فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال هجدهم شماره 63 (زمستان 1397)

One of the commandments of the Qur’an to the believers in the verse 200 of Surah Al-e-Imran is the order to the patience” and “endurance” besides “Mosaberah” and “Morabetah”. According to the viewpoint of the scholars, especially the commentators and what is obtained from the infallible Imams’ narrations, there is a difference between patience and Mosaberah, while Mosaberah in the mentioned meaning, is related to Morabetah in meaning. One of the analyzes and meanings which are mentioned in relation to “Morabetah” is the connection to the Imam, which is verified by the Shiite traditions and interpreted as “the obligation of the believers to communicate and connect with the infallible Imam”.
This article focuses on the above-mentioned verse and talks about the interactive relationship of these two concepts in connection with the Imam of the Time (A.S) with a descriptive-analytic approach, while it analyzes the mentioned meanings and explains the semantic relationship between Mosaberah and Mosaderah. “Mosaberah” means the help, assistance and aid of believers to believers in “patience” and “Morabetha” has a conceptual relation to the synergy and helping one another in the preparation and protection of the Islamic boundaries and the connection and relation with the Imam, especially with regard to the issue of awaiting, which relies on the patience and readiness. This idea derived from the Qur’anic verses refutes the view of those who consider the belief in Mahdism as a personal issue or deny the presence of the Imam (A.S).

It has been over 150 years that Western Orientalists and scholars have become interested in the issue of Mahdism and its place in the Islamic beliefs and have been extensively involved in this field. A look at the works of these Orientalists shows a type of change and evolution in their reports and views over time. Considering some of indications, we can divide the views of Western scholars and writers on Mahdism into four periods. The subject of this research is investigating the process of change in their views in the third period (from 1979-2000 AD). The present paper is an exploratory research and is carried out based on the descriptive-analytic method. After categorizing and mentioning the most important views of the Orientalists in the field of Mahdism in the above-mentioned period, various analyzes and statistics on the type and volume of topics of interest, used sources and some other statistics, such as the nationality of the Orientalists in this period have been provided.

The basis of the present study is the analysis of “Madavi Culture of Defense” and “its function in new Islamic discourse”. The method of research is descriptive-analytic and the findings of the research indicate that Mahdism teachings have a high capacity for global discourse. The cultural-defensive function of Mahdism at various levels- “insights”, “values”, and “symbols”- necessitates the ability to introduce Mahdism as the dominant discourse in contemporary era. Among the insightful functions of Mahdism in the cultural-defensive dimension are: strengthening and reinforcing the faith and religious beliefs, especially in the field of Imamate; the conceptual obligation with regard to Imam of the Time (A.S) influencing the culture and strengthening the spirit of defense, and responding to the doubts and safeguarding the society from deviations. The value functions of Mahdism include: ethical and educational values affecting the individual and social self-determination; economical values based on justice; reduction of economic inequality and establishment of value-centered economic system; political and social values affecting the establishment and reinforcement of social solidarity and foster of hope for future. Among the symbolic functions, we can point to the visual, auditory, and pictorial symbols which affect the new Islamic discourse and institutionalize the global culture of Mahdism.

One of the most considerable studies to understand the impact and impression of texts over each other is “the analysis of apparent and hidden relationships”. This issue in the field of religious studies paves the way for the broadening of the audience’s scope of thinking in favor of enriching his view of Divine origin of those texts and teachings. The present research, with a descriptive-analytic approach, investigates the apparent and hidden relationships between the Qur’an and Nodbeh Prayer in order to explain the most prominent effects of verbal and content similarities. The research process is based on the structured reading and extraction of the components of the “present text” (Nodbeh Prayer) and the “hidden text” (the Qur’an) based on the criteria and patterns of intertextual studies (one of the most important approaches in semiotics). On that basis, the types of intertextual relationships between the Nodbeh Prayer and the Holy Qur’an, such as the hybrid intertextual, lexical, thematic relationships as well as the Qur’an personalities are investigated with three sample notes for each. The results of the research show that the People of the Household always paid attention to the Qur’anic teachings (the words and the content), and in the Nodbeh Prayer, the infallible Imam has benefited greatly from the content of the verses in addition to the words of the Holy Qur’an.

“Deviated Mahdism Movements” are among the great and thought-arousing questions in the field of Mahdism studies. Despite a widespread approach to the issue of Mahdism deviations, there is little research into the deceitful tricks (strategies) of these movements. Recognizing these movements and how to deal with them and institutionalize a preventive and immunizing approach are among the necessary issues to be addressed in this regard. Additionally, we can prevent the negative religious outcomes such as sectarianism, the dissipation of the capacity of the Shiite society, and the destruction of the salvationist thought of Mahdism.
Analyzing the tricks (strategies) of the claimants with the approach of deceiving people among the deviated Mahdism movements in attracting the audience is the main issue of this paper which has been carried out with a descriptive-analytic approach in the contemporary history (about 1789 AD and above). According to the available documentation, this trick has been done in the form of abusing religious sanctities, such as prayer writing, humble written request, sortes, and reference to the unproven things such as miracle, dream, and also relativization, nicknames and promotion of escapism.

Muhammad bin al-Khamis’s writings are the documents based on which this paper reviews his strategies in inducing doubts in the field of Mahdism. This issue in an analytic manner is organized based on the library studies and published works of Ottoman bin al-Khamis, as one of the Wahhabi theoreticians, and has tried to create an appropriate ground to answer these doubts by recognizing his strategies in inducing suspicions in the field of Mahdism. The results of this research indicate that he has used the following cases as the tricks to induce doubts: selective use of rejected opinions to the Twelvers, demagogy, misuse of disagreements in views and their inconsistency, hypocrisy in the phrases and sentences, the division of the false and weak hadiths and the use of these hadiths.