فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال سیزدهم شماره 41 (تابستان 1392)

“The Two Weighty Things” tradition is one of the most important Prophet’s Traditions, which has been narrated by over thirty of Prophet’s Companions, and a large number of followers and Islamic scholars in various centuries. The Prophet’s diligent effort in relation to the “Two Weighty Things” tradition was to the extent that he stated the tradition in various places, times and occasions and reminded it with special emphasis. He has left Quran and his Household as two precious heritages among the Islamic nation. They will never separate from each other till the doomsday, and the guidance of Muslims is guaranteed by resorting to them. The clear content of the tradition is the infallibility and excellence of the Prophet’s Household, so the tradition is just conformable with the Household of Infallibility and Purity. At one hand, infallibility and excellence are the basic requisites of Imamate. Thus, the “Two Weighty Things” tradition implies the Imamate and purity of the Prophet’s Household. Moreover, the necessity of resorting to them which itself is the signification of another tradition, is another reason for their Imamate. On the other hand, the inseparability of the Household from Quran and vice versa indicates the fact that the earth and time is never empty from Imamate of the Household of Infallibility and Purity. Therefore, this noble tradition clearly implies the existence of Imam of the time.

The very important issue of Imamate and leadership of community is not something that the Holy Quran passes by it easily and does not deal with it. Hence, several verses in the Book of God has discussed this issue from different angles and has presented a variety of principals, rules and realized knowledge in different areas. Among these rules is the emphasis on the necessity of the presence of Imam and the guide at any time. This article seeks to draw one of these basic rules with reference to the 7th verse of the surah of Ra’ad: "انما انت منذر و لكل قوم هاد". The present paper investigates the reviews and critics of commentators in this regard and presents a new approach with reference to Quranic verses and other resources.

The subject of this article is reviewing “the Occultation-writing from Nobakhti to SheykhTusi”; an era when writing Imamates Occultation passed its initial period and developed at the time of SheykhTusi and since then the Imamate view after SheykhTusi in this regard has been affected by his invented method and his predecessors; there was no need to investigate further writings. In this way, we have tried to divide the Occultation-writings to two periods: the lesser Occultation writings, the great Occultation ones, and the writingsare assessed in relation to their own period, because they are mostly affected by the atmosphere and dominant flows of their times. Undoubtedly, phenomena such as new extremists, advocacy organizations, political ruling of the Abbasids, Zeidite doubts about the Imamates Occultation are among these trends. It seems Imamates writings in the field of Occultation-writing in this era have evolved and it could be the result of the conditions of that era in a way that at the beginning, transmitted data was formed, but later, in the wake of the new conditions, these writings with greater size have evolved by blending with rational data.

The present paper with a descriptive-analytic method investigates the theoretical principals and aspects of Messianic teachings from the standpoint of prophetic thought. Studying the prophetic tents in explaining the Messianic teachings is a starting point to present a clear image of the discussion. In this regard, we point to the explanation and interpretation of Messianic thought in the context of Imamate and guardianship system, the explanation of this thought in the form of historical fight between right and wrong and explanation and interpretation of Messianic thought in the form of social system of Imam and Ummah (Islamic nation). Further, we mention the characteristics and features of Messianic teachings from the prophetic viewpoint. The universality of Messianic ideas, justice as the most important pillar of Messianic thought, determination and dignity of the Savior and inevitable fulfillment of Messianic government are all among the findings of the writer in this regard. At the end, “calculation based on the centrality of religious obligation”, “opportunity-driven approach to the explanation of Messianic thought”, emphasis on the important and strategic points in the explanation of Messianic teachings” and symbolism in explaining Imamate and guardianship are among the most important features of statement and communication of Messianic thought in the Prophet’s biography. However, the optimal query of this paper is to determine the essence of Messianic teachings from the standpoint of prophetic thought. The fruit of this survey is revealing the authenticity of this thought in Islam at the first place and at the next stage, explaining the fundamentals for investigating this thought in Islam in the best possible way.

One of the techniques of deviant sects is using the narratives in order to stabilize their own sectarian purposes. AbolfazlGolpáyegáni, the missionary of Baha’I, in his book “Fará’ed”, adheres to UmmaHáni’s narration, one of which bear the good news of the advent of Báb and considers this narration, which includes the interpretation of “the born in the Apocalypse” for Imam Mahdi, conformable to the claims of Seyyed Ali Mohammad Shirazi, known as “Báb” and as a signal for his advent and a sign for the legitimacy of his claim. In this paper, by the use of descriptive-analytic method we investigate the above-mentioned claim.By analyzing its authority and content and with considering the other two narrations by UmmeHáni which are all similar and narrated following the verses 15 and 16 of surah “Takwir” and by comparing this narration and considering the meaning of the interpretation of “Apocalapse”, this result is gained that this narration is conformable to Imam Mahdi; otherwise, it contradicts the other two narrations and lacks the scientific citation.

In this paper, we have investigated the features and conditions of Islamic ruler at the time of Occultation from Qur’an and Sunnah’s point of view. To achieve this purpose, after defining politics, political system and Islamic government, it has been claimed that the Islamic ruler based on rational reasons and the principals of constitution should have the least three basic features such as “expertise”, “justice”, and “competence”. Then, we prove their evidences in the Qur’an and Sunnah based on library research method. In this case, at first we examine Qur’anic evidences in two parts of affirmative and negative evidences, and then the validity of narrative evidences is proved the same way. The legitimacy of the ruler at the time of Occultation is achieved with the fulfillment of conditions such as expertise in Islamic laws, justice and competence, and is actualized with people’s acceptability.

“Hope” is one important and key issue in the realm of individual and society and plays a central role in many social issues, and is the human’s innate and primary motive and the dynamics of human psyche. Obviously, the issue of hope in religions, especially Abrahamic religions which claim they reform individuals and society, is raised in a special way. Hope in Abrahamic religions is divided into three categories: hope to the future, hope to the Occultation period, and hope to the Savior to come. In other words, religious teachings related to the topic of hope in the Abrahamic religions along with thecreation of hope fall into three axes: 1. Hope to the future: these teachings seek to create a spirit of hope to the future and lack of despair from the present situation. 2. Hope to Apocalypse: this period is the tryst of human’s hope and has a special importance. In the first part, there is darkness, danger and harm and in the second section isthe light, beauty and justice. 3. Hope to the advent of the Savior: this hope is conformed and imagined with the advent of a Godly person and has a special place in comparison to the previous hopes, because at one hand, it is a supplement to the issue of hope and on the other hand is the most important instance of hope to the future and Apocalypse. It is the hope to the Savior which causes dynamism, vitality and meaningfulness in society and becomes a spiritual safe place for people and paves the ground for human growth and excellence and is the motive to fight oppression and revolution and is a powerful and strong soothing for the hardships and problems and is considered as one of the important factors in social cohesion. It is clear that each of the religions which offer a more clear image of hope and Savior is more successful in achieving individual and social functionalities of believing savior, both in terms of quality and quantity. Meanwhile, the Shia religion offers a special attitude toward hope which makes it distinct from all religions. The hope to the future, Apocalypse and the savior, in Shia point of view, has taken a key and central role in many of individual and social problems.