The world needs the “Hidden Imam” says Ahmadinejad. Could he be right?
This story on the MEMRI Iran Media Blog claims that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad considers the universal rule of the Hidden Imam humanity’s most important need.
As a Baha’i, I think he’s right.
This article on the Baha’i Topics website will tell you why. Stick with the article, which is quite long, if you want to really understand something important about the historical context of the Baha’i Faith and its relationship to Shi’i Islam.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Islam, Shia, Shi’i, Hidden Imam
5 comments
That would be news beyond that of global warming….
Barney, you’ve done a valuable service, both to Bahá’ís and all who are interested in investigating truth, by highlighting the Bahá’í Topics article on your blog.
It is extremely timely and there are excellent footnotes for all those who might wish to go for a deeper understanding of its implications. Hats off to you!
Steven and Jim, thank you both for your comments. The article on Baha’i Topics is indeed and important one and I do hope people read it.
News beyond that of global warming? I should say!
Hi Barney,
I am not convinced that the return of Hidden Imam from the cities of Juabulqa and Jabursa is strictly part of Baha’i teaching. Abdu’l-Baha in a letter published in A Radiant Gem : A biography of Jinab-i-Fadil-i-Shirazi (2005) states that the belief in the Hidden Imam emerged as a way to comfort the bereft Shiahs in the ninth century. This is also pretty much what modern historians have unearthed as well.
In the recently translated Gems of Mysteries Baha’u'llah discusses these traditions and identifies them as symbolic/esoteric “To interpret this city according to the literal meaning of the tradition would indeed prove impossible, nor can such a city ever be found. Wert thou to search the uttermost corners of the earth, nay probe its length and breadth for as long as God’s eternity hath lasted and His sovereignty will endure, thou wouldst never find a city such as they have described, for the entirety of the earth could neither contain nor encompass it.”Gems, 35)
and impossible to be realised on the material plane.
In any event the return of the Hidden Imam is important to Ahmadinejad and to this end the recent study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy “Apocalyptic Politics: On The Rationality of Iranian Society” (2008) is reccomended (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=286)
The BIC article is getting a bit long in the tooth (citing Hatcher/Martin from 1985 from a generalist text). Moojan Momen’s “Islam and the Baha’i Faith” is certainly a more detailed and specific text.
Steve, thank you for your comments, for your quotations from the Writings and for your references, all of which will help us deepen our understanding of what the Baha’i teachings are and of how all of this relates to Ahmadinejad’s claims and statements about the Hidden Imam.
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