No matter what ideas or beliefs they hold, people always have a leader to represent them when they come together for a specific purpose. Throughout history, Allah has created every community of believers together with a leader. The Prophet Noah (as) was the leader of believers in his time, the Prophet Moses (as) was the leader of believers in his time, our Prophet (saas) was the leader of the Companions in his time, Talut was the leader of believers in his time, and Dhu’l Qarnayn in his time. In the same way that no community of believers has ever been leaderless in the past, neither will Muslims be leaderless in the End Times. Hazrat Mahdi (as) himself will personally be the spiritual leader of Muslims in the End Times.
The idea that Muslims should be leaderless, when the Catholics, the Orthodox, Jews and even freemasons have leaders, ignores the pains and sufferings of the Muslim world. Allah commands Muslims in the Qur’an not to be divided and fragmented. If Muslims do not abide by this command of Allah’s, if they fail to coalesce, as the Muslims of the past coalesced, around one spiritual leader, then it will not be possible for the difficulties and pains facing the Islamic world to come to an end or for Muslims who are oppressed and persecuted all over the world to be set free. The path that Allah shows to Muslims in the Qur’an is that of "those who, when they are wronged, defend themselves." (Surat ash-Shura, 39) It is blatantly evident that Muslims are being wronged in Pathani, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Chad, Moro, East Turkestan and many other places. That being the case, it is also evident that Muslims should be united in order to defend their rights in the wisest and most effective way with knowledge, culture, information and art. It must not be forgotten that "Allah loves those who strive in His Way in ranks like well-built walls.” (Surat as-Saff, 4) It is Hazrat Mahdi (as) in person who will bring the Muslims of the world together in our own day to strive on Allah’s path with knowledge and information, who will show them the way, and who will protect them against the scourges of Darwinism and materialism in the finest manner.
The responsibility for innocent people being bombed as they pray in mosques in Pakistan, for our East Turkestan brothers being subjected to unbelievable tortures in Chinese prisons, for Palestinian children being shot at as they travel to school, for civilians in Iraq living with the fear of death every day, for innocent people being bombed as they lie in hospitals in Afghanistan, for those who have spent long years in refugee camps and for those who worship in secret in order to stay alive, lies with those who are unwilling for Muslims to unite around a spiritual leader. Those who maintain that Muslims should be leaderless and headless, ignoring the verses of the Qur’an and the trustworthy hadiths of our Prophet (saas), must not ignore that fact.