[1] The original context of this verse in Sūrat Sabaʾ (the 34th chapter of the Qurʾān) refers to Allāh’s providence facilitating the construction of hamlets along the road between either the towns of Syria (according to Qutāda and Mujāhid) or the city of Jerusalem (according to Ibn ʿAbbās—refer to Shaykh al-Ṭāʾifa’s Tafsīr al-Tibyān, vol. 10, p. 20, as published by the Institute of Islamic Publications in 1430 AH, for all three of these opinions) and the kingdom of Sheba in ancient Yemen, after which this chapter is named. The Sabaeans, the people of this kingdom, were mostly wrongdoers but for a group of believers among them [34:20]. Given that there were Sabaeans who followed the Devil’s conjectures [also 34:20] as well as Sabaeans who were true believers, this shows that they fell under the umbrella of the generality of mankind. Thus does Imam al-Mahdī عجل الله فرجه draw the parallel between them and the people of his time during the Minor Occultation, with the Shīʿa allegorically represented as the “prominent hamlets” serving as the means of access for the masses to “the towns which We had blessed” (Muḥammad and the House of Muḥammad صلوات الله عليهم). The metaphor is more profound for the Twelfth Imam than any other member of this House, a point made clear by the Arabic: ﴾قُرًۭى ظَـٰهِرَةًۭ﴿—because Imam al-Mahdī, given his Occultation, and thus that he is not apparent, must therefore rely on the Shīʿa as the means of access to the blessing and guidance from his hands to feed the souls of mankind. As for the Imam’s allegory that the Ahl al-Bayt صلوات الله عليهم are the blessed cities, it may bring to mind the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وعلى آله famous statement: I am the city of knowledge, and ʿAlī is its gate.