Engineer Madani: Mr. Hoshyar! From your discussions on the subject of awaiting the appearance of the Mahdi, it would seem that during the occultation of the twelfth Imam the Shi'is are required to adopt an active posture and work to establish an Islamic government, to endeavor to execute an Islamic political and social system, and to engage in the jihad to achieve all that. By doing so, as you have pointed out, they would be actually preparing the way for the emergence of the Imam to launch his global revolution. I suspect that your interpretation might not be in agreement with the subject of some other traditions. As you know there are a number of traditions which forbid any involvement of the Shi'is in the revolutionary movements before the rise of the Mahdi. It would be highly beneficial to discuss some of those traditions.
Mr. Hoshyar: I am grateful to you for reminding me of a different perspective on the philosophy of awaiting. It is relevant to investigate these traditions in order to evaluate their authenticity. Thus, first we should examine their chain of transmission to determine their reliability. Second, we should examine their content to determine the validity of the view that is derived from them. However, let me preface our investigation into these two areas by a general remark on the following two topics:
(1) The question of governance in religion
(2) The investigation of the hadith-reports
