His birth and upbringing will be hidden but his parentage will not be concealed.

His birth and upbringing will be hidden but his parentage will not be concealed.” Ithbāt al-Waṣiyya[^8]: From Sa`d b. `Abd-Allah, through his chain of narrators from (Imam) Abū Ja`far, peace be on him: “The Qā’im is the one whose birth will be concealed from the people.” Ghaybat al-Nu`mānī[^9]: Narrated to us `Alī b. Aḥmad, from `Ubaid-Allah b. Mūsā al-`Alawī, from Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Qalānisī—in Mecca in the year 267 AH—from `Alī b. al-Ḥasan, from al-`Abbās b. `Āmir, from Mūsā b.

Hilāl, from `Abd-Allah b. `Aṭā al-Makkī who said: I started the Hajj pilgrimage from Wāsiṭ and I met (Imam) Abū Ja`far Muḥammad b. `Alī, peace be on him, who asked me about the people and the prices. I replied, “I left the people while they were yearning for you. If you rise, the people will indeed follow you.” He answered, “O son of `Aṭā! You have listened to [the speech] of foolish people. By Allah, I am not your master (ṣāḥibukum).

None of us is pointed at with fingers or with eyebrows but that he will be killed or that he will die naturally.” I asked, “What do you mean by he will die naturally?” He replied, “He will die in his deathbed but in a state of anger, until Allah raises the one whose birth is unknown.” I said, “And who is the one whose birth is unknown?” He answered, “See who is the one that the people are not sure whether he has been born or not.

He is your master.” The following traditions also prove the above concept: 539, 574, 610, 645, 686, and 688. [^1]: Kifāyat al-athar, chap. “What has been narrated from Abū Ja`far Muḥammad b. `Alī al-Riḍā, peace be on him,” p. 277, no. 2; Kamāl al-dīn, vol. 2, chap. 36, p. 377, no. 2, with an addition at the end; I`lām al-warā, chap. 2, sect. 2, with the aforementioned addition at its end; al-Iḥtijāj, vol. 2, p. 449; Kifāyat al-muhtadī, pp. 100–101, no. 26, citing Kamāl al-dīn.

[^2]: The reason of his concealed birth was that when the Abbasids found out about the traditions from the Holy Prophet and the Imams from the Ahl al-Bait, peace be on them, that the Mahdī is the twelfth Imam who will fill the earth with justice, will conquer the forts of deviation, annihilate the governments of the merciless, will kill the tyrants, and will takeover the East and West of the earth, they decided to extinguish His light by killing him.

Hence, they appointed spies, secret agents, and midwives to keep a watch on the house of the father of the Ḥujja, Imam Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan al-`Askarī, peace be on him.