فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال بیستم شماره 70 (پاییز 1399)

Among the verses of the Quran which indicate the necessity of a living proof at all times are verses related to the witnesses of deeds. The present research seeks to answer this question that how the life of Imam Mahdi (A.S) can be proved considering the verse of attestation. According to the findings of the research, God the Glorified, places a special person from among the ummah as a witness of their deeds at all times and all nations, to testify about the performance of the ummah in the Divine Court on the Day of Judgment. This divine tradition goes on in the ummah of the last Prophet (PBUH), thus, the presence of a witness at every age and time, including the present time is necessary. Such a person should have the status of infallibility and observation of the reality of the deeds. This paper is carried out with a descriptive-analytic method and to examine and analyze the verses of the Holy Quran, we have benefited from the method of interpreting the Quran with the Quran.

The historical approach of “discourse analysis” is one of the new and efficient methods in studying Imami Hadiths. This method, which is based on the theory of “Bakhtin’s competing voices”, investigates the hidden discourse in the heart of traditions through the histology of society’s beliefs at the time of repercussion of traditions and the reading of the rival discourse. In this research, we seek to analyze the discourse of hadiths of Hassan ibn Mahboub (149-224 AH) in the field of Mahdism teaching. He was one of the companions of Imam Kazem (A.S), Imam Reza (A.S) and Imam Javad (A.S), and one of the Imamate People of Consensus at his own time. The findings of this research indicate that Ibn Mahboub has reflected his Mahdism hadiths in the face of four rival discourses that sought to promote misconceptions about the promised genealogy, the appointment of Mahdi (A.S), the absence of Support of Muhammad’s Family and the uprising of the savior in the intellectual and doctrinal context of the society of that time.

The book “Hilyat al-Abrar”, about the life of the infallibles (A.S) is written by Seyyed Hashem Bahrani, the narrator of hadiths at 11th and 12th century after hijrat. Due to its great resemblance to the book “Bahar al-Anwar” in the life history section of the Imams, this book has a similar position. The final part of the book in volume 5 contains Mahdism traditions. Although Bahrani has written three independent books, Hailyat al-Abrar has had unparalleled comprehensiveness in various subjects of Mahdism. The study of Mahdism writings of Bahrani brings about more awareness of the Mahdism thoughts of Akhbarian in the Safavid period- the era of the revival of Akhbarism-. Moreover, it results in identifying the characteristics of Bahraini hadithism. In addition, the other important aspects include the discussion of the existence of many Mahdism traditions in public sources, acquaintance with the sources that are currently missing, but the author mentioned them, and how the political conditions of the Safavid period affected Shiite Mahdism. A review with regard to the document and text of the book indicates the maximum of Ahkbarism approach to convey the contents of his book. The descriptive-analytic research method is accompanied with the historical, authority-related, and hadithi approaches.

“Realization of the rule of Ahl al-Bayt (A.S)” and living in its shadow is the most important aspirations of the Shiite. Therefore, the Ahl al-Bayt were asked about it. Most of narrations which are about this issue report that no specific time has been set. However, some narrations have mentioned the two times of 70 and 140 AH for this important issue, the most important of which is the narration mentioned in “Al-Kafi”. The present study analyzes and investigates these narrations, and while stating the authenticity of the narrations in question, and counting the narrations of its family, it makes it clear that the designated years are neither a mere expression of openness in life nor for statement of time for the rule of Imam Mahdi (A.S); rather it mentioned a time for the realization of a rule of Ahl al-Bayt by one of the Imams (A.S) supposed to be realized in these two years; however, due to the obstacles that arose, its time was delayed; so that after that, no other time has been set for this important issue.

One of the characters who, at the beginning of the absence of Imam of the Time (A.S), caused the weakening of beliefs and created doubts about the acceptance of the living Imam (A.S) in the Shiite society, is “Jafar ibn Ali”, nicknamed as the “liar”. Due to his family and social status, Jafar paved the ground for deviation and confusion among the Shiites. This paper is organized based on the historical and narration sources with a descriptive-analytic method through gathering library-based information. The main question is the nature of characteristics of Jafar ibn Ali and his effect on the beginning of Imam’s absence (A.S). Results indicate that Jafar ibn Ali had some deviations in the two parts of “belief” and “practice”.
The analytical-historical study of the characteristics of Jafar ibn Ali and the breadth of sources of the current research have led to new findings in this paper. Moreover, Jafar’s influence on the Shiite society during the early period of Imam’s absence in this paper is one of the less discussed topics in the discussion of Jafar’s character.

Shiite studies of the Orientalists are generally organized for a variety of purposes and motives. Some of them have a phenomenal view and others have a biased view towards Shiite studies, especially toward Shiite saviorist approaches. What is covered in this article is the analysis and critique of “absence” and “return” as one of the characteristics of Shiite doctrine in the thoughts of Bernard Lewis. So far, no complete research has been carried out on the issue of absence and return in Shia from Lewis’s point of view. The method used in this paper is analytical-critical, and based on the written sources and political tendencies of Bernard Lewis. Lewis’s character and the process of appearance and evolution of absence and return in Shia (as the two basic strategies in Lewis’s thought), have been studies from the perspective of methodology and content analysis, which is prone to much criticism in Lewis’s thought.