فصلنامه مشرق موعود
پیاپی 25 (بهار 1392)

Ahmad Bin Ismail, also known as Ahmad Hassan, has made one of the recent assertion that he is the Imam that need to be obeyed, Moftarazo-al taah, deputy of Imam Mahdi and the Imam Mahdi himself, being from Yemen (the Yamani sign) and his grandson. This has made a reputation for him and and has attracted others around and along. He and his supporters have adhered to certain traditions channels in trying to prove their claims. This paper is an attempt to summarize some of the evidence in criticism of his claims and then remind us of its latent errors. Fractioning the narrative, providing a distorted view of the Shiite scholars, an inability to understand the true meaning of the Hadith, citing from the aberrant narrations, citing from the secondary sources, sufficing to the surface level of narratives, referring (only) to the narratives of Ahlu- al Sunnah, omitting the opposing narratives in his citations, entertaining some internal and external conflicts all copmose a number of the criticisms that can be used for rejecting his outlined documentations.

In this article, the Principle of Grace (of God) and its benefits are examined and criticized. The use this rule to prove the validity of prophecy and the inevitability of consensus and so on needs to be reflected upon and the rule in its generality is debated. In other words, it is not necessary to say that God 's favor – whenever possible, deserved or bestowed – should always be granted, even if the absence of it is self-defeating because sometimes a purpose is in conflict with another purpose. Meanwhile, given the totality of the evidence as proof, our knowledge as humans is not sufficient for proper identification of proof or recognition of the necessary favor. The tools for proving this rule are also corrupt. In this paper, various arguments in exposition and explanations are discussed.

Imam Mahdi is the consummating element for the goals of all the prophets, and the era of his presence would be the realization of the ultimate purpose of creation; thus, his existence is tacitly mentioned in the Quran in various forms. In the Quran, God sometimes directly speaks of the future of human life on the Earth, which coincides with the emergence of Imam Mahdi. In other times, God refers to analogies of the phenomena in the nature, which indirectly mentions the position of the Imam Mahdi. Also, when God explains the history of the prophets of the people of old times, notes about Imam Mahdi and the messages he emphasizes for the human can be discerned. For many reasons in Quran and Hadith, many of the facts about Mahdi can also be fund in the story-like verses of Quran and many similarities between Imam Mahdi and the prophets can be found. In this study, eight of these similarities are explained. With some reflection on those verses, the inferred similarities between Imam Mahdi and Prophets include the secrecy of their birth, longevity (long life), the absence, discords and problems on the verge of emergence, separation of the righteous from wrong-doers of the era, punishment of the wrong-doers and salvation of the righteous people as well as formation of a society for righteous people.

Messianic ideology of the rise of a saviour at the end of the world, is common the Shiites and Ahlu-al Sunnah. Although the two groups interpret the intention of the word Mahdi differently, as the Imam Mahdi the descendent of the Prophet or Mahdi, as a person who is rightly guided and saves people. Based on this idea, some people in Islamic history have caused deviations by engaging the attention of the Muslim community for some time by claiming to be Mahdi or attributing messianic features to some other person. Shahid Motahari believes that Mokhtar Thaghafi is a historical figure that claimed Mohammad Ebn Hanafieh (the son of Amir-al Momenin Ali) is in fact Mahdi and himself is his deputy in charge and has attracted a lot of support from the people by employing this method.The present article provides a critical review of the above claim by referring to the historical, anecdotal, translations, figures and the use of the word Mahdi in the Hadith literature as well as an exploration of the beliefs of Mokhtar, disclaiming Imamate by Muhammad ibn Hanafieh, support and the authorization of Mokhtar by the Shiite Imams and approval of all this by the Islamic scholars. The article concludes that the aforementioned claim has no scientific backing and is an illusion. In addition to that, Shahid Motahari has not filed a proof for his claim and that a detailed documentation is explained in this article.

'Lifestyle' means a collection of actions arising from the attitudes, beliefs and social norms. And lifestyle of each society reveals or reflects the personality of the individual and collective identity, in a way that we can distinguish different societie's cultures and civilizations by their lifestyle. These attitudes and beliefs of a society can be influenced by different factors and in a religious society is derived from the civilizational factors, most important of which is the belief in religious doctrines. Moreover, the concept of Imamate and messianic beliefs in Shiite communities, especially in the era of occultation of Imam constitutes the most important religious orientations in their lifestyle. This article aims to explore the need for and necessity of accounting for this belief constituent in Shiite lifestyle in the era of absence.

The verse called Apostasy Verse (Mayedeh: 54) has a special place with the Ahlul Sunnah some commentators, in relation to the issue of succession of the Prophet Muhmmad and is one of their original documents to prove the Caliphate of Abu Bakr and other Caliphs, so far as this dignified verse is the single reason Fakhr Razi has for proving the Imamate and Caliphate of Abu Bakr and relying on this presupposition, he also rejects referring the next verse Ayah Velayat to the Imamate of Ali. However, the view of Shiism is that the target of the former dignified Ayah cannot be Abu Bakr and his struggle with the Ahle Radeh and the attributes mentioned in the verse does not match with and cannot apply to him and his companions. Instead, the concept of verse is more general and implies Imam Ali and Imam Mahdi and their companions as the only perfect examples.

Messianic beliefs has always been among the basic Islamic beliefs and concerns that have been considered with special attention and reflected in the words of great religious leaders and Imams.The great range of discussions on this belief spans not only general matters but also includes many of the minor issues. One of those issues is the 'naming rule' in which his name is called 'Muhammad' which is significant considering the study of his character and how his life. In this paper, we explore the issue of naming the infallible Imams 'Mohammad' according to the Imams. There are two main views expressed in this regard.The first view considers calling Mahdi with the name of Muhammad as Haram (forbidden) under any condition and write the letters of Mohammad separately today (In Arabic, letters are joined). The second view is that naming him Mohammad is only forbidden for a limited time, when there was a danger for him if he was called so, because of the reference to him in some traditions and prayers. In a short review of each approach based on narrative Hadith evidence, we conclude that in the big absence of the Imam Mahdi, it is still permissible to call him Mohammad if there is no major threat in doing so.