Past eventOther · The Lantern of the Path · Session 49

The Trusted Confidant

Wednesday, 24 December 2025

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Mahdawiyyah, Part 5 · The Four Deputies, Part 1 of 4 For fifty years, the man who carried the secrets of the Imamate sold cooking oil for a living. On the eighth of Rabi al-Awwal, 260 AH, Imam Hasan al-Askari, peace be upon him, was martyred, his house in Samarra surrounded by agents hunting for the child who was to succeed him. Into that vacuum stepped a man the world knew only as a grocer: Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Amri. He had begun serving the Imams at the age of eleven, under the tenth Imam, and had spent half a century carrying letters, collecting religious dues and relaying questions through a city crawling with spies — work with no crowds, no applause, only the quiet risk of being caught. His qualification was a single word, spoken years earlier by Imam Ali al-Hadi: al-Thiqah, the Trustworthy. He hid the community's wealth and correspondence inside skins of clarified butter and oil canisters, walking them past military checkpoints in plain sight. When a rival to the succession stood ready to lead the Imam's funeral prayer at the moment of maximum danger, a simple test of knowledge exposed the claim and closed it within minutes. When the line of guidance goes underground, how do you tell the true gate from a counterfeit? What the evening covers The fifty-year vetting. Why the network's first gatekeeper was chosen for decades of unglamorous consistency, not fame or wealth. The oil-seller's tradecraft. How wealth and letters travelled past checkpoints hidden beneath cooking fat. The funeral test. How a claim to leadership was tested by a single question — and failed. The science of rijal. How scholars today verify a fourteen-century-old chain of trust, narrator by narrator.

In this session

Full session

Special Segment on the Immaculate Conception and Birth of Prophet Jesus

Ziyarah: Ziyarah of Imam Ali al-Hadi

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إِلَهِي عَظُمَ الْبَلاءُ وَ بَرِحَ الْخَفَاءُ وَ انْكَشَفَ الْغِطَاءُ وَ انْقَطَعَ الرَّجَاءُ وَ ضَاقَتِ الْأَرْضُ وَ مُنِعَتِ السَّمَاءُ وَ أَنْتَ الْمُسْتَعَانُ وَ إِلَيْكَ الْمُشْتَكَى وَ عَلَيْكَ الْمُعَوَّلُ فِي الشِّدَّةِ وَ الرَّخَاءِ اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ أُولِي الْأَمْرِ الَّذِينَ فَرَضْتَ عَلَيْنَا طَاعَتَهُمْ وَ عَرَّفْتَنَا بِذَلِكَ مَنْزِلَتَهُمْ فَفَرِّجْ عَنَّا بِحَقِّهِمْ فَرَجاً عَاجِلاً قَرِيباً كَلَمْحِ الْبَصَرِ أَوْ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ يَا مُحَمَّدُ يَا عَلِيُّ يَا عَلِيُّ يَا مُحَمَّدُ اكْفِيَانِي فَإِنَّكُمَا كَافِيَانِ وَ انْصُرَانِي فَإِنَّكُمَا نَاصِرَانِ يَا مَوْلانَا يَا صَاحِبَ الزَّمَانِ الْغَوْثَ الْغَوْثَ الْغَوْثَ أَدْرِكْنِي أَدْرِكْنِي أَدْرِكْنِي السَّاعَةَ السَّاعَةَ السَّاعَةَ الْعَجَلَ الْعَجَلَ الْعَجَلَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ بِحَقِّ مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ الطَّاهِرِينَ

O Allah, the affliction has become great, and what was hidden has become manifest, and the veil has been lifted, and hope has been cut off, and the earth has become narrow, and the blessings of the heavens have been withheld. You alone are the supporter, and the complaint is directed to You alone, and in hardship and ease, reliance is upon You alone. O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad, those possessors of authority whose obedience You have made obligatory upon us, and by that means You have made known to us their station. So by their right, grant us relief — a swift and near relief, like the blinking of an eye or sooner. O Muhammad! O Ali! O Ali! O Muhammad! Suffice me, for you alone are my sufficers, and aid me, for you alone are my helpers. O our Master, O Master of the Age! Help! Help! Help! Reach me! Reach me! Reach me! Now! Now! Now! Hasten! Hasten! Hasten! O Most Merciful of the merciful, by the right of Muhammad and his pure Family.

Mafatih al-Jinan, Supplications (Duas), Dua for the Faraj of Imam al-Zaman (AS), Line 1