The Mahdi Times February Issue | Page 2

B Y : L A I L A A L I Welcome Letter Auzobillahe Minashaytaan Nirajeem Bismillah Arahma Niraheem All Praise is Due to Allah swt Who Makes What He Wills Possible and His Will is Just Allahumma Salle Ala Muhammad wa Ale Muhammad al Aimma'ti wal Mehdiyeen wa Sallim Tasleeman Katheera Asalaam alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu, Welcome to the February Issue of "The Mahdi Times", I pray you are all well and in a Place Most Pleasing to Allah swt, InshaAllah,Mola Ali Waaris. By the Grace of Allah swt, the news of Ahmed a.s is spreading extremely fast and the Ansar Allah have been working globally to propagate the message in an unprecedented manner. We find in Germany, some of the Ansar Allah have opened up a Hussainiyat, a book store in Lebanon, Schools in Iraq and Egypt and of course we have a massive number of Ansar Allah in Australia that have Majalis and gatherings. In fact, I heard from Brother HussainTheShortcomer, that it is said about Australia, how there are two types of Shia in Australia. One are the mainstream Shia and the other are the Ansar Allah, SubhanaAllah! I often get the feeling that any second now, the world is going to echo, "Ahmed! Ahmed! Ahmed!", InshaAllah,Mola Ali Waaris. me and those words became embedded in my soul. With all of these projects and opportunities we must Thank Allah swt That the Dawah reached us. For this Dawah is a Blessing as well as a responsibility. Getting to the Dawah and taking the Shahadah is the first step. It is after that, that the work truly begins.  I remember when I first heard "Sermon of Hajj" by Ahmed a.s on youtube, after the familiarity of his voice, the thing that stood out to me was, "...work and work and work..." Wallah, it felt like he was saying it directly to Aside from Seeking the Pleasure of our Creator, all desires and wishes and wants are from the Darkness, the Ego. Sounds simple to understand? Well, it is really not. Every word from the Imam a.s is a Blessing, for the Imam a.s only says what Allah swt Says, and our Creator Speaks to us Through His Representatives. Therefore, the Orders and Advice from Imam a.s are the Orders and Advice of Allah swt. So we must Obey with every fibre of our being. We must empty ourselves of our desires and only Desire that Which Allah swt Desires for us and what His Representatives desire for us, InshaAllah,Mola Ali Waaris.  If we try this, we find it is not as easy as we think and the Ego Monster is pretty skilled at sneaking in there when we are not paying attention. Imam Ali a.s speaks about desires and describes things in a way nobody else can. Every word of Imam Ali a.s drips with the Justice and Unmatched wisdom only he had. This means monitoring the origin of our thoughts and wants, which is not easy, but is something that must be strived for, InshaAllah,Mola Ali Waaris. Read here how the Master of the Universe describes the human mind; Personally, I talk about the Ego Monster a lot and this might have something to do with my background in Psychology.  "More wonderful than man himself is that part of his body which is connected with his trunk with muscles. In Psychology, we were always taught about the Ego from the Freudian perspective of how it is a part of us. So, we had a Western perspective of what the Ego is and found the Western media glorifying the Ego and using it as a source of strength, ultimately justifying their actions through their Ego. Coming to the Call of Ahmed al Hassan a.s, the truth of the Ego is shown in such a way only the Ahlul Bayt a.s can describe. The veil was pulled back and we saw the difference. But still, it trips us up. It is the darkness within all of us, as only Allah swt is Pure Light. It must be within us, as this is what makes us human and the Creation. Only the Creator is Free from any Darkness. Mola Ali Waaris.   It is his brain (mind). Look what good and bad tendencies arise from it. On the one hand it holds treasures of knowledge and wisdom and on the other it is found to harbour very ugly desires. If a man sees even a tiny gleam of success, then 2