Two of Ja’far -asws ‘s traditions appear to suggest that...

Two of Ja’far -asws ‘s traditions appear to suggest that such a believer remains in contact with the hidden imam, even during the period of the major Occultation: “The Qa’im will have two Occultations, a short one and another of long duration.

During the first of these, only certain chosen Shiites will know where he is hidden, and during the second [Occultation], only the chosen ones among the intimate Friends in his Religion will know this place.” 711 Again, Ja’far -asws says: “The Lord of this Cause [that is, the Mahdi] will have two Occultations; one will be so long that some of [the Imamites] will say that he is dead, others that he has been killed, and still others that he has disappeared [definitively].

Only a few of his faithful will remain attached to his Cause, and none of his friends or anyone else will know where he is, except for the intimate Friend who rules over his Cause.” 712 Let us not forget this other saying, constantly repeated by the imams: “Our Cause is difficult; the only ones able to bear it are a prophet sent by God, an angel of Proximity, and a faithful believer whose heart has been tested by God for faith.” 713 We discern in the expression “test of the heart” an allusion to initiation into the spiritual “technique” of vision with the heart, through which the initiated discover the Light of the Imam in their hearts and thus attain esoteric Knowledge and miraculous powers.

Is this tantamount to saying that “vision with the heart,” with the “certainty” and “knowledge” that accompany such vision, is what makes the faithful believer become an intimate Friend of the imam? Is it what allows the faithful believer to know the “location” of his Master? This is at any rate what Imamite mystics have always claimed. 714 Only a small minority will know “the location of the hidden imam,” or, in other words, only a small minority will be in contact with him.

But this same handful of believers will be able to hide their privilege from the eyes of the world, so that the conditions set up by the hidden imam in his last letter may be respected. These believers are those that later sources called “men of the Invisible” (rijal al-ghayb), and about whom it is said that their existence is indispensible to humanity, since they are the ones that will continue to transmit the Divine Science secretly until the Return of the hidden imam.

715 But things evolved quickly from the beginning of the major Occultation.