Abstract

_This article offers a utopian interpretation of Shiʿi doctrine of the Imāmate as manifested in devotional practices. Divided into three sections, the study follows Ernst Bloch’s notion of utopian consciousness, first by providing a broad account of his notion of religion, and, in the second section, offering a Blochian understanding of the doctrine of Imāmate as the utopian basis of devotional practices. The discussion identifies devotional performances as intimate everyday longings in the form of daydreams that presence the absent divine-like figures of Imām, whose authority lies in concealed transcendence but is concretely experienced in the locality of a shrine and through textual performances of devotion and prayers. The final section examines the esoteric element of concealed transcendence in the devotional prayer text of the_ Keys to Paradise (Mafātīḥal-jina_̄_n)_,_ which was popular among (Imāmī) _Shi_ʿ_is for its miraculoussignificance during daily/nightly life_.