Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khamenei met with a number of first-time voters as well as the honorable families of martyrs on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ [2–183] 

O you who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard (against evil). 

 

Fasting or Ṣawm (Arabic: صوم) ranks amongst the most significant obligatory rituals in Islam. Muslims must abstain from several activities, including eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, to obey God's command. Fasting is one of the ten Ancillaries of the Faith, and it has also been obligatory in other religions in a different manner.

 

The Constitutional Council has confirmed the approval of 14,200 candidates for Iran's upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 1st, Spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif announced.

This final list follows thorough vetting, including scrutiny of appeal files submitted in the last week, Nazif said, assuring swift communication of qualified candidates to the Interior Minister, with the Council's work concluding by February 8th.

 

The statement by Nazif also addressed the ongoing evaluation of Assembly of Experts candidates, with appeals accepted until February 7th.

 

Transparency remains a priority, with any changes promptly communicated to affected individuals, he stressed.

 

Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister Mohammadreza Shahcheraghi provided logistical details. He confirmed the opening of nearly 59,000 polling stations and the involvement of around 800,000 personnel to ensure smooth elections. Shahcheraghi emphasized the nationwide competitiveness of the upcoming parliamentary race.

 

With the candidate list finalized and preparations underway, Iran gears up for its highly anticipated parliamentary elections on March 1st.

 

The 12th Parliamentary Elections and 6th Assembly of Experts Elections will be held in Iran on March 1, 2024.

 

 

The Occultation (ghayba) is a period of concealment chosen by God for the Imam who will continue to live in this state as long as God deems it necessary. Then He will command him to reappear and take control of the world in order to restore justice and equity. The mysterious fate of the son of the eleventh Imam divided the early Shi’ite family into some eleven to fifteen different schisms. Cf. A.A. Sachedina, Islamic Messianism, pp. 42-55, see also an- Nawbakhti, les sectes shiites (Kitab Firaq al-shi’a), pp.109 But the idea according to which the twelfth Imam was alive and hidden and would return at the End of Time, was later adopted by all Imamites due to the tenacious efforts of authors/compilers like al- Kulayni, al-Nu’mani and especially Ibn Babuye, who, through the great mass of traditions surrounding this belief, progressively managed to convince the population of the faithful.M.A.A.Moezzi, The Divine Guide in Early Shi’ism, p.105 In fact, early Imamites attempted to present the Imamate and Mahdi-ism of the Twelfth Imam in occultation in a logical and rational way. According to Imamite sources, Muhammad ibn Al-Hasan al-‘Askari (al-Mahdi) had a first occultation when he was a child, in 260 AH/874 AD, at the time of his father’s death, and it lasted nearly 70 years. At Samarra in Iraq, beside the shrines of the tenth and eleventh Imams, is a mosque under which there is a cave from where the Imam Mahdi is said to have disappeared when he was five years old. This cave was a place of retreat and meditation for the eleventh Imam and his son, and also a hiding place from the Abbasid agents. During this Occultation, the Imam communicated with his faithful via four successive Representatives (nâ’ib): 1. Abu ‘Amr ‘Uthman ibn Sa’id al-‘Umari (or al-‘Amri), representative from 260 AH/874 AD to 267 AH/880 AD. 2. Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn ‘Uthman al-‘Umari (or al-‘Amri), the son of the above, from 267 AH/880 AD until 305 AH/917 AD. 3. Abul-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Rawh al- Nawbakhti, from 305 AH/917 AD to 326 AH/937 AD. 4. Abul-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Simarri, from 326 AH/937 AD to 329AH/941 AD. This was “the minor Occultation” (al-ghayba al-sughra). Then, around 329 AH/941 AD, came the beginning of “the major Occultation” (al-ghayba al-kubra) after the fourth representative received a last autographed note from the hidden Imam: “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful; Ali ibn Muhammad al-Simarri, may God increase, through you, the reward of your brothers [in religion; that is the Shi’ites]; your death will take place in six days. Prepare yourself and name no one as your successor [as representative] after your death. This is the advent of the second Occultation in which there will be no more manifestation, except if it be with divine permission, and that will only take place after a long time, when hearts will be hardened and the earth filled with violence. Among my partisans, some will claim to have seen me with their eyes. Beware! He who claims to have seen [me] with his eyes before the raising of al-Sufyani and [the sounding of] the Cry is a liar and an impostor. Greatness and Power belong to God alone.” Six days later al-Simarri, on his deathbed, was asked, “Who will be your successor?” He replied, “From this point on, the matter is in God’s hands, He will arrange it Himself.” Those were his last words.Ibn Babuye, Kamal al-din, vol. 2, ch. 45, p.516, num.44 The major Occultation is still in effect, and will not end until the End of Time (akhir al-zaman) when the Mahdi comes back to re-establish Justice on earth. The Imam is not completely cut off from his followers but has spokesmen, in the form of learned jurists (marja’ taqlid), who can act on his behalf and guide the Shi’ites in their religious matters. Imamite traditions give four reasons for the Occultation. 1. Safeguarding the life of the twelfth Imam. 2. Independence vis-á-vis temporal powers; through his Occultation, the Mahdi will owe allegiance to no temporal powers. 3. Putting the Imamites to the test; the Occultation serves as a long period of trial, a challenge to their faith. 4. Finally, there is a hidden reason for the Occultation, that is said to be the most important of all, although it will not be revealed until the Return of the Mahdi. With the major Occultation, the secret life of the Twelfth Imam begins, whose occult presence has dominated the Shi’ite religious consciousness for more than ten centuries. The Twelver tradition illustrates this from as early as the fourth AH/tenth AD century, the hidden Imam living in his physical body, providentially endowed with a long life. To support this claim, Ibn Babuye dedicates six chapters of his Kamal al-din to those known for their extraordinarily long lives in the Arabic tradition. It is also said in the Twelver tradition that the hidden Imam attends the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and that he sees people even if they cannot see him. He is visibly present and walks through their marketplaces and into their homes, and nobody recognizes him. In this latter case, he is compared to Joseph (Qur’an, sura 12, Yusuf), seen but not recognized by his brothers. As in Joseph’s case, God can allow him to be recognized by some people. The Prophet is said to have stated: “...His faithful are illuminated by his Light; they profit from his wilaya during his Occultation, just as one profits from the sun even when it is covered by clouds.” The history of the twelfth Imam during his major Occultation is constituted of stories and narratives recounted by those who saw the Mahdi in their dreams or in reality. The compilations of al-Kulayni, al-Nu’mani, and Ibn Babuye, to name the oldest and the best known, and numerous other Shi’ite works throughout the centuries, contain a number of eyewitness accounts from even ordinary people who were in great distress or other unfortunate circumstances and who claim having met the twelfth Imam. “None of these mysterious appearances to his faithful suspends his Occultation but each of these appearances suspends for his faithful the common laws of time and space for Men who do not perceive the occult presence of the Imam.”

Certainly We wrote in the Psalms, after the Torah: ‘Indeed My righteous servants shall inherit the earth.’(al-Anbiya:105) 

Its reference is the content of verse No. 48 of the current Surah which indicates that the Torah is /ŏikr/ (reminder) where it says:

Some Islamic narrations have explicitly commented this verse upon the followers of Hadrat Mahdi (pbuh). This meaning is the statement of a high and clear aspect of it which does not confine the generality of the concept of the verse. 

The system of creation is a manifest reference for the acceptance of a proper social system of the world of humanity in future. This meaning is the same thing which is understood from the verse under discussion and the traditions concerning the advent of ‘the Worldly Great Reformer’, Hadrat Mahdi, (may our souls be sacrificed to him). 

در المنثور سیوطی ج 4 ص 341.

15 of sha'ban (شعبان) is the birthday of Imam Zaman (pbuh).

we, the Shiite people of Iran congratulate the birthday of Imam Mahdi (PBUH) to all Muslims in the world, specially Shiite Muslim`who may be his honest followers.

Children in Gaza are  suffering the psychological consequences of Israeli bombings while losing their families and belongings as they are suffering from acute shortages of food and water.

 

The Israeli regime’s relentless bombing of Gaza, calling it “collective punishment” of the Palestinians has forced the helpless residents to flee towards the southern town of Rafah, bordering Egypt.

 

Rafah is now Gaza’s most populated area where 1.5 million people are sheltering as their last resort – over half a million of them children.

 

Nearly 29,000 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have been killed so far as a result of the brutal military onslaught.

 

 

«یَا أَیَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ارْجِعِی إِلَى رَبِّک رَاضِیَةً مَّرْضِیَّةً فَادْخُلِی فِی عِبَادِی وَادْخُلِی جَنَّتِی»

فجر/۲۲

In some commentaries are stated: The surah that is introduced as the surah of Imam Hussain (AS) is Surah Fajr. In a narration about the virtue of this Surah from Imam Sadiq (AS), Hazrat says: "Recite Surah Fajr in obligatory and recommended prayers, because this Surah is Surah Hussain bin Ali (AS) and whoever recites this Surah The Day of Judgment with Imam Hussain (AS) is in heaven.

At the end of this sura, it is stated: O soul, return to your Lord with satisfaction, so enter the worshipers and enter Paradise (Fajr/27-30); You, a peaceful soul, return to your Lord while you are pleased with Him and He is pleased with you, and enter the path of my servants and my paradise.

Sheikh Abdullah Bahrani, after narrating the narration of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) regarding this surah and dedicating it to Imam Hussain (a.s.), writes: "After Imam Sadiq (a.s.)'s statement, one of the people present said: How is this Is the surah the surah of Imam Hussain (AS)? Imam said: The meaning of (Self-assured soul) in this verse is Imam Hussain (AS) and his Companions and Shiites.

 

 

 

Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (Arabic: الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب) was born in Sha'ban 3. He is known as Abu 'Abd Allah and Sayyid al-Shuhada'. The third Shi'a Imam was martyred in the Battle of Karbala after ten years of Imamate. He was the second son of Imam 'Ali(a) and Lady Fatima (a), and the grandson of the Holy Prophet (s). 

At his birth, the Prophet (s) foretold the story of his martyrdom and named him al-Husayn. The Prophet (s) introduced him and his older brother, Imam al-Hasan (a), as the Masters of the Youth of Paradise. The last messenger of Allah loved (al-Hasanayn) and instructed people to love them as well. Al-Husayn (a) is one of the Ashab al-Kisa', one of the participants of the Mubahala, and one of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) about whom al-Tathir Verse is revealed. A large number of hadiths narrated directly from the Prophet Muhammad (s) add more to the distinctive status of al-Husayn (a).