فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال چهاردهم شماره 44 (بهار 1393)

Messianic teaching and culture of waiting were and are the most important strains of activating political Islam. This doctrine as one of the most political Islamic beliefs has played an important role in shaping the social emotions and agitations and political configuration of Islamic communities. Expecting the appearance of Imam Mahdi has always been the basis for the emergence of resistance-oriented movements in all along the ups and downs of history of Islam. The revolutionary and aggressive nature of this doctrine has made it distinct from other religious items. The combination of this thought with politics and the idealization of this doctrinereveal the non-neutral and explosive nature of the Messianic doctrine. Western politics have believed that they should not assume the phenomenon of Messianic orientation and the willingness of world’s poor people to be leaded by Imam Mahdi and the combination of this doctrine in political and international equations to be casual and superficial. Thus, they have tended to eliminate and reduce the range of Islamic messiah-oriented thought using the production of techniques and strategies. The main aim of this writing is to explain and analyze these strategies.

The Faraj dua, “ElāhiAzomal-Balā”, is one of the famous Shia prayers. The prayer is often called in the times of trouble and its rich content indicates the close connection between the worshiper and the Infallibles specially Imam Mahdi. One important point in the above-mentioned prayer is asking for doings which belong exclusively to God, like “victory” and “sufficiency” from the Infallibles. Considering the great emphasis of Quran on the restriction of such attributes to God only has strengthened this idea that this prayer is blasphemous. According to the research, it has become clear although the Faraj dua has been taken into consideration from the sixth century onward; it is aligned with the principles of monotheism and genuine Islamic beliefs in terms of content. As the result, the dua’s lack of evidence is compensated with its strong content. In fact, the origin of being a blasphemous prayer is in ignoring the matters which have been proven with strong reasons. Among these matters, we can point to “the status and dignity of the holy Prophet and his pure Household”, “his existential guidance”, and “the system of causes and means governing the world”. Among the innovation of this research we can point to the classification of dua’s entries each of which is investigated independently with the aforementioned criteria and finally, the consistency of the above-mentioned prayer with religious basis is approved.

The most efficient and offerable idea in Islamic lifestyle which is practical, is a way of Islamic life that is formed around the axis of waiting for the promised Mahdi which is referred to as “awaiting-Messiah lifestyle”, but to prove it, before anything, we need to clarify its concept. The present paper with a descriptive-analytic method to investigate the nature of awaiting-messiah lifestyle is based on the aim to recognize the position of this type of lifestyle in paving the way for the appearance (of messiah) and believes the most important factor in the awaiting lifestyle is its “Jihadi nature”. Thus, in order to achieve this purpose, we investigate the concepts related to it such as style, life, lifestyle, awaiting and finally Jihad with a library method.

There are symbols among various nations which in spite of their differences have common views and aspirations, such as salvation, fight against oppression,and spread of justice and appearance of a Messiah in total despair which has been mentioned as the myth in the nations’ literature. The present paper is an attempt for humans’ major concern that what is myth in the view of mythologists? Is there any conflict between the myths and the Divine teachings? Can we present a public and instinctive message based on these myths from various nations regardless of their color, race, social class, etc.? It seems the common message in all these symbols and myths is the presence of a saving savior in the darkest and most obscure part of nations’ history, especially in the Apocalypse. The purpose of this paper is to prove the hypothesis that the “myths of salvation” are the symbol of demanding aMessiah for the nations. The important point is in the case of being proven, it can be presented as one of the endorsements of humans’ demand for a messiah alongside the religions’ view.

The book of “Nour-Al-Anwār” is one of the books written at Qajar era and by a clergyman in Tehran. The book is about Imam Mahdi and one of the main sources for the books of this subject such as “Mazhar-Al-Anwar” by SheykhAbolhasanMarandie, “The Signs of Appearance” by Nazem-Al-Islam Kermānie, and “Waghaye-Al-Zohour” by Abbas-Ali Gourtānie. Beside the strong aspects of the book, there are topics about the signs of appearance written which have no evidence and are originated from the uncommon sayings and wrong perceptions. Thus, it is necessary to correct some of the perceptions’ deviation and their narrations in messianic space which are currently present in the general public. The research follows a descriptive-analytic method and its aim is to investigate the documentaries and reasons of his views (Ali AsgharBoroujerdie) in the field of messianic signs.

The emergence of the false messianic claimants was the major challenge of Imamites at the time of minor Occultation. “Ahmad Ibn HelālAbartāie” was one of the well-known false claimants at that period. The present research with an aim to investigate the false claims of deputyship of Imam Mahdi at the minor Occultation explains the false claims of Ahmad Ibn HelālAbartāie. This paper is organized on the basis of descriptive-analytic method and based on the research’s aim, it is an explanatory research and in terms of data used, it is exploratory-qualitative. Moreover, while we present the biography of Ahmad Ibn HelālAbartāie, we point to the reasons that caused the emergence of such claims by him. The Imam Mahdi’s ethology in confrontation with him is among the issues raised in this study. At the end, we explore Ahmad Ibn HelālAbartāie’s dignity’s character. The ending discussion is devoted to the mass of traditions transmitted from him. Due to Imam Mahdi’s decisive encounter with him, his claims did not attract enough followers to itself. However, that he died in the same year as of his false claims has affected this area.