A Comparative Study of Imāmate of Kitmān of Ibāḍiyya and the Era OfOccultation of Imāmiyyah

The issue of imāmate has been one of the first controversial issues in the history of islam. in themeantime, the ibāḍiyya regard the appointment of imam as one of the obligatory affairs on the islamicummah and there are numerous rational and traditional reasons for the necessity of appointing the imam.in their view, the imāmate has four stages: the emergence, the defense, the stage of ash-shurāh andkitmān, which are referred to as the methods of religion. in shiite culture, the term imāmate is also adivine and godly position that encompasses all human virtues and perfections, including public imāmateand special imāmate. from the viewpoint of ibāḍiyya, the last stage of imāmate is the imāmate ofkitmān. during this period, the ibāḍiyya, because of the domination of their enemies and the inability toconfront them, did not carry out armed operations, but fully accepted the rule of enemies, building andcultivating their lands in the field of education and development and strengthening mosque bases andpromoting ibāḍiyya ideas among muslims secretly. among the shiites, it is well known that preservingthe life of imam zaman from the enemies and the unwillingness of society to accept imam are among thereasons for his occultation. but during the period of occultation, shiite scholars and thinkers have notceased to work in various individual and social dimensions and have led the shiite community to theright. in this article, in addition to processing the views of the ibāḍiyya, this article compares the stage ofkitmān in the ibāḍiyya to the absenteeism in the imāmiyyah religion and explains its differences.