second to second count down of the period of Ghaibat. Now when I am writing these lines, it shows 414631 days of Ghaibat have passed. When ever I feel missing I open this page and start praying for Zahoor.

WHAT TO DO TO END GHAIBAT EARLY:

First of all let us think that should we do some thing to end this Ghaibat or let it finish as per the ultimate time? In hundreds of ahadith, the ultimate time is to come after a disastrous life over the globe. One third of the population will die with wounds. Another one third will die because of diseases. Cities will be drowned with floods. Heavy rains will destroy the life. Earth quacks will be frequent. Even first bloods will not bother for each other. Are we ready for that? Will it be comfortable to wait for the ultimate time for Ghaibat to end? Those who are not ready to face the ultimate disastrous time, must do some thing to get the Zahoor early. They have two ways. Both can be adopted simultaneously.

1. Pray whole heartedly for early Zahoor. While explaining the ending of miseries of Bani Israel, Maula Imam Al-Sadiq sua referred to the forty days of joint prayer talked above. In the end Maula sua said, “Similarly there will be a long Ghaibat for our QAIM ajs. If our Shias will pray like them ( bani Israel), this Ghaibat will end early. Otherwise there is an ultimate time when it has to end.”

2. Become a true soldier (Nasir) for IMAM ajs. All those lucky ones who were blessed with the ziarat of Maula ajs and those who got an opportunity to ask MAULA ajs why this Ghaibat was not ending, MAULA ajs gave a common reply “ I (ajs) am short of Nasireen”. We find 1.5 billion Muslims, all having a faith that there will be a MEHDI sua. All religions have a faith that there will be a personality to come and impose peace in the world. There are about 240 million so called Shias who believe that it is their 12th IMAM ajs who has to come and bring pease and pleasure in lives. There are about 40-50 million sadat, who know that it is their family CHIEF ajs who has to come and bring an end to Aza and take the revenge from enemies. But MAULA ajs can not find a sufficient quantity of Nasireen for HIM ajs from all of these billions.

Let us review our QUALITY of love and do some thing to end the miseries of our MAULA ajs.

Let us change our priorities of life and place the desire of early Zahoor at the top.

Let us pray regularly for the early Zahoore, alone as well as in groups.

Let us become a true Nasir of our MAULA ajs.

Let us increase the quantity and quality of Nasireen.

May Allah swt add to our Taufeeqat e Intisar.

This is taken From Muntakhib ul Asr page 342, by Agha Safi Gulpaigani