"A new investigation of the relationship between waiting for Imam Mahdi and the Koranic principle that it is forbidden to despair of Allah's soothing mercy"

One of the serious challenges the discourse on Mahdaviyat has faced, due to the long absence of Imam Mahdi, is that people are getting disappointed at his reappearance. The challenge becomes more serious when we notice those narrations that have tied in his reappearance with people's disappointment. Those narrations seemingly disagree with Imam Ali's saying: "Wait for Imam Mahdi and never despair of Allah's soothing mercy; because our best doing to Allah is waiting for him" which indicates a basic connection between waiting for Imam Mahdi and not to despair of Allah's mercy. The serious question is the way to explain these narrations so that they don't disagree with that foregoning principle. To get a straight answer, we have to know the exact relationship between waiting for him and getting disappointed about his long absence. In fact, what properly indicates their relationship, is the great emphasis Islam has placed on hoping for Allah's mercy, which results in action and progress, as well as Islam's strict forbiddances from getting disappointed about Allah's mercy which leads to interia and escape from responsibility. Furthermore, there are lots of narrations stating that only those who try hard for justice and sovereignty of justice are the sincere expectant ones. Therefor, the sentences that say his reappearance will not occur unless all people get disappointed about the situation, do not mean to give us permission to lose hope. However, they can mean that he will not reappear until people find out that all governments and policies are hopeless at rulling over the world and it will not happen until they mentally grow as much as they can understand that no one can behave as well and justly as he can.