🕊 Are we ready for an entirely different world under the rule of Imam Mahdi (aj) and Jesus Christ (a), or are we subconsciously content with the way things are?

Can we even imagine a world different than the current one?

Aside from an end to wars, poverty, injustice, and other general concepts, what about various forms of corruption and injustice that are more specific which many of us are either content with or even participate in those injustices?

— Can we imagine a world without junk food? Artificially colored/flavored sodas with chemicals that suck minerals from our bones; highly processed and refined seed oils; genetically modified crops sprayed with carcinogenic glyphosate pesticides (now used as chemical weapons on south Lebanon); etc.?

— A world without Big Pharma? Where sickness is not a business? Where doctors no longer know next to nothing about nutrition and their only answer is a pill or surgery? Where doctors actually know about health as a holistic lifestyle that takes work and effort, instead of just knowing about medicine and biology? Can we imagine a world where the benefits of modern medicine are separated from the corrupt aspects of modern medicine? Where hospitals serve healthy food and don't have the same building design as a prison?

— A world without a corrupted Rockefeller-style educational system that serves as centers of indoctrination, sucking the personality, creativity, and potential of children? Without the one-size-fits-all standardized testing method in which many perfectly intelligent and bright children fall through the cracks because their learning style doesn't fit with sitting at a desk all day?

— A world without usury? Where things like inflation and debt are seen as abnormalities, not facts of life that should be "managed properly"? Where young people no longer have zero economic prospects, zero hopes of owning a home, and have to take out a loan just to breathe air?

To paraphrase some of the narrations of Imam Mahdi (aj), it is said when he comes back people will perceive him to come back with an entirely new religion, when in reality it will be the original religion of his great-grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (S), but since Muslims have deviated so much and prefer to follow their own whims and desires, what they think is "Islam" is so far off that the real Islam will not be recognizable to them.

Perhaps some of us are so intertwined in the systems of oppression — which includes Big Food, Big Pharma, and the Rockefeller educational model — that our bank accounts will stand between us and our Imam. We will prefer the comfortable status quo which gives us status, money, and prestige, than to stand for a new world in which the various expertises that we have can still be of benefit and we can still earn a living from it, so long as we use our knowledge for the sake of humanity's well-being instead of its destruction. It's not like all aspects of modern medicine or other modern advancements are bad — the devil mixes truth with falsehood, so it is a matter if simply purifying existing models from such corruption, no need for extremism, such as saying all of modern medicine is bad. Islam is pro-science, just anti-corruption and anti agendas which deliberately harm humanity.

If we get annoyed at average normal people pointing out the injustices within our own fields and industries, from Big Food to Big Pharma and more, then we will certainly be annoyed when the representative of God stands against these corrupt mafias. Some people will get so annoyed by the Imam's stand for justice, they will tell him "enough, O son of Zahra (sa)!" just as the people of Kufa got fed up with the taste of Imam Ali's (a) justice and equity.

At the time of Imam Hussain (a), many in the enemy camp, who stood at the back and were never called onto the battlefield, stood idly by and made prayer to help the Imam, even though they had their battle gear and weapons ready on hand and could have taken action just like Hurr who defected from Yazid's army. But their theoretical and emotional love for the Imam was eclipsed by their love for the material world, and more specifically, the world the way it was at the time. They didn't want a different world because they profited from it comfortably and enjoyed it. They didn't think big enough that they would also enjoy material wealth from a world built on justice.

The world will be very different than the current miserable world we live in. Can we even think big enough to imagine it? Or are we comfortable with the current world? If we can't even give up junk food, do we even want a new world? If the world and all its aspects are totally fine the way it is, why do we even need a savior in the first place?

If we want a savior, we aught to be able to identify all the mafias and aspects of corruption that the Imam will most certainly fight against. "I am at war with those who are at war with you." If these mafias are going to be at war with the Imam — because their profits and power will be at stake — then why are we friends with them? Why do we give our money to them? Why do we serve their food at Islamic centers?

We have to think big if we want an entirely different world.

@BasiraPress