A hidden birth
Muhammad b. al-Hasan (aj), the twelfth Imam, was born in Samarra on the night of 15 Sha'ban 255 AH. The Abbasids, who knew the hadith that the Mahdi would be the twelfth of the Prophet's (s) line, were watching Imam al-Askari's (a) house for exactly this, so the birth was concealed: the Imam's aunt Hakima was present, and the child was shown afterwards only to trusted followers who later testified to it. When his father was martyred five years later, the authorities searched the house in vain.
The Imam of the age
Twelver belief holds that he is the promised Mahdi of the hadith accepted by both schools, alive and hidden by God's will, who will return to fill the earth with justice. He guided the Shia through four deputies until 329 AH and since then in the Major Occultation, in which the scholars carry the community's affairs. The Qur'anic promise that the oppressed will inherit the earth is read as his.
Nisf Sha'ban
The night of mid-Sha'ban, second in merit only to the Night of Power, is kept in vigil with the supplications of the manuals, and the day is the greatest celebration of the Shia year: streets and shrines are lit, sweets are distributed, and crowds gather at the Jamkaran mosque in Qom and at Karbala. It is the World Day of the Oppressed in Iran; Sunni Muslims, especially the Sufi orders, also honour the night as Laylat al-Bara'a.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
