Those are the ones brought near to Allah

Question 129: He SWT said:{Those are the ones brought near [to Allah ]* In the Gardens of Bliss* A numerous company (large group) from among the first * And a few from those of later times}. Who are the ones brought near? And who are the first? And who are those of later times? And why a numerous company (large group) from among the first while a few from those of later times?

The answer: In the name of Allah, The Benevolent, The Merciful
All praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May the Mercy of Allah be upon Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis.

“The ones brought near” (Al Muqarraboun): They are the seventy thousand Shia [followers] of Ali ibn Abi Talib (PBUH), or: the complete human who is mentioned in the Qur’an, and among those are some of the prophets, messengers, and imams (PBUT) [2] , and a few from the nation of Muhammad (PBUH & His Family) like Salman, Malik Al Ashtar and the three hundred and thirteen companions of Imam Al Mahdi (PBUH) [3] .

And “The First” (Al ‘Awaloun): they are the former nations, and among them are a lot of the prophets and messengers, and they are 124 thousand prophet, and among them are a lot of the ones brought near.

And “those of later times” (Al ‘Akharoun): they are the nation of Muhammad (PBUH & His Family), and among them is a group of those brought near, much fewer than the number that exists in the former nations, and those whose majority are prophets and messengers.

And the ones brought near from the former nations, and they are prophets and messengers, if compared to the number of sons of Adam then their number is little they are a little group, and for that they were described as large group (numerous company), for they are tens of thousands in comparison to billions of human beings.

And as for the ones brought near from the nation of Muhammad (PBUH & His Family), their number is little in comparison to this group from the former nations, for they are hundreds in comparison to the ones brought near from former nations and they are tens of thousands, and in comparison to the sons of Adam and they are billions.

And also, the ones brought near are the Shia of Prophet of Allah Muhammad (PBUH & His Family), and in this case, enters among them their leader and their master Ali (PBUH), so he and his own [his people] become the few from those of later times.

[1] Quran Surah Al Waqi’ah (surah 56): 11-14
[2] And from the Hadiths about this is Imam Al Sadiq’s (PBUH) saying: (and verily from among his Shia is Ibrahim), He said: (Ibrahim is from the Shia of Ali, and [even if] the prophets were from [Ibrahim’s PBUH] Shia). Mashareq Anwar Al Yaqeen by Al Hafez Ragab Al Barsi: page 288
[3] And apparently these seventy thousand are who will enter Paradise without question in the following narration:
The Prophet of Allah (PBUH & His Family) said ” Seventy thousand from among my nation will go to Heaven without questions, then he turned to Ali and said: they are your Shia and you are their Imam”. Rawdet Al Wa’etheen for Al-Nisaboury: page 297