فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال نوزدهم شماره 67 (زمستان 1398)

According to rational and narrative arguments, the earth will never be empty of the infallible Divine authority. The infallible authorities of God after the Holy Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him and his Household) are the twelve Imams of the Household the first of whom is Imam Ali (A.S) and their last one is Imam Mahdi (A.S). this article, with a descriptive-analytic method, answers the following question: who are the rulers of the earth from the era of Return until the Day of Judgment. After his appearance, Imam Mahdi (A.S) will establish the worldwide government of justice and after him, the other Imams will return to this world and lead the human society and the Mahdavi worldwide government until the Day of judgment one after the other. On the other hand, a number of traditions have talked about the Mahdavi rulers who will be in charge of the affairs of the Mahdavi government in the Return Era. Different views have been expressed about these two categories of traditions. The preferred view is that imamate and leadership of the mentioned rulers is of deputyship kind and the imamate of the infallible Imams at the Return Era is “original”.

Achieving an ideal society has always been based on the divine nature of human and the constant demand of human societies. The realization of Mahdavi society in Shiite thoughts and achieving such ideal have been repeatedly explained in the words of the Infallibles and the thoughts of Muslim social thinkers. Of course, achieving such ideals requires the formation of its contexts in all social dimensions in the waiting society. One of the contemporary Islamic thinkers in this field is Ayatollah Khamenei. This paper seeks to re-read and explain the social characteristics of a waiting society from his point of view with a descriptive-analytic method. According to the research findings, the social characteristics of the waiting society from his point of view have two aspects: on the one hand, every Mahdi believer, in his social life, should have characteristics such as faith in belief, honesty, self-sacrifice, jihad, compassion and avoidance of malice. On the other hand, the whole of the waiting society must also have social characteristics, such as right-centeredness, practical commitment to the manners of the Infallibles , the collective belief in Mahdism, waiting and preparation for the appearance, public effort for the social justice, enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, the connection between the ummah and the leadership, the spiritual and moral education of individuals in the family and society, the rule of social and psychological security, the observance of human dignity and equality before the law.

The principle of “Mahdism”, as one of the important teachings of Islam, has always been accepted by the Islamic scholars; however, in recent decades, some people have denied the principle of Mahdism, one of whom is “Tahir ibn Ashur”. This paper investigates and criticizes the views of ibn Ashur in the issue of Mahdism with an emphasis on the Sunni sources. In this regard, at first, we have analyzed his reasons with a descriptive-critical approach and then, criticized them according to the Sunni Sources. Like other deniers, ibn Ashur resorted to “not mentioning the Mahdism Hadiths in his Sahih”, but later, by misinterpretation of the principle of “Al-Jarh wa l-Ta'dil”[1], he weakened the narrators of Mahdism hadiths. The results of criticizing his reasons show that the Sunni scholars do not limit the authentic hadiths to the hadiths mentioned in the two Sahihs. Moreover, based on the rules of criticism and praise in the Sunni hadith sciences, ibn Ashur has made a mistake in understanding and applying the principle of “criticism and praise” and the praise of narrators.


[1]  criticism and praise

The deepest human thoughts are those related to the establishment of security for a better life. The aim of this research is studying the components of the defense-security culture based on the Mahdavi teachings. This research tries to answer this question that what the characteristics of the defense culture related to the Mahdavi teachings are. The present paper, with an analytic-conceptual approach, deals with the how of the defense culture. The present research analyzes this issue in two areas: first, it looks at the wandering, multi-aspect, and lack of human understanding which always faces serious crises because of not having a perfect human as the modeling component. Secondly, in order to achieve lasting security, it focuses more on the soft cultural approach. In this regard, it emphasizes the components of defense culture such as the instrumentality of military and defense power, legitimacy and authorization, being peace-oriented, right-oriented, preventive, honorable, and victorious

“Ownership” is one of the fundamental human rights that has a long history, and in jurisprudence, it is referred to as “the principle of absolute respect for the ownership in the Constitution”. Ahmad Ismail has deprived the right of ownership from the anti-Mahdi’een and their followers and claimed that he has learned this fatwa from Imam of the Time (A.S). The aim of this paper is to criticize the jurisprudential principles of his claims. The main question of this research is that what the principles of disrespecting the properties of the anti-Mahdi’een and their followers are. The method of this research is descriptive-analytic and it is based on the library sources. In its way, it has emphasized the principle of “respect for the property of a Muslim”. The finding of this research is that the fatwa of Ahmad Ismail is the necessary opponent of the religion, the traditions of the infallibles and the manners of the wise. Expansion in the concept of anti-Shiite by him (Ahmad Ismail) and the annexation of the anti-Mahdi’een and their followers to the anti-Imams is a rejected issue.

Examining ‘the sources of the legitimacy of the Mahdavi government” is one of the important political issues to explain the Islamic Utopia. This research, with a descriptive-analytic method and with the analytic approach to the Quranic and narrative texts, with a theoretical explanation answers this question that considering the (status of) legitimacy in the political sciences, what the sources of legitimacy of Mahdavi government are. The most important finding of this research is a theoretical study and analysis of the sources of legitimacy of the Mahdavi government through the analysis of the Quranic and narrative texts and in the direction of sources of legitimacy in the political sciences. According the texts of Mahdism, the most important source of legitimacy of Mahdavi government is the Divine legitimacy through designation, and in its direction, the various sources of legitimacy can be explained. In addition to having theoretical benefits of describing the Mahdavi Utopia, this research can facilitate the political development programs for the Islamic governments in the Occultation period.