Foundation of Masjid Jamkaran
Foundation of Masjid Jamkaran
Reference: Book Najmus Saqib Fee Ahwaal-e-Imamul Gaeb (The shooting star) by Mirza Husain Noori Tabrasi (RA), Chapter-7
Incident One: Foundation of Masjid Jamkaran
Incident One: Foundation of Masjid Jamkaran
The accomplished Shaykh Hasan bin Muhammad bin Hasan Qummi,
a contemporary of Shaykh Saduq (r.a.) has reported in Taareekh Qom quoting from
the book of Moneesul Hazeen fee Maarefatul Haqq wa Yaqeen; by Shaykh Abu Ja’far Muhammad bin Babawayh
Qummi as follows:
Chapter of the construction of Masjid Jamkaran at the
instruction of Imam Muhammad Mahdi (a.s.):
The reason of construction of Masjid Jamkaran was that that
Shaykh Afif Saaleh Hasan bin Muthla Jamkarani says:
It was the night of Tuesday, the seventeenth of the month of
Ramazan 293 A.H. – and I was asleep in
my house. A part of the night had passed. Some people came to my door and woke
me up saying: Get up, Sahibuz Zamaan has summoned you. So I arose at once and
said: All right, I’ll be there immediately.
I picked up a shirt to put it on, but a voice came from
inside the house: This is not your shirt. I put on another shirt; then reached
for the Pajama; again a voice came that it was not mine. So I put it down and
wore another. After that I started to search for the key, but a voice came: The
door is already open. At last, I reached the door to find many elders standing
there. I greeted them; they replied and then conveyed me to the location where
the Masjid stands today.
At that place I decried a wooden platform covered by a very
fine carpet. A mattress and pillows were also arranged on it and a young man of
around thirty years was seated there. Before him was an elderly gentleman,
reading from a book.
Around sixty persons, some dressed in white and some in
green, were busy praying. I learnt that the young man was Hazrat Hujjat and the
elderly gentleman was His Eminence, Khizr (a.s.). When I reached them, His
Eminence, Khizr (a.s.) offered me a seat and Hazrat Hujjat addressed me by my
name and said:
“Go to Hasan Muslim and tell him: You have put this land for
your personal use since some years, and you try to cultivate crops on it, but
we destroy them, in spite of that you do not desist. This year also you wanted
to do the same. Now, you are not permitted to do so; and return whatever you
have gained from this land, so that it can be utilized for building a Masjid on
it. Tell him that this is an honored place and the Almighty Allah has bestowed
it a special rank over other lands, which you are trying to include in your
property. Your two adolescent sons passed away, but you did not heed the
warnings. If you still don’t toe the line, you will be punished in such a way
that you won’t know what hit you.”
Hasan Maslah says: I said: My master, I would need a sign,
as without it, no one would believe me. He said: We are leaving a sign here in
order to verify your statements, you just convey the message. Go to Abul Hasan
and ask him to recover from Hasan Muslim the profits he had made in last few
years and hand the money over to others so that construction may commence; and
the remaining expenses can be taken from the agricultural income of our lands
at Rahaq. We have endowed half of this rural property in favor of this Masjid.
Announce it to the people that they should become inclined to it and be devoted
to it.
They should recite four units (rakats) of prayer in it: Two
units (rakats) of prayer for honoring of Masjid: in each unit (rakat) of which
they should recite Surah Hamd once and Surah Tauheed seven times; in Ruku and
Sujood, they should recite the praises seven times. After that recite two units
(rakats) of Prayer of Imam Zamaan (a.s.), in the following manner: Begin with
Surah Hamd and when you come to Iyyaka Na’bodo wa iyyaka Naste’e’n, you should
repeat this a hundred times and then proceed and complete Surah Hamd. The same
method is to be followed in the second unit (rakat) as well. Repeat the Zikr
seven times in Ruku and Sujood. After concluding the prayer, recite the
Tahleel, e.g. Laa elaaha illal laaho wahdahu wahdahu. And recite Tasbeeh Fatima
Zahra (s.a.). After that prostrate and recite Salawat on Muhammad and Aale
Muhammad (a.s.) in prostration a hundred times. After that the Imam’s words
were as follows:
If one recites the two prayers, it is as if he has prayed in
the Baitul Ateeq.(1 &2)
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1 It is the Holy Kaaba in the center of Masjidul Haraam.
2 The prayer of Imam Zamana (a.s.) is narrated in three different methods; but the verse of Iyyaka…has to be recited a hundred times.
This prayer can also be recited anywhere other than Masjid Jamkaran.
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1 It is the Holy Kaaba in the center of Masjidul Haraam.
2 The prayer of Imam Zamana (a.s.) is narrated in three different methods; but the verse of Iyyaka…has to be recited a hundred times.
This prayer can also be recited anywhere other than Masjid Jamkaran.
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After that Imam (a.s.) asked me to proceed. As soon as I
started, he called me back and said: A goat is to be purchased from the flock
of Ja’far Kashani, the shepherd; if the villagers pay for it, well and good, if
not, you pay for it yourself and slaughter it here tomorrow night. The
following day would be the 18th of month of Ramazan; on that day the mutton
should be distributed among those who are ailing; Allah will cure those who eat
from it. That goat is spotted, very hairy and having seven black and white
marks the size of a dirham coin: three on one side and four on the other.
Hasan bin Maslah says: After that I returned home and
remained in deep thought all night. At last it was dawn. After prayers, I went
to Ali bin Mundhir and narrated the whole incident to him. Then the two of us
came to that same place and found in accordance to the statement of the Imam,
chains and pegs, which were supposed to be the signs.
(The original holy Masjid Jamkaran, before its expansion was in the form of three rooms with two small arches and now it is marked with black stone flooring according to the orders of the Late Ayatullah Marashi Najafi; and in the front part, it is exactly opposite to the original arch.)
(The original holy Masjid Jamkaran, before its expansion was in the form of three rooms with two small arches and now it is marked with black stone flooring according to the orders of the Late Ayatullah Marashi Najafi; and in the front part, it is exactly opposite to the original arch.)
After that we came to the place of Sayyid Abul Hasan. The
moment we reached his door, his servants said: The master is expecting you
since dawn, are you a residents of Jamkaran? Then he was informed and I entered
his place and greeted him with respect. He replied in a cordial way and offered
me a seat near him. Before I could say anything, he started:
O Hasan bin Maslah, last night I saw a gentleman in dream, who told me: Hasan bin Maslah, a resident of Jamkaran, will approach you in the morning. You must testify to whatever he says and rely on his words; his statement is our statement; you must not reject his words. I am waiting for you since I saw that dream.
O Hasan bin Maslah, last night I saw a gentleman in dream, who told me: Hasan bin Maslah, a resident of Jamkaran, will approach you in the morning. You must testify to whatever he says and rely on his words; his statement is our statement; you must not reject his words. I am waiting for you since I saw that dream.
After that I narrated the incident in detail. Abul Hasan
asked his men to saddle the horses. All of us mounted and set out from there.
On reaching Jamkaran, we saw Ja’far with his herd at the side of the road. As I
approached, a goat, which was at the rear, came bouncing to me. When I wanted
to pay the cost to Ja’far, he swore that the goat did not belong to his herd.
He said: I have never seen it before today and after that I was not able to
catch it, no matter how much I tried. Thus, we brought that goat to the place
that Imam (a.s.) had mentioned and slaughtered it there.
Sayyid Abul Hasan summoned Hasan Muslim and the amount was
recovered from him. Monies were also taken from the income of Rahaq village and
the roof of the Masjid was completed. Sayyid Abul Hasan carried those chains
and pegs with him to Qom; they were kept at his home. Ailing persons came and
by Allah’s permission sought cure from them by rubbing them on their bodies.
It is said that after the passing away of Sayyid Abul Hasan,
when his son fell ill, the case containing the chains and pegs was opened, but
nothing was found in it. This, in brief,
is the account of that place, which is mentioned there.
The author says: In the Persian version of Taareekh Qom, and
in its Arabic version, which the prominent scholar Agha Muhammad Ali
Kermanshahi has mentioned this incident briefly in the marginal notes of Rejaal
Mir Mustafa in the chapter of Hasas, the date of the incident is mentioned as
293 A.H. And apparently it was abrogated and the actual date was 273 A.H.,
which is the meaning of seventy, because the death of Shaykh Saduq was before
290 A.H.
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