A Question Concerning Iran
11th January 2026
Alma Boykin, whose books I highly recommend.
Could part of what we see be the collapse of a millennial movement, one that has lasted 47 years? I hadn’t thought about it until I watched a video clip yesterday, and pieces fell into place.
Revolutionary Shia Islam of the kind preached by the various ayatollahs since 1979 has a strong eschatological bent. Shia Islam, like Christianity, has an end time with a last battle and the return of a prophet, in this case first the Hidden Twelfth Imam, then Issa bin Maryam. The pair will be at the Last Battle and the coming of the End Times, followed by paradise. One of the big differences, as best I can tell, between the older versions of Shiism and Khomeini and Khamenei version is that the older belief does not include pushing G-d into ending the world (for lack of a more graceful term). Like Christianity and Judaism, the majority of Shiites believed that the end time would come, or a Messiah-like figure would return, when the Most High willed. Not when people wanted it. And no one could or should push G-d into acting*.
I recall getting rather concerned in 2009-2011 when the then-president of Iran, Mahmud Ahmedinegad, claimed that he had spoken to the Twelfth Imam, and that the US was preventing the end of the Occultation of the Imam and the beginning of the End Times. The US State Department shrugged such words off, because they didn’t take religion seriously. The Iranian government does – it is a theocracy. If the president of Iran said he was talking to a major figure of the Second Coming and End Times, that was not good. Especially later, when whispers got around that the ayatollahs might be discussing starting the global conflict that would herald the coming of the Last Judgment, because it had not happened yet.
The process is called ‘immanentizing the eschaton’.
January 12th, 2026 at 05:38
Ahmedinegad May have been a true believer, but I have always doubted the real leaders of the revolution did or do – much like the Politburo of the USSR. Islam like Russian Communism was a means of control.
Iran’s current regime falling, if it indeed does, will be a result of information ( now you’re cutting off the internet?) and economics. Too many young people, plenty of reasons for envy of the outside world, too few opportunities for such a large population.
Add to that, the Persian elite is largely imperious, indolent and impatient and viola.