Word of the Day:
occultation
What It Means
An astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object is hidden by another celestial object that passes between it and the observer when the nearer object appears larger and completely hides the more distant object.
The state of being occult (“hidden, undetected”).
The disappearance of the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi, who is believed alive and present in this world, but hidden until his reappearance at the end of time.
Occultation in Context
“We are therefore, constantly hoping for the joy and happiness, personified in Imām al-Mahdi, the Imām who is alive at this very time, and who is himself awaiting the command of Allāh to reappear, so that he may strengthen the weak, and judge the oppressors. He will reappear "without having done...”
Did You Know?
From Latin occultātiōnem, accusative singular of occultātiō (“concealment; insinuation”), from occultāre, present active infinitive of occultō (“to conceal, hide”); analysable as occult + -ation.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: occultation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “occultation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/occultation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
