'agents') were a networks of agents who were active from Ja'far al-Sadiq's time until the end of the Minor Occultation in 941 CE.
The wikalah was responsible for the relations between imams and Shia Islam as well as collecting religious taxes.
[1] Shia imams frequently had to deal with persecution and sometimes - in order to protect themselves - resorted to the practice of taqiya, a form of religious dissimulation.
[4][3] Jassim M. Hussain said: "Gradually the leadership of the Wikalah became the only authority which could determine and prove the legitimacy of the new Imam."
[3] The Four Deputies or Gates (Arabic: أبواب),[5] in Twelver Shia Islam, were four individuals who served as intermediaries between the community and the twelfth and final Imam upon his entering the Minor Occultation.