During the period of the occultation...

During the period of the occultation, no one has been designated by the Imam to accept the pledge of allegiance, thus this form of allegiance cannot be performed with any person and it is actually forbidden even if the person to whom the pledge is being made is a scholar. In addition, even if the scholar was a Faqihi Jami’ al-Shara`it (Wali al-’Amr al-Muslimin), still it is not permissible to make such a pledge of allegiance to him.

Therefore, there is no proof of the permissibility of this form of pledge of allegiance during the time of the occultation. Rather, the traditions have actually forbidden this and we all know that in issues of the religion, such as this pact of allegiance, are all contingent upon what the religious commandments specify and the permissibility of these particular acts rest on the legislation of the Islamic laws. Imam Ja’far b. Muhammad as-Sadiq (as) has said: يَا مُفَضَّلُ!

May the curse of Allah be upon a person who makes such a pledge of allegiance and the one who accepts this pledge of allegiance?”[^1] Without doubt, the meaning of bay’ah in this tradition is the hand to hand bay’ah and not all forms of pledging allegiance since in other traditions, some forms of the bay’ah have not been completely forbidden.

Therefore, during the period of the occultation, the bay’ah (pledging loyalty) which is done without giving one’s hand is not a problem and is actually one of the signs of true faith and has been emphasized. According to the traditions, during the period of the occulation of Imam al-Zaman (ajtf), we are permitted to pledge our allegiance to the general representatives of the Imam.

Thus, we can pledge ourselves to a scholar who fulfills the conditions of being followed especially the Wali al-Faqih who is the guardian of the Muslim community.

This bay’ah is done with the thought in mind that paying allegiance to him is due to the fact that he is a scholar who fulfills all of the conditions of being followed, is the Wali al-Faqih and that the pledge of allegiance to him is actually a pledge to Imam al-Zaman (ajtf), and the pledge of allegiance to the Imam is actually the pledge of allegiance to Allah.