The Political Characteristics of the Waiting Community in the Thought of Ayatollah Khamenei

The waiting is defined by "a great desire and constant striving to provide the grounds for the promised (Imam Mahdi) presence." In this approach, any movement and action that is in line with the Imam's thinking, is effective in accelerating the reappearance. Hence, the necessity of paving the way for the reappearance arises with this question: what should be done to approach the age of the reappearance, what are the supplies and grounds that should be provided, and finally what are the political characteristics of the waiting community? In this regard, Ayatollah Khamenei has paid serious theoretical and expressive attention and has dealt with it on various occasions. This paper has been authored with the aim of examining the viewpoints of this honorable man on the political characteristics of the waiting community. The research method is qualitative content analysis and an attempt has been made to study and explain the political characteristics of the waiting community in a coherent framework by referring to the collection of materials of the Supreme Leader of the Iran, including books, speeches, messages, conversations and letters. The findings suggest that in the view of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, the most important political characteristics of the waiting community are: "unity ", "Wilayat-following (guardianship) and denial of Taghut", "demanding perfection", "demanding development and revolutionaryism", "hope and trust in God's promise" and "justice and the fight against oppression".