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The Role of Hidden Imam in the
history and the politics of the Islamic republic of
Iran
May 13, 2006
Bahman Aghai Diba
PhD International Law - Persian Journal |
The notion of the Hidden
Imam (Islamic Messiah) has a central role in the
Islamic Shiite thoughts. There are countless references
to the Hidden
Imam in the Shiite books. However, following the victory
of the so-called
Islamic Revolution in Iran (or as some people say: the
hijacking of the Iranian revolution by the Mullahs), in
1979, the references to the Hidden
Imam has gained a new importance.
The main reason is that the power and wealth of an important
oil-exporting contrary, with a tyrannical regime that does
not care about the wishes of the people has been directed in
support of the old religious notions.
This does not mean that everybody in Iran or the Shiite
world agree on the role and modus operandi of the Hidden
Imam. In fact,
Khomeini, the so-called founder of the
Islamic Revolution in Iran stopped the activities of one
of the most important groups that claimed to be the strict
followers of the Hidden
Imam. This group was called Hojjatieh and I will write
about them later in this article.
Since the election of Mahmud
Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran through rigged
elections, the notion of the Hidden
Imam has gained a new weight. Many of the actions of the
present government of Iran seem to have originated from the
same notion.
For example the recent letter of
Ahmadinejad to the US President was not based on the
political considerations (it was written in the worst
possible time), and it did not mean to change anything about
the most important current issue of Iran (the nuclear case
of Iran and the possible sanctions through the United
Nations Security Council). The president of Iran thinks that
he has a divine duty from the Hidden
Imam take certain measures and the letter to Bush was
one of them. Anybody inside and outside of Iran tying to
explain the letter from political and international point of
view falls into the wrong track and gets to the confusing
results.
Sayyed Vahid Karimi, who is introduced as strategic issues
researcher in Iran, has said: "we have a duty to guide this
ignorant superpower [the USA]." (1) He has recommended that
such letters should be sent to the leaders of the important
states in the world, including the UK.
It is therefore important to know in more details what is
the notion of the Hidden
Imam and its role in the present government of Iran.
Who is the Hidden Imam?
According to Richard Hines (2): "The core of the Shi'ite
religious world view is the Hidden
Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, "The Guided One." While the
stories of the first eleven Imams are historical in nature,
the history of the twelfth
Imam is mystical and miraculous. Born in 868 AD / 255
AH, Abu'l-Kasim Muhammad (which is the name of the Prophet
himself), and when Hasan al-Askari, the Eleventh
Imam, died in 874 AD / 260 AH, the seven year old boy
declared himself to be the Twelfth
Imam and went into hiding. The Shi'ites believed that he
hid himself in a cave below a mosque in Samarra; this cave
is blocked by a gate which the Shi'ites call Bab-al Ghayba ,
or the "Gate of Occultation." This is one of the most sacred
sites in Shi'a
Islam, and the faithful gather here to pray for the
return of the Twelfth
Imam.
The central Shi'a doctrines revolving around the Hidden
Imam are the doctrines of Occultation (Ghayba ) and
Return (Raj'a ) . The Doctrine of Occultation is simply the
belief that God hid Muhammad al-Mahdi away from the eyes of
men in order to preserve his life. God has miraculously kept
him alive since the day he was hidden in 874 AD / 260 AH;
eventually God will reveal al-Mahdi to the world and he will
return to guide humanity.
The Occultation has two distinct stages, the Lesser
Occultation and the Greater Occultation. In the Lesser
Occultation, the Hidden
Imam continued to communicate with humanity through
representatives. Since the
Imam was the spiritual guide or light to the rest of
humanity, the Lesser Occultation only removed the
Imam's body from the world, not his spiritual guidance.
However, under the threat of orthodox Muslims, the Hidden
Imam entered the period of Greater Occultation, which is
still continuing. In the Greater Occultation, the
Imam is still the spiritual guide and light of the world
with one exception: there is no longer any direct
communication between humanity and the
Imam... ."
Names and Characteristics of the Hidden
Imam
 According to the Encyclopedia of the Orient (3): "Muhammad
al Mahdi (the guided) is the 12th and last
Imam of the Twelver Shi'i, and is also known as Muhammad
al Muntazar (the awaited).
Very little can be said of him with any certainty. In fact,
the non-Twelver might very well question whether there was
an historical person associated with the name. Jafar, the
brother of the Eleventh
Imam denied the existence of any child and claimed the
Imamate for himself. In fact, accounts of public appearances
by Muhammad al Mahdi often involve his mysterious arrival at
key moments to challenge his uncle's claims.
In brief, the Twelver Shi'i believe that he was born to a
Byzantine slave named Narjis Khatun, and that his birth was
kept quiet by his father, the Eleventh
Imam, Hassan al Askari, because of the intense
persecution of the Shi'is at that time.
Hidden since birth, he reappeared at age of 6 to assert his
claim to the Imamate, only to then disappear down a well to
avoid the sad fate of his father and grandfather. For the
next seventy years he maintained contact with his followers
through a succession of four assistants, each known as Bab
(Gate), Uthman al Amir; his son Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn
Uthman; Abu'l Qasim Husayn ibn Ruh an Nawbakhti; and Abu'l
Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad as Samarri. The period when he used
the 4 Babs as his form of contacting the Shi'is is known as
the Lesser Occultation.
On his deathbed in 941 CE, the fourth Bab, as Samarri
produced a letter from the
Imam stating that there should be no successor to as
Samarri and that from that time forward the Mahdi would not
be seen until he reappeared as champion of the faithful in
the events leading to the Judgment Day. Therefore, after 941
CE there has been no earthly expression of the Imamate. This
period is known as the Greater Occultation. However, it is
still possible to seek the Twelfth
Imam's advice or intercession by writing him a letter
and leaving it at one of the Shi'i shrines?
There is much that is miraculous associated with al Mahdi.
The various traditions are rich in stories and are often
contradictory. Tales range from speaking from the womb,
growing at so astonishing a rate that he was full grown by
age 6, being raised by birds and with the ability to appear
and disappear at will.
While there was much controversy over the succession of the
12th
Imam, as the Lesser Occultation proceeded, dissent
gradually diminished. This can be attributed in part to the
active support of the Caliphate for the institution of the
Bab. Several opponents of the doctrine of the Occultation
were executed and others were persecuted in various ways.
Another factor explaining the acceptance of the Lesser
Occultation, and by extension the Greater Occultation, was
that due to the house arrest of the 10th and 11th Imams.
Hence, most Shi'i were already accustomed to the idea of
their
Imam being hidden from their view.
In the time of the 10th and 11th Imams a network of wikala
(agents) had developed to act as intermediaries between the
Imam and his followers, handling money and carrying
messages back and forth. In fact, Uthman al Amri, the first
Bab of the 12th
Imam had held the same position as head of the wikala
under the 11th
Imam. Therefore, for most Shi'i, there was not a
significant change in their relation to their
Imam after the death of the Eleventh
Imam.
Some titles of the 12th
Imam include: Sahib az Zaman (Master of the Age), Sahib
al Amr (Master of Command), al Qa'im (the one to arise),
Bagiyyat
Allah (remnant of Allah) and
Imam al Muntazar (the awaited Imam)."
Signs of Hidden
Imam's Appearance
Gregoire de Kalbermatten (4) has mentioned the signs of the
appearance of Mahdi : "The universal precursory Sign of the
return of the Mahdi, "He who Guides," consists of the
general invasion of the earth by Evil and the victory of the
forces of Evil over those of Good. Without such a
manifestation, the entirety of humanity would be engulfed by
darkness?. The Sign consists of the following traits: the
people will neglect prayer, squander the divinity which is
conferred on them, legalize untruths, practice usury, accept
bribes, construct huge edifices, sell religion to win this
lower world, employ idiots, consult with
women, break family ties, obey passion and consider
insignificant the letting of blood. Magnanimity will be
considered as weakness and injustice as glory, princesses
will be debauched and ministers will be oppressors,
intellectuals will be traitors and the reader of the Koran
vicious. False witness will be brought openly and immorality
proclaimed in loud voices. A word of promise will be
slander, sin and exaggeration.
"The sacred Books will be ornate, the mosques disguised, the
minarets extended. Criminals will be praised, the lines of
combat narrowed, hearts in disaccord and pacts broken.
Women, greedy for the riches of this lower world, will
involve themselves in the business of their husbands; the
vicious voices of the man will be loud and will be listened
to. The most ignoble of the people will become leaders, the
debauched will be believed for fear of the Evil they will
cause, the liar will be considered as truthful and the
traitor as trustworthy? They will resort to singers and
musical instruments...and
women will horse ride, they will resemble men and the
men will resemble
women. The people will prefer the activities of this
lower-world to those of the Higher-World and will cover with
lambskin the hearts of wolves."
Dajjal or the
Islamic anti-Christ
Dajjal is an important notion, which is, related the concept
of the Hidden
Imam. On the basis of the Shiit teachings, Dajjal will
appear right before the Hidden
Imam and he will try to deceive people by pretending to
be the Hidden
Imam. He is later killed by "the Jesus Christ" who will
return to earth and pave the way for the Hidden
Imam. The Christ will fight along with the Hidden
Imam for a while, and during this time all Christians
become Muslims and later he leaves the scene completely for
the Hidden
Imam.
Mohammed Ali Ibn Zubair Ali (5) describes Dajjal or the
Islamic Anti-Christ as: "...He will emerge between
Shaam[Syria] and Iraq, and his emergence will become known
when he is in Isfahaan [central Iran] at a place called
Yahudea[the
Jews Place]. The Yahudis (Jews) of Isfahaan will be his
main followers. Apart from having mainly Yahudi followers,
he will have a great number of
women followers as well...There will be a thick
fingernail-like object in his left eye. The letters "Kaa"
"Faa" "Raa" will appear on his forehead and will be
deciphered by all Mu'mineen regardless of them being
literate or not. He will have a wheatish complexion.
He will travel at great speeds and his means of conveyance
will be a gigantic mule. It is said that he will play
beautiful music which will attract the music lovers. Dajjal
will lay claim to prophethood. He will then lay claim to
Divinity. He will perform unusual feats. He will travel the
entire world....The hidden treasures will spill forth at his
command. He will stay on this Earth for a period of forty
days; the length of the first day will be one year, the
second day will be equal to one month, the third day will be
equal to a week and the remaining days will be normal..."
The Mosque in Jamkaran of Iran
Bahman Aghai Diba writes in the Persian Journal (6):
Jamkaran is a village near Qom in the South of Tehran. It is
the home for a lucrative business of corresponding with the
Imam e Zaman or the Hidden
Imam or the
Islamic Messiah. According to the Islamic-Shiite
stories,
Imam e Zaman will appear and enforce justice all over
the world. The Shiites have been waiting for his appearance
in the last 14 centuries. Again according to the
Islamic-Shiite stories, anyone who wants to send a letter to
the
Imam e Zaman can write it and throw it in any flowing
underground current or well. However, the business minded
demagogues have made stories that the water well in Jamkaran
has a better chance of getting the messages to the Hidden
Imam because some of the religious figures have seen
things during their sleep (seeing thinks during sleep is an
important phenomenon in the social and political history of
the
Islamic countries. Recently, one of the Iranian
Ayatollahs reported that he had seen the Hidden
Imam in his sleep and he has approved the credentials of
the Majles representatives who were actually 'elected'
through corruption and rigging). However, since a short time
ago there was only one well for the men and
women to send their messages for
Imam, of course after paying the all-important 'entrance
fee'. But recently, the demagogues have separated the line
of men and
women and now there are now two separate wells (channels
of communications) with the hidden
Imam in Jamkaran. Everyday, a large number of the people
travel to Jamkaran...The income of this PO Box is so huge
that it covers some of the expenses for the "shadow
governments" in Iran.?
Also, Jackson Diehl, reporting from Qom in Iran says (7):
"in a dusty village outside this Shiite holy city, a
once-humble yellow-brick mosque is undergoing a furious
expansion.. . the expansion is driven by an apocalyptic
vision: that Shiite Islam?s long-hidden 12th
Imam, or Madhi, will soon emerge-possibly at the Mosque
of Jamkaran- to inaugurate the end of the world. The man who
provided $20 million to prepare the shrine for that moment,
the Iranian President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad, has reportedly told his cabinet that he
expects the Mahdi to arrive within the next two years..."
Hojjatieh and the Hidden
Imam
In an article regarding the "Hojjatieh Group", the newspaper
published by the exiled former president of Iran, Abulhasan
Bani Sadr (8) has mentioned: "during the elections for the
Seventh Majles, the Hojjatieh elements played an important
role and they sent their agents inside the Majles under the
disguise of 'fundamentalism'.
Meshkini, claimed that the Hidden
Imam had endorsed the list of the Majles deputies for
the Seventh Majles. Later, during the presidential
elections, Mesbah Yazdi, clamied that someone in Ahwaz had
seen the Hidden
Imam in his dreams who had prayed for success of "Ahmadinejad"
[the current president of Iran] in the elections. This
opened the hands of the Hojjatieh mules in the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other organizations for
propaganda in favor of
Ahmadinejad and rigging the elections in his support. At
the moment,
Ahmadinejad and his ministers claim that they get
instructions from the Hidden
Imam directly...in the first session of the Council of
the Ministers,
Ahmadinejad and his ministers signed a treaty with the
Hidden
Imam and they asked Saar Harandi, the Minister of
Culture, to hand over the treaty to the Hidden
Imam by throwing a copy of the Treaty down the well in
Jamkaran. In the second session of the Council of Ministers,
Rahmati, the Minister of Roads and Transportation said: 'due
to the high amount of donations to Jamkaran, we do not need
to set aside a governmental budget for construction of the
Tehran-Jamkaran railway.'
Ahmadinejad answered him with anger: 'we have not come
[to power] for democracy. We are here to prepare the way for
the emergence of the Hidden
Imam... .
These are some of the convictions of the Mafia that
Ahmadinejad represents:
- the Hidden
Imam is present in many places
- all preparations must be made for his emergence...
- some of the members of the group have met the prophet and
his companions
- When they perform the prayer called "Tavassol" [which
calls for the emergence of the hidden Imam], the
Imam comes to the session...
- They claim to be chosen as the companions of the Hidden
Imam and at least some of them are among the 313 special
persons or even the 10 prominent persons that will fight
along with the Hidden
Imam.,
- They claim that the Hidden
Imam has given presents to some of them...
- They claim that they get the solution of the problems from
the Hidden
Imam
- They believe that the Hidden
Imam will appear in the next couple of years?they have
established organizations to find the proper persons for
fighting along the army of the Hidden
Imam...
- They claim to be protected by the Hidden
Imam
- They oppose Bahai Faith and Sunnis..."
Ref:
(1)
Read More dated 10 May 2006.
(2)
Read More, dated 6/6/1996)
(3) Muhammad Al Mahdi, Encyclopedia of the Orient,
Read More.
(4) Gregoire DE Kalbermatten, the Third Advent, King
Printing 3003. p.205, (Read
More).
(5)
"Signs of Qiyamah" by Mohammed Ali Ibn Zubair Ali,
(6) Interesting busineeeses in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, Bahman Aghai Diba, the
Persian Journal, Nov. 8, 2005
(7) Jackson Diehl Washington Post, May 11, 2006, P.A27,
"In Iran, Apocalypse vs. reform"
(8)
Enghelab-e Eslami (In Persian), dated 4 Jan. 2006
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