Approaches have been many and results have varied in discussing the Rajʿa (Return) and arguing for it. It seems that this multiplicity and variation go back to the methods of treatment and argumentation, and to the spirit of the evidence relied upon in the subject. There is no doubt that the approaches and argumentative trends in the fundamentals of belief differ in their validity, let alone the subjects of the branches of belief.
A particular argumentative approach and trend may lead to the conclusion (that the Rajʿa is not established). It may lead to the conclusion (that it is probable, or that it is established as one of the branches of belief, and that not believing in it does not harm one’s belief). And it may lead to the conclusion (that it is established as a fundamental of belief, indeed as one of the necessary tenets of the school). Accordingly, detailed debates presenting the narrations or the theological arguments for this view or that will not lead to a result, because the argumentative foundations differ. So the foundations themselves must be investigated in order to reach agreed results; otherwise, the state of the multiple (results) will remain as it is, and each will hold fast to the excusability of his theoretical, argumentative foundation in the result he has reached.
Among what has been adduced as evidence, as general trends, is the following:
1- Qurʾanic argumentation, which establishes the possibility of return on the one hand, as in the verse (“So Allah made him die for a hundred years, then He resurrected him” (Qurʾan 2:259)), and establishes another coming-back besides the raising for the Resurrection, as in (“Twice did You make us die, and twice did You give us life” (Qurʾan 40:11)).
2- Argumentation from narrations, with as many as 200 hadiths, in which the aspects of discussion about the Rajʿa are many: some of them establish the Rajʿa in general, some establish it in the era of Imam al-Mahdi (aj), and some speak of the details of those who return, their types and the names of some of them.
3- Recourse to reason, such as establishing the basic possibility through the power of Allah and the absence of any impediment, and through establishing occurrence, which reveals possibility. Indeed, it has been held that its occurrence is good, and even that it is necessary, in order to realize the establishment of justice on earth.
All these trends have been discussed with degrees of acceptance and rejection, the results ending in what we mentioned above. In these lines we attempt to prove that the Rajʿa is inevitable and necessary through what (reason) perceives on the basis of the certain foundations and data of (revelation). This is the method of building upon the fundamentals, returning to the fixed tenets, and referring ambiguous subjects back to the definitive tenets of religion and its fixed tenets—that perhaps we may reach a shared result, even with the divergence of methods of argumentation and viewpoints, because however many they are, there remains a common space in the processes of thinking; but it needs alerting and reminding.
The question to be answered is: Is the doctrine of the Rajʿa established?
Before that, it must be pointed out that the Rajʿa basically means that there are among the Infallibles those who will return to this world, regardless of the details of the extent of the Rajʿa and of who exactly it is that returns, because this subject of proof looks at the basic doctrine of the Rajʿa as embodied in the return of its highest instance, namely the Infallible, after Allah the Exalted has caused him to pass away.
As has come in Ziyarat Al Yasin: (You are the first and the last and its seal, and that your return is true, with no doubt in it). We seek specifically to prove this reality: that their (a) return is true, with no doubt and no uncertainty in it.
The Definitive Tenets of the Discussion
The definitive tenets that we will need in the process of argumentation, and which will be a reference for regulating awareness, understanding and results, are:
1- The principle that the earth is never devoid of a Proof (hujja); this is what the rightful sect has unanimously agreed upon without dispute.
2- The principle that the Proofs after the Prophet are twelve until the Day of Resurrection; this too is what the sect has unanimously agreed upon.
3- The principle that “Every soul shall taste death” (Qurʾan 3:185). This is a principle on which no human being differs.
Relying on these principles, fixed tenets and definitive tenets, we raise this question: Will Imam al-Hujjah, the Awaited, al-Mahdi (aj), after his noble Reappearance, remain alive until the Day of Resurrection, or will he be martyred before that?
If it is said that his martyrdom will be exactly at the time the Day of Resurrection breaks out, then there is no objection (rationally) to not holding the Rajʿa, because there will be no clash with any definitive tenet of religion, and recourse to the narrations, according to the methods of accepting them, would then remain what establishes the Rajʿa. But what is established, or well known, is that the Imam (aj) will be martyred before the Day of Resurrection. The narrations that mention the duration of his rule have varied between seven, seventy, one hundred and forty, and more; and however long the years, the term must come to an end, and “There is a written [ordinance] for every term” (Qurʾan 13:38). Indeed, the third principle we mentioned establishes that in a way that leaves no room for doubt.
Here the principles and definitive tenets must be recalled, in order to know the truth of holding the Rajʿa.
So at his (aj) martyrdom, there must be a (Proof) at the time of his death and after his death, because the earth is never devoid of a Proof, as is established; and there is no doubt that Allah the Exalted is able to do that.
And in order for the process of making definitive and regulating to be completed correctly, we must bring in the second definitive tenet, namely that the (Proof) who will be after Imam al-Mahdi (aj) is from among the twelve Proofs themselves; otherwise, one of the definitive tenets of religion would collapse, namely the Twelver reality. And there is no doubt that Allah the Exalted is able to bring back and revive any one of them, for He, glorified is He, is the One who gives life and brings death, and an example of it is inscribed in the Qurʾan: “So Allah made him die for a hundred years, then He resurrected him.” (Qurʾan 2:259)
So the conclusion we reach through the method of making things definitive by the fixed principles is that the Rajʿa is inevitable; we cannot deviate from it or deny it, once the death of Imam al-Mahdi (aj) is accepted; otherwise, the foundations of the true school would be breached.
This conclusion is in agreement with what has come from the Prophet (s), in what Shaykh al-Saduq narrated in his three books: (ʿUyun Akhbar al-Rida) and in (Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Niʿma), and (ʿIlal al-Sharaʾiʿ):
(And I shall surely purify the earth of My enemies by the last of them, and I shall surely give him mastery over the easts of the earth and its wests; I shall surely subject the winds to him, and I shall surely make the difficult clouds submissive to him; I shall surely raise him up through the means, I shall surely help him with My army, and I shall surely reinforce him with My angels, until My call prevails and creation gathers upon My Oneness. Then I shall surely make his dominion endure, and I shall surely alternate the days among My friends until the Day of Resurrection.)
It may be said that the one who will return and remain after the twelfth Imam will be subject to the third principle, the inevitability of death; but this is answered by the fact that he has actually died before that, so there is no impediment to his remaining until the Day of Resurrection; likewise, his death may be at the moment the Day of Resurrection breaks out.
Thus the Rajʿa is established for any of the Infallibles, without restriction, during the life of the Awaited Imam al-Mahdi, in his rule, and after his death (a), so that whoever is with him at that time succeeds him. Some narrations have indicated that it is Imam al-Husayn (a) who will take charge of washing him. As for discussion of the names, or of the events in which those returning to this world will take part, the hadiths about them are many; and research into the degree of reliability and acceptance of some of them, and research into understanding the course of their movement and their implications, may take on dimensions on which views and readings differ—and that is a matter in which there is no problem if it is done through the criteria and foundations followed in scholarship. However, what is important regarding the Rajʿa is awareness of the necessity of believing in it once the martyrdom of the Awaited Imam al-Mahdi (aj) is established; and that denying it after this exposition amounts to denying one of the necessary tenets of the true school: that the earth is never devoid of a Proof from among the twelve Proofs (a).
From the Statements of the Scholars on the Necessity and the Consensus
Here we quote some statements of the eminent figures of the sect on belief in the Rajʿa in principle, regardless of the details.
Shaykh al-Mufid on the Rajʿa: (The Qurʾan has come with the soundness of that, the reports have concurred on it, and the Imamiyya in their entirety hold it)1.
Sayed al-Sharif al-Murtada: (Know that what the Imami Shiʿa hold is that Allah the Exalted will, at the Reappearance of the Imam of the Age, al-Mahdi (a), bring back a group of his Shiʿa whose death had preceded...)2.
Amin al-Islam al-Tabrisi, on the Rajʿa... (What is relied upon in that is the consensus of the Imami Shiʿa, even though the reports support and confirm it)3.
Shaykh al-Hasan ibn Sulayman: (It—meaning the Rajʿa—is among the distinctive features of the Imami Shiʿa, with which they have been singled out to the exclusion of others, just as they have been singled out by deeming the soil of al-Husayn (a) lawful and seeking healing through it)4.
Al-Hurr al-ʿAmili: (The establishment of the Rajʿa is among the necessary tenets of the school of the Imamiyya according to all the well-known scholars and famous authors; indeed, the ʿAmma know that it is part of the school of the Shiʿa. You do not see anyone from among the Imamiyya whose name is known and who is known to have a written work explicitly denying the Rajʿa or interpreting it away. It is known that the necessary and the speculative differ among those who examine; a ruling may be necessary for some people and speculative for others. What is known through investigation is that the soundness of the Rajʿa is a matter verified, known, settled, definitively affirmed, and necessary according to most of the scholars of the Imamiyya, or all of them—so much so that the Imamiyya have written many books in proof of the Rajʿa)5.
Al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi: (Know, my brother, that I do not think you will doubt—after what I have laid out and clarified for you—the doctrine of the Rajʿa, upon which the Shiʿa have agreed in all ages, and which has become well known among them like the sun at high noon, so much so that they have set it in their poems and argued with it against the opponents in all their cities; and the opponents denounced them for that and recorded it in their books and volumes.
Among them are al-Razi, al-Naysaburi and others. The words of Ibn Abi al-Hadid have already passed, where he clarified the school of the Imamiyya on that; and were it not for fear of prolixity without benefit, I would have cited many of their words on that.
And how could a believer in the rightfulness of the pure Imams (a) doubt what has been mass-transmitted from them in nearly two hundred explicit hadiths, narrated by some forty-odd of the great trustworthy authorities and eminent scholars in more than fifty of their works, such as Thiqat al-Islam al-Kulayni, al-Saduq Muhammad ibn Babawayh, Shaykh Abu Jaʿfar al-Tusi, Sayed al-Murtada, al-Najashi, al-Kashshi, al-ʿAyyashi, ʿAli ibn Ibrahim, Sulaym al-Hilali, Shaykh al-Mufid, al-Karajaki, al-Nuʿmani, al-Saffar, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allah, Ibn Qulawayh, ʿAli ibn ʿAbd al-Hamid, Sayed ʿAli ibn Tawus and his son, the author of the book Zawaʾid al-Fawaʾid, Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn Ibrahim, Furat ibn Ibrahim, the author of the book al-Tanzil wa al-Tahrif, Abu al-Fadl al-Tabrisi, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Thaqafi, Muhammad ibn al-ʿAbbas ibn Marwan, al-Barqi, Ibn Shahrashub, al-Hasan ibn Sulayman, al-Qutb al-Rawandi, al-ʿAllama al-Hilli, Sayed Bahaʾ al-Din ʿAli ibn ʿAbd al-Karim, Ahmad ibn Dawud ibn Saʿid, al-Hasan ibn ʿAli ibn Abi Hamza, al-Fadl ibn Shadhan, al-Shaykh al-Shahid Muhammad ibn Makki, al-Husayn ibn Hamdan, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jumhur al-ʿAmmi, the author of the book al-Wahida, al-Hasan ibn Mahbub, Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad ibn Malik al-Kufi, Tahr ibn ʿAbd Allah, Shadhan ibn Jabraʾil, the author of the book al-Fadaʾil, the author of the book al-ʿAtiq, the author of the book al-Khutab, and others among the authors of the books that we have whose author we do not know with certainty, and for that reason we have not attributed the reports to them, even though some of them are found in them.
If the like of this is not mass-transmitted, then in what can mass transmission be claimed—together with what all the Shiʿa have narrated, generation after generation?
My view is that whoever doubts the like of these is one who doubts the Imams of religion, and, being unable to show that among the believers, he resorts to ruses to ruin the upright creed by casting forth what the minds of the weak rush to, and the doubt-mongering of the heretics: (“They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light though the faithless should be averse.” (Qurʾan 61:8))6.
Sayed Shubbar: (Know that the establishment of the Rajʿa is among what the true Shiʿa and the rightful sect have agreed upon; indeed, it is among the necessary tenets of their school)7.
All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and blessings and peace be upon the Master of the Messengers, Muhammad the Trustworthy, and upon his good and pure Family.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
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1- Awaʾil al-Maqalat, p. 77
2- Rasaʾil al-Sharif al-Murtada, vol. 1, p. 125
3- Majmaʿ al-Bayan, vol. 7, p. 235
4- Mukhtasar Basaʾir al-Darajat, p. 12.
5- al-Iqaz min al-Hajʿa bi al-Burhan ʿala al-Rajʿa, p. 61.
6- Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 53, p. 122
7- Haqq al-Yaqin, vol. 2, p. 2-35
