The Qá’im: expectation and the question of recognition

Verily, I am the Qa'im Whose Day all await, and through Whom all have been promised.

This is the Qa'im Whose day all await and Who hath been promised unto all.

… Say: Verily He is Muhammad, the Guide, and say: I am the Promised Mahdi in the Mother Book. Say: He is the true Master Whom all were promised. Say: He is the true Qa'im in Whom all believe.

On this, that the Qa'im, the Testimony of God, peace be upon Him, hath been manifested with verses and conclusive evidences, through the Revelation of the Point of the Bayan, which is exactly the very Revelation of the Point of the Furqan.

The heaven-cradled Crown-Prince was at that time governor of Adhirbayjan. He pronounced no sentence with regard to the Bab, nor did he desire to interfere with Him. The doctors, however, considered it advisable at least to inflict a severe chastisement, and beating was decided on. But none of the corps of farrashes would agree to become the instruments of the infliction of this punishment. So Mirza 'Ali-Asghar the Shaykhu'l-Islam, who was one of the noble Siyyids, brought Him to his own house and applied the rods with his own hand. After this they sent the Bab back to Chihriq and subjected Him to a strict confinement.

Now when the news of this beating, chastisement, imprisonment, and rigor reached all parts of Persia, learned divines and esteemed lawyers who were possessed of power and influence girt up the loins of endeavor for the eradication and suppression of this sect, exerting their utmost efforts therefore. And they wrote notice of their decision, to wit "that this person and his followers are in absolute error and are hurtful to Church and State." And since the governors in Persia enjoyed the fullest authority, in some provinces they followed this decision and united in uprooting and dispersing the Babis. But the late King Muhammad Shah acted with deliberation in this matter, reflecting, "This Youth is of the Pure Lineage and of the family of him addressed with 'were it not for thee.' So long as no offensive actions which are incompatible with the public peace and well-being proceed from him, the government should not interfere with him." And whenever the learned doctors appealed to him from the surrounding districts, he either gave no answer, or else commanded them to act with deliberation.

Notwithstanding this, between eminent doctors and illustrious scholars and those learned persons who were followers of the Bab opposition, discussion, and strife did so increase that in some provinces they desired [to resort to] mutual imprecation; and for the governors of the provinces, too, a means of acquiring gain was produced, so that great tumult and disturbance arose. And since the malady of the gout had violently attacked the king's foot and occupied his world-ordering thought, the good judgment of the Chief Minister, the famous Haji Mirza Aqasi, became the pivot of the conduct of affairs, and his incapacity and lack of resource became apparent as the sun. For every hour he formed a new opinion and gave a new order: at one moment he would seek to support the decision of the doctors, accounting the eradication and suppression of the Babis as necessary: at another time he would charge the doctors with aggressiveness, regarding undue interference as contrary to justice: at another time he would become a mystic and say, "All these voices are from the King," or repeat with his tongue, "Moses is at war with Moses," or recite, "This is nought but Thy trial."

In short this changeable minister, by reason of his mismanagement of important matters and failure to control and order the affairs of the community, so acted that disturbance and clamor arose from all quarters and directions: the most notable and influential of the doctors ordered the common folk to molest the followers of the Bab, and a general onslaught took place. More especially when the claim of Mihdi-hood reached the hearing of eminent divines and profound doctors they began to make lamentation and to cry and complain from their pulpits, saying, "One of the essentials of religion and of the authentic traditions transmitted from the holy Imams, nay, the chief basis of the foundations of the church of His Highness Ja'far, is the Occultation of the immaculate twelfth Imam (upon both of them be peace). What has happened to Jabulqa? Where has Jabulsa gone? What was the Minor Occultation? What has become of the Major Occultation? What are the sayings of Husayn ibn Ruh, and what the tradition of Ibn Mihriyar? What shall we make of the flight of the Guardians and the Helpers? How shall we deal with the conquest of the East and the West? Where is the Ass of Antichrist? When will the appearance of the Sufyan be? Where are the signs which are in the traditions of the Holy Family? Where is that whereon the Victorious Church is agreed? The matter is not outside one of two alternatives: either we must repudiate the traditions of the Holy Imams, grow wearied of the Church of Ja'far, and account the clear indications of the Imam as disturbed dreams; or, in accordance with the primary and subsidiary doctrines of the Faith and the essential and explicit declarations of the most luminous Law, we must consider the repudiation, nay, the destruction of this person as our chief duty. If so be that we shut our eyes to these authentic traditions and obvious doctrines universally admitted, no remnant will endure of the fundamental basis of the Church of the immaculate Imam: we shall neither be Sunnites, nor shall we be of the prevalent sect to continue awaiting the promised Saint and believing in the begotten Mihdi. Otherwise we must regard as admissible the opening of the Gate of Saintship, and consider that He Who is to arise of the family of Muhammad possesses two signs: the first condition, Holy Lineage; the second, [that He is divinely] fortified with brilliant verses. What can we do with these thousand-year-old beliefs of the delivered band of Shi'ites, or what shall we say concerning their profound doctors and preeminent divines? Were all these in error? Did they journey in the vale of transgression? What an evidently false assertion is this! By God, this is a thing to break the back! O people, extinguish this fire and forget these words! Alas! woe to our Faith, woe to our Law!"

And as to what you asked about whether the origin of this Cause can be derived from the traditions transmitted from the Imams of Guidance - may the spirit of all worlds be sacrificed for them - and yet the traditions do not explicitly mention the name of the Promised One, His patronymic, His title, His place and His time in a way that common people would understand it, know first that the words of the Imams - peace be upon them all - are the essence of utterance, the pure form of expression, and the spirit of exposition.

As for the traditions regarding Imam Muhammad ibn Hasan, they are all confused. Refer to them and you will see. In the treatise of Haji Mirza Muhammad Afshar those confused and varied traditions are mentioned with authentic chains of transmission. Refer to it. Some narrators have related that he was a small child who died.

As for the matter of the twelfth Imam, since in the very hadith of the Imams there are apparent contradictions - in one place they consider Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (peace be upon him) as the promised Qa'im himself, while in another place and different hadith they speak of the death of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (peace be upon him) [and birth] of the expected Qa'im in the end times - therefore to reconcile these two hadith, one has no choice but to be certain that the twelfth Imam, the promised Qa'im, existed spiritually in the realm of the Kingdom and appeared physically on the day of manifestation, becoming through this embodiment a second person.

Know thou that this perception did not originally exist in the physical world. The twelfth Imam existed in the Unseen realm, but had no reality on the material plane. However, some of the Shi'ih elders of the time deemed it advisable, solely for the protection of the weak elements among the people, to portray a person existing in the Unseen realm as being possessed of a corporal existence.

The Twelfth Imam, the Exalted One (may my spirit be sacrificed for Him), Who was the seal of the preceding Imams and the opener of divine favors, declared at the beginning of His manifestation and mention of the Imamate that "I am that promised One," and all the Shi'ites were awaiting the appearance of the Twelfth Imam.

When the Qa'im (may God hasten his appearance) appears, this station will be manifested to his followers, though only a few of them will remain, and that is the station of the complete servitude of the Shi'ih to the Imam.

Whosoever entereth therein, these are they who shall thereafter know that He is the Qa'im unto Whom all supplicate night and day, and all are promised His day.

These are they upon whom blessings are sent and who submit themselves. The example of this Cause is like the fire of God which He will manifest on the Day of Resurrection. Those who enter therein, they are the ones who attain certitude that He is the Qa'im whom those in the kingdoms of the heavens and earth and what lies between them await, and all know Him by His command.

The Remembrance of God was witnessed in the Most Great Word, standing round about the Fire. Hearken then unto that which thy Lord revealeth unto thee.

They themselves say that

when the Qa'im uttereth a word, the chiefs of the earth, who are the most exalted of creation, shall turn away from it.

Ponder what they say concerning the news of the Qa'im, and thou shalt find them in manifest error.

The Qayyum came, and the Qa'im was standing at the Gate. We said: "Thou art the Promised One." He replied: "Nay, by thy life! He is the Imagined One Who hath been created from the imaginings of the people of the Furqan."

Rather, the joy of those days relates to their belief that the Imams have returned and appeared, in accordance with Shi'ih belief, for among the authenticated traditions is that at the appearance of the Qa'im, the Imams of the Qur'an will arise from their graves and appear. They are unaware that in these days another Cause has appeared and the hidden treasure has been revealed.

And the meaning of "the Spirit" in His saying: "The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the leave of their Lord, with every command," is the Qa'im; and by "the angels" are intended the Imams....

The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.