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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books 180 Questions Enquiries About Islam Volume Two: Various issues What is ‘Raj'at (the Return)? Is its occurrence possible?

============================================================= Raja't is one of the popular Shi'ite beliefs and its explanation, briefly, is as follows: After the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (a.s.) and on the threshold of Resurrection, a group of the sincere mu'mineen and a group of the immensely wicked disbelievers and rebellious individuals shall return to this world.

The first group shall subsequently advance several ranks towards perfection whilst the second group would taste a severe chastisement.

The late Sayyid Murtadha, one of the greatly distinguished scholars, explains as follows: “After the reappearance of Hadhrat Mahdi (a.s.), the Exalted Allah (s.w.t.) shall cause group of those, who had previously departed from the world, to return to this world in order that they may be partners in the reward and glory of assisting him (a.s.) and in witnessing Allah's rule over the entire world; He shall also cause the most obstinate enemies to return in order to extract revenge from them.” He then adds: “No intellectual person can ever claim that Allah (s.w.t.) does not possess the power to cause this occurrence to happen and, since this cannot be considered to be impossible, it is itself a proof of the truthfulness of this issue.

Nonetheless, our opponents reject this so vehemently as if they regard it to be an event that is inconceivable.” He then further adds: “The consensus of the Twelve-Imam Shi'ites proves this belief, for there is none, from amongst them, who oppose it.”[^1] Nevertheless, from the statements of some of the scholars and also from the words of late Tabrisi in his book Majma'ul Bayan, it appears that a minority from amongst the Shi'ites had opposed this belief, interpreting Raj'at to mean the return of the rule and government of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and not the return of the people and coming to life of the dead.

However, they are few in number and accordingly do not injure the consensus. There are indeed numerous aspects that need to be discussed which we shall present here, in a few words, so as not to deviate from the subject matter: Without any doubt, for a group of dead individuals to come back to life in this world is entirely possible, just as the coming to life of all the humans on the Day of Judgment is entirely possible.