Non-intellectually, people infuse their beliefs with reference to holy figures, legends and myths. There is a subtle side of depth psychology from these different forms of figurations to the appearance of religions. People like and need to believe in this spectrum, even if it is intellectually in contrast to their maturity.

One of these mythical legends is known as the Mahdi, Twelver Imam, The Hidden Imam, Hojjat or other names, who according to Shiite sect has disappeared more than one thousand years ago and will return at the end of time to lead an era of justice in the world.

The idea of the Mahdi appears to be a development in the first 2-3 centuries of Islam. In the case of the Shiite Mahdi, many scholars have suggested that there is a clear inspiration coming from the Messiah-figure of Christianity and its ideas of a judgement day in the hands of a religious saviour.

Although, there are many similar idea between the Mahdi and Messiah, the Mahdi precedes the second appearance of Jesus. He establishes justice, peace and truth throughout the world by establishing Islam as the global religion.

The first use of the term “Mahdi” is in 686 CE, by the Muslim leader Mukhtar Thaqafi, for Muhammad Ibn Hanafiya. The Arabic term “Mahdi” is translated with “divinely guided”. The figure of Mahdi, and his mission, is not mentioned in the Koran, or in the reliable Hadiths (Sahih).

There are several definitions of the Mahdi in Sunni Islam, but there is no such an importance as one can see it in Shiite sect. While Shiites believe that The Mahdi is the son of the 11Th Shiite Imam, Hassan al-Askari and a Byzantine princess, and he was born in 868, still alive in occultation, for Sunni, the Mahdi is not yet born, he will be born in Madina and his father’s name will be Abdullah.

There are also many variations over the Mahdi, which have differed from time to time and from region to region. Many tales speak of his visualisation, hidden places, contact people and his future plans against demonic spirit guides.

The Mahdi disappeared in 878. Although probably kidnapped and killed by the Abbasid Caliph, was believed by his followers to have gone into deathless “Occultation”, preparing to return as “the Mahdi”, the guide.

However, according to his believers, he is not a myth, like ancient gods, goddesses, fables, or any product of psycho-mythology, to which Gustav Jung, an Australian psychoanalyst, was interested, but a real existing guide.

The Twelver Imam firstly became a political figure used by the Safavids to establish the first Shiite-based Dynasty in Iran. The Safavid Dynasty established their dynasty in 1501 at Tabriz where they imposed Shiite identity on this Turkish speaking region to morally separate them from the Sunni, mighty Othman Empire.

The Shah Ismaiil Safavid was the first to set up an Islamic army based on the unifying and militant Shiite nationalism, propagating that defending the Shiite dynasty against the Sunnite Othman Empire was of the utmost importance of a religious duty for the Shiites.

To divinise their dynasty, the Safavids invented the spectacular idea that the Shiite kings are the deputies of the Hidden Imam. So, the dynasty justified its despotism by acquiring a sanctuary status: it is sinful to criticise the king or his rule.

A religious state by historical customs is another frame of logic. It pretends to bother about people’s sins; its only duty is to punish people committing such sins. The Shiite states, mostly assigned by the Hidden Imam from the Safavids on along with the plague of the Islamic Republic of Iran, became a divine verdict against all “sinful” attitutes of ,not-dociled, people.

Under the Pahlavi regime, the effects of the mythical allegations were different. Reza Shah imitated the then secular leaders, like Atatürk and Hitler. He was not interested in having the Twelver Imam’s mission to justify his dictatorship.

Later, his megalomaniac son, Muhammad Reza Shah, publicly alleged that he was in contact with some Shiite legends, but was not apparently satisfied with the, humble, position of the Imam’s deputy; instead he promoted his status as the shadow of God on the Earth and finally and impiously entitled himself “Aryamehr” (the sun of Aryans) .

In 1848, it had already been more than 9 centuries since the Occultation, and the reappearance of the Hidden Imam was to be expected. Various figures appeared as the Imam, including the Bab, from whom the Bahai faith is derived without a political weight.

The legacy of the power-hungry and doctrinal authority in Iranian Schism finally became Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the IRI. He was not personally believed to be the Hidden Imam like the Bab, but was thought to communicate with him.

A new version of the Imam’s myth is now sporadically shown by Ahamadinejad. The president of the IRI, who has an infamous record for his role in the IRI’s death squads, torture, terrorism and all kinds of Islamist and extreme right tendencies. He is now embroiled in many bizarre stories and rumours circulating about his relations with the Hidden Imam.

As for the Hidden Imam, it seems that the Imam will not be quite as hidden as might be. The president believes that he has been assigned to pave the way for his reappearance. The president has even last year during his speech at the UN, where he was allegedly surrounded and protected by a “divine light”, called for the Imam’s reappearance.

Trough these allegations, he is not only trying to gain a holy status among those who do not attribute him a charismatic personality, but also likely prepare some conditions for his future divine mission.

The next years will be probably marked by increasing tensions between the devoted followers of the Hidden Imam following controversial views about the date and conditions of Imam’s reappearance.

The president, who is known for his personality disorder, boasts of being assigned to prepare all conditions for the Imam’s return, which will be according to the Shiite sect after the following signs:

- Before the Imam’s appearance, the people will be reprimanded for their acts of disobedience by a fire that will appear in the sky and a redness that will cover the sky. It will swallow up both Baghdad and Kufa. People’s blood will cover their destroyed houses. Death will occur amid their people and a fear will come over the people of Iraq from which they will have no rest.

This is apparently a reason for the IRI’s nuclear programme to blow in jets of fire and plumes of smoke.

- There will be an insurgence by the Sufyani, a descendent of Abu Sufyan, who was one of the Muhammad’s enemy, along with his son, Muawiya and his Muawiya’s son, ,Yazid, which starts from Palestine and Jordan, and his reign of tyranny will span the Middle East from Iraq to Egypt.

- A loud call from the sky should announce the Hidden Imam’s reappearance.

In such an apocalyptic world, since the main characteristic of the Mahdi is that he is absolutely guided by God, the IRI, as a part of the divine scenario, has nothing of a normal state, it is a God’s handpicked guidance for the Muslims, and its acts are in complete accordance to God’s will .

The IRI, which already established a God’s state in Iran, now, at the best, prefers to have the Hidden Imam embodied by one of its protagonists for the rest of the rest of the region.

A strong current within the IRI called Hojatieh, referring to Hojjat or another name of the Imam in Farsi, spread the idea that since the Mahdi’s reappearence is demanded, we have to infict sever, unfair, and repressive conditions to accelerate his reappearance.

However, these conditions precede another amount of crimes, which are underway, when the alleged Twelver Imam, the Madi, can bloodily exceed many times more than these of the IRI’s scores.