The mind often wonders, ‘what is the meaning of life?’ The Holy Quran answers, “He, who created death and life that He may test you [to see] which of you is best in conduct. And He is the Almighty, the All-forgiving.” Life was created so that the community of man may strive to achieve excellence. And it is through the triumph of justice over oppression and of virtue over vice that such excellence can be attained.
Because this is the overarching purpose of creation, God has given mankind the means to usher in this triumph of justice and virtue – “Certainly We sent Our apostles with manifest proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice.”
God has given us our honored prophets, our holy scriptures, and our revered Immaculate Leaders as means of guidance as we strive towards that goal. And one day, by God’s grace, we will achieve that goal and fulfill God’s promise that “Certainly We wrote in the Psalms after the Torah: Indeed Our righteous servants shall inherit the earth.”
This book is about the man who is chosen to usher in this promise of justice and virtue – our Twelfth Immaculate Leader, the Awaited Savior – the Mahdi.
Sayyid Muneer Al-Khabbaz was born in Qatif, Saudi Arabia in 1384 AH (1964 CE). At the age of 14, Sayyid Muneer traveled to the Holy City of Najaf to begin his training within the Islamic seminary. Not long after, he migrated towards the city of Qum, Iran, when the Baathist Regime in Iraq began tightening its crackdown on the Islamic seminary.
In the year 1402 AH (1981 CE), Sayyid Muneer returned to Qatif for personal reasons and continued his studies there. One year later, he traveled to Damascus, Syria to study in the Islamic seminary there under the tutelage of His Eminence Sayyid Jamal Al-Khoei. Finally, in 1405 AH (1984 CE), he returned to the Holy City of Najaf to continue his studies. There, he studied under some of the most respected scholars of the Islamic seminary, including Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abulqasim Al-Khoei and Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Murtada Al-Boroujerdi. With the recommendation of another one of his tutors, Sayyid Habib Hussainyan, Sayyid Muneer also began to study under the tutelage of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, benefitting much from his lessons in the principles of jurisprudence, as well as his extensive examination of modern sciences and their correlation with Islamic sciences.
Sayyid Muneer then moved back to Qum where he studied under Grand Ayatollah Wahid Khorasani for several years. He also studied extensively under the tutelage of Grand Ayatollah Mirza Jawad Tabrizi, who became a guide and mentor for the remainder of his life. Before his passing, Grand Ayatollah Tabrizi gave Sayyid Muneer an endorsement as a jurist capable of deducing Islamic laws from its sources.
In 1418 AH (1997 CE), Sayyid Muneer began teaching Advanced Seminars (Bahth Kharij) in jurisprudence. He is known by his students for his eloquence, as well as his encouragement of discussion and debate. He is an avid lecturer and an author, with multiple works published for a varied readership.
