ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam (A Historical Background) The Role of Traditions in the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam After the martyrdom of al-Husayn, the Imamite Imams from ‘Ali b. al-Husayn to al-Hasan al-’Askari followed a quiescent policy towards the Umayyads and the ‘Abbasids. But they expected that all their suffering would be terminated by al-Qa’im , whose rising in arms they were awaiting.

The Imamites based their expectations on their interpretation of certain Qur'anic verses and on numbers of traditions attributed to the Prophet concerning the political and religious role of al-Qa’im. So it is essential to discuss some of these Qur'anic verses and traditions in order to see their effect upon the attitude of the ‘Abbasids towards the Imamites, and consequently their reactions to the question of the occultation (al - Ghayba) of the Twelfth Imam.

The early usage of the term al-Mahdi The term al - Mahdi , which means "the one who is guided by Allah", is the passive participle of the stem hada , "to guide". A term that occurs twice in the Qur'an is the active participle of the same stem, al­ Hada , the Guide.

The first verse states, "Allah is surely the Guide of those who believe" ( al-Hajj, 22:53 ) while the second states**,** "But the Lord is a sufficient Guide and Helper" (al-Furqan, 25:33) In the usage of the Qur'an the eighth form of the same stem, ihtada , "he accepted the guidance for himself", is used strictly as a reflexive passive, whose participle is Muhtada.

So Man, who is guided by Allah, is not simply guided, but reacts himself to the divine guidance (hidaya) [^1], either by instinct or intellect. Through these two means he can acquire knowledge of Allah, which leads him to worship Him by following His laws on earth.

However, Allah's laws cannot be discovered through these two sources of knowledge, so throughout the course of history Allah has revealed His knowledge and laws to a group of people who have been divinely guided to lead mankind towards His straight path. These people are called "Prophets" and possessed charismatic qualities which enabled them to implement the commands of Allah and to lead the people without error. Hence they are called in the Qur'an al ­Hudat (sing.

al - hadi) , because they were already rightly guided (muhtadin) by Allah[^2]. The term al - Mahdi (the guided one) has the same meaning as al - ­Muhtadi.