The Nature and Basic Components of Waiting, in the Thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei

One of the most widely used words in the field of Mahdism is “waiting for the Promised”, which has had a direct effect on the behavior of the religious scholars throughout the history. The intellectual order in Imam Khamenei’s statements, as well as his leadership style, evokes this point that “how the nature of waiting and its components are in the thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei”. This paper, with a descriptive-analytic method and with the use of library data from his speeches, has reached this point that the reality of waiting from his point of view is the jihadi spirit and behavior in order to prepare the individual and society for the Appearance (of Imam). The four major components of “criticism”, “belief”, “trust”, and “enthusiasm” are the fundamental framework of waiting in his thinking.