Mahdi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Islamic eschatology

Islamic eschatology is concerned with the al-Qiyāmah . Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the judgement of the soul; the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah while the unrighteous...

, the Mahdi ( / ISO 233

ISO 233

The international standard ISO 233 establishes a system for Arabic transliteration . It has been completed by ISO 233-2 in 1993.- 1984 edition :The table below shows the consonants for the Arabic language.- ISO 233-2:1993 :...

: / Guided One) is the prophesied redeemer of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- (according to various interpretations) before the Day of Judgment ( / literally, the Day of Resurrection) and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.

In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious idea" and closely related as the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi

Muhammad al-Mahdi

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī is believed by Twelver Shī‘a Muslims to be the Mahdī, an ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams...

, whose return from occultation

The Occultation

The Occultation in Shia Islam refers to a belief that the messianic figure, or Mahdi, who in Shi'i thought is an infallible male descendant of the founder of Islam, Muhammad, was born but disappeared, and will one day return and fill the world with justice. Some Shi'is, such as the Zaidi and...

is deemed analogous with the coming of the Mahdi.

In Sunni traditions, there are several hadiths referring to the Mahdi.

Shia doctrine

In Shia Islam "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea." 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

The Occultation

at the age of five (874 CE). He is still alive but has been in occultation

The 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

Kaaba

The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham, or Ibraheem, in Arabic, and his son Ishmael, or Ismaeel, as said in Arabic, after he had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque...

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

Sufyani

The Sufyani , is an evil, apocryphal character of Islamic eschatology. The Sufyani will emerge before the Mahdi from the depths of Damascus....

. 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

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

for a number of years, Isa will return.

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

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)'

Muhammad al-Baqir

Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Bāqir was the Fifth Imām to the Twelver Shi‘a and Fourth Imām to the Ismā‘īlī Shī‘a. His father was the previous Imām, ‘Alī ibn Ḥusayn, and his mother was Fatimah bint al-Hasan...

, 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
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

and other heavenly books from the cave in Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

. He will judge among the people of the Torah
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

according to the Torah; among the people of the Gospel according to the Gospel
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

; among the people of the Psalms in accordance with the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

; among the people of the Qur'an in accordance with the Qur'an.

Ja'far al-Sadiq

Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq was a descendant of Muhammad and a prominent Muslim jurist. He is revered as an Imam by the adherents of Shi'a Islam and as a renowned Islamic scholar and personality by Sunni Muslims. The Shi'a Muslims consider him to be the sixth Imam or leader and spiritual...

, 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
Al-Qa'im (person)
Al-Qāʾim is a messiah-like figure in Shia Islam, sometimes referred to as the Mahdi, but distinctly of a Shiʿa tradition.-External links:* *...

) of your clan (ahl al-bayt
Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt is an Arabic phrase literally meaning People of the House, or family of the House. The phrase "ahl al-bayt" was used in Arabia before the advent of Islam to refer to one's clan, and would be adopted by the ruling family of a tribe. Within the Islamic tradition, the term refers to the...

)?", 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
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....

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:

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
Sufyani
The Sufyani , is an evil, apocryphal character of Islamic eschatology. The Sufyani will emerge before the Mahdi from the depths of Damascus....

and the Yamani.
The Muslims will throw off the reins of the foreigners and take possession of their land, overthrowing those rulers that are foreign agents.
There will be a great conflict in the land of Syria
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....

, until it is destroyed.
Death and fear will afflict the people of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. 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
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...

; 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.

First school of thought

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.

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.

Umm Salama
Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
Hind bint Abi Umayya was a wife of Muhammad, and therefore a Mother of the Believers.-Name:Hind bint Abi Umayya, Hind al Makhzumiyah, Hind bint Suhayl, also called as 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

Abul Ala Maududi

Syed Abul A'ala Maududi , also known as Molana or Shaikh Syed Abul A'ala Mawdudi, was a Sunni Pakistani journalist, theologian, Muslim revivalist leader and political philosopher, and a major 20th century Islamist thinker. He was also a prominent political figure in Pakistan and was the first...

(1903–1979), the Pakistani Islamic revival

Islamic revival

Islamic revival refers to a revival of the Islamic religion throughout the Islamic world, that began roughly sometime in 1970s and is manifested in greater religious piety, and community feeling, and in a growing adoption of Islamic culture, dress, terminology, separation of the sexes, and values...

ist, stated that the Mahdi will be a modern Islamic reformer/statesman, who will unite the Ummah

Ummah

Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...

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 Islamic scholars who wholly reject the Mahdi doctrine are Allama Tamanna Imadi

Allama Tamanna Imadi

Syed Hayatul Haq Muhammad Mohi-ud-Din , known as Allama Tamana ‘Imadi, Tamaana Imadi, Tamana Emadi, Tamana Amadi and other variants depending on transliteration, was a Muslim scholar, theologian and writer...

(1888–1972), Allama Habibur Rahman Kandhalvi

Allama Habibur Rahman Kandhalvi

Allama Ḥabīburraḥmān Ṣiddīqī Kāndhalvī was an Islamic scholar and author from Pakistan. He was born in End December 1924, Mohalla Delhi Darwaza, Delhi, India in the house of Mufti Ishfaq ur Rehman Kandhalvi. He memorized the Qur'an at the age of 9 years...

, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (1951- ), and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938).

Sir Muhammad Iqbal wrote:

As I think, the concept of the Mahdi, Masih
Masih
Masih is the Arabic word for Messiah. In modern Arabic it is used as one of the many titles of Isa , who is known to Christians as Jesus...

and Mujaddad
Mujaddid
A Mujaddid , according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity...

is a completely Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian and Ajmi
Ajam
Ajam is a word used in Persian and Arabic literature but with different concepts. Ajam in Arabic has two primary meanings: "non-Arab" and "Persian".literally it has other meaning "one who is illiterate in language", "silent", or "mute", and refers to non-Arabs in general, or people of Southern...

perception. This concept has no link to the Qur'an, Islam and Arabic perceptions.

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi writes in his Mizan

Mizan

Mizan is a comprehensive treatise on the contents of Islam, written by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Islamic scholar. It is published in Urdu by Al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences. The book is also available in the form of different booklets...

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
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...

; (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.

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 sheikh

Sheikh

Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...

s, and this is the belief of the true Shadhili

Shadhili

The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....

sheikhs, whose path both Al-Suyuti

Al-Suyuti

Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti also known as Ibn al-Kutub was an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology. He was precocious and was already a teacher in 1462. In 1486, he was appointed to a chair in the mosque of...

and Al-Haytami followed. Whoever differs with them is a liar and an innovator."

Ahmadiyya doctrine

In Ahmadiyya Islam

Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...

, the terms "Messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

" 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

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...

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 the Prophet, 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:
Ahmadis believe that the prophecies concerning the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus have been fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

of Qadian

Qadian

Qadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....

(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 toward 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

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

, quoting the hadith narrator Ka'ab al-Ahbar

Ka'ab al-Ahbar

Ka‘b al-Aḥbār was a prominent rabbi from Yemen of the clan of Dhu Ra'in or Dhu al-Kila. He is counted among the Tabi‘in and narrated many Isra'iliyat.-Umar's era:...

.

In one place, they write,

Ibn Izzat and Arif then go on to say:

People claiming to be the Mahdi

Various individuals have claimed to be the Mahdi. Similar to the notion of a Messiah

Messiah

in the Judeo-Christian

Judeo-Christian

Judeo-Christian is a term used in the United States since the 1940s to refer to standards of ethics said to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, for example the Ten Commandments...

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
Al-Mukhtar
al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ‘Ubayd Allah al-Thaqafī was an early Islamic revolutionary who led an abortive rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphs after the death of Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala.-Life:...

's rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate in 686 CE, almost 50 years after Muhammad's death. Al-Mukhtar claimed that Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah surnamed Abu'l-Qasim was an early Muslim leader. He was a son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi'ite Imam and the fourth Sunni Caliph.-Biography:...

, a son of the fourth caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...

and first Shia imam, Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...

, was the Mahdi and would save the Muslim people from the rule of the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

s. 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
Mahdavi
Mahdavi Islam is a sect within Islam, founded by Hazrath Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri in India in the 15th century CE. Jaunpuri declared himself to be the Imam Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer in Islam, and the denomination takes its name from the term mahdi...

sect, was born in Jaunpur
Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh
Jaunpur is a city and a municipal board in Jaunpur district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.Jaunpur district is located to the northwest of the district of Varanasi in the eastern part of the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. According to the 2001 census, Jaunpur district had a population...

in northeastern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

(in the modern-day state of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

), a descendant of the imam Husayn
Husayn ibn Ali
Hussein ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib ‎ was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fātimah Zahrā...

through Musa al-Kadhim
Musa al-Kadhim
' was the seventh of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'a Islam. He was the son of Imam and his mother was Hamidah Khātūn, a student and former Zanjiyyah slave...

. 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
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...

. He died at the age of 63 in the year 1505 at Farah
Farah, Afghanistan
Farah is a city in western Afghanistan, situated at 650 m altitude, and located on the Farah River. It is the capital of Farah Province, and has a population of approximately 109,409....

, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, and is buried in a sanctuary there. He ruled for seven years before his death

(Siyyid Ali Muhammad) The Báb
Báb
Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four claimed to be the promised Qá'im . After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate"...

( / 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
Al-Qa'im (person)
Al-Qāʾim is a messiah-like figure in Shia Islam, sometimes referred to as the Mahdi, but distinctly of a Shiʿa tradition.-External links:* *...

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
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...

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
Bábism
The Babi Faith is a religious movement that flourished in Persia from 1844 to 1852, then lingered on in exile in the Ottoman Empire as well as underground. Its founder was Siyyid `Alí Muhammad Shirazi, who took the title Báb—meaning "Gate"—from a Shi'a theological term...

. He was later executed by firing squad
Execution by firing squad
Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading , is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war.Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice...

in the town of Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

. His remains are currently kept in a tomb at the Bahá'í World Centre
Bahá'í World Centre
The Bahá'í World Centre is the name given to the spiritual and administrative centre of the Bahá'í Faith. The World Centre consists of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh near Acre, Israel, the Shrine of the Báb and its gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, and various other buildings in the area...

in Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. The Báb is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh , born ' , was the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to be the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, but in a broader sense claimed to be a messenger from God referring to the fulfilment of the eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity, and...

, 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
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....

, 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
Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli
Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli , born in Sijilmasa, was an imam and the leader of a revolution against the reigning Saadi dynasty in the south of Morocco in which he proclaimed himself as mahdi. He is the author of six books, among which are l'Islit al-khirrit , Al Salsabil and Miharas.-References:...

(1559–1613), from the south of Morocco, was a cadi
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...

and religious scholar who proclaimed himself mahdi and lead a revolution (1610–13) against the reigning Saadi dynasty
Saadi Dynasty
The Saadi dynasty of Morocco , began with the reign of Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh in 1554, when he vanquished the last Wattasids at the Battle of Tadla....

.
Muhammad Ahmad
Muhammad Ahmad
Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah was a religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, on June 29, 1881, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi or messianic redeemer of the Islamic faith...

, a Sudanese sufi sheikh of the Samaniyya order, declared himself Mahdi in June 1881 and went on to lead a successful military campaign
Mahdist War
The Mahdist War was a colonial war of the late 19th century. It was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese and the Egyptian and later British forces. It has also been called the Anglo-Sudan War or the Sudanese Mahdist Revolt. The British have called their part in the conflict the Sudan Campaign...

against the Turko-Egyptian government of Sudan. Although he died shortly after capturing the Sudanese capital, Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...

, in 1885, the Mahdist state continued under his successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad
Abdallahi ibn Muhammad
Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed or Abdullah al-Taaisha, also known as "The Khalifa" was a Sudanese Ansar General and ruler.-Early years:Abdullah was born into the Ta'aisha Baqqara tribe in Darfur around 1846 and was trained and educated as a preacher and holy man.He became a follower of Mohammed Ahmed "the...

, until 1898, when it fell to the British army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

following the Battle of Omdurman
Battle of Omdurman
At the Battle of Omdurman , an army commanded by the British Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad...

.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...

claimed to be both the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus in the late nineteenth century in British India. He founded the Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...

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
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...

has been led by his successors
Khalifatul Masih
Khalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...

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
Juhayman al-Otaibi
Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaibi was a militant who led the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, in the last months of 1979.-Biography:...

, who led over 200 militants to seize the Grand Mosque
Grand Mosque Seizure
The Grand Mosque Seizure on November 20, 1979, was an armed attack and takeover by Islamist dissidents of the Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam...

in Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

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 Abdallah
Muhammad ibn Abdillah Al-Mahd ibn al-Hasan al-Muthanna ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Abi Talib or Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya was a descendant of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah...
Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Aftah ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq
Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Aftah
Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Aftah ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq was a figure whose existence is contested: a portion of the Fathite Shia Muslims , believed that Muhammad was the son of Imam Abdullah al-Aftah , whom they believed to be the Imam after his father Ja'far al-Sadiq...
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq was a descendant of Muhammad and a prominent Muslim jurist. He is revered as an Imam by the adherents of Shi'a Islam and as a renowned Islamic scholar and personality by Sunni Muslims. The Shi'a Muslims consider him to be the sixth Imam or leader and spiritual...

(according to the Tawussite Shia
Tawussite Shia
The Tawussite Shia were a Shia group who were a section of the supporters of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq who denied admitting that he died...

)
Musa al-Kadhim
Musa al-Kadhim
' was the seventh of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'a Islam. He was the son of Imam and his mother was Hamidah Khātūn, a student and former Zanjiyyah slave...

(according to the Waqifite Shia
Waqifite Shia
The Waqifite Shia were a Shia sect who accepted the Imamate of Musa al-Kadhim, but refused to accept the Imamate of his successor Ali ar-Ridha.-Beliefs:The Waqifites believed in the Mahdism and the occultation of Imam Mūsà ibn Ja‘far al-Kāẓim...

)
Muhammad ibn Qasim (al-Alawi)
Muhammad ibn Qasim (al-Alawi)
Muhammad ibn Qasim was an Alawite Imam. He led an Alawite rebellion that took place in Taloqan at the beginning of the 3rd century of Hijrah , in the year 219 A.H and during the days of the Caliphate of Al-Mu'tasim. However, Al-Mu'tasim defeated and arrested him and carried him to Baghdad,...
Yahya ibn Umar
Yahya ibn Umar
Yahya ibn Umar ibn Yahya ibn Husayn ibn Zayd ibn Ali Zayn al-Abidin ibn Al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Murtada was an Alid Imam. His mother was Umm al-Husayn Fatimah bint al-Husayn ibn Abdallah ibn Ismail ibn Abdullah ibn Ja`far ibn Abī Tālib. In the days of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'in, he marched out...
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi was the son of Ali al-Hadi and the brother of Hasan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th Twelver Shia Imams respectively.A section of the Imamate Shiites believed that the Awaited Imam Mahdi was Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi, who died suddenly in Dajil. They believed in his occultation,...
Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi
Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi
Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi is a spiritual leader, founder of the spiritual movements RAGS International and Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam ....

(according to Messiah Foundation International
Messiah Foundation International
- Shahi's claimed meeting with Jesus :The movement claims that Shahi met with Jesus Christ on the 29th of May, 1997 in Taos, New Mexico. Shahi claimed that Jesus could speak many languages and did not live in a particular home. When asked about what was discussed between himself and Jesus, Shahi...

)
Emperor Haile Selassie due to his direct lineage to The Prophet
Diponegoro
Diponegoro
Diponegoro , also known as Dipanegara, was a Javanese prince who opposed the Dutch colonial rule. He played an important role in the Java War...

, Javanese prince during the Java War
Java War
The Java War or Diponegoro War was fought in Java between 1825 and 1830. It started as a rebellion led by Prince Diponegoro. The proximate cause was the Dutch decision to build a road across a piece of his property that contained his parents' tomb...

.
Adnan Oktar
Adnan Oktar
Adnan Oktar , also known as Harun Yahya, is an author and Islamic creationist. In 2007, he sent thousands of unsolicited copies of the Atlas of Creation advocating Islamic creationism to American scientists, members of Congress, and science museums...

, Turkish writer.

Mahdi coauthorship controversy

In 2011, an academic paper on polymers appeared in the journal Macromolecular Research (co-published with Springer

Springer Science+Business Media

- Selected publications :* Encyclopaedia of Mathematics* Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete * Graduate Texts in Mathematics * Grothendieck's Séminaire de géométrie algébrique...

), 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

Tarbiat Modares University

Tarbiat Modares University is located in Tehran, Iran, and was founded in 1982. Tarbiat Modares University is the only exclusively graduate university in Iran, and is a highly reputed university, which was actually funded to train university professors.-Faculties and academics:TMU includes seven...

, 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.)"

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
Followers of Imam Mahdi
Imam Mahdi's Birthday Celebration - Part I Part II (Free PressTV documentary)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Shia doctrine

Portents

Characteristics From Sunni Sources

First school of thought

Second school of thought

Sufi doctrine

Ahmadiyya doctrine

Possible Biblical interpretations

People claiming to be the Mahdi

Mahdi coauthorship controversy

See also

Modern sources

External links