The Baha'i Faith is the fruit, the fulfilment of these Messianic expectations in Islam. The history of these expectations is at the same time the background history of the Baha'i Faith (126:1)

When Muhammad died in 632, his will as to who should lead the community after his death was not clearly and legally established. Lying on his death-bed, he had asked for writing-material: "Bring ink and paper so that I may lay down in writing for you that which will always guard you from error." But 'Umar said: "The pain is confusing him, we have God's Book; this is sufficient." Thus his companions quarrelled at his death-bed as to whether they should fetch the writing-material, and Muhammad sent them away. As the 'Qur'an' contains no ruling about who was to succeed him, the Prophet's father-in-law, Abu-Bakr, was chosen to be the first Caliph at the instigation of the mighty 'Umar during a stormy community gathering. From the beginning protests were raised by influential Muslims against this way of bestowing the Caliphate and it was recalled that Muhammad had on different occasions publicly designated his cousin and son-in-law 'Ali as his successor. According to tradition, on the way back from his last pilgrimage to Mecca the Prophet had stopped the caravan by the water-hole of Khumm and had a platform erected out of saddles on which 'Ali had to sit. Muhammad had then addressed his people: "Whoever has me as a master has 'Ali as a master". He announced his approaching end and spoke of the two treasures which he was leaving behind for them: "The greatest treasure is the Book of God... Hold fast unto it, do not relax its laws or falsify it! The other treasure is the line of my successors." (126:2)

According to the Shiah interpretation, the Caliphate was usurped by Abu-Bakr and 'Umar and taken away from the real chosen ones, the descendants of the Prophet. With the exception of 'Ali who was Caliph from A.D. 656 to the year he was murdered, 661, Muhammad's descendants were excluded from the Caliphate and exposed to violent persecutions by the ruling dynasties. However, the Shiah have never ceased to claim that the Caliphate is a hereditary office and belongs to the natural descendants of the Prophet. According to the so-called Shiah Twelvers (the state religion of Persia since 1572), twelve descendants of Muhammad exercised their office as "Imam", an office which apart from 'Ali's five years as Caliph lacked all worldly power and was therefore a vestige of what it should have been. (126:3)

All the Imams, with perhaps the exception of the last one, were murdered. The third Imam, 'Ali's youngest son Husayn, whose brother and predecessor Hasan had been poisoned, died on the plain of Karbila on 10 October 680. The band of his followers, nearly dying of thirst, was massacred by the troops of the 'Umayyad Caliph Yazid I. His head was severed from his dead body and placed on a spear. The martyrdom of Imam Husayn at Karbila, as well as the sufferings inflicted on the whole family of the Prophet, carry a special significance in the Shiah world. The twelfth Imam, known by the name 'Abu'l-Qasim, is said to have disappeared in mysterious circumstances at the age of eight in the year 260 A.H. According to Shiah teachings, he was withdrawn from the earth and has been living ever since as the hidden Imam in 'ghaiba' (absence), in order to appear at some future date, as the world's saviour. He is the "Lord of the Age" who, living in the mysterious towns of Jabulqa and Jabulsa, will return at the time of the end and inaugurate the millennium. (127:1)

In the thirteenth century A.H. (the nineteenth century of the Christian Era) an adventist reform sect, the Shaykhi movement, was formed in Persia under the leadership first of the Arab Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i (1743-1826) and then, after his death, of Siyyid Kazim. Their main teaching, apart from the call for the general spiritualization of one's religious life, was the imminent coming of the "end" prophesied by Muhammad and the advent of the Qaim. Just as some Jewish theologians and mystics calculated the exact time of the Messiah's appearance, in the same way Sufi and Shiah thinkers had been devoting all their efforts to reckoning the time of the hidden Imam's appearance, on the basis of the cabalistic use of Qur'anic verses and letter-number relationships. From obscure indication in the 'Qur'an', especially from the surah of Worship and the oral traditions concerning this subject, the Shaykhis had calculated the tear to be 1260 A.H. Acting on the belief that the legal leadership of the believers had come to an end with the expiration of the Imamate in 260 A.H., they established the date of the end of the thousand years absence of legal guidance foretold by Muhammad as the year 1260 A.H., i.e. the year 1844 of the Christian era. This same year was calculated on the basis of Biblical prophecy by the Christian Adventist sect in the U.S.A. as the date of Christ's return. (128:1)

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