Editing Bábism (section)

===Hidden Imam===
In [[Twelver]] [[Shiʻa Islam]]ic belief there were twelve [[Imams]], the last of whom, known as [[Imam Mahdi]], communicated with his followers only through certain representatives.<ref name="browne">{{cite book |url=http://bahai-library.com/browne_babism |title=Religious Systems of the World: A Contribution to the Study of Comparative Religion |chapter=Bábism |pages=333–353 |first=Edward G. |last=Browne |author-link=E.G. Browne |place=London |publisher=Swann Sonnenschein |year=1890 |orig-year=1889 |via=Baháʼí Library Online}}</ref> According to the [[Twelver]]'s belief, after the last of these representatives died, the Imam Mahdi went into a state of Occultation; while still alive, he was no longer accessible to his believers.<ref name="browne" /> Shiʻa Muslims believe that when the world becomes oppressed, the Imam Mahdi (also termed the [[Al-Qāʾim Āl Muḥammad|Qa'im]]) will come out of occultation and restore true religion on Earth before the cataclysmic end of the world and judgement day.<ref name="browne" /><ref name="amanat1">{{cite journal |title=The Resurgence of Apocalyptic in Modern Islam |first=Abbas |last=Amanat |author-link=Abbas Amanat |editor=Stephen J. Stein |journal=The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism |volume=III |year=2000 |pages=230–254 |via=Baháʼí Library Online |url=http://bahai-library.com/amanat_resurgence_apocalyptic_islam}}</ref>

In Bábí belief the [[Báb]] is the return of the Imam Mahdi, but the doctrine of the Occultation is implicitly denied; instead the Báb stated that his manifestation was a symbolic return of the Imam, and not the physical reappearance of the Imam Mahdi who had died a thousand years earlier.<ref name="browne" /> In Bábí belief the statements made from previous revelations regarding the Imam Mahdi were set forth in symbols.<ref name="browne" /> The Báb also stated that he was not only the fulfillment of the Shiʻi expectations for the Qá'im, but that he also was the beginning of a new prophetic dispensation.<ref name="amanat1" />