The Islamic Antichrist (5 page)

Yahya related to me from Malik from Amr ibn Yahya al-Mazini from Abu’l-Hubab Said ibn Yasar that Abdullah ibn Umar said…
²

Sometimes there will be only one name listed in the
isnad
, however, which is usually an indicator that the person relating the hadith was a direct companion or family member of Muhammad. An example might be: “Ayesha related that Muhammad (peace be upon him) said…”

The other part of the hadith contains the actual text. It is the portion that records the sayings or deeds of Muhammad. This part of the hadith is called the
matn
.

So every hadith consists of the
isnad
(chain of transmitters) and the
matn
(the sayings or actions of Muhammad). In order to simplify things, throughout this book we will generally quote the
matn
only. The
isnad
will appear with the references in the endnotes.

CHAPTER THREE

ISLAMIC ESCHATOLOGY

M
ost books on Islamic eschatology
primarily consist of the author’s best attempts to gather, compile, and relay the most reliable hadiths and various traditions relating to the end times. Beyond this, of course, most Islamic eschatology books also contain commentary from the author. Because I am not a hadith scholar (nor do I aspire to ever become one), and because I do not want to merely present my own interpretation of what Islam teaches regarding the end times, I have strictly utilized either Islamic traditions or commentary from Islamic scholars and authors who have already written extensively on these subjects. Therefore, this book will be heavy with such quotations and references.

The majority of Islamic studies of eschatology are divided into two categories, the Minor Signs and the Major Signs. The Minor Signs are sometimes thought of as the equivalent of what Jesus referred to as “the birth pangs,” which is to say that they are those signs that precede the Major Signs. To a degree this is true. The difference, however, is that many of the Minor Signs actually take place concurrently with the Major Signs. Thus the Minor Signs should not necessarily be thought of as the
first signs
, but rather the
lesser signs
. Some of the Minor Signs are quite interesting, but for the purpose of this study we will not delve into them. Instead we will move directly into the Major Signs.

THE MAJOR SIGNS

Crucial to this study is a clear understanding of just what Islam teaches regarding the Major Signs. The Major (or Greater) Signs obviously speak of far more significant events than the Minor Signs. These signs relate to issues such as the coming of the Muslim Antichrist (Ad-Dajjal), or the return of the Muslim Jesus (Isa Al-Maseeh), or most important, the coming of the Muslim savior/messiah figure (Al-Mahdi). They do not relate to, for instance, the increase in immorality, or religious ignorance, or other such general signs. While some of the Minor Signs are fairly vague and debatable as to their legitimacy, the Major Signs are absolutely a nonnegotiable entity to the Muslim mind. In order to understand the importance of the Major Signs to Muslims, one must first understand the importance of end-time belief among Muslims.

PRIORITY OF THE LAST DAYS IN ISLAMIC BELIEF

The Qur’an mentions five things that a Muslim must believe in order to be a Muslim. These five things have, as a result, become a creed of sorts within Islam. From the Qur’an we read:

It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets… (Sura 2:177; Pickthall)

Notice the order of the five tenets of belief:

1. Belief in Allah.

2. Belief in the Last Day.

3. Belief in angels.

4. Belief in the scripture.

5. Belief in the prophets.

This is very different than in Christianity. Unfortunately, while end-time belief plays a prominent role in the New Testament and in the life of the early church, today belief in the last days has become essentially optional or generally ignored by most. But not so with Islam; there are no true Muslims who do not believe in the last day and the events that precede it. Understanding the Islamic perspective regarding the Last Day and specifically the Major Signs, therefore, is crucial if we wish to understand the central religious anticipations of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. It is to these core beliefs that we now turn.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE MAHDI: ISLAM’S AWAITED MESSIAH

A
mong the Major Signs
, the most anticipated and central sign that Muslims await is the coming of a man known as “the Mahdi.” In Arabic,
al-Mahdi
means “the Guided One.”
¹
He is also sometimes referred to by Shi’a Muslims as
Sahib Al-Zaman
or
Al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar
, which translated mean “the Lord of the Age” and “the Awaited Savior.” The Mahdi is the first of the Major Signs. This is confirmed by Ibn Kathir, a renowned Muslim scholar from the fourteenth century:

After the lesser signs of the Hour appear and increase, mankind will have reached a stage of great suffering. Then the awaited Mahdi will appear; He is the first of the greater clear signs of the Hour.
²

The coming of the Mahdi is the central crowning element of all Islamic end-time narratives. So central to Islamic eschatological expectations is the coming of the Mahdi that some Muslim scholars do not even refer to the Minor Signs as such, but instead refer to them as “the signs accompanying the Mahdi.”
³
While there are some variations of belief between the Sunni and Shi’a sects of Islam, and while certain quarters of Sunnis reject him altogether, general belief in the Mahdi is not a sectarian issue within Islam, but is universal among most Muslims. According to Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, “The coming of the Mahdi is established
doctrine for both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, and indeed for all humanity.”
⁴

Ayatullah Baqir al-Sadr and Ayatullah Murtada Mutahhari, both Shi’a Muslim scholars, in their book,
The Awaited Savior
, describe the Mahdi this way:

A figure more legendary than that of the Mahdi, the Awaited Saviour, has not been seen in the history of mankind. The threads of the world events have woven many a fine design in human life but the pattern of the Mahdi stands high above every other pattern. He has been the vision of the visionaries in history. He has been the dream of all the dreamers of the world. For the ultimate salvation of mankind he is the Pole Star of hope on which the gaze of humanity is fixed…. In this quest for the truth about the Mahdi there is no distinction of any caste, creed, or country. The quest is universal, exactly in the same way as the Mahdi himself is universal. He stands resplendent high above the narrow walls in which humanity is cut up and divided. He belongs to everybody. For all that and much more, what exactly is the Mahdi? Surely that is the big question which the thinking people all over the world would like to ask.
⁵

Indeed, just who is this “awaited one” that the Islamic world longs for, and what will he do that has Muslims in such a state of anticipation? This chapter will attempt to thoroughly answer this question primarily by citing various Islamic traditions and the interpretations of Muslim scholars that study them. I would like to encourage you to take the time to read each and every quote. It is in these references that we find an articulation of one of the central beliefs and passions of many of the 1.5 billion Muslims with whom we presently share the earth. Those of us who desire a greater understanding of one of the primary underlying spiritual factors affecting the world today should pay very close attention.

ISLAM’S MESSIAH

In the simplest of terms, the Mahdi is Islam’s messiah or savior. While the actual terms
messiah
and
messianism
have very clearly Judeo-Christian roots, University of Virginia professor Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina agrees that these terms are appropriately used in an Islamic context when referring to the Mahdi. In his scholarly work on the subject,
Islamic Messianism
, Sachedina elaborates thusly:

The term “messianism” in the Islamic context is frequently used to translate the important concept of an eschatological figure, the Mahdi, who as the foreordained leader “will rise” to launch a great social transformation in order to restore and adjust all things under divine guidance. The Islamic messiah, thus, embodies the aspirations of his followers in the restoration of the purity of the Faith which will bring true and uncorrupted guidance to all mankind, creating a just social order and a world free from oppression in which the Islamic revelation will be the norm for all nations.
⁶

Thus it is fair to say that the “rising” of the Mahdi is to the majority of Muslims what the return of Jesus is to Christians. While Christians await the return of Jesus the Messiah to fulfill all of God’s prophetic promises to the people of God, Muslims await the appearance of the Mahdi to fulfill these purposes. Sheikh Kabbani likewise identifies the Mahdi as Islam’s primary messiah figure: “Jews are waiting for the Messiah, Christians are waiting for Jesus, and Muslims are waiting for both the Mahdi and Jesus. All religions describe them as men coming to save the world.”
⁷

A MAN FROM THE FAMILY OF MUHAMMAD

The first and most often cited Islamic belief with regard to the Mahdi is the tradition that states that the Mahdi will descend from the family of Muhammad and will bear Muhammad’s name:

The world will not come to pass until a man from among my family, whose name will be my name, rules over the Arabs.
⁸

The Prophet said: The Mahdi will be of my family, of the descendants of Fatimah [Muhammad’s daughter].
⁹

A UNIVERSAL LEADER FOR ALL MUSLIMS

Throughout the Islamic world today there is a call for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate. The caliph (
khalifa
) in Islam may be viewed somewhat as the Pope of the Muslims. Muslims view the caliph as the vice regent for Allah on the earth. It is important to understand that when Muslims call for the restoration of the caliphate, it is ultimately the Mahdi that they call for, for the Mahdi is the awaited final caliph of Islam. Muslims everywhere will be obligated to follow the Mahdi:

If you see him, go and give him your allegiance, even if you have to crawl over ice, because he is the Vice-regent [
Khalifa
] of Allah, the Mahdi.
¹⁰

He will pave the way for and establish the government of the family [or community] of Muhammad…
Every believer will be obligated to support him
.
¹¹
(emphasis mine)

THE RULER OF THE WORLD

The Mahdi is believed to be a future Muslim world leader who will not only rule over the Islamic world, but the non-Muslim world as well. The Mahdi is said to lead a world revolution that will establish a new Islamic world order throughout the entire earth: