Occultation ( ar, غَيْبَة, ') in
Shia Islam
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...
refers to the
eschatological belief that
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
, a descendant of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, has already been born and subsequently concealed, but will reemerge to establish justice and peace on earth in the end of time. The signs of his (re)appearance are largely common in Shia and Sunni, (although Sunni do not believe the Mahdi has already been born and is in occultation),
and the belief in the eschatological Mahdi remains popular among all Muslims, possibly owing to numerous traditions to this effect in canonical Sunni and Shia sources.
The
branches of Shia Islam that believe in it, however, differ in the identity of Mahdi. The mainstream Shia identifies him as
Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth imam, who is believed to be responsible for the affairs of men and, in particular, their inward spiritual guidance during the occultation.
Twelver Shia
Twelver Shia
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
is the mainstream branch of Shia Islam, accounting for 85 percent of the Shia population.
The Twelvers believe that their twelfth Imam,
Muhammad al-Mahdi, is in occultation. During his
Minor Occultation
The Minor Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلصُّغْرَىٰ, '), also known as the First Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلْأُولَىٰ, '), refers in Twelver Shia Islam to a period of nearly seventy years (874–941 CE, ...
(874-941), the twelfth Imam is believed to have remained in regular contact with four successive agents, collectively known as the
Four Deputies
The Four Deputies ( ar, ٱلنُّوَّاب ٱلْأَرْبَعَة, ') were the four individuals who are believed by the Twelvers to have successively represented their twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, during his Minor Occultation (874–941 ...
(). During the
Major Occultation
In Twelver Shia Islam, the Major Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلْكُبْرَىٰ, ', 329 AH-present, 941 CE-present) is the second occultation of the Hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, which is expected to continue until his rise in ...
(941-present), however, there is no agent of the Hidden Imam on earth, though it is believed that he remains providentially living in his physical body until his reappearance in the end of time.
The Twelver theory of occultation crystallized in the first half of the fourth (tenth) century based on rational and textual arguments. This theory, for instance, sets forth that the life of Muhammad al-Mahdi has been miraculously prolonged, arguing that the earth cannot be void of the imam as the highest proof () of God. As another example, while the Abbasid threat might have initially forced the twelfth imam into occultation, according to this doctrine, his absence continues until initial conditions are met for his reappearance, including humankind's readiness for the message of the Hidden Imam.
Minor Occultation
Immediately after the death of
Hasan al-Askari in 260 (873-874),
Uthman al-Amri () claimed that the eleventh Imam had a young son, named Muhammad, who had entered a state of occultation due to the threat to his life from the Abbasids. As the special representative of al-Askari, Uthman also claimed that he had been appointed to represent the son of the eleventh Imam. Possibly the only public appearance of Muhammad was to lead the funeral prayer for his father instead of his uncle,
Ja'far.
In his new capacity, Uthman received petitions and made available their responses, sometimes in writing. As the closest associate of al-Askari, most of al-Askari's local representatives continued to support Uthman. He later introduced his son,
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Uthman (), as the next representative of al-Mahdi. In turn, as his replacement, Abu Ja'far nominated
Abu al-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Ruh al-Nawbakhti
Abu al-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Ruh Nawbakhti ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْقَاسِم ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن رُوح ٱلنَّوْبَخْتِيّ, ') was the third of the Four Deputies, who are believed by the Twelvers to have successively repr ...
().
This period, later termed the
Minor Occultation
The Minor Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلصُّغْرَىٰ, '), also known as the First Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلْأُولَىٰ, '), refers in Twelver Shia Islam to a period of nearly seventy years (874–941 CE, ...
(), ended after about seventy years with the death of the fourth agent,
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن مُحَمَّد ٱلسَّمَّرِيّ, ') was the last of the Four Deputies, who are believed by the Twelvers to have successively represented th ...
(), who is said to have received a
letter from al-Mahdi shortly before his death. The letter predicted the death of Abu al-Hasan in six days and announced the beginning of the complete () occultation, later called the
Major Occultation
In Twelver Shia Islam, the Major Occultation ( ar, ٱلْغَيْبَة ٱلْكُبْرَىٰ, ', 329 AH-present, 941 CE-present) is the second occultation of the Hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, which is expected to continue until his rise in ...
(). The letter, ascribed to al-Mahdi, added that the complete occultation would continue until God granted him permission to manifest himself again in a time when the earth would be filled with tyranny. This and similar letters to the four agents and other Shia figures are said to have had the same handwriting, suggesting that they were written by the Hidden Imam.
Major Occultation
The Major Occultation, a later term, began with the death of the fourth agent in 329 (940-941), who did not designate a successor. In this period, which continues today, there is no agent of the Hidden Imam on earth. There were likely early traditions among the Shia that had already predicted the two periods of occultation. These hadiths were previously cited, for instance, by the
Waqifites in reference to the two arrests of
Musa al-Kazim
Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim ( ar, مُوسَىٰ ٱبْن جَعْفَر ٱلْكَاظِم, Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Ibrāhīm, was the seventh Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, after ...
, the seventh Imam.
In the absence of the Hidden Imam, the leadership vacuum in the Twelver community was gradually filled by the jurists in their new capacity as general deputy () to the Hidden Imam. It is also popularly held that the Hidden Imam occasionally appears to the pious in person or, more commonly, in dreams and visions. The accounts of these encounters are numerous and widespread among the Twelvers.
Isma'ili Shia
Isma'ili Shia branched off from mainstream Shia over the succession of
Isma'il
Ismail ( ar, إِسْمَاعِيْل, ʾIsmāʿīl) is regarded as a prophet and messenger and the ancestor to the Ishmaelites in Islam. He is the son of Ibrahim (Abraham), born to Hajar (Hagar). Ismail is also associated with Mecca and th ...
, who predeceased his father,
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣādiq ( ar, جعفر بن محمد الصادق; 702 – 765 CE), commonly known as Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (), was an 8th-century Shia Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian.. He was the founder of th ...
, the sixth imam. This group either believed that Isma'il was still alive but in concealment or instead recognized the imamate of Isma'il's son,
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, and his descendants. Today, Isma'ilis are divided into two groups,
Nizari
The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...
and
Musta'li
The Musta‘lī ( ar, مستعلي) are a branch of Isma'ilism named for their acceptance of al-Musta'li as the legitimate nineteenth Fatimid caliph and legitimate successor to his father, al-Mustansir Billah. In contrast, the Nizari—the other l ...
. The Nizarite imam is the present
Aga Khan IV
Shāh Karim al-Husayni (born 13 December 1936), known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Ismaili followers and elsewhere as Aga Khan IV, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis, a denomination within Shia Islam. He ha ...
, their forty-ninth imam in the line of succession. The Musta'lis, however, believe that their twenty-first imam and his progeny went into occultation. In the absence of their imam, Musta'lis take guidance from Da'i al-Mutlaq (). Different branches of Musta'li Shia differ on who the current Da'i al-Mutlaq is.
Before the rise of the
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
, as a major Isma'ili Shia dynasty, the terms Mahdi and Qa'im were used interchangeably for the messianic imam anticipated in Shia traditions. With the rise of the Fatimids in the tenth century CE, however,
al-Qadi al-Nu'man
Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥayyūn al-Tamīmiyy ( ar, النعمان بن محمد بن منصور بن أحمد بن حيون التميمي, generally known as al-Qāḍī al-Nu‘mān () or as ibn ...
argued that some of these predictions had materialized by the first Fatimid caliph,
Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah, while the rest would be fulfilled by his successors. Henceforth, their literature referred to the awaited eschatological imam only as Qa'im (instead of Mahdi).
Zaydi Shia
In
Zaydi
Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, ...
view, imams are not endowed with superhuman qualities, and expectations for their mahdiship are thus often marginal. One exception is the extinct Husaynites in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, who denied the death of al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim al-Iyani and awaited his return.
Other views
Historically, various Muslim figures were identified with the eschatological Mahdi or used the name as an honorific title with messianic significance. These include the Umayyad
Umar II
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, and ...
and the Abbasid
al-Mahdi
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله المنصور; 744 or 745 – 785), better known by his regnal name Al-Mahdī (, "He who is guided by God"), was the third Abba ...
, among many others. Similarly, mahdism and occultation are recurring themes in the history of Shia. For instance, long-standing Shia traditions were appropriated by the now-extinct
Waqifites to argue that
Musa al-Kazim
Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim ( ar, مُوسَىٰ ٱبْن جَعْفَر ٱلْكَاظِم, Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Ibrāhīm, was the seventh Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, after ...
, the seventh imam, had not died but was in occultation. Even earlier, the now-extinct
Kaysanites
The Kaysanites () were a Shi'i sect of Islam that formed from the followers of Al-Mukhtar. They traced Imamate from Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and his descendants. The name Kaysaniyya was most likely derived from the name of Mukhtar's chief guard ...
denied the death of
Muḥammad ibn al-Hanafiyya and awaited his return as the Mahdi. The
Qarmatians
The Qarmatians ( ar, قرامطة, Qarāmiṭa; ) were a militant Isma'ilism, Isma'ili Shia Islam, Shia movement centred in Al-Ahsa Oasis, al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a Utopia#Religious utopias, religious-utopian Socialis ...
, an extinct branch of Isma'ili Shia, believed in the mahdiship of
Muhammad ibn Isma'il
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (), also known in his own time as al-Maymūn and hence sometimes incorrectly identified as Maymūn al-Qaddāḥ, was the son of Isma'il ibn Ja'far; he was an Ismāʿīlī Imam. The majority of Ismā ...
and his imminent return. Similar figures in Shia history are
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al- Ḥasan al-Muthannā ibn al- Ḥasan al-Mujtabā ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib or Muḥammad al-Nafs al-Zakīyya ( ar, محمد بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن الحسن بن علي الملقَّب ...
,
Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Alawi,
Yahya ibn Umar, and
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar () was the son of Ali al-Hadi and the brother of Hasan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th Twelver Shia Imams, respectively. His Tomb was constructed between Samarra and ...
.
See also
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Eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...
**
Islamic eschatology
Islamic eschatology ( ar, علم آخر الزمان في الإسلام, ) is a field of study in Islam concerning future events that would happen in the end times. It is primarily based on hypothesis and speculations based on sources from t ...
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The Fourteen Infallibles
The Fourteen Infallibles ( ar, ٱلْمَعْصُومُون ٱلْأَرْبَعَة عَشَر, '; fa, چهارده معصومین, ') in Twelver Shia Islam are the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatima Zahra, and the Twelve Imams. ...
*
Du'a Nudba
Du'a Nudba ( ar, دُعَاء ٱلنُّدْبَة) is one of the major Shia supplications about Imam Al-Mahdi and his occultation. Nudba means to cry and Shias read the supplication to ask for help during the occultation. The supplication is re ...
*
''Kitab al-Ghayba'' (al-Nu'mani), a work on the topic by the 10th-century Twelver Shia scholar
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Nu'mani
*
''Kitab al-Ghayba'' (al-Tusi), a work on the topic by the 11th-century Twelver Shia scholar
al-Shaykh al-Tusi
*
Rajʿa ('return'), the concomitant concept of return after occultation
**
Reappearance of Muhammad al-Mahdi
The reappearance of Muhammad al-Mahdi is the Twelver eschatological belief in the return of their Hidden Imam in the end of time to establish peace and justice on earth. For Twelvers, this would end a period of occultation that began shortly after ...
, the concept of return in Twelver Shi'ism
**
Signs of the appearance of the Mahdi (in broader Islam)
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Occultation
Hujjat Allah al-Mahdi
Islamic terminology
Mahdism
Shia eschatology