Why do we pray for ImamMahdi (AS)? Does he need our prayers?

As we know, God has no need in us worshipping him but we worship him anyway because we find ourselves rationally and morally obliged to. If we don’t act like this it is as if we have not performed our duties toward Allah. In the same manner, we pray for Imam Mahdi (AS) because God has guided us to the right path through him and it is a rational and moral duty to pray for someone who has had a part in our guidance, even if we think he does not need our prayers for him. Actually our prayers can have good effects for the Imams.  To show what we mean we will write one of these occurrences and the effects it had both for the Imam and the one who prayed for him. The narrator said:

There lived a Shi’a man in Isfahan whose name was abdulrahman. I said to him: “what was the reason that made you believe Imam Ali al-Naghi was the Imam of this time and no one else?” He said: “I saw what made me believe. I was a poor man but I could speak well and had courage so one year the people of Isfahan sent me with a few others to protest to Motovakkel(about those who were preventing us from our rights). When we reached his (palaces) door, orders were given that Ali ibn Mohammad Ibn al-Reza must be brought to him. I asked some of those present: “who is this person that has been ordered to come?” Someone said: “He is an Alaviwho the Rafidah believe is an Imam, and he has been ordered to come to kill him”. I said: “I will not move from this spot until I see who this man is”. (A short time passed when) a man came riding a horse and the people had stood up in two lines, one on the right side of his path and the others on the left while they were all looking at him. When I saw him I felt in my heart a great affection towards him and started praying to God in my heart to save him from Motovakkel.(The Imam) continued on the path he was coming on while gazing towards the mane of his horse and neither looking left nor right and all the time I was praying for him. When he reached me he faced me and said: “God answered your prayers and gave you a long life and increased your wealth and children”. Suddenly I became very anxious and went back to my companions. They asked me “what’s the matter?” , I said: “(everything is) fine” and didn’t tell them about what had happened. After that we went back to Isfahan and God opened to me many doors leading to wealth, to such an extent that to date I close the doors of my house to a million Dirhams worth of wealth, not including all that I have outside my house. I have ten children and my age is more than seventy and I believe in an Imam who knows what’s in my heart and Allah answerd his prayers for me. 

Our prayers won’t just benefit the Imam, we will benefit from them too. This can also be seen in a narration by Imam Mahdi: “pray much for the hastening of faraj (relief) for it is your own relief.” The many more merits of praying for Imam Mahdi have been listed in the the book Mikyalul Makarim by Sayyed Muhammad Taqi Isfahani.

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