Raj'a

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Rajʿa (Arabic: رجعة, lit. 'return'), also known as ḥashr khāṣṣ (lit. 'specific resurrection'), is a doctrine in Shia Islam positing that some of the dead will return to life before the Resurrection to avenge their oppression.

In Twelver Shia doctrine, the concept of rajʿa is closely intertwined with the eschatological concept of occultation (ghayba) and the reappearance of the twelfth Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi in the end times to establish peace and justice on earth. This doctrine, which was elaborated in the early 10th century by the then emerging Twelver sect,^[1][2] goes back on earlier ideas developed by early Shia sects such as the late 7th-century Kaysāniyya and the early 9th-century Wāqifiyya, who denied the deaths of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya (died 700) and Musa al-Kazim (died 799) and awaited their return.^[3] The doctrine was also current among the 8th/9th-century Shias known as ghulāt (lit. 'exaggerators'), whose elaboration of the idea may have influenced early Twelver scholars.^[4]

The concept was later also used in the Baháʼí Faith (19th century) to designate the cyclical return of the Manifestation of God, which appeared in prophet figures such Jesus or Muhammad, as well as in the Báb (1819–1850) and in Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), the two founders of the Baháʼí Faith.