I became Shia when I saw Imam Ali (A.S.)

Egyptian media have described him as the most challenging and controversial Egyptian elders. Shahid Sheikh Hassan Shahata was the most famous orator in Egyptian Mosques which some of his lectures converted 90 percent of his audience to Shiism.

I became Shia when I saw Imam Ali (A.S.)

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Hassan Shahata (1946 - 2013), a Sunni cleric who later converted to Shia, the former imam of the largest mosque in Cairo and the religious and Spiritual Master in Egyptian army, unfortunately killed in a brutal attack carried out by Takfiri extremists in Giza Province near Cairo.

For many years, thousands of people in the mosque of Sheikh Shahata, which it was located in front of Zionist embassy in Cairo, were coming together to pray after him and listen to his sermons and speeches. He always was speaking about Ahlul Bayt and exposing tyrants, hypocrites, deviant groups and especially Zionist, just in front of their embassy. This led the Egyptian security forces to implement further stringent security measures in front of his place.

He was not just one of Al-Azhar Sheikh, but also he was the master of many scholars and clerics who were once his apprentice. Some of Al-Azhar grand sheikhs, such as "Sheikh Tantawi", were his close friends since childhood; Sheikh Tantawi knows him very well and was aware of his loyalty and devotion to Imam Ali (A.S.) and it was before his converting to Shiism. But at that time he always said to his pupils and masters "Say whatever you want, but you must know the Prophet and Ali and Fatima and Hassanein (peace be upon them), are like one tree which its branches and fruits are one thing."

It was not easy for him to become Shia; It took about 50 years. Sheikh Hassan eventually saw the Prophet in a true dream, and it was enough for him to become Shia. His decision sounded like a bomb in Egypt and brought thousands of Egyptians to follow the sheikh.

The following paragraph is his own account of his dream:

"I have been growing up with the love to Ahlul Bayt ,since my childhood, but after many years the truth was revealed to me and it was because of a true dream that I saw. I saw the Prophet on the top of a mountain. At the same time, Imam Ali (A.S.) arrived and they began to speak together with a kind of language that I was able to understand. Then the Prophet sent him on a mission and pointed at me, with his left hand, to follow Imam Ali (A.S.). I went down the mountains behind him and whenever I wanted to fall down, Imam Ali with his hand preventing me from falling down. I woke up from that dream, and understood what the truth is. So I became aware that I must follow Amir Al-Momenin (A.S.) forever, despite all the problems that I would encounter in my life."