Abstract:
This traditional poem, known popularly in the Islamic Republic of Iran, expresses a sentiment that fundamentally permeates Twelver Shi’i Islam: intizar, or the awaiting. This existential notion is expressed in the hope that ‘he will come’. It is tied to the uncertainty of when exactly this coming might be. Is this event far away, or is it imminent? Imminence gladdens ‘the heart that is aware of it’, for ‘he’ is the hidden personification of the ultimate promise: social renewal, justice and redemption. To ‘pull away the cloth’ would be to reveal the Shi’i Messiah to his followers, which is to say facilitate the return of al-Mahdi, the Hidden Imam, and the beginning of Just Rule. This Shi’i messianic idea is deployed in a particular theological doctrine: the doctrine of al-Mahdi, and encapsulates a revolutionary promise.
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