Past eventOther · The Lantern of the Path · Session 43

The Imam of Preparation

Wednesday, 12 November 2025

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Imamah, Part 23 · Imam Hasan al-Askari, Part 1 of 2 Some of the most important letters in Islamic history were smuggled past a caliph's spies inside jars of cooking oil. The eleventh Imam, Hasan ibn Ali al-Askari, peace be upon him, spent his entire Imamate confined inside the military garrison of Samarra, watched more closely than any Imam before him. Every visitor to his door was logged, every letter intercepted, because the ruling power had learned of the prophecy of a coming saviour and was determined to prevent his birth. From within that siege, the Imam ran a global community almost entirely through sealed letters, known as tawqi'at, and a small circle of trusted deputies. His chief agent, Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Amri, worked under the cover of a ghee seller: he filled large jars with oil, hid letters and religious dues beneath it, and carried them past the guards in plain sight. Before his death, the Imam formally presented his young son to his deputies as his successor and warned them not to disperse in their religion after him. When the Imam was martyred, Uthman ibn Sa'id did not scramble to build something new — he simply continued the system he already ran, becoming the first of the Four Deputies of the coming occultation. How does an Imam under total surveillance still lead a community he can never meet face to face? What the evening covers The disguise. How jars of cooking oil became the delivery method for the funds and instructions of an entire faith. The handover. The moment the Imam named his own successor to his most trusted agents. The litmus test. The Imam's own definition of the scholar ordinary believers are permitted to follow — and the one they are not. The "lesser Imams" fallacy. Why treating the Imams of Samarra as a minor chapter gets the whole story backwards.

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اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ لا يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَ لا بَنُونَ إِلّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ يَعَضُّ الظَّالِمُ عَلَى يَدَيْهِ يَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي اتَّخَذْتُ مَعَ الرَّسُولِ سَبِيلا وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ يُعْرَفُ الْمُجْرِمُونَ بِسِيمَاهُمْ فَيُؤْخَذُ بِالنَّوَاصِي وَ الْأَقْدَامِ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ لا يَجْزِي وَالِدٌ عَنْ وَلَدِهِ وَ لا مَوْلُودٌ هُوَ جَازٍ عَنْ وَالِدِهِ شَيْئاً إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ لا يَنْفَعُ الظَّالِمِينَ مَعْذِرَتُهُمْ وَ لَهُمُ اللَّعْنَةُ وَ لَهُمْ سُوءُ الدَّارِ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ لا تَمْلِكُ نَفْسٌ لِنَفْسٍ شَيْئا وَ الْأَمْرُ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِلَّهِ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ الْأَمَانَ يَوْمَ يَفِرُّ الْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ وَ أُمِّهِ وَ أَبِيهِ وَ صَاحِبَتِهِ وَ بَنِيهِ ،

O Allah, I seek Your protection on the Day when neither wealth nor children shall avail, except for one who comes to Allah with a wholly sound heart. And I seek Your protection on the Day when the wrongdoer shall bite his hands, saying: 'Would that I had chosen the way of Allah with the Messenger!' And I seek Your protection on the Day when the sinners shall be recognized by their marks, and they shall be seized by their forelocks and their feet. And I seek Your protection on the Day when no father shall avail his child, nor shall any child avail his father in the least; indeed the promise of Allah is true. And I seek Your protection on the Day when the excuses of the wrongdoers shall not benefit them, and upon them shall be the curse, and theirs shall be the evil abode of the Hereafter. And I seek Your protection on the Day when no soul shall have power over anything for another soul, and all authority on that Day shall belong to Allah. And I seek Your protection on the Day when a person shall flee from his brother, and his father, and his mother, and his spouse, and his children.

Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Munajat of Amir al-Mu'minin (AS), Line 2