Sermon Sermon : 126

Sermon (126): On the Seditions That Will Arise in Basra

In this, mention is made of the disturbances that will arise within Basra. O Ahnaf! I see with my own eyes a person advancing with such an army in which there is neither dust nor noise and clamor, nor the clatter of reins, nor the sound of horses' neighing. Those people will be trampling the earth with their feet, which are like ostrich feet. The commentator says that the Imam indicated the leader of the Ethiopians with this. Then he said: Destruction is for your these settled streets and decorated houses, whose corners are like the wings of eagles and the trunks of elephants, at the hands of those people over whose killed ones no weeping is done, and whose lost ones are not searched for. I am the one who will throw the world face down and have a correct estimate of its condition and look at it with appropriate eyes. In the continuation of this sermon, he indicated the state of the Turks: I see such people whose faces are like those shields on which layers of leather are stretched. They wear clothes of silk and brocade, and keep thoroughbred horses, and there will be a hot market of killing and bloodshed there, until the wounded will pass over the killed, and those who escape and flee will be fewer than those who are killed. (On this occasion) one of the Imam's companions who was from the tribe of Banu Kalb said: O Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), you have knowledge of the unseen. On this, the Imam laughed and said: O brother of Kalb! This is not knowledge of the unseen, but things learned from a knowledgeable person (the Messenger). Knowledge of the unseen is the name of knowing the Hour of Resurrection and those things that Allah the Exalted has counted in the verse 'Indeed, with Allah is the knowledge of the Hour.' So only Allah knows what is in the wombs, whether it is male or female, ugly or beautiful, generous or miserly, unfortunate or fortunate, and who will be the fuel of Hell, and who will be the companion of the prophets in Paradise. This is that knowledge of the unseen that no one knows except Allah. As for the knowledge of other things, Allah gave it to His Prophet, and the Prophet told me, and prayed for me that my chest may preserve them and my ribs may keep them gathered.