Mahdi

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In Shia and Sunni eschatology, the Mahdi (Arabic: مهدي‎ / ISO 233: mahdī / also Mehdi / English: Guided One) is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years (according to various interpretations)^[1] before the Day of Judgment (yawm al-qiyamah / literally, the Day of Resurrection)^[2] and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.^[3]

In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "powerful and central religious idea" and closely related to the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return from occultation is deemed analagous with the coming of the Mahdi.^[4]

In Sunni Islam, the doctrine of the Mahdi has been questioned by some theologians.^[2][5] There is no explicit reference to the Mahdi in either the Qur'an or Sahih al-Bukhari, the most trusted^[6] collection of hadith in Sunni Islam; however, each of the remaining five collections of hadith, which together with Sahih al-Bukhari constitute the six canonical collections of hadith, does refer to the Mahdi. Even among those Sunni Muslims that accept the Mahdi doctrine, there is disagreement on the timing and nature of his advent and guidance.

Mahdi doctrine common to both Sunni and Shia Muslims

The Islamic scholar Moojan Momen considers the following beliefs in relation to the Mahdi are shared by Sunni and Shia Muslims alike:^[3]

• The Mahdi will be a descendant of Muhammad of the line of Fatimah, He will be descendent by one side (by one of the parents) by Al Hassan and by another by Al Hussain.
• He will have the same name as Muhammad.
• He will be a fore-runner to Jesus' Messianic Rule.
• His coming will be accompanied by the raising of a Black Standard.
• His coming will be accompanied by the appearance of the Antichrist.
• There will be a lunar and solar eclipse within the same month of Ramadan.
• A star with a luminous tail will rise from the East before the coming of the Mahdi.
• He will establish the Caliphate.
• He will fill the world with justice and fairness at a time when the world will be filled with oppression.
• He will have a broad forehead, a prominent nose, and a natural mascara will ring his eyes. (Despite Momen's findings, these physical attributes appear only in Sunni Islam.)^[7]

Additional characteristics specific to the Mahdi in Shia Islam include:

• His face shall shine upon the surface of the Moon.^[8]
• The name of the Mahdi's representative will begin with the first-letter of a prophet's name and a verse of the Qur'an: ی (English: Y).^[8]

Shia view

The name of Muhammad al-Mahdi as it appears in the Prophet's Mosque, Medina

The Kaaba, Mecca

In Shia Islam "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea."^[1] Twelver Shia Muslims believe that the Mahdi is Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, who was born in 869 CE and was hidden by God at the age of five (874 CE). He is still alive but has been in occultation, "awaiting the time that God has decreed for his return".

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.^[9]

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, Jesus will return.^[10]

The Prophet 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.^[11][12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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?^[15]

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.^[16]

Muhammad al-Baqir, the Fourth (Isma'ili) or Fifth (Twelver) Imam said of the Mahdi:

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.^[17]

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.^[18]

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.^[19]

The face of the Mahdi shall shine upon the surface of the Moon.

^[8]

Portents

According to Moojan Momen, among the most commonly reported signs that presage the advent of the Mahdi in Shia Islam are the following:

• Before his coming will come the red death and the white death. The red death is the sword and the white death is plague.
• Several figures will appear: the one-eyed Antichrist (Masih ad-Dajjal), the Sufyani and the Yamani.
• The Muslims will throw off the reins and take possession of their land, throwing out the authority of the foreigners.
• 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

• Ali Ibn Abi Talib quoted the Prophet 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 the Prophet 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 the Prophet 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.

Sunni views

The coming of the Mahdi is a disputed doctrine in Sunni Islam. The concept is not mentioned directly in the Qu'ran or Sahih al-Bukhari; however, the Mahdi is mentioned in the Sahih Muslim collection of ahadith^[20]. Sunni scholars who dispute the traditional doctrine of the coming of the Mahdi, can be separated into two categories: modernist and rejectionist.

Traditionalist

Of those Sunnis that hold to the existence of the Mahdi, some believe the Mahdi will be an ordinary man, born to an ordinary woman.

• The Prophet 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.^[21]

• Umm Salam 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.^[22]

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.^[23]

I heard the Messenger of God say: "The Mahdi is of my lineage and family […]".^[24]

• Abu Sa`id al-Khudri said:

The Messenger of God said: "He is one of us […]"^[25]

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.^[26]

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.^[27]

Modernist

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.^[28]

Rejectionist

Among those Islamic scholars who wholly reject the Mahdi doctrine are Allama Tamanna Imadi (1888-1972), ^[29] Allama Habibur Rahman Kandhalvi,^[30] Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (1951- ),^[31] and Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938).^[32]

Sir Muhammad Iqbal wrote:

As I think, the concept of the Mahdi, Masih and Mujaddad is a completely Iranian and Ajmi perception. This concept has no link to the Qur'an, Islam and Arabic perceptions.^[33]

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.

On the other hand it is found in Sunan Abi Dawud, Ibn Majah, and Tirmidhi and "some non-Shiite Muslims believe that the Mahdi will come in addition to the Second Coming of Jesus."^[2]

Mohammed ibn Jaafar al-Kattani said:

The conclusion is that the hadiths narrated concerning the Mahdi are mutawatir, as are the hadith concerning the Dajjal and the descent of Jesus, the son of Mary, upon whom be peace.

Sufi views

As all orthodox "Sufi" scholars are followers of the 4 schools of Sunni jurisprudence and are Sunni contributors to Sunni Islam and accepted as such, as well as rejecting the shia "Mahdi doctrine" mentioned above, hence the term "sufi-view" is the Sunni view as the source is the same i.e the 6 canonical hadith books. Also the scholars mentioned Ibn Hajar Al Haythami and Al Suyuti are both classical Sunni Scholars whose biographies are well established within Suni Islam and are known sufi's.

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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

Ahmadiyya views

In Ahmadiyya Islam, 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 ^[34] 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.^[35] 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.

Numerous Hadith are presented by the Ahmadis in support of their view such as one from Sunan Ibn Majah which says:

Ahmadis believe that the prophecies concerning the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus have been fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (1835–1908) the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. Contrary to mainstream Islam the Ahmadis do not believe that Jesus is alive in heaven, but that he survived the crucifixion and migrated towards the east where he died a natural death and that Ghulam Ahmad was only the promised spiritual second coming and likeness of Jesus, the promised Messiah and Mahdi.

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,

“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.”

Ibn Izzat and Arif then go on to say:

“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.”^[36]

People claiming to be the Mahdi

Muhammad Ahmad, a Sudanese sufi sheikh, created a state, the Mahdiyah, on the basis of his claim to be the Mahdi.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus and founded Ahmadiyya, an Islamic religious movement.

Since the birth of Islam, various individuals have claimed to be the Mahdi. Similar to the notion of a Messiah in the Judeo-Christian religions, the notion of a Mahdi as a redeemer to establish a society has lent itself to various interpretations leading to different claims within minorities or by individuals within Islam.

• 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.

• The Báb (Arabic: الباب‎ / English: the Gate) claimed to be the Mahdi in 1844, 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), and both are considered prophets of the Bahá'í Faith. The declaration by the Báb to be the Mahdi is considered by Baha'is to be the beginning of the Bahá'í calendar.^[37]

• 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 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.^[38]

• 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.

A number of people have been claimed to be the Mahdi by their followers or supporters, including:

• 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)

See also

• Al-Qa'im (the Shi'a expectations)
• Islamic eschatology
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• Mahdaviat
• People claiming to be the Mahdi
• Masih ad-Dajjal

References

Bibliography

Historical sources

• "Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah", Sahih al-Bukhari, Dar al-Ma’aarif, pp. 160-169 
• Ja'far al-Sadiq, Al-Ghaybah (The occultation): narrations from the prophecies of al-Mahdi by Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, Mihrab Publishers 
• Bihar al-Anwar

Modern sources

• Baqr al-Majlisi, Muhammad, ed. (2003), Kitab al-Ghaybat, Qom: Ansariyan Publications 
• Doi, A. R. I., "The Yoruba Mahdī", Journal of Religion in Africa 4 (2): 119-136, http://www.jstor.org/pss/1594738 
• Glassé, Cyril, ed. (2001), "Mahdi", The new encyclopedia of Islam, Rowman Altamira, ISBN 0759101906 
• Martin, Richard C., ed. (2004), "Mahdi", Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world, Thompson Gale 
• Momen, Moojan (1985), An introduction to Shi'i Islam, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, ISBN 0300035314 
• Shauhat Ali, Millenarian and Messianic Tendencies in Islamic Thought (Lahore: Publishers United, 1993)
• Timothy Furnish, Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Jihad and Osama Bin Laden (Westport: Praeger, 2005) ISBN 0275983838
• Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981) ISBN 0-87395-458-0
• Syaikh Hisyam Kabbani, The Approach of Armageddon (Islamic Supreme Council of America, 2002) ISBN 1930409206
• "mahdī", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358096/mahdi, retrieved 2010-07-04 

External links

• Mahdi an article by Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• A supportive view of the belief of the Mahdi at Sunni-oriented islam-qa.com
• A critical look at the belief in the Mahdi at Qurannic-oriented understanding-islam.com
• Let there be a community among you who call to the good, and enjoin the right, and forbid the wrong. They are the ones who have success. (Surah Al 'Imran, 104)
• Unique ©
• Imam Mahdi's Birthday Celebration - Part I Part II (Free PressTV documentary)