Page 81 - The Struggle of the Messengers

returns after a long time he sees it is full of weevils. He again
sieves and cleans it and brings it indoors. But when he returns
after a long time it is again full of weevils. He cleans it again

and repeats the operation. EVENTUALLY HE IS LEFT WITH A
VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF HEALTHY WHEAT THE
WEEVILS HAVE NOT HARMED. That is how you are. ONLY
A VERY SMALL GROUP OF YOU WILL REMAIN
UNTOUCHED BY FITNAH." (Ahmad bin Muhammad bin
Said also relates the same hadith.) (Sheikh Muhammad ibn

Ibrahim Numani, al-Ghaybah al-Numani, p. 246)

In the hadith, we are told that the hypocrites who emerge from
the community of Hazrat Mahdi (as) resemble "loathsome

weevils infesting wheat." The community of Hazrat Mahdi (as)
is compared to "a blessing that promised for the future that will
be opened out and sowed like wheat, and will grow and

flourish, and will bring abundance." Hypocrites are described
as "vile and loathsome entities like weevils that try to damage
the wheat from the inside." In the hadith it is described how the
wheat will be cleaned but will again be infested by weevils, and
that its owner will keep repeating the process until no weevils are

left. In the same way that the parasitic and loathsome weevils are
removed from the wheat like filth, so the people of Hazrat Mahdi

(as) will eventually be rid of the hypocrites and work as an
immaculate community.