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Hassan Rowhani, the ex-secretary of Iran's National Security Council, recently made some ‎unusual remarks about the new interpretations of some Iranian authorities on the concept of ‎Armageddon, or “the end of time”. In addition to listing some of the same old issues on the ‎subject, he made new references to the president’s inappropriate behavior.‎

‎"What is this game in which we assume people to be mere commoners? ... If need be, we shall ‎reveal all the details to the public. In gatherings, some people now serve an extra dish for the the ‎Imam Mahdi (the hidden Imam who Shiites believe is in occultation and will return to earth), or ‎I've heard some request that important meetings be held on Friday (the holy weekday for ‎Muslims) so that the hidden Imam would be present at the deliberations. … Two-three years ago ‎another circus show was launched when some officials called to put up podiums for the Imam ‎Mahdi in Tehran. There were also others who advanced the idea that the Imam was going to ‎appear within the next 2 years, and with the passage of time, it is clear today that they were liars ‎‎" (ISNA - February 19, 2008). ‎

Rowhani's reference to the person who had claimed that the hidden Imam would appear within ‎the next 2 years is to nobody but the current president of Iran, who had made these remarks to ‎the foreign minister of a non-aligned nation who had told the president that Iran was in real ‎trouble. “These are the signs of the appearance of the Imam Mahdi who will appear within the ‎next two years,” the president said as quoted in Aftab News on November 16, 2005. Rowhani's ‎reference to officials that wanted to "set up podiums for Imam Zaman" was another reference to ‎the remarks of Ahmadinejad and his advisors when he was the mayor of Tehran when he listed ‎his projects under the subject of the hidden Imam. It should be recalled that these costly projects ‎attempted to identify an imaginary route that the Imam would take on his reappearance and then ‎embark on rebuilding or renovating that route.” (Rooydad website, May 6, 2005)‎

Such remarks by the president (which have been followed closely by the public since the ‎distribution of a video clip of Ahmadinejad in which he claims to have been surrounded by a ray ‎of light when giving a speech at the United Nations General Assembly) have gone so far that he ‎has recently criticized those who have cast doubts on the validity of his beliefs and remarks ‎about the Imam Mahdi. For example, following his recent trip to the United States and his ‎controversial speech at Columbia University in New York, the president has claimed that the ‎Imam Mahdi "managed" that meeting and accused those who doubted this claim of being "close ‎minded." "I know that close minded people don't believe these things," he said, "but I was ‎certain that the Imam Mahdi will come and manage the meeting. I said, 'Oh Imam! I want to ‎witness your miracle." (Raja News - November 12, 2007) In a more pointed attack, ‎Ahmadinejad has likened those who poke fun at his remarks about the hidden Imam to goats: ‎‎"the entire universe has been created for that holy event to take place; the day when all the ‎prophets and martyrs will come to help the Imam. Some people make fun of these beliefs; this is ‎because their hearts are devoid of faith. These are modern day pagans and heathens. They ‎pretend to be intellectuals but don't have the understanding of a goat" (Fars news agency- ‎November 11, 2007). ‎

But regardless of the above examples, the fact that the state of the president’s mind has come to a ‎point where he serves an extra dish for the Imam Mahdi or calls for rescheduling important ‎meetings for Friday so decisions can be made in the presence of the hidden Imam, speaks of new ‎heights in his thoughts and beliefs about “the end of time”, which calls for grave concern. ‎

One must not forget that, according to the ISNA news agency, Hassan Rowhani's criticism and ‎threat to "reveal all the details to the public" were uttered in the presence of many senior ‎authorities such as Mohammadi Golpaigani, the head of supreme leader's office, Rahim Safavi, ‎special advisor to the supreme leader, Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, speaker of the Majlis, Ebrahim ‎Amini, deputy president of Majlis Khobregan [Assembly of Experts], Hashemi Rafsanjani, the ‎head of the Expediency Council, Pour Mohammadi, Ahmadinejad's interior minister, Davood ‎Ahmadinejad, the special presidential investigator and brother of Iranian president, etc. ‎Therefore, Rowhani must have been certain of the truth of his accusations, and probably knew ‎that his audience were aware of the accusations as well. ‎

When commenting on such remarks, critics of the Iranian president often accuse Ahmadinejad of ‎lying. It is possible that the source of Ahmadinejad's claims is what his opponents charge him ‎with. But the reality is that lying is not a very strange phenomenon to politicians, and therefore, ‎the possibility of Ahmadinejad lying is not the most worrisome possibility that can explain his ‎actions. ‎

The more worrisome possibility is that Ahmadinejad does not want to lye when making such ‎remarks. ‎

In other words, have we ever thought about this soul-shaking revelation that perhaps, the ‎president who heads the Iranian government in one of its most critical moments in history, is a ‎person who "really" believes that the hidden Imam is accompanying him when eating food, and ‎that the Imam will eventually reappear before the end of his presidential term? ‎