Everybody, no matter if they're a Jew or Christian, uh, no matter if they're Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist, everybody agrees that if there is a God, the God has to be good.
Everybody, no matter if they're a Jew or Christian, uh, no matter if they're Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist, everybody agrees that if there is a God, the God has to be good.
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Everybody, no matter if they're a Jew or Christian, uh, no matter if they're Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist, everybody agrees that if there is a God, the God has to be good. And everybody agrees that a good God would never leave his sheep go astray or his creation go astray. So a good God has to, has to leave with creation a way that they are able to communicate with him.
There has to be a rope that is extended from God Almighty down into creation. That if creation holds on tightly to, that they don't go to hellfire, they don't go astray, or they don't, they don't go into, into misleading paths that will eventually lead them into places of darkness or mich-- misfortune or, or hellfire.
Or else that would not be a God who is worthy of worship. A God who just leaves creation be confused in the middle of, um, a million and one sects and religions that are all professing to be the only true path, and each one of them is saying that the other paths are gonna lead you to hellfire. So the person who comes into this world and is truly seeking or looking for God, he has to find God's phone number. He has to know how can I distinguish ? How can I find God and find the true path ? I…
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just want him. Oh God, no matter who you are, if Buddhism is the true path, I wanna be a Buddhist. If Christianity is the true path, I wanna be a Christian.
If Islam is the true path, I wanna be a Muslim. Uh, you-- there has to be a way to figure it out, and that was what was so attractive and still is attractive about the call of Ahmed Hassan and the message of Ahmed Hassan and the message of this Dawa, and the Dawa of Imam Mahdi.
Ahmed Hassan said God did leave a clear way to communicate with him, and that way was the same way, the same phone number, which he never changed from the time of Adam all the way till now. And it's very simple, and it's in front of you, and no Christian nor Jew nor Muslim would disagree on. And it's this law, the law of knowing the proof or the messenger or the representative of God. How to find basically the door of God. God has to be the one who appoints his messenger or his vicegerent or his successor. And that's what we find in the, in the book of Genesis, and we also find in the Quran that God says, Fairly I am making in the land a successor, a vicegerent.
He is the one who is publicly appointing Adam in front of everybody. When Adam goes to creation, he can easily state... When they say, "Who are you ?" He can say, "I'm Adam." And everybody knows when he says, "I'm Adam", that he's the one who's appointed by God. Nobody else can go forward and claim to be Adam.
Only Adam can claim to be Adam. So this, this, this, this divine appointment has to be enforced, protected. Nobody can claim it except for its companion. After God appoints Adam publicly, God and God taught Adam all of the names. He gave him all of his knowledge.
So this messenger of God who stands on the door of God, who stands on the path of God, guiding people towards God has to be an infallible Individual who knows all things and is able to answer any question posed to him by creation. There cannot be somebody who's standing at the door of God, and there be other people who are more knowledgeable than him. Well then, if that was the case, then they would be more deserving to be standing at the door of an all-knowing God.
The third criteria to knowing that the path that you're on is the correct path or the true path, is that the messenger is always calling back towards the supremacy of God. The idea that nobody can rule except for the person who's appointed by God. Because in fact, when that person appointed by God rules, it is God who's ruling. Just like when the Democrats, uh, have a candidate and the candidate wins the White House, who, who's ruling the White House ? The Democrats. If there's a Republican candidate and he wins and he's ruling from the Oval Office, who's ruling the Oval Office ?
The Republicans. As such, God, when he appoints a king or a successor, and that king or successor rules, who's ruling ? It's God who's ruling. So those three criteria are the criteria that, that whereby a person who's in an ocean of confusion can identify and know how do I tell if I'm on the right path or not. So, so let's, let's take it to a real-life scenario. Now what does that mean ? That means that in every day and age, there has to be somebody who's appointed by God, and God is always present in creation through a vicegerent. There's never a moment in the history of the Earth where there's a vicegerent that's absent. There always has to be somebody.
One passes away, a new one comes in his place. Jesus goes, Simon Peter is there. Muhammad goes, Ali Ibn Abi Talib is there. Now Ali Ibn Abi Talib goes, Al-Hassan is there. Al-Hassan goes, Al-Hussain is there. And as such, in a, in a, in a long line of successors, a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets and messengers, and an unlimited amount of successors all the way from the beginning of creation till the end of creation. So if I'm standing and I'm trying to find out, um, I'm calling God in the middle of the darkness, "Oh God, show me the true path.
If it's Buddhism, I wanna be a Buddhist. If it's Christianity, I wanna be a Christian. If it's Islam, I wanna be a Muslim. Just show me where the truth is." I'm gonna hear a bunch of voices. These wolves that are in sheep's clothing, uh, these hollers, these yells, these claims. Uh, Sunni Islam is the right path.
Oh, you have to be on the, you know, this type of path. You have to be a Buddhist. You have to be a... No, you have to be a Christian. No, you have to be a Protestant. No, you have to be a Methodist. No, you have to be a Baptist.
No, this. No, this. No, this. The first thing that I have to do is go back and say, "Are you appointed by God ?" If the answer is, "No, I'm not appointed by God," then thank you very much, I don't wanna hear about it, because you don't have the right to talk in the name of God. The only person who has the right to talk in the name of God and say that they're gonna lead me towards God is the person who was appointed by God. That's the only way that my heart can be at peace.
Right or wrong ? So I have to find that person who's coming to me, and he's claiming to have been appointed by God. In the time of Adam, Adam was clearly appointed by God, and he could say, "Hey, I'm Adam. I'm the one who was appointed by God." When we come to the Israelites, when they wanted a king in the Torah and in the Quran, what did they do ? Could they appoint their own king ?
They couldn't appoint their own king. So they had to go back to the prophet who was appointed in their time, Samuel. They said, "Samuel, we see all the other nations, they have kings. We want a king too." So Samuel had to go back to God, and God told, inspired, instructed Samuel, who was his messenger, to appoint for them Saul. So Saul, the first king of Israel, becomes an, an appointed king. That's the only way that he can be king is he had to be appointed. Same thing with David. Same thing with Solomon. They had to be appointed. Appointed by who ? Appointed by Samuel.
And their appointment by Samuel, who is a messenger of God, becomes the same thing as an appointment directly from God, like in the case of Adam. So now Saul would go to the people and they would say, who are you ? I'm the king of Israel. The king of Israel who ? The king of Israel Saul, the one who was anointed by Samuel. Correct ? David would come. Who are you ?
I'm King David. Who appointed you ? God appointed me. I'm David who was appointed and anointed by Samuel. Solomon would come. Who are you ? I'm King Solomon. Who appointed you ? I was anointed and appointed by the messenger and the king sent by God, David. Jesus came.
What did he say ? He said, I'm the messenger of God who was foretold to you by Isaiah. Muhammad came. What did he say ? He said, I am the messenger who was foretold to you by Jesus. It would be pointless. It would be contradictory to common sense if somebody else could claim that position that was mentioned by the vice-gent of God. So what is the point, for example, of Jesus coming to us and saying that after me one day there's going to come Muhammad ?
If a million and one people could come before Muhammad and claim to be Muhammad, then it wouldn't really be a sign of guidance. Right or wrong, it would be a source of misguidance. People would be confused. So God has to promise to protect this name and the claiming of this name. Nobody can claim it except for its companion. And that's what we find in the hadith of the Ahlul Bayt, alayhim salam, and actually also in the narrations of the Jews and the Christians, is that anybody who claims to be the messenger of God and they really are not from God, then God will cut off their life. It has to be protected.
Or else it doesn't make sense. Right or wrong ? So therefore we find that before Jesus claims to be the one who was sent and mentioned and prophesied by Isaiah and by the prophets before him, nobody else claims to be that. He's the first one who claims it.
People can claim to be it after him. It doesn't matter because it's already fulfilled in Jesus. But they can't claim it before him. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Nobody claimed to be mentioned on the tongue of Jesus before him. Nobody can claim to be the appointed king except for the appointed king.
But he also has to back it up by knowledge as an added assurance for the people. And he also has to call towards the supremacy of God. He can't come with a system of rule that's based on the right of birth, for example, or based on elections, or based on any type of other political system. It has to be that God is the one who appoints and that's it. So Ahmad al-Hasan to them when he came with these things, he brought a logical argument forth that nobody could argue against. Everybody agreed that actually this is the case. And when they go and they look at the examples of the prophets and the messengers, they find that yes, David, Solomon, Ezekiel, the prophets, the messengers, all of them from the time of Adam till Muhammad were claiming that God is the only one who can rule. God is the only one who can appoint a king, a messenger, a vice-chair.
And that that vice-chair has to be knowledgeable. And that vice chair has to call towards this system. They have to be. This criteria is an infallible one. And so, in 1999, we found that Ahmed al-Hassan was the only person on the entire planet who fulfilled that criteria. Ahmed al-Hassan, out of all the voices on the planet, those who were calling towards this religion or that religion, this path or that path, there was only one man who said, I am sent by God. And that automatically makes him the only claim that's worth investigating. Because we don't want to hear about religion from somebody else who woke up in this world just as confused as everybody else and didn't have divine enforcement or inspiration or conversation or instructions from God. Correct or no ?
When we looked at Ahmed al-Hassan, what is this man saying ? He was raising a book and he was saying, you see this book ? What does it say ? And it had in there a narration that was written by Imam Ali, who was the successor of Muhammad and the husband of Fatima Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet.
And it was the will of the Prophet Muhammad. So on the night of the Prophet's passing, the Prophet wrote a will. And the Quran says it is obligatory that if death comes to anybody, that they write a will. And the Prophet Muhammad, being a great prophet and messenger to mankind and being a man of great authority, he was ruling a nation now of Arabs. He had united all these tribes. There was over 140,000 members of the religion of Islam and under his political rule. If he had died without appointing his successor, then that would make him not worthy of being a prophet or not worthy of being a ruler. In fact, it would make Umar and Abu Bakr and Uthman, who were not prophets, not divinely appointed, it would make them more intelligent than he was. Because Abu Bakr, before his passing, he appoints Umar.
And Umar, before his passing, he appoints a little legna or a committee of individuals that would vote on who would be the successor after that. So each one of them safeguarded the method or the appointment of the ruler after them in their life, before their death, so that they don't die and they leave people in massive confusion. And a group of people decide to support this guy while another group of people decide to support this guy and they all start fighting with one another. Each one of them said, no, I'm going to ensure that before I die, I appoint my successor in my will. So if Abu Bakr was smart enough to do it, and he was in direct communication with God, and Umar was smart enough to do it, and he was in direct communication with God, then the Prophet Muhammad, who was in direct communication with God, must have had done it.
And he did do it. And we find one narration, and it's the only narration that's present that mentions the contents of the Prophet Muhammad's will. And in that will, the Prophet Muhammad says, I'm going to give you a book that if you hold on to it, you will never go astray.
So now there's a promise. And the promise is the same promise that God gave to creation when he appointed Adam. If you hold on to Adam, you'll never go astray. If you hold on to Jesus, you'll never go astray. If you hold on to Muhammad, you'll never go astray. Muhammad also says I'm going to give you a book, a writing. If you hold on to it, you'll never go astray. The companions, they said, "No, um, you know, the Quran is enough for us, and we don't need this book," in a narration called The Tragedy, The Tragedy of Thursday. And so the Prophet dismissed them, and when he was with his close companions and with his successor, Imam Ali, he instructs him to write the will.
In it, the Prophet says, "After me, there's going to be twelve imams, and after them there's going to be twelve mahdis." And then he names one by one by one by one by one the names of his successors, starting with Imam Ali. And he says, "Imam Ali, when death comes to him, he should pass on the imamate. He should pass on the divine office to Imam Hassan. And when death comes to Imam Hassan, he should pass it on to Imam Hussein, and as such, from imam to imam to imam until he reached the twelfth imam." And then he said, "And when death comes to him, he should pass it on to the first of the believers." And he names the names of the twelve mahdis. Well, at least the three first of the twelve mahdis : Ahmad and Abdullah and Mahdi.
So now Ahmad al-Hassan, alaihis salam, had come forward claiming to be appointed in the will of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa ali, whom the Prophet Muhammad-- which the Prophet Muhammad said that if you hold on to it, you'll never go astray. Now I'm forced to...
As a believer who's searching for truth, I'm forced to submit to that, because he came to me with a letter of appointment from the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa ali himself. If we say, "Oh, but, but he might be a liar. Anybody could claim to be Ahmad." If we believe that anybody could claim to be Ahmad and that he might be a false claimant, then this is not a letter that safes and safeguards against misguidance. And therefore, the person who wrote it and said that this is a letter that safeguards against misguidance cannot be a prophet. And actually, the legitimacy of the whole process is drawn into question. Because now if Ahmad al-Hassan can claim to be Ahmad in the will, but he's not, well then what stops Muhammad from having claimed to be, uh, mentioned on the tongue of Jesus when he was not ? What prevents Jesus from claiming to be the one who was prophesized by Isaiah when he is not ? So the whole thing tumbles and crumbles, and it becomes a, a, an ocean of confusion. And there's no way to tell who is the truthful one and who is truly a messenger from God, except if God was to open up the skies and, and, and appoint himself.
Yeah, Ahmad al-Hassan, alaihis salam, then after claiming to be Ahmad in the will, he challenged all of the scholars of Islam and the scholars and the priests and the preachers of Christianity and the rabbis of the Jews. He said, "I am more knowledgeable than the Jews in regards to their Torah. I'm more knowledgeable than the Christians in regard to their Bible-- in regards to their Bible. I'm more knowledgeable than the Muslims in regards to their Quran." And he answered the people's questions, and he wrote books which demonstrated that very fact, thus proving that he had divine knowledge. So- Ahmad al-Hassan, he fulfilled two of the three criteria. And the third criteria is that he came with a banner, and that banner is the banner of the supremacy of God, which is written in the Al-Bay'ah li-Allah, or rulership, kingship is only for God.
The only person who has a right to tell other creatures what to do is somebody who is appointed by the Almighty Creator who created those creatures. That's the system of rule that the Imam al-Hassan came with. And he said it's not a new system. It's the same system that existed from Adam's time until now.
All of the other scholars in the time of Ahmad al-Hassan's emergence and appearance were calling, for example, towards elections or supporting this candidate of the Marja or that candidate of the Marja, this Republican candidate, that Democratic candidate. But nobody on the planet was claiming that they were a divinely appointed ruler or king or messenger and could back it up with a claim, a letter of appointment by the Holy Prophet or the person who sent them and demonstrate knowledge like Ahmad al-Hassan did.
And that is how you know what path to follow. And that's how we knew what path for us to follow. It's incredible, isn't it ? And when we think about it and we look into the Gospels, we see that after Jesus, he After Jesus had passed away, there was clear leadership for the church in the form of Simon Peter. And Simon Peter was not just somebody who came into power from his own self, but rather he had to have been appointed by Jesus before Jesus passes. And that's exactly what we find in the Gospels. Jesus publicly appoints Simon Peter.
We find that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the Qadir appoints Imam Ali alayhi salam. So there's a public appointment and there's also the fact that he appointed Imam Ali alayhi salam and those who were to come after Imam Ali in his will.
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