Global Shi'a diaspora

For hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world, including in the West, the Hidden Imam is at the heart of Islam. While those with some background in the study of the faith may have heard of this belief, its core centrality in the Islamic tradition is generally not recognized or properly understood. To address the gap in knowledge on this issue, the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center has produced the present report, entitled The Hidden Imam and the End of Time: A Primer on the Mahdi, Islamic Theology, and Global Politics, to raise awareness on the concept, meaning, and significance of the Hidden Imam for scholars, policymakers, and broader public audiences alike.

In particular, this primer answers five pertinent questions of significance on this subject relevant to religion and global affairs: 1) Who is the Hidden Imam?; 2) Do Sunni Muslims also believe in the Hidden Imam?; 3) How is the Imam different from the Caliphate?; 4) Why is the Hidden Imam considered central to Islam by many Muslims?; and 5) How does the belief in the Hidden Imam impact Muslim social and political affairs?

Authors: 
Payam Mohseni (Harvard University) and Mohammad Sagha (University of Chicago)

To read and download the report, click here.

_{*Updated Report (June 30, 2022): This version includes the correction that, according to mainstream Musta'li Ismaili belief, there is currently a line of Hidden Imams descended  from Imam Tayyib who went into occultation in the twelfth century CE. The original report noted that Imam Tayyib was a currently living Hidden Imam.}

The Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs is proud to publish a report, “Diversity and Unity in Transnational Shi’ism (PDF),” based on the proceedings of an international symposium hosted at Harvard University in April, 2021. The symposium brought together interdisciplinary voices from across various interpretations of Shi'a Islam in both contemporary and historical contexts with leading scholars in the field who study the diversity of Shi’a thought and communities across denominational lines including Zaydi, Ismaili, Alevi, Alawite, Bektashi, and Twelver Ja'fari Islam among others. This report includes the edited remarks of the expert participants in the symposium.

While individual works and scholars have focused on distinct Shi'a groups in specific countries or world regions, less attention has been paid to addressing diversity within Shi’ism from a comparative perspective or thinking about how to approach the subject of intra-Shi’a dialogue rather than interfaith dialogue more broadly. This is all the more important as the historical and contemporary legacy of Shi'a Islam is extraordinarily rich and truly global in reach.

The symposium thus fostered a larger dialogue on the historical relationship between Shi’a groups, intellectual and scholarly conversations between them, and contemporary areas of convergence and diversity that intersect with transnational Shi'a groups ranging from Twelvers in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, to Zaydis in the Arabian Peninsula, to Isma'ilis in Tajikistan and India, to Bektashi Shi'as in the Balkans, and to Shi'a diaspora communities in the West and beyond. 

Read or download the report (PDF).

The 1996 fatwa [recognizing "Sunni Islam" as the official religion of Malaysia] was a pivotal turning point that paved the way for subsequent efforts at "othering" the Shia minority, and through this to discredit and deny them their human rights. That the fatwa was a federal initiative--rather than a state one--ought to have raised warning bells about the central government overstapping its boundaries and encroaching on to the jurisdiction state governments had over Islam. The debate touched on the historical differences between the Sunnis and Shias, or, "sects being treated as religious phenomenon", and it resulted in tremendous bias against the Shias.