This article aims to establish the leadership of the twelfth Imam (i.e. Imam Mahdi) as the peace-maker of the world.
1. The End of the Night of Darkness
When we look at our present situation, and we see the increase in crimes, massacres, wars, bloodshed, conflicts, international differences and the daily increase in corruption, we ask ourselves if the situation will continue in the same way and the extent of the crimes and corruption will so grow that all of society will be included in continuous war and destroyed? Or the ideological differences and ethical corruption will, like quicksand, take society along with it or is there still hope that one-day humanity will be saved and reformed?
There are two answers to this important question.
The first answer: This is mentioned by the materialists and the pessimists and that is that the future of the world is dark and that every moment, a danger exists.
The second is of those who believe in the divinely revealed religions, in particular, the Muslims and, especially the Shi’ites, who give another answer to this question and they say: Behind this dark night lies the morning of hope.
These dark, stormy, death-like clouds and the flood of destruction will finally be eliminated and the clear heavens and the brilliant sun and a quiet environment will follow. These hidden hurricanes will not always be before us and in the near future, we will be taken to the shore of salvation.
The world is in anticipation of a great Reviver who will, through a revolution, transform the world to the advantage of truth and justice. Of course, we must note that each religion calls this leader by a different name. As an Arab poet says, “We call you by different names. But your beauty is not more than one thing and all of our words are directed towards that world of beauty!”
2. The Primordiality and Manifestation of this Great Reviver
Our inner inspirations whose waves come through the judgment of wisdom are more powerful, not only in the issue of ontology, which can guide us in all of our religious beliefs but also guides us in this issue.
Its signs:
First, the general love for justice in the world because all of the people of the world, in spite of all of the differences have, without exception, shown love for peace and justice. We all cry out and make endeavours in this way and we seek peace and justice in the world with all of our being. A more important reason than this for the primordiality of the manifestation of a great Reviver cannot be found because the generality of such a need is proof of its Primordiality (Note this with care).
Every love and primordiality speaks of the rule of the existence of a beloved and is moving to attract it. How is it possible that God places this thirst in the inner spirit of the human being and does not provide a fountain which will quench this thirst? It is here that we say that the primordiality and nature of seeking justice for human beings cry out.
One day justice and peace will take over the entire world. The organizations of oppression will be destroyed. Humanity will take on the form of one country and will live under One flag, with solidarity Unity and Purity of life. Another sign is the commonality which exists in all religions of the world as to the existence of a great Reviver.
In more or less all of the religions, such a chapter exists and the idea of the belief in the manifestation of a saviour of the people who will heal all of the wounds of humanity is not only present among Muslims but rather all of the documents show that this is a universal belief which is primordial and exists in all of the religious groups of the East and the West, even though Islam, which is a more complete religion, places greater emphasis upon it.
3. Intellectual Proof
A. The order of the creation is a lesson for us that the world of humanity must, in the end, be ruled by the law of justice and remains based on a system of justice and peace. This means that the world of existence, to the point that we know it, is a complex of orders, systems and laws which are proof of the unity of the world and the connection to this system.
The issue of order and law and programming and accounting is one of the most serious and basic issues of this world. From the Milky Way to a minute atom, several million of which can be placed upon the head of a pin, all are of a special order. The various organs of our body, from the amazing structure of a cell to the system of nerves and veins to the brain and the heart and the lungs, all have a particular order which is such that some scholars say that each one is like a clock which works within the body and the greatest computers are nothing in comparison to it.
In such a world, can a human being exist as a part of this universe as a non-conformed and disorderly part with wars and bloodshed and oppression? Do injustice and the real corruption of a society, a type of disorder, always rule over humanity? The result is that witnessing the world of existence makes us aware of the fact that the end of human society is justice and order and that it will return to the man line of creation.
B. The evolutionary or transformative line of society is another proof for the future which is clear of the world of humanity because we can never deny this truth that human society, from the day, that it recognized itself, has never stopped at one stage and is continuously moving forward. From the material point of view, from the view of clothes, housing, type of food and means of transportation humanity has lived through the most basic of situations and today it has reached the stage which surprises the sight and intellect and most certainly this ascent will continue.
From the point of view of knowledge and culture, also the direction is always one of ascent or increase and every day new discoveries and new information is gained. This law of transformation or evolution will include spiritual, ethical, and social aspects as well as humanness and will move towards a just law, permanent peace, justice and moral and spiritual virtues if we see that today, moral corruption is increasing, this is also an area to prepare for a transformative revolution.
We can never say that corruption should be encouraged but we say that when corruption reaches beyond a certain point, it will bring about the reaction of a moral revolution. When human beings find themselves before a dead end as a result of their undesirable sins, their heads hit a stone wall, and their lives are near ending, they will at least, be prepared to accept such a principle that comes on behalf of a divinely inspired leader.