Occultation and the hope for justice — Twelver Shia belief holds he is the only Imam still alive and hidden from view; one who will one day return, at an unknown time, to establish justice in a world filled with oppression.
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Twelver Shia belief holds that Imam Mahdi was born in Samarra around 869 CE, the son of Imam Hasan al-Askari. His birth and childhood, because of the Abbasid caliphate's intense surveillance over prophecies concerning him, passed in complete secrecy. In 874 CE, after his father's death, at around age five, he succeeded him as the twelfth and final Imam and immediately entered the Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi. — a period during which, according to this belief, he stayed in contact with his followers through four successive deputies. The Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi. ended in 941 CE, with the death of the last deputy, Abu al-Hasan al-SamarriThe fourth and last deputy of Imam Mahdi during the Minor Occultation. His death in 941 CE, Twelver Shia belief holds, marked the end of the Minor Occultation and the beginning of the Major Occultation., when Imam Mahdi, according to this belief, was around seventy-two; the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi. began, a period during which, according to this belief, direct and formal contact with him ceased, and Shia Muslims turned to religious scholars for guidance. Twelver Shia Muslims believe he remains alive, though hidden from view, and that he will one day — at a time known only to God — return to establish, according to this tradition, justice in a world filled with oppression; a belief known as Intizar al-Farajawaiting the reliefThe Twelver Shia belief and practice of patiently awaiting Imam Mahdi's return; a concept that plays a central role in Shia culture and collective identity., which holds a central role in Shia culture and collective identity. It should be noted that the existence, identity, and occultation of Imam Mahdi is a foundational religious belief, not a claim that can be proven or disproven by ordinary historical methods; Sunni Muslims also believe in the appearance of a man from the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad and Fatima, known as the awaited Mahdi, at the end of times, but unlike Twelver Shia Muslims, they do not identify him with a specific son who has remained alive in occultation since the ninth century CE; rather, they hold that he will be born or appear in the future, closer to the end of the world.
Related Verses
Hope
And indeed We wrote in the Psalms, after the Reminder, that the earth is inherited by My righteous servants.
Unlike the other infallibles, Imam Mahdi is believed to be in occultation, so no direct sayings of his are available. This section therefore draws instead on Quran verses that Shia exegesis has connected to his uprising and companions. This is one of the most frequently cited; in Tafsir Majma al-Bayan, a narration from Imam Baqir reads "righteous servants" as "the companions of Imam Mahdi at the end of time."
And We wished to favor those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them leaders, and to make them the inheritors.
About the fate of the Israelites under Pharaoh's oppression, this verse is extended in numerous Shia narrations — including in Tafsir Nur al-Thaqalayn, narrated from Imam Ali and from the Prophet himself — to the Prophet's family, and specifically to the era of Imam Mahdi's uprising: a promise that the oppressed will eventually reach leadership and inheritance.
And to establish them in the land, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their soldiers, through them, what they had feared.
The direct continuation of the previous verse: after the promise of leadership to the oppressed, this verse shows the other side of it — those who had oppressed them finally see exactly the outcome they dreaded. The same narrations connected to the previous verse extend this image to the outcome of Imam Mahdi's uprising as well.
God has promised those among you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth.
Tafsir al-Qummi states explicitly that this verse refers to "al-Qa'im" (one of Imam Mahdi's titles); Kitab al-Ghayba also records a narration from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq identifying "al-Qa'im and his companions" as its subject. Imam Sajjad, too, is recorded in Tafsir al-Tibyan as saying, upon reciting this verse, "By God, they are our Shia, the Ahl al-Bayt."
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Birth in Complete Secrecy c. 869 CE
Twelver Shia belief holds that Imam Mahdi was born in Samarra around 869 CE, the son of Imam Hasan al-Askari. Because of the Abbasid caliphate's intense surveillance, driven by anxiety over Shia prophecies about his birth, news of his birth was shared only with a very limited circle close to Imam Askari. He is also known by other titles, such as Sahib al-ZamanMaster of the AgeOne of Imam Mahdi's titles in Twelver Shia belief, used alongside other titles such as Mahdi and al-Qa'im. and al-Qa'im.
Succession at Age Five 874 CE
In 874 CE, after Imam Hasan al-Askari's death, Imam Mahdi, according to Twelver Shia belief, succeeded his father at around age five as the twelfth and final Imam. Because of the direct mortal danger posed by the Abbasid caliphate, he immediately went into hiding from public view.
The Minor Occultation and the Four Deputies 874–941 CE
During the Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., according to this belief, Imam Mahdi stayed in contact with his followers through four successive deputies — known as representatives — who relayed Shia Muslims' questions and needs to him and brought back his answers. This period lasted around sixty-seven years, from 874 to 941 CE.
The End of the Minor Occultation 941 CE
The Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi. ended with the death of the last deputy, Abu al-Hasan al-SamarriThe fourth and last deputy of Imam Mahdi during the Minor Occultation. His death in 941 CE, Twelver Shia belief holds, marked the end of the Minor Occultation and the beginning of the Major Occultation., in 941 CE, when Imam Mahdi — according to this belief — was around seventy-two. According to Shia accounts, al-Samarri received a letter from Imam Mahdi shortly before his death announcing that direct contact and formal representation would cease from then on — the beginning of the period that came to be known as the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi..
Life During the Major Occultation 941 CE–present
During the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., according to this belief, there is no known official representative between Imam Mahdi and his followers; instead, Shia Muslims turn to religious scholars and jurists for religious and legal guidance — a practice known as the general deputyship of the jurists. Some Shia accounts speak of scattered, informal encounters with him during this period, though, unlike the documented system of representation during the Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., these accounts do not hold the same settled status in Shia tradition.
Awaiting the Relief and the Promised Return Unknown time
Twelver Shia Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi will one day, at a time known only to God, return — an event called al-Qiyam or al-Zuhur in Islamic tradition — to establish, according to this tradition, justice in a world filled with oppression. This awaiting, known as Intizar al-Farajawaiting the reliefThe Twelver Shia belief and practice of patiently awaiting Imam Mahdi's return; a concept that plays a central role in Shia culture and collective identity., plays a central role in Shia culture, art, and collective identity. Sunni Muslims, too, based on hadiths shared in the sources of both traditions, believe in the appearance of an awaited Mahdi at the end of times. According to these hadiths, the awaited Mahdi will be a man from the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad and Fatima, sharing the Prophet's own name; he will be born or appear, in a time of widespread turmoil and injustice near the end of the world, and will establish just rule for a number of years. The core difference between the two accounts lies here: Twelver Shia Muslims believe this figure was already born, in 869 CE, and has remained in occultation ever since, while Sunni Muslims generally hold him to be someone not yet born or identified, who will appear in the future, close to the end of times.
This Belief's Place in Twelver Shia Identity
Belief in the existence, occultation, and return of Imam Mahdi is the defining pillar of the very name Twelver (believers in twelve Imams) — a name drawn from this belief in twelve Imams, with Imam Mahdi as the last of them. This belief, rooted in the succession crisis after Imam Hasan al-Askari's death, is fundamentally theological and doctrinal in nature, not a historical claim that can be proven or disproven by ordinary historical methods.
Historical Depth
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Open Historical Debates
The existence, identity, and occultation of Imam Mahdi is the most foundational pillar of Twelver Shia theology and is fundamentally theological and doctrinal in nature; it is not a claim that can be proven or disproven by ordinary historical methods. This platform reports this belief as it stands — the official Twelver Shia account — without claiming its historical truth or falsehood.
Academic scholars and historians, apart from religious belief, generally view the occultation as a theological-historical phenomenon that took shape in response to the succession crisis after Imam Hasan al-Askari's death and was gradually systematized over the following decades.
Sunni Muslims, too, based on hadiths shared in the sources of both traditions, believe in the appearance of a man from the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad and Fatima, sharing the Prophet's name, at the end of times; but unlike Twelver Shia Muslims, they generally hold him to be a figure not yet born or identified who will appear in the future, not a son who has remained alive in occultation since the ninth century CE.
Scattered accounts of informal encounters with Imam Mahdi during the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., unlike the documented, formal system of representation during the Minor OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., are not accepted with the same degree of authenticity and reliability among Shia scholars and academic researchers.
Anatomy of Patience
Real pressures and challenges from his life, and how he responded to each in a healthy, mature way.
Born into absolute secrecy
The pressure
According to Twelver Shia belief, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan was born in Samarra in 868 CE. His father, Imam Hasan al-Askari -- the eleventh Imam, who himself lived under close Abbasid court surveillance in a situation close to house arrest -- is said to have kept the infant's existence hidden from everyone except a small circle of trusted followers. Independent historical sources confirm that the Abbasid court of this period was actively watchful and suspicious of any potential Alid heir who might become a rallying point for rebellion.
Healthy response
Per this belief, rather than any public announcement, the family chose total concealment as the only way to protect the child's life -- a step that, within the belief itself, was a direct response to a real, documented danger the court posed to any potential Alid heir.
In this account, patience begins at the very moment of birth -- not as endurance of an outside hardship, but as a state of hiddenness that is itself part of the belief, not a reaction to some separate event.
Shaykh al-Tusi (Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi) — Kitab al-Ghayba · Moojan Momen — An Introduction to Shi'i Islam
His father's death and the start of hiding
The pressure
Per Shia belief, Imam Hasan al-Askari died in Samarra in 874 CE, at around age twenty-eight, after years spent under close Abbasid surveillance. Shia tradition holds that the new Imam was only about five years old at the time. Rather than any public appearance or claim to leadership, belief holds that he went into hiding immediately, with his whereabouts -- and even the fact that he was still alive -- known to only one appointed deputy at a time.
Healthy response
Per this belief, since no child that age could act independently, responsibility for protecting him and maintaining his connection to the community passed to a system of appointed deputyship -- the first deputy, Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Amri, having already served for years as his father's trusted aide.
In this belief, continuity of leadership rested on an institution -- the deputyship -- rather than on the child himself, a distinction that made the belief's persistence across later decades possible.
Sheikh al-Mufid — Kitab al-Irshad · Moojan Momen — An Introduction to Shi'i Islam
The Minor Occultation and four deputies
The pressure
Twelver Shia belief holds that from 874 to 941 CE -- roughly 69 years -- the twelfth Imam communicated with the wider community only indirectly, through four successive appointed deputies known as safirs. Beyond the underlying belief in the Imam's continued life, this period also produced a real, documented organizational challenge: several rival claimants to the deputyship arose and were rejected by the mainstream Shia community, an episode recorded in sources such as al-Tusi's Kitab al-Ghayba.
Healthy response
Rather than fragmenting or accepting rival claims, the Shia community organized itself around the official line of four appointed deputies and developed ways of identifying and rejecting false claims to deputyship -- a process historians treat as a genuine case of a religious community organizing itself under uncertainty, separate from the underlying belief in the Imam's life.
Bringing order to a community through a long period of ambiguity can be a real organizational achievement in its own right, independent of whether the underlying belief is verifiable.
Shaykh al-Tusi (Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi) — Kitab al-Ghayba · Jassim M. Hussain — The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam
The fourth deputy's death and the Major Occultation
The pressure
In 941 CE, Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri -- the fourth and final deputy -- died without naming a successor. Per Shia belief, this marked the start of the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi., a period Twelver Shia Muslims believe continues to the present day.
Healthy response
The community's documented historical response was to rework its model of religious authority: rather than relying on direct contact with a single deputy, it shifted toward the broader body of qualified religious scholars, the marja'iyya, for guidance during the Imam's ongoing absence -- a real, lasting institutional adaptation to an occultation with no announced end date, whatever one believes about the underlying doctrine.
Sometimes the durable response to an indefinite absence isn't finding a replacement for the person who is gone, but redistributing responsibility across a collective institution.
Sheikh al-Mufid — Kitab al-Irshad · Moojan Momen — An Introduction to Shi'i Islam
A different kind of patience
The pressure
Unlike the other thirteen figures on this platform, whose documented lives can be traced through independent historical evidence, everything on this page is, from start to finish, an account of Twelver Shia religious belief -- not a claim this platform presents as settled historical fact. Per this belief, the Major OccultationconcealmentIn Twelver Shia belief, the period during which the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, is hidden from public view. The Minor Occultation (874–941 CE) was a period in which he communicated with his followers through four successive deputies; the Major Occultation began in 941 CE and, according to this belief, continues to this day, until he returns as the promised Mahdi. continues with no date or sign fixed in advance for its end, meaning it is the community of believers itself, not one documented historical figure, that carries the weight of this open-ended uncertainty.
Healthy response
Shia teaching asks something active of believers, not passivity or a pause in living: striving to live ethically, sustaining hope without setting a deadline, and staying committed to existing religious authority, all while an absence continues that no one claims to know the end date of.
Patience in this account isn't a quality one documented historical person demonstrated; it's what a religious belief asks of its community of believers -- a distinction this page should keep clear throughout.
Jassim M. Hussain — The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam · Sheikh al-Mufid — Kitab al-Irshad
A badge of light for yourself
Imam Mahdi ultimately guided many people toward the light. As a Lightseeker, what role can you take on in your own life?
Saved -- see "Badges of Light" on your profile.
Sources
S.H.M. Jafri — The Origins and Early Development of Shi'a Islam (Academic research on the historical background of the belief in the twelfth Imam.)
Shaykh al-Mufid — Kitab al-Irshad (Classical Shia source on the lives of the Imams, including Imam Mahdi.)
Jassim M. Hussain — The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam: A Historical Background (Specialist academic research on the occultation of the twelfth Imam.)
Moojan Momen — An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (Academic research on Shia history and theology.)
Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina — Islamic Messianism: The Idea of Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism (Specialist academic research on Mahdism in Twelver Shia Islam.)
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