From Adam to the Reappearance

The first human and first prophet; Allah names him His khalifah on earth and teaches him the names.

Calls his people for 950 years; the Ark carries the believers through the Flood.

Friend of Allah; with Isma'il he raises the foundations of the Kaaba.

Receives the Tawrat; leads Bani Isra'il out of Egypt through the parted sea.

Born of Maryam; raised to the heavens, he will return and pray behind the Mahdi.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah is born in Makkah in the Year of the Elephant.

Iqra is revealed in the cave of Hira; the Qur'an begins its twenty-three year descent.

The message goes public; Ali ibn Abi Talib is the first to answer.

Abu Talib and Khadijah pass away within months of one another.

Migration to Yathrib, renamed Madinat al-Nabi. The Islamic calendar begins.

313 believers face a thousand; the first decisive victory.

Hamza is martyred; the lesson of obedience is written in blood.

Ali defeats Amr ibn Abd Wudd; the confederates disperse.

An apparent concession that opens the path to the conquest of Makkah.

The Kaaba is cleansed of idols without a battle.

'Whoever's mawla I am, Ali is his mawla' — declared before the returning pilgrims.

The Prophet returns to his Lord in Madinah, leaving the Qur'an and his Ahl al-Bayt.

Sayyida Fatima al-Zahra delivers the Khutba Fadakiyya.

Ali ibn Abi Talib accepts the caliphate after the killing of Uthman.

Mu'awiya's forces raise Qur'ans on spears; arbitration fractures the army.

Struck in the mihrab of Kufa during Ramadan.

Poisoned after the treaty that preserved the community.

Imam Husayn and 72 companions are martyred on Ashura; Zaynab carries the message.

Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, the Psalms of the Household, is left behind.

The Splitter of Knowledge establishes the school of the Ahl al-Bayt.

Four thousand students; the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence takes form.

Martyred in the prison of Harun al-Rashid.

Forced heir apparency; martyred and buried in Mashhad.

At seven, Muhammad al-Jawad succeeds his father al-Rida as the ninth Imam.

The tenth Imam succeeds al-Jawad and is later compelled to live in Samarra.

Hasan al-Askari becomes the eleventh Imam after his father al-Hadi's death.

Twelver accounts place the birth of the twelfth Imam in Samarra; his Imamate begins in 260 AH.

Imam al-Mahdi assumes the imamate; contact continues through four deputies.

The final letter of the fourth deputy; the age of waiting and preparation begins.

Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih is compiled — one of the Four Books.

The Hawza of Najaf is founded; it teaches to this day.

Tafsir al-Mizan completes twenty volumes of Qur'an-by-Qur'an exegesis.

Narrations name the Sufyani, the Yamani, the heavenly cry and the killing of al-Nafs al-Zakiyya among the signs.

Imam al-Mahdi (aj) rises in Makkah between the Rukn and the Maqam with 313 companions.

He fills the earth with equity and justice as it had been filled with oppression.