To be a part of Imam Mahdi’s army, we must be true followers of Islam and the Ahl al-Bayt. One internal way to prepare is to reform ourselves. Imam Mahdi’s mission is to bring justice to the world by reforming it. It is said that “The slogan on al-Mahdi’s flag is al-bay‘atu lillah ( allegiance belongs to God).” In this way we need to evaluate our lives, do we have this outlook on life? Do our actions truly reflect devotion to God, or do we serve ourselves? To join Imam Mahdi’s (p) army, we will need to live by his slogan. During his occultation, let us reflect and refine our intentions. This ensures we stand ready, hearts aligned with his cause, when he calls.

Many hadith and historical analyses have been done to understand and answer the question, where will Imam Mahdi (p) reappear? There is an overwhelming consensus that Imam Mahdi (p) will go towards the Kaaba and a voice will come from the sky letting everyone know that he has reappeared. He will then stand by Hajr al-Aswad, and call people toward faith and truth.

Many have asked, when will Imam Mahdi (p) come? While we do not know the exact date, and traditions even point to the fact that we have been forbidden from suggesting we know the exact date and time of Imam Mahdi’s arrival, there are various signs reported in the traditions of Prophet Muhammad and the Imams that would indicate is imminent return.” Here are three of them:

Devastating Wars 

A destructive force led by a bloodthirsty man named al-Sufyani will emerge in the Levant in the month of Rajab. He will send an army to Iraq, which will return after killing and causing great destruction. He will send another army to -Madīnah, but God will annihilate them between Mecca and Madinah.

Chaos, Conflict, Despair, and Frustration

The world will witness immense chaos and extreme differences between people. It will even envelope the believers to the extent that they will curse and disrespect each other. Moreover, a state of despair about the savior’s reappearance will become widespread, and people will say that he has died or been killed. The reappearance will then be near.

The Call Announcing His Reappearance

The angel Gabriel will call from the sky such that it will be heard by all people of the world in their own languages. This will occur before dawn on Friday the 23rd of the month of Ramadan. The angel Gabriel will declare, “O servant of God! Hear what I say. This is the Mahdi from the household of Muhammad emerging from the land of Mecca. Respond to [obey] him.”

The Holy Prophet (phuh&hp) is reported to have said, “Al-Mahdi is from my children, his name is [like] my name, his agnomen is [like] my agnomen. He is the most similar to me in my appearance and my character.”

Imam al-Baqir (p) is also reported to have narrated from his father as saying that Imam Ali (p) once said on the pulpit, “From my progeny at the end of time, a man will appear, whose face is reddish-white, whose chest is broad, with strong shoulders and two moles on his back: one with the color of his skin and the other like that of the Prophet.”

While different reports suggest that the mother of the Imam, Lady Narjis, is either a Roman prisoner or a north African bondswoman, stronger reports suggest the latter. It is reported to have been narrated by ​​Yazeed al-Kunaasee who said, “I heard Abaa Jafar Muhammad (p), he said: ‘Verily, the master of this affair in him is the resemblance of Yusuf (p), he is the son of a black bondswoman, and God will reform his affair in one night.”’

Imam Mahdi (p), according to many reports, was born on the 15th of Shaban 255 AH/869 CE in Samarra, Iraq, and is the son of Imam Hasan ibn Ali Al-Askari (p), the 11th Imam. At the age of five, he entered into occultation after the passing of his father on 8 Rabi al-Awwal. His occultation began with a minor phase lasting approximately seventy years, followed by the major occultation “which continues till today and whose duration is known only to God.

Imam Mahdi (p) is known by several titles each reflecting his grand stature:

Al-Mahdi: The One Guided by God

Al-Hujjat ibn al-Hasan: The Proof who is the son of Imam Hasan (p)

Sahib uz-Zaman: The Owner of the Time

Al-Muntadhar: The Awaited One

Al-Muntaqim: The Avenger

Al-Maw’ud: The Promised One

Khatam al-Awsiya: The Last Successor

Al-Qaim: The One who Will Rise

Al-Gha’ib: The Hidden One

Sometimes your heart wants nothing, and nowhere…

It just wants to return.

To return to the place where the heart first became itself;

To where the earth ends and the sky begins.

Longing for the House of God is unlike any other longing.

It is not like missing a friend,

Nor like being far from home.

It is more like remembering something you once lost—

Something that suddenly calls your name in the noise of the world.

Whenever I grow tired, my heart remembers that simple black cube

Around which all the whiteness of the world revolves.

It remembers a place where you become small,

Yet your soul becomes greater than ever.

The House of God…

You are not just a building;

You are the direction of the heart.

A compass—if it is lost, a person gets lost even within himself.

I miss that moment

When I was no longer “me”…

I was only a servant.

Only need, and a gaze,

And tears that flowed without permission.

O God,

If seeing Your House again is not written for me,

Then at least leave my heart there—

Somewhere in the middle of tawaf,

Somewhere closer to You than ever before.

The recent action by the United States in carrying out a military operation on Venezuelan soil and arresting President Nicolás Maduro must be regarded as one of the most controversial and unprecedented political events of recent years—an incident that has shocked not only Latin America, but the entire international system.

In this operation, U.S. forces entered Venezuelan territory, detained Maduro and his wife, and transferred them to the United States to stand trial. The operation was accompanied by heavy clashes and human casualties, and in practice amounted to a direct military intervention aimed at changing the balance of power in a sovereign country.

Washington has justified the move with accusations such as drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism,” but a large part of the international community considers this explanation insufficient. In the view of many governments and analysts, what has happened is nothing less than a blatant violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and a breach of one of the most fundamental principles of international law: the prohibition of the use of force.

The significance of this event goes far beyond Venezuela’s internal political fate. The operation sends a deeply alarming message: that major powers can, without authorization from international institutions and purely on the basis of their own judgments and interests, attack an independent country and even arrest its president. If such a pattern becomes normalized, the very concept of a “rules-based international order” will give way to a “might-makes-right” world order.

From a geopolitical perspective, this move is likely to intensify tensions between the United States and major rivals such as China and Russia, pushing the world into a more dangerous phase of great-power rivalry—one in which shared international rules are increasingly weakened.

At the regional level, Latin American countries fear that this precedent could lead to wider instability, internal conflicts, and new waves of humanitarian and migration crises. Many governments in the region have received a clear message: national sovereignty is no longer guaranteed, and any country could one day become a target under similar pretexts.

At the same time, the economic and energy dimension cannot be ignored. Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves in the world, and any shift in the balance of power there can have a direct impact on global energy markets and on the competition among major powers over resources.

Overall, the arrest of Maduro is far more than a legal or security case. It is a sign of a dangerous turn in global politics: a move toward normalizing the use of force, weakening international law, and returning to a logic in which power stands above law. The earthquake that has begun in Venezuela today may tomorrow shake the foundations of the global order elsewhere.

Israeli authorities have issued a tender to build 3,401 new settler units east of occupied al-Quds, despite international condemnation of Tel Aviv’s ongoing settlement expansion.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said on Wednesday that the move represents a “highly dangerous escalation” in Israel’s accelerated colonization of Palestinian lands.

According to the commission, Israeli authorities have shifted from planning and approval to active implementation of the project.

Commission head Muayyad Shaaban said the tender is part of a plan approved in August 2025.

He noted that in 2025, Israel issued tenders for 10,098 settlement units across the occupied West Bank, with over 7,000 allocated to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.

Shaaban warned that the tender effectively severs occupied al-Quds from its Palestinian surroundings and links the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to the city.

He said the project undermines any realistic prospect of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state and aims to fundamentally alter the city’s demographic and geographic landscape.

Israel’s anti-settlement organization Peace Now condemned the tender as “political recklessness” that erodes the possibility of a political solution.

It said the settlement building seeks to entrench irreversible facts on the ground that would lead towards an "apartheid-like system."

Peace Now noted that 2025 ended with a record 9,629 settlement units approved, including more than 6,700 in Ma’ale Adumim, exceeding the total published tenders of the previous six years combined.

The organization added that the tenders stem from a framework agreement signed in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between Israeli authorities and the Ma’ale Adumim municipality.

Since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967, more than 700,000 Israeli settlers have settled in over 279 settlements across the occupied territories.

While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, the occupying regime has stepped up settlement expansion in blatant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.

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Surah Ibrahim

And when your Lord declared: "If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor, but if you are ungrateful, then indeed My punishment is severe." 

Stages of Gratitude for Blessings

Heart-based gratitude; meaning that a person should recognize all blessings as coming from God.

Tongue-based gratitude; such as a person saying: Alhamdulillah 

Practical gratitude; is gratitude that is achieved by performing acts of worship and spending one's life and wealth in the path of pleasing God and serving people.

The acting-president of Venezuela, chosen by its highest court of law, says the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro carries a “Zionist tint.”

After US forces launched an attack on Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, resulting in the abduction of Maduro, Venezuela’s Supreme Court designated Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as interim president to ensure “administrative continuity” and form the country’s National Defense Council.

The US forces' attack involved over 150 aircraft and marked a significant intervention amid multiple attempts to topple the democratically elected government of Maduro, including allegations of leading a drug trafficking cartel.

Rodríguez, who was designated as interim leader, demanded that Maduro and his wife, who were flown to a detention facility in New York after abduction, be immediately released.

In a televised address late Saturday, she condemned the US forces' attack, saying it carried a “Zionist tint.”

During her speech, she emphasized that Maduro remains the “only president of Venezuela” and demanded his immediate release.

Rodríguez described the attack as an “unprecedented military aggression” by the US, asserting that it was motivated by a desire to seize control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Surrounded by military leaders and Cabinet officials, Rodríguez said that a National Defense Council had been formed and with the full deployment of Venezuela’s national armed forces to safeguard the country’s sovereignty, the Bolivarian state “will never again be a colony of any empire.”

Rodríguez’s remark about the attack carrying a “Zionist tint” points to the involvement or influence of Israeli regime forces in the American forces' attack.

“The governments of the world are simply shocked that it is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which is the victim and subject of an attack of this nature, which has, without a doubt, a Zionist tint,” she said.

Rodríguez stressed that governments around the world were shocked by the US aggression against the Latin American state, insisting that “history and justice will make them pay.”

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