How to Give Charity for Imam Mehdi
Seyyed bin Tavous (passed in 664 AH) believed that it was important for people to give charity in order that Imam Mehdi is healthy. He also stated that giving charity was one of the duties of people, while Imam Mehdi was absent.
Believers should give charity with the aim of the health of themselves and of their beloved ones, and who is more loved by believers than Imam Mehdi, upon whom the reformation in many religious affairs depends? According to the logic and to the sayings, there is no one more loved and more honored for believers than Imam Mehdi, and there should not be. We should consider him even dearest than our own lives and if we do not think of him this way, then there is a weakness in our faith and a defect in our love towards Imam Mehdi.
Therefore, Seyyed bin Tavous advises his son to, “Give charity for Imam Mehdi, before you give charity for your children and you.”
We should remember that Imam Mehdi does not need our charity or our prayers. This is only for us to perform our duties as the servants of Imam Mehdi and to show our love and affection towards him, so that God would be happy with us and He would take away sorrow and misery from us.
Seyyed bin Tavous, in his book “Aman Al-Ikhtar” writes, “God! This (charity) is for you and it is being given with the wish of health for Imam Mehdi. May your peace be upon him and may you take care of him when he is on a journey, in action, or in rest, and in all the hours of his nights and days. This is given for him and for everything that belongs to him.”
Translated by: Sadroddin Musawi
Other links:
The Beginning of the Belief in the Mahdi
The Mahdi from among the Descendants of the Prophet
The Sunni hadith on the Subject of the Mahdi
Ibn Khaldun and the Traditions about the Mahdi
The Existence of the Mahdi is certain
