Translation of the saying:

A group of our companions informed us, they said: The righteous servant, Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani, may God Almighty support him, delivered a sermon for a group of people three years before the fitnah of Damascus and Iraq, and said:

“Beware! Know that the horizon of the West is dark with black clouds. Soon a red storm will blow you over and overwhelm your land. It will neither leave a roof for you to take shelter under nor a wall for you to hide behind! At that time, the nation of Muhammad will wish to sacrifice half of its young people to find the Mahdi in a valley from the valleys of the Hijaz!

Beware, O you the ignorant nation! What are you looking for?! And who are you following?! Your leader is the Mahdi. The calmness of your nights and the delight of your days is the Mahdi. Your lasting happiness and the sweetness of your life is the Mahdi. Your prosperity in the world and your salvation in the Hereafter is the Mahdi. So what has stopped you from turning to him?! Or who has filled the void left by him?!...

Do you think you will see justice and flourish in his absence? Or do you think you will have security and happiness in his absence? No, I swear to God, then no, I swear to God. You will take this wish to your graves as your ancestors took it to their graves; because God has not put any benefit in His Caliph’s absence, nor has he created any blessing in the government of other than him!

I am telling you the truth: in his absence, your stomachs will stick to your backs, and you will lie on thorns! You will rage in anger and wish for death morning and evening! Your homes will be uninhabited, and your markets will be closed! Farms will grow thorns, and fruit trees will wither! Livestock herds will be scattered, and there will be no one to gather them! Your heads will have lice, and your hands will be soiled! Your cities will be destroyed, and your villages will be forsaken! No one will cross your alleys, and no one will knock on your doors! There will be no water in your qanats, and snakes will nest in your wells! Wolves will wander around your public squares, and owls will screech on top of your towers! Spiders will weave webs on your windows, and frogs will croak in your ponds! You will reside in dark valleys and take shelter on the summit of the mountains! You will hide in the crevices of the rocks, and your companions will be lizards of the desert! Smoke will go up to the sky from your lands, and its fire will not go out! Your enemies will dominate you, and Satans of the East and the West will devour you! They will not listen to the crying of your children, nor will they be merciful to your crippled elders! They will divide your possessions and draw lots for your women! They will not bury your dead, but rather they will leave them for their dogs!

Beware, O people! Do not rush into what is contingent on moments! The world is near to its end, and the time of promises has come. Soon the age of the absence, which you think is peaceful, will erupt, like a raging camel in spring[1], and will plunge its sharp teeth into your eyes. I swear to the One in Whose Hands are my life and body, what I say is not a poem nor an exaggeration in speech. Soon the cauldron of the world will boil, and the river of time will rage and turn the mill of fitnah and rotate the millstone of chaos. Danger! Danger! Be aware that they will not have mercy on any of you! They will bring the most isolated of you and take out his butter and buttermilk. When the scythe of fitnah falls, the one who stands will be reaped, and the one who sits will be crushed. Danger! Danger! Take your religion and run as long as you have the opportunity! If you find the truth with me, then come to me, even if by crawling over snow; because I will lead you toward the Mahdi, and if you dislike me and refuse to come to me, then leave and go as far as you can; although you cannot go far away; because, I swear to God, even if you hide behind the stars of the sky, they will find you and bring you and disgrace you; because this work is not as easy as you have thought, but rather it is a great plight and huge calamity that will make the old impatient and the young sleepless.”

Explanation of the saying:

These are the cries of a great and compassionate scholar who obviously invites toward the Mahdi and, with wonderful eloquence, warns of the terrible consequences of the continuation of his absence; the terrible consequences that we see their preludes in different parts of the Islamic world these days, yet most of us do not wake up from neglectful sleep, nor do they return toward their savior, the Mahdi!

Good for those who know the value of these pure sayings, conclusive words of wisdom, healing pieces of advice, and sufficient warnings and then wake up from their neglectful sleep and return toward their savior whom the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him and his family, announced in mutawatir narrations and promised that he would fill the earth with equity and justice as it was filled with oppression and cruelty!

↑[1] . A raging camel in spring is a camel that has not had a she-camel during winter or has been kept in a place away from other she-camels by the cameleer so that in spring it would make those she-camels pregnant that did not get pregnant during winter. This camel is usually violent and dangerous, and its teeth become sharp because it grinds them due to rage, and it may attack humans and animals and kill them sometimes. This is why Bedouin Arabs used to seek refuge in God from its evil and would say: «نعوذ باللّه من شر الأعميين الأيهمين»; “We seek refuge in God from the evil of two blind fools,” and they are floods and raging camels seized with lust; they also used to warn of it, as there is a proverb about this: «إحذر السيل إذا حدر والجمل إذا هدر»; “Beware of a flood when it rages and a camel when it roars.”