Colored lights have been strung along the side of a street that leads to a mosque in Tehran. A pickup truck covered with red and pink decorative fabrics is parked in front of the mosque. On the back of the truck, among the jumble of decorations, a few children, in outfits similar to those that medical staff have worn in recent days, hold loudspeakers in their hands and call for the Imam Zaman to return as soon as possible.

The Imam Zaman, the “Imam of the Age” or the “Hidden Imam,” is the title used for Mahdi, the 12th Shia Imam who was born in 879, on the 15th of the Islamic lunar month of Sha’ban. Twelver Shias believe that he is alive and is in “occultation,” or in hiding, and will return to defeat evil and to bring peace and justice to the world. Some believe the Mahdi and Jesus Christ shall return together.

A man sits in the truck next to the loudspeakers to adjust the sound of the singing. Once in a while, colorful rockets are fired into the air. The children are not wearing masks because they are singing, but there are men close by who are also not wearing masks. At a time when medical authorities want people to stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus and many countries are in total quarantine, these people are out in the streets of Tehran without taking any medical precautions, calling on the Mahdi to return and to save them.

This year, the 15th of Sha’ban fell on April 9; a few days earlier, zealous Muslims had started campaigns on social media with names such as “Save Me” and the “Return of Imam Zaman,” calling on people to start reciting specific prayers at 10pm on April 8, prayers that many Shias believe will hasten the return of the Mahdi. They have argued that in these days of coronavirus and quarantine, when mosques are closed, people should call on Imam Zaman from their homes to return and save them from the epidemic.

“Union of Hearts”

This campaign, however, has not been limited to Iran. It has also been launched in English on Twitter, asking everybody to pray for the return of the Promised Savior. In a video message posted on social networks and broadcast by a number of media outlets, Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, took up the campaign by naming it “Union of Hearts.” He called on all Muslims across the world to recite the seventh prayer from the Scripture of Sajjad, a book of supplications attributed to Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and the 4th Shia Imam, at a specific Mecca time so that Muslims would be saved from coronavirus.

On April 8, Hawzah News, the official news agency of Iranian seminaries, reported the launching of the “Union of Hearts” campaign to make up for the closure of mosques and religious centers. The report called on people to join the campaign by promoting its hashtag and publishing the video and/or its text. It also asked mosques and religious centers to post prayer programs on the internet until the end of the holy month of Ramadan on May 23.

It appears, however, that in some Islamic countries this campaign has not gained any traction. A well-known cleric who lives in Iraq called the campaign “tasteless.”

“People here are not taking it seriously,” the cleric told IranWire. “Mosques in Iraq have not set up special programs for this campaign. It is good to pray, of course, but Muslims usually pray by themselves and there is no need for such tasteless calls.”

A group of Iranians who live in Tehran, laughing and joking, told IranWire that they do not like Hassan Nasrallah and, therefore, would not take his call seriously. They said that at 10pm they did not hear any prayers in their neighborhood from their windows.

A former Tehran journalist tells IranWire about an audio message on Telegram that people have been receiving since a few days before the 15th of Sha’ban. “I received this message repeatedly,” he says. “It calls on people to join the campaign. The gist of the message is that we should not pray for coronavirus to go away. Instead, we must pray for Imam Zaman to come out of occultation so that all our problems will be solved.”

Pray. Or Else!

According to the text of this message, a copy of which has been seen by IranWire, a man introduces a campaign by the name of the “Magnificent 40,” the brainchild of “lovers of the Mahdi”, and calls on the faithful to pray for 40 days for the return of the Mahdi. He emphasizes that millions must take part in this campaign to be effective. “We have been hit with all these problems because we have ignored the Imam Zaman,” he says. He even predicts that the year ahead is going to be more difficult that the year behind us.

Laylat al-Qadr or the “Night of Qadr,” variously translated as “Precious Night,” “Night of Destiny,” and so on, is a night in the lunar month of Ramadan when, Muslims believe, the Almighty revealed the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Mohammad. Shias believe that it is on this night that their fate for the coming year is decided and if they neglect to pray and ask for forgiveness then they should expect disasters and misfortune in the coming year.

Muslims generally believe that the Night of Qadr is one of the odd-numbered nights of the last ten days of Ramadan. The traditional Shia date for this night is the 23rd day of Ramadan, which this year will fall on May 16. According to the narrator of the message, this year’s misfortunes were decided on last year’s Night of Qadr and, if prayers and supplications are not offered this year, we must expect a much more difficult year.

“I live in Moniriyeh neighborhood in Tehran,” the journalist tells IranWire. “It is a very religious neighborhood. But I did not notice anyone joining the campaign. From my balcony or windows, I did not hear anybody reciting prayers on the night of mid-Sha’ban.”

“There is a mosque in our neighborhood where, on the evening of mid-Sha’ban, people launch fireworks,” says a homemaker who lives in Tehran. “But neither my family nor any other family that I know took this call [for prayers] seriously. A believing Muslim would pray in his heart and does not need such ridiculous theatrics. Why scare people over the Night of Qadr and the coming year’s destiny, instead of educating them about quarantine and sanitary precautions? Plus, our people have no need for such campaigns by foreigners.”

Earlier, a campaign had been launched for people to thank doctors, nurses and other health workers on April 1. “To thank doctors and nurses, people were encouraged to applaud them on the evening of April 1,” she says. “In our neighborhood, next to Vali Asr Street, people came to their windows and balconies and, from 8pm to a little after 10pm, they sang, danced and applauded the medical community. But, on mid-Sha’ban, I did not hear the sound of any prayers from balconies or windows.”

Nevertheless, Fars News Agency, an affiliate of the Revolutionary Guards, has published videos where appeals to Mahdi can be heard from roofs and balconies.

“I have no doubt that when the Imam Zaman returns he will not only endorse actions by his anonymous soldiers and the Guards but he will also increase their budget,” tweeted [Persian link] Behnam Gholipour, a journalist and our colleague at IranWire, said in jest. In the lexicon of the Islamic Republic, security and intelligence agents are referred to as the “anonymous soldiers of the Imam Zaman.”

But people do still have around 20 days to pray for the return of the Mahdi instead of offering supplications for coronavirus to disappear.

Related Coverage:

IranWire Reports on Coronavirus Outbreak in Iran

Lies, Misinformation and Makeshift Graves: a Chronology of Coronavirus in Iran

Hygienic or Religious? The Dilemma of Burying Covid-19 Victims in Iran, 9 April 2020

Iran’s Head of Judiciary Demands Lower Coronavirus Numbers, 1 April 2020

How Did Iran’s Religious Center Become the Country’s Coronavirus Epicenter?, 25 February 2020

Quarantine or Public Prayers? That is the Question in Iran, 25 February 2020