Past eventOther · The Lantern of the Path · Session 54

The False Dawn

Wednesday, 28 January 2026

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Mahdawiyyah, Part 10 · The Era of Establishment, Part 2 In 317 AH, a movement claiming to act on the Hidden Imam's own orders rode into Makkah during the Hajj and slaughtered the pilgrims gathered around the Kaaba. Not every response to the long wait for the Imam of our Age was patience. Some communities raised banners and reached for the sword. The Zaydis built states by force in Yemen and Tabaristan, shedding noble blood that watered the earth without reaching the goal it was spilled for. Further still went the Qarmatians, who during the Hajj season killed roughly thirty thousand pilgrims inside the sanctuary, threw the bodies into the well of Zamzam, and tore the Black Stone from the Kaaba's corner, carrying it off for twenty-two years and refusing every ransom offered for its return. They called it all divine command. The theological error beneath the atrocity had a name: the belief that the inward, esoteric truth of religion could simply abrogate its outward law — that once the kernel of meaning was grasped, the shell of prayer, fasting and pilgrimage could be discarded. What the movement revealed, once the law was gone, was not a purer faith underneath but violence dressed in the vocabulary of justice. Twenty-two years of holding the Black Stone by force proved only that possession is not the same thing as authority. How do you tell an uprising that serves the Imam from one that only serves itself? What the evening covers The Zaydi model. Why armed uprisings launched ahead of the Imam's sanction ended in blood without achieving their stated goal. The Qarmatian catastrophe. The massacre at Makkah, the theft of the Black Stone, and the claim that it was all divine command. Kernel and shell. The theological mistake that let a movement discard the entire law while claiming a deeper truth. Power is not authority. What twenty-two years of holding the Black Stone by force actually proved.

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يَا مَنْ تُحَلُّ بِهِ عُقَدُ الْمَكَارِهِ وَ يَا مَنْ يُفْثَأُ بِهِ حَدُّ الشَّدَائِدِ وَ يَا مَنْ يُلْتَمَسُ مِنْهُ المَخْرَجُ إِلَى رَوْحِ الْفَرَجِ ذَلَّتْ لِقُدْرَتِكَ الصِّعَابُ وَ تَسَبَّبَتْ بِلُطْفِكَ الْأَسْبَابُ وَ جَرَى بِقُدْرَتِكَ الْقَضَاءُ وَ مَضَتْ عَلَى إِرَادَتِكَ الْأَشْيَاءُ فَهِيَ بِمَشِيَّتِكَ دُونَ قَوْلِكَ مُؤْتَمِرَةٌ وَ بِإِرَادَتِكَ دُونَ نَهْيِكَ مُنْزَجِرَةٌ أَنْتَ الْمَدْعُوُّ لِلْمُهِمَّاتِ وَ أَنْتَ الْمَفْزَعُ فِي الْمُلِمَّاتِ لا يَنْدَفِعُ مِنْهَا إِلّا مَا دَفَعْتَ وَ لا يَنْكَشِفُ مِنْهَا إِلّا مَا كَشَفْتَ وَ قَدْ نَزَلَ بِي يَا رَبِّ مَا قَدْ تَكَأَّدَنِي ثِقْلُهُ وَ أَلَمَّ بِي مَا قَدْ بَهَظَنِي حَمْلُهُ وَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ أَوْرَدْتَهُ عَلَيَّ وَ بِسُلْطَانِكَ وَجَّهْتَهُ إِلَيَّ فَلا مُصْدِرَ لِمَا أَوْرَدْتَ وَ لا صَارِفَ لِمَا وَجَّهْتَ وَ لا فَاتِحَ لِمَا أَغْلَقْتَ وَ لا مُغْلِقَ لِمَا فَتَحْتَ وَ لا مُيَسِّرَ لِمَا عَسَّرْتَ وَ لا نَاصِرَ لِمَنْ خَذَلْتَ فَصَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ وَ افْتَحْ لِي يَا رَبِّ بَابَ الْفَرَجِ بِطَوْلِكَ ،

O He unto whom alone the severe afflictions are referred back, O He by whom alone the sharp edge of hardships is shattered, O He from whom alone deliverance from sorrows and access to the expanse of relief is sought. Before Your power, all difficulties have been subdued, and by Your grace, means and provisions have been made available, and by Your might, destiny runs its course, and all affairs proceed according to Your will. Thus, all things obey not merely Your word but Your will, and are restrained by Your will alone even before Your prohibition. You alone are called upon to remove afflictions, and You are the refuge in severe calamities. Nothing of those severe calamities is repelled except what You repel, and nothing thereof is resolved except what You resolve. O my Lord, a hardship has befallen me whose weight has burdened me greatly, and a difficulty has descended upon me whose bearing has weighed me down heavily. Indeed, it is You who, by Your power, brought it down upon me, and by Your might, directed it toward me. So there is none to deliver me from that which You have caused me to enter, and there is no one to turn back what You have directed toward me, and there is no one to open what You have closed, and no one has the power to close what You have opened, and there is no one to ease that which You have made difficult, and there is no helper for the one whom You have withheld Your aid from. Send blessings upon Muhammad and his Family, and O Lord, by Your generosity and grace, open the door of relief before me.

Mafatih al-Jinan, Supplications (Duas), Dua Ya Man Tahullu - Imam al-Hadi (AS) said: The Family of Muhammad would recite this dua at times of calamity, Line 1