Shi'a history and identity

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).

Ali ibn Abi Talib is arguably the single most important spiritual and intellectual authority in Islam after prophet Mohammad. Through his teachings and leadership as fourth caliph, Ali nourished Islam. But Muslims are divided on whether he was supposed to be Mohammad’s political successor—and he continues to be a polarizing figure in Islamic history.
 
Hassan Abbas provides a nuanced, compelling portrait of this towering yet divisive figure and the origins of sectarian division within Islam. Abbas reveals how, after Mohammad, Ali assumed the spiritual mantle of Islam to spearhead the movement that the prophet had led. While Ali’s teachings about wisdom, justice, and selflessness continue to be cherished by both Shia and Sunni Muslims, his pluralist ideas have been buried under sectarian agendas and power politics. Today, Abbas argues, Ali’s legacy and message stands against that of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Taliban.

Read more about the book here.

Historically, South Asia’s many literary traditions have provided both the structure and the idiom for Muslims across a broad spectrum of ideological persuasions to express and transmit their ideas. As is well known, Sufis affiliated with different tariqas have commonly employed genres of vernacular folk poetry as a means of elucidating and popularizing mystical ideas. Over the last century, thanks to a variety of intricately related set of factors such as the revolution in media technology, globalization and the spread of popular western culture and the rise of religiously based nationalisms, the form, content and context of South Asian Muslim devotional expressions have been radically transformed. This chapter explores the emergence of Sufi Rock, a new genre of Muslim devotional expression that has become increasingly popular in South Asia, particularly Pakistan. A genre which fuses western rock music with traditional Sufi poetry and imagery, Sufi Rock is commonly associated with one of its earliest exponents, Salman Ahmad, a guitarist and vocalist in one of South Asia’s biggest rock band, Junoon. The chapter explores Salman’s role in the emergence of Sufi Rock, specifically with reference to his professional development as a musician and spiritual development as a Muslim who deeply identifies with Sufism.