Since assuming the Iranian presidency in mid-2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been in the news almost constantly with provocative statements, such as that Israel should be wiped off the map and that Iran has every right to enrich uranium (likely leading to the development of nuclear weapons). His belligerent, anti-Western rhetoric recalls the early years of the Islamic revolution in Iran in the 1980s. Particularly troubling are hints that he feels a supernatural hand is being placed upon him. He concluded a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2005 with the apocalyptic call to God to “hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace.” Ahmadinejad commented later, “I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink . . . as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic.”1 What is that message? Who is that “Promised One”?

Ahmadinejad belongs to the mainstream of Shi’a Islam, known as “Twelvers.” They recognize a historical succession of Imams, connected by family ties, commencing with Muhammad and concluding with the 12th Imam. This God-favored line of Imams was appointed to lead the Islamic community, and they were better equipped to do so than any others (including the Sunni Caliphs).

The 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was born around 868, at a time of great persecution of Shi’a Muslims by the Sunni majority. His father, the 11th Imam, Hassan al-Askari, kept the birth a secret in order to protect his newborn son. As one modern Shi’a writer describes the child:

[God] endowed him with wisdom as He had endowed John the Baptist while still a boy. He made him an Imam while still in the state of apparent childhood just as He made Jesus, son of Mary, a prophet in the cradle. The nomination of him had been given earlier to the community of Islam by [Muhammad] the Prophet of guidance . . .2

At the age of six, on the death of his father, the boy appeared in public to claim the Imamate, but he promptly disappeared from view again for reasons of self-preservation. For the next 70 years he functioned as Imam and guided his community via four intermediaries. This period is known as the Lesser Occultation (“hiddenness”).3 Then, around 941, the 12th Imam announced the impending death of the final intermediary, Abul Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri. Henceforth, the Greater Occultation4 would be in force, until the reappearance of the 12th Imam in the end of times.

Twelver Shi’as believe the Imam is alive today, but invisible, like the sun behind the clouds. They also believe that communication with the 12th Imam during the Greater Occultation is possible, so letters of request are left for him at certain sites, such as the 1000-year-old Jamkaran shrine in the holy city of Qom. His “messianic” return will bring order from chaos and righteousness from unbelief.5

President Ahmadinejad seems to think that the time is ripe for the 12th Imam’s reappearance and that, as president, he should play a role in opening the way for his return. He is reported to have said in one of his cabinet sessions, “We have to turn Iran into a modern, and divine country to be the model for all nations, and which will also serve as the basis for the return of the twelfth Imam.”6

Progressive cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, an opponent of Ahmadinejad, who has been under house arrest, warns that “Using the 12th imam for political purposes and telling people to prepare the streets to await his return is wrong and a misuse of Islam. Nobody knows when he is going to return.”7 However, there is little sign that Ahmadinejad takes notice of such criticism. Instead, he seems to believe that the hand of God is guiding him to trigger a series of cataclysmic events which could precipitate the return of the 12th Imam. Only time will tell if this is his true conviction; but if he does hold such a view, his possession of nuclear weapons is a particularly alarming prospect.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Anton La Guardia, “Divine Mission Driving Iran’s New Leader,” The Telegraph, January 14, 2006, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/14/wiran14.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/14/ixworld.html (accessed April 18, 2006).
 
2  Ali Abbas, “The 12th Imam,” The Islamic Centre Website, http://www.islamicentre.org/articles/mahdi1.htm (accessed April 18, 2006).
 
3  Ghaybat al-Sughra.
 
4  Ghaybat al-Sughra.
 
5  As indicated in the following Shi’a tradition of Muhammad’s words: (Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Muhammad al-Mahdi,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al_Mahdi (accessed April 18, 2006).

During the last times, my people will be afflicted with terrible and unprecedented calamities and misfortunes from their rulers, so much so that this vast earth will appear small to them. Persecution and injustice will engulf the earth. The believers will find no shelter to seek refuge from these tortures and injustices. At such a time, God will raise from my progeny a man who will establish peace and justice on this earth in the same way as it had been filled with injustice and distress.
6  Hossein Bastani, “Ahmadinejad in Touch with the 12th Imam,” Rooz Online, December 11, 2005, http://roozonline.com/11english/012416.shtml (accessed April 18, 2006).
 
7  Robert Tait, “President Leads the Faithful Awaiting Return of 12th Imam,” Guardian Unlimited, February 21, 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1714431,00.html (accessed April 18, 2006).
 
article from Kairos Journal

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