GHAYBAH

(Arabic: absence, or concealment), Islamic doctrine, especially among such Shi'ite sects as the Ithna 'Ashariyah, or Twelvers. The term refers to the disappearance from view of the 12th and last imam (leader), Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Hujjah, in 878. Ghaybah is applied loosely to anyone whom God has withdrawn from the world and kept invisible to the eyes of ordinary men. The life of such a blessed person is thought to be miraculously prolonged by God through many generations and even centuries. The Shi'ites maintained that their imams, even though invisible, still live and return to human society from time to time to maintain order and to guide their followers along the right path. The ghaybah of the mahdi (divinely guided one) will end, according to the Shi'ites, when the mahdi finally appears in the last days of the world. The Sufis (Muslim mystics), unlike the Shi'ites, understood ghaybah to mean the absence in the heart of all thoughts except those of God. It is the fana' (passing away) of the carnal self. For Sufis, ghaybah is not a goal in itself but rather a stage that leads naturally to hudur (presence) in God.