QOM - Shi'ism is an
eschatological religion that has codified its own,
complex (happy) end of history. Intellectually,
from a non-Shi'ite point of view, its appeal is
derived from the fact that it is a romantic
religion, a religion of the despaired and the
dispossessed, and a religion of messianic waiting.
The wait is for the expected leader, Imam
al-Mahdi, the 12th hidden imam of Shi'ism who will
come one day to, in essence, save mankind from
itself.
Without understanding this
long waiting it's impossible to understand
post-revolutionary Iran. And nowhere else than in
the holy city of Qom in central Iran about 200
kilometers south of Tehran is one able to feel the
full power of the faith. Hojjatoleslam Masoud Pour
Seyyed Aghaei, a soft-spoken, black-turbaned top
cleric, is the head of the Bright Future center -
an educational and
research institute set up to
prepare the Shi'ite faithful, especially young
people, for the arrival of Imam Mahdi. He quotes
as evidence United Nations figures according to
which the social gap between rich and poor has
been extending non-stop since the 1950s, so that
now 80% of the world's population is excluded from
its wealth. "This proves that the intervention of
a higher power - God - is necessary."
Seyyed Aghaei shows how the Internet is
central to Shi'ism's formidable capacity of
regimentation and conversion. On its own premises,
a house in one of Qom's narrow alleys, the center
publishes a magazine, Intizar Nojavan, soon also
digitally, and operates a website -
www.zerotimemag.com - about Imam Mahdi and other
saviors in all religions. The center in fact
multiplies itself in a number of sites -
intizarmag.ir, bfnews.ir and intizar.ir.
Their religious program leads to a PhD in
four years, including disciplines like history of
Islam and knowledge of the Koran and other
religions. After that, graduates can become
teachers. All foreign students must learn Farsi.
Soon the center will also sponsor an electronic
university. Centers like Bright Future can count
on substantial budgets distributed by the Art and
Cultural Activity Center of City Hall in Tehran.
Seyyed Hassan Mirhosseini supervises the
imposing library, which also collects all the PhD
theses. Apart from Farsi and Arabic, there are
books in English and French. According to Seyyed
Aghaei, there are eight research groups at the
center. He points out the crucial four differences
between globalization - whose study is not
neglected - and globalization of Imam Mahdi:
fundamentals, goals, infrastructure of government
and methodology. All studies at the center are
directly related to Imam Mahdi. There are more
than 100 candidates at the beginning of each term.
After passing an entrance examination and an
in-depth interview, about eight to 10 are approved
each time.
The center pays special
attention to kids. Seyyed Aghaei shows how in a
series of gorgeously drawn allegories, a small
group comprising a psychologist, a painter and a
poet managed to illustrate six crucial concepts:
dreaming about a "city of wishes"; "the birth of a
person who will get these wishes"; absence (the
person is hidden); love in the absence of this
person; "the city of Heaven" (when the person
appears); and what Seyyed Aghaei calls "green
waiting", a kind of utopia of a world ridden from
injustice. Interaction is key. The center
maintains a question and answer department where
questions sent by e-mail or by phone are answered
immediately (or the center calls back).
The digital team is extremely young,
well-educated and hyperactive. Within minutes,
Asia Times Online's visit is already online at
www.bfnews.ir. In a basement filled with
computers, the team grills this correspondent with
all sorts of questions regarding religion and
literature and how Islam is perceived in the West.
Among the team we find someone like Muhamad Sadegh
Dehghan, a young Hazara born in Kabul who fled
Afghanistan with his family in 1980 and grew up in
Iran. He recently revisited his hometown and was
impressed by the poverty - ie, the absence of
reconstruction since the US deposed the Taliban in
late 2001. He's studying for a Master's degree in
international law at the University of Tehran and
wants to remain in Iran.
A vision or a
waking dream? The Shi'ite tradition in Qom
teaches that when the world has become
psychologically ready to accept the government of
God and when worldly conditions are ready for
truth to prevail, God will then allow Imam Mahdi
to launch his final revolution. This is the
absolute heart of Shi'ism - messianism meets the
revolution. Fervent Shi'ites are inherently
prophets and revolutionaries.
The
immensely respected Ayatollah Muhamad Baqr al-Sadr
- founder of the Da'wa Party, father of the fiery
Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and slain by the
orders of Saddam Hussein in 1980 - wrote that the
idea of Imam Mahdi as the ultimate savior is found
not only in up to 400 narratives of Prophet
Mohammed, but through countless analysis by both
Sunnis and Shi'ites. Ayatollah al-Sadr also
clarified that the materialization of the 12th
imam was supported by both Islamic and scientific
evidence.
The story of Imam Mahdi is a
fascinating one. He was born in 868, during the
Abbasid empire, in Samarra - today in turbulent
Iraq. He became the 12th imam at the age of five,
after his father Hasan al-Askari, the 11th imam,
was poisoned at the age of 28. Then comes what the
Shi'ites call Lesser Occultation. The Abbassids
wanted to kill him, so he disappeared for 69
years: that's how God wanted it. This was a kind
of prelude to the Great Occultation, which has
been going on for 11 centuries. No one - except
God - knows how much longer it will last. During
this period, only qualified faqihs -
jurisprudents - are able to defend Islam. This is
expressed in the controversial concept of
velayat al-faqih. When Iran became an
Islamic republic in 1979, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini mingled the concept with the institutions
of a nation-state. So the main duty of the
state-supported Shi'ite clergy in Iran is to
proselytize and prepare for the advent of the
savior.
The theological and eschatological
ramifications concerning Imam Mahdi are complex.
In the body of hadiths - the sayings of
Prophet Mohammed - expectation of Imam Mahdi is as
important as (defensive) jihad in the cause of
Allah, for example in Iraq and Palestine.
The savior will come with a bang - no less
than a worldwide revolution started by the imam
and 313 disciples by the Kaaba in Mecca, with
Jesus coming down from heaven to pray, the
vanguard marching towards Iraq and the imam
settling down in Kufa, 20 minutes away from Najaf.
The so-called "victorious armies of Islam" taking
over the world will present humanity with a stark
choice.
According to Ayatollah Ibrahim
Amini in his book Al-Imam al-Mahdi - The
Just Leader of Humanity (Ansaryan Publications,
Qom), "on seeing the fulfillment of many of the
signs promised in the traditions, a large number
of unbelievers will turn towards Islam. Those who
persist in their disbelief and wickedness shall be
killed by the soldiers of the Mahdi. The only
victorious government in the entire world will be
that of Islam and people will devotedly endeavor
to protect it. Islam will be the religion of
everyone, and will enter all the nations of the
world."
The full powers of persuasion of
Shi'ism are in splendorous evidence when Seyyed
Aghaei tries to convince this correspondent that
after all failed attempts of mankind to correct
injustice, only Imam Mahdi presents a
comprehensive solution. One tries to point out
that for Westerners brought up in an
intellectually critical environment, it's not easy
to accept a messianic utopia. But after hours of
fruitful discussion, it's impossible to deny the
appeal of this beautiful dream. For Seyyed Aghaei
and tens of millions of Shi'ites, this is not a
dream: one must prepare and be prepared because it
will inevitably happen. And the savior comes for
all. "We cannot accept America as savior," Seyyed
Aghaei said. "They always want everything for
themselves."
The Bright Future center is
only a few minutes away from the magnificent
Hazrat al-Masumeh, the shrine in honor of Fatemah,
the sister of Imam Reza, the second most sacred
shrine in Iran after Imam Reza's in Mashhad (and
where President Mahmud Ahmadinejad held his first
cabinet meeting last week). Historically, Fatemah
is no less than the aunt of Imam Mahdi. "This
shows how respected women are in Islam," said our
companion, Hassan Zadeh, a top cleric in Qom.
The fabulous golden dome is glistening
under the sun. The courtyard is full of pilgrims.
The shrine itself is off-limits to non-Muslims,
but thanks to the author's companions he manages
to get in. The effect is as dazzling as a visit to
Imam Ali's shrine in Najaf or Imam Reza's shrine
in Mashhad. The walls and the roof are covered in
an apotheosis of mirrored crystals. Ecstatic
Hazara, Tajik, Gulf Arab faces say their prayers
and then touch and caress the sumptuous grilled
metal box housing the body of Fatemah. In the
huge, adjacent prayer room pilgrims sit down for
hours, absorbing the uplifting atmosphere. One is
tempted to forget all the "sound and fury,
signifying nothing" outside and beyond, and
concentrate on the dream of a single man
reappearing to liberate us all.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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