Imam Mahdi AS
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For
other uses, see Mahdi (disambiguation).
In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious idea" and closely related as the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return from occultation is deemed analogous with the coming of the Mahdi.
In Sunni traditions, there are several hadiths referring to the Mahdi.
First school of thought Sunni doctrine
The mahdi is frequently mentioned in Sunni hadiths as establishing
the caliphate. Among Sunnis, some believe the Mahdi will be an ordinary
man, born to an ordinary woman.- Muhammad said:
The world will not come to an end until the Arabs are ruled by a man from my family whose name is the same as mine and whose father’s name is the same as my father’s.
- Umm Salama said:
His [the Mahdi's] aim is to establish a moral system from which all superstitious faiths have been eliminated. In the same way that students enter Islam, so unbelievers will come to believe.
When the Mahdi appears, God will cause such power of vision and hearing to be manifested in believers that the Mahdi will call to the whole world from where he is, with no postman involved, and they will hear and even see him.
I heard the Messenger of God say: "The Mahdi is of my lineage and family […]".
- Abu Sa`id al-Khudri said:
The Messenger of God said: "He is one of us […]"
The Messenger of God said: "The Mahdi is of my lineage, with a high forehead and a long, thin, curved nose. He will fill the earth with fairness and justice as it was filled with oppression and injustice, and he will rule for seven years.
The Messenger of God said: "At the end of the time of my ummah, the Mahdi will appear. God will grant him rain, the earth will bring forth its fruits, he will give a lot of money, cattle will increase and the ummah will become great. He will rule for seven or eight years.A typical modernist in his views on the Mahdi, Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979), the Pakistani Islamic revivalist, stated that the Mahdi will be a modern Islamic reformer/statesman, who will unite the Ummah and revolutionise the world according to the ideology of Islam, but will never claim to be the Mahdi, instead receiving posthumous recognition as such.
Second school of thought
Among those modernist Islamic scholars who wholly reject the Mahdi doctrine are Allama Tamanna Imadi (1888–1972),/Allama Habibur Rahman Kandhalvi,..Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (1951- ), and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938).Javed Ahmad Ghamidi writes in his Mizan:
Besides these, the coming of the Mahdi and that of Jesus from the heavens are also regarded as signs of the Day of Judgment. I have not mentioned them. The reason is that the narratives of the coming of the Mahdi do not conform to the standards of hadith criticism set forth by the muhaddithun. Some of them are weak and some fabricated; no doubt, some narratives, which are acceptable with regard to their chain of narration, inform us of the coming of a generous caliph; (Muslim, No: 7318) however, if they are deeply deliberated upon, it becomes evident that the caliph they refer to is Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz who was the last caliph of the early history of the Muslims. This prediction of the Prophet has thus materialized in his personality, word for word. One need not wait for any other Mahdi now.
Shia doctrine
Further information: Muhammad al-Mahdi
According to Moojan Momen, Shia traditions state that the Mahdi be "a young man of medium stature with a handsome face" and black hair and beard. "He will not come in an odd year [...] will appear in Mecca between the corner of the Kaaba and the station of Abraham and people will witness him there.
The Twelfth Imam will return as the Mahdi with "a company of his chosen ones," and his enemies will be led by the one-eyed Antichrist and the Sufyani. The two armies will fight "one final apocalyptic battle" where the Mahdi and his forces will prevail over evil. After the Mahdi has ruled Earth for a number of years, Isa will return.
Muhammad said:
The Mahdi is the protector of the knowledge, the heir to the knowledge of all the prophets, and is aware of all things.
The dominion (authority) of the Mahdi is one of the proofs that God has created all things; these are so numerous that his [the Mahdi's] proofs will overcome (will be influential, will be dominant) everyone and nobody will have any counter-proposition against him.
People will flee from him [the Mahdi] as sheep flee from the shepherd. Later, people will begin to look for a purifier. But since they can find none to help them but him, they will begin to run to him.
When matters are entrusted to competent [the Mahdi], Almighty God will raise the lowest part of the world for him, and lower the highest places. So much that he will see the whole world as if in the palm of his hand. Which of you cannot see even a single hair in the palm of his hand?
In the time of the Mahdi, a Muslim in the East will be able to see his Muslim brother in the West, and he in the West will see him in the East.
Sadir al-Sayrafi says: I heard from Imam Abu Abdullah Jafar al-Sadiq that: ... He whose rights have been taken away and who is denied (hazrat* mahdi (as)) will walk among them, move through their markets and walk where they walk. but they will not recognize hazrat mahdi (as) until Allah gives them leave to recognize him, just as He did with the Prophet Yusuf (as).
- Hazrat means "(His)Excellency" or His Eminence. Also AS or (as) means "To Him Peace" (Peace Upon Him)''
The Master of the Command was named as the Mahdi because he will dig out the Torah and other heavenly books from the cave in Antioch. He will judge among the people of the Torah according to the Torah; among the people of the Gospel according to the Gospel; among the people of the Psalms in accordance with the Psalms; among the people of the Qur'an in accordance with the Qur'an.Ja'far al-Sadiq, the Sixth Imam, made the following prophecies:
Abu Bashir says: When I asked Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, "O son of the Messenger of God! Who is the Mahdi (qa'im) of your clan (ahl al-bayt)?", he replied: "The Mahdi will conquer the world; at that time the world will be illuminated by the light of God, and everywere in which those other than God are worshipped will become places where God is worshiped; and even if the polytheists do not wish it, the only faith on that day will be the religion of God.
Sadir al-Sayrafi says: I heard from Imam Abu Abdullah Ja'far al-Sadiq that: Our modest Imam, to whom this occultation belongs [the Mahdi], who is deprived of and denied his rights, will move among them and wander through their markets and walk where they walk, but they will not recognize him.
Abu Bashir says: I heard Imam Muhammad al-Baqr say: "He said: When the Mahdi appears he will follow in the path of the Messenger of God. Only he [the Mahdi] can explain the works of the Messenger of God.
The face of the Mahdi shall shine upon the surface of the Moon.
Portents
According to Moojan Momen, among the most commonly reported signs that presage the advent of the Mahdi in Shia Islam are the following:- The vast majority of people who profess to be Muslim will be so only in name despite their practice of Islamic rites and it will be they who make war with the Mahdi.
- Before his coming will come the red death and the white death, killing two thirds of the world's population. The red death signifies violence and the white death is plague. One third of the world's population will die from the red death and the other third from the white death.
- Several figures will appear: the one-eyed Antichrist (Masih ad-Dajjal), the Sufyani and the Yamani.
- There will be a great conflict in the land of Syria, until it is destroyed.
- Death and fear will afflict the people of Baghdad and Iraq. A fire will appear in the sky and a redness will cover them.
Characteristics From Sunni Sources
- Ali Ibn Abi Talib quoted Muhammad as saying:
The Mahdi is one of us, the clan of the Prophet. God will reform him in one night.(Reported by Imam Ahmad and Ibn Maqah)
- At-Tirmidhi reported that Muhammad said:
The Mahdi is from my Ummah; he will be born and live to rule five or seven or nine years. (If) one goes to him and says, "Give me (a charity)", he will fill one’s garment with what one needs.
- Abu Dawud also reported a hadith about the Mahdi that
Muhammed said:
The Mahdi will be of my stock, and will have a broad forehead, a prominent nose. He will fill the earth with equity and justice as it was filled with oppression and tyranny, and he will rule for seven years.
Sufi doctrine
Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (1503–1566), in his fatwa entitled The Brief Discourse on the Portents of the Awaited Mahdi, said that denial of the Mahdi is disbelief.Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti, in his The Rose Fragrance Concerning the Reports of the Mahdi, wrote: "This is the belief of Ahl al-sunnah, this is the belief of the Sufis, this is the belief of our sheikhs, and this is the belief of the true Shadhili sheikhs, whose path both Al-Suyuti and Al-Haytami followed. Whoever differs with them is a liar and an innovator."
Ahmadiyya doctrine
See also: Prophethood
in Ahmadiyya Islam and Jesus in Ahmadiyya Islam
In Ahmadiyya,
the terms "Messiah" and "Mahdi" are synonymous terms for one
and the same person. Like the term Messiah which, among other meanings,
in essence means being anointed by God or appointed by God
the term "Mahdi" means guided by God, thus both imply a direct
ordainment and a spiritual nurturing by God of a divinely chosen
individual. According to Ahmadiyya thought, Messiahship is a phenomenon,
through which a special emphasis is given on the transformation of a
people by way of offering suffering for the sake of God instead of
giving suffering (i.e. refraining from revenge). Ahmadis believe that
this special emphasis was given through the person of Jesus and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad among others.Ahmadis hold that the prophesied eschatological figures of various religions, the coming of the Messiah and Mahdi in fact were to be fulfilled in one person who was to represent all previous prophets. The prophecies concerning the Mahdi or the second coming of Jesus are seen by Ahmadis as metaphorical, in that one was to be born and rise within the dispensation of Muhammad, who by virtue of his similarity and affinity with Jesus of Nazareth, and the similarity in nature, temperament and disposition of the people of Jesus' time and the people of the time of the promised one (the Mahdi) is called by the same name. As the beliefs of all Muslims seems to be fulfilled yet in one person. Numerous Hadith are presented by the Ahmadis in support of their view such as one from Sunan Ibn Majah which says:
| “ | There is No Mahdi but Jesus son of Mary | ” |
—Ibn Majah, Bab, Shahadatu-Zaman
|
||
Possible Biblical interpretations
In their book, Al Mahdi and the End of Time, Muhammad ibn Izzat and Muhammad Arif, two well-known Egyptian authors, identify the Mahdi in the Book of Revelation, quoting the hadith narrator Ka'ab al-Ahbar.In one place, they write,
Ibn Izzat and Arif then go on to say:“I find the Mahdi recorded in the books of the Prophets… For instance, the Book of Revelation says: “And I saw and behold a white horse. He that sat on him […] went forth conquering and to conquer.”
“It is clear that this man is the Mahdi who will ride the white horse and judge by the Qur’an (with justice) and with whom will be men with marks of prostration (zabiba) on their foreheads.”
People claiming to be the Mahdi
Main article: People
claiming to be the Mahdi
- The first historical reference to a movement using the name of Mahdi is al-Mukhtar's rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate in 686 CE, almost 50 years after Muhammad's death. Al-Mukhtar claimed that Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, a son of the fourth caliph and first Shia imam, Ali, was the Mahdi and would save the Muslim people from the rule of the Umayyads. Ibn al-Hanifiyyah himself was not actively involved in the rebellion, and when the Umayyads successfully quashed it, they left him undisturbed.
- Muhammad Jaunpuri (1443–1505), founder of the Mahdavi sect, was born in Jaunpur in northeastern India (in the modern-day state of Uttar Pradesh), a descendant of the imam Husayn through Musa al-Kadhim. He claimed to be the Mahdi on three occasions, first in Mecca and then in two places in India, attracting a large following, although opposed by the ulema. He died at the age of 63 in the year 1505 at Farah, Afghanistan, and is buried in a sanctuary there. He ruled for seven years before his death
- (Siyyid Ali Muhammad) The Báb (Arabic: الباب / English: the Gate) (1819–1850) from Shiraz in Iran claimed to be the Gate to Mahdi 1844. July 1848 The Báb is moved from the prison in fortress Chiriq to the Tabriz fortress as a prisoner. Last week in July 1848 he publicly declared that he is the Qa'im and Mahdi before a panel of which the 17-year-old Crown Prince Násiri'd-Din Mirzá was the president. At the same time the bábí disciples got the information about Bábs higher and messianic claims., The Báb was bastioned; this was the first formal punishment He received., The clergy issued a fatwa or legal pronouncement against the Báb condemning him to death for heresy, but to no purpose as the civil authorities was unwilling to take action against Him. Later he declared that he was the First Point –, thereby founding the religion of Bábism. He was later executed by firing squad in the town of Tabriz. His remains are currently kept in a tomb at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. The Báb is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh (pronounced ba-haa-ol-laa / Arabic: بهاء الله / English: Glory of God), but also a creator of an independent religion separated from the Bahá'í faith and Islam. Both are considered creators of the Bahá'í Faith, because the Bahá'í Faith would not have occurred without the previous Babi Faith. Báb could certainly be seen as the Mahdi of the followers and Bahá'u'lláh as the returning Christ in the Glory of His Father, according to various prophecies, but the oneness of humanity, pacifism, unity of mankind world peace and world citizenship are the heart of the Bahá'í Faith. Bahá'u'lláh has explicitly forbidden his followers to engage in religious disputes in which a person or a group belonging to another faith become upset, insulted, or at the situation where a risk of spiritual damage exists. His son and successor, 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921, impressed this even more.
- Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli (1559–1613), from the south of Morocco, was a cadi and religious scholar who proclaimed himself mahdi and lead a revolution (1610–13) against the reigning Saadi dynasty.
- Muhammad Ahmad, a Sudanese sufi sheikh of the Samaniyya order, declared himself Mahdi in June 1881 and went on to lead a successful military campaign against the Turko-Egyptian government of Sudan. Although he died shortly after capturing the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in 1885, the Mahdist state continued under his successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, until 1898, when it fell to the British army following the Battle of Omdurman.
- Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be both the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus in the late nineteenth century in British India. He founded the Ahmadiyya religious movement in 1889, which, although considered by its followers to be their Islam in its pure form, is not recognized as such by the majority of mainstream Muslims. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament adopted a law declaring the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Since Ghulam Ahmad's death, the Ahmadiyya community has been led by his successors and has grown considerably.
- In the twentieth century, Muhammad bin abd Allah al-Qahtani was proclaimed the Mahdi by his brother-in-law, Juhayman al-Otaibi, who led over 200 militants to seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. The uprising was defeated after a two-week siege in which at least 300 people were killed.
- Muhammad ibn Abdallah An-Nafs Az-Zakiyya
- Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Aftah ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq
- Ja'far al-Sadiq (according to the Tawussite Shia)
- Musa al-Kadhim (according to the Waqifite Shia)
- Muhammad ibn Qasim (al-Alawi)
- Yahya ibn Umar
- Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi
- Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (according to Messiah Foundation International)
- Emperor Haile Selassie due to his direct lineage to The Prophet
- Diponegoro, Javanese prince during the Java War.
Mahdi coauthorship controversy
In 2011, an academic paper on polymers appeared in the journal Macromolecular Research (co-published with Springer), claiming to be written by Mahdi Moeud Ajjalallah (literally, "The promised Mahdi, may God hasten [his appearance]", as the first author, and Mohammad Reza Rostami Daronkola, as the second author. Another paper with the same two authors was published online by Journal of Polymer Research, published by Springer Netherlands. Mr Rostami Daronkola, a former..Assistant Professor at Tarbiat Modares University, when asked about the inserted coauthor, said "Why shouldn't the Imam of the Time, who is omnipresent, be present at chemistry labs?"Tarbiat Modares University has protested the publication of the article, calling the act "offensive".The faculty members of the university have also asked for a retraction of the article, saying that the name of the university has been "abused".Recently, Springer Publisher has responded as following:
"The result of our inquiry is that the corresponding author indeed used the name of the 12th imam, which is incorrect and not acceptable."
The editor-in-chief decided to withdraw the paper. At the moment they are preparing a retraction paper, which will be published and linked with the original paper. Additionally a grey watermark will be added on the PDF of the original article, which says that the paper is retracted. And the title of the paper will be updated. It will take a little bit of time until everything is done. (For scientific reasons, e.g. if someone has quoted the paper already, it’s not possible to remove it completely.)"
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