, The al-Qaʾim (aj) Institute began the first of its symposia under the name the Tuesday Cultural Forum, with a symposium under the title: Are We in the Age of the Reappearance? delivered by Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
Listening to the symposium, and a news report
To download the symposium and listen to it
https://www.mosawy.com/audio/627/69
((Are We in the Time of the Reappearance?))
A report on the first symposium of the Tuesday Cultural Forum.
The speaker: His Eminence Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi.
The presenter: Hajj Rida Ahmad al-Turayfi.
(Are We in the Time of the Reappearance) was the topic of the symposium of the Tuesday Cultural Forum held by the al-Qaʾim (aj) Institute on the evening of Monday, the eve of Tuesday, corresponding to 16/3/2015, at its headquarters located in the Mosque of Imam ʿAli (a) in the village of Bani Jamra, where His Eminence Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi spoke on this topic, treating it so as to clarify and refine the meaning of nearness in Duʿaʾ al-ʿAhd narrated from our Imam al-Sadiq (a): (O Allah, remove this grief from this nation by his presence, and hasten for us his reappearance; indeed they see him to be far off, and we see him to be near).
Touching from there on the concept of awaiting (intiẓār), he stressed at the beginning of his talk, saying:
We are before an important truth, namely knowledge of the Imam of the Age and connection with him, because whoever does not know the Imam of his age dies the death of the Jahiliyya; for knowledge of the Imam and his temporal circumstance entails knowing how to be connected with him.
He explained: We come to know our Imams through what has come from the Prophet (s), as he explained that the Imams after him are twelve, all of them from Quraysh, and he also mentioned their names one by one; likewise, connection is only achieved by defining the position of the Imam and the nature of the age in which he is.
The Ahl al-Bayt (a) were present in their societies, and the people and the loyal followers communicated with them directly; then times and stages passed that differ from the way of direct meeting, namely the stage of the Minor Occultation, in which there occurred appointment and special deputyship through the four ambassadors, who were (r) the link with the awaited Imam al-Qaʾim (aj).
Then came the Major Occultation, which is the period of which the Ahl al-Bayt (a) spoke, of its length, its trials and the bewilderment that strikes the believers in it; they (a) also spoke of its end at the final stage, as it will end with the holy Reappearance of al-Qaʾim al-Mahdi (aj), who will fill the earth with equity and justice as it was filled with oppression and tyranny.
So the Age of the Reappearance is the time immediately following the reappearance of the Qaʾim of the Family of Muhammad, that is, it begins with his noble reappearance.
Al-Mosawi stressed the necessity of knowing reality so that our dealing with ourselves, our Imam and our time may be sound.
He explained that there are those who say that we are actually in the time of the Reappearance, and there are also those who apply some narrations to some events in order to arrive at a result that fixes and sets a time for the reappearance of the Imam (aj).
Sayed Al-Mosawi asks:
How do we treat such phenomena that have spread recently?
And he answers:
We treat this by refining the concept of nearness in the text of Duʿaʾ al-ʿAhd (indeed they see him to be far off, and we see him to be near). So what does it mean that we see as near that whose time of realization is unknown?
For we must know the nature of this nearness that we should live and believe in, and there are multiple horizons for the meaning of nearness that open up to us through treating the concept:
The first horizon: material nearness. This is the nearness that may arise between any two bodies, and this can only be by determining the position of the body.
This meaning cannot be what is intended, for those who believe it are two types of people:
