The Islamic Antichrist (37 page)

How do you think that Prime Minister Erdogan would respond to these ideas concerning an Islamic Union with Turkey in a leadership role?

The prime minister and the current government are striving with all their might for the establishment of the Turkish-Islamic Union. The initiative for the establishment of the Caucasian Union, the pipeline projects, railway projects, Turkey’s adopting an active role in the Middle East, and problems being resolved under Turkish leadership are all initiatives being taken for the establishment of the Turkish-Islamic Union. These are all very excellent, very successful initiatives. They will pick up further pace in the future and, by
Allah’s leave, a Turkish-Islamic Union under Turkish leadership will be founded in the next ten to twenty years.

According to certain hadiths, Muhammad once said that Turkey would be conquered a second time for Islam through peaceful means. Are you aware of any within the Turkish Islamic community that believe that this prophecy has been or is being fulfilled through the rise of the AKP Islamist party in Turkey?

The hadiths describe how Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will capture Istanbul with the
taqbir
, that is to say, by reciting the name of Allah. This once again shows that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will strengthen belief in Allah through cultural and intellectual activities, that he will be instrumental in a rise in spiritual matters and people turning to religious moral values, and that religious moral values will prevail over the world in that way. You know, when Fatih Sultan Mehmet captured Istanbul he was initially unwilling to undertake the campaign since the hadiths say that he who captures Istanbul will be Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). He then consulted with his teacher, Akshemsettin, who told him,
“First Mehmet will capture Istanbul, and the Mahdi will subsequently capture it spiritually
.” In other words, he says that the physical capture of Istanbul will be by Fatih, and its spiritual conquest by the Mahdi. Fatih then set out on his campaign. The Turkish nation has always been loyal to spiritual values, a religious nation. But there has been a very evident strengthening in that context in recent times. Intellectual work that has demolished Darwinism and materialism has of course played a major role in this. In the 1970s, the level of belief in Darwinism was very high, around 80 percent. Today it is the exact opposite. Turkey is the country with the lowest level of belief in Darwinism. More than 90 percent believe in creation.

You have stated that you believe that both the Mahdi and Jesus are present now on the earth. What makes you believe this exactly?

Allah promises in verse 55 of Surat an-Nur that Islamic moral values will prevail over the world. Many other verses also impart these welcome tidings. There are some three hundred portents in the hadiths regarding the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). Our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) says these will happen one by one, “like beads on a necklace.” And these really have happened one after the other since 1400 (
hegira
-style, AD 1979). A great many portents have come about. Our Prophet (saas) says that Afghanistan will be invaded, and that happened. He says that Iraq will be occupied, and that has happened. He says blood will be spilled in the Kaaba, and that happened. He says the waters of the Euphrates will be cut, and that happened. He says there will be eclipses of the sun and moon at fifteen-day intervals in the month of Ramadan, and that happened. He says there will be a sign in the sun, and that happened. He speaks of the devastation of Baghdad, and that has happened. He reveals the economic crisis, and that is happening. Many other things have happened, but what really matters is that they have all taken place in the space of twenty to thirty years. Afghanistan may have been invaded or Baghdad devastated at their times in history, but this is the first time that all these events have happened in the same period as described by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). That means there is something extraordinary going on.

I think that the coming of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) is also very close. The Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return, and we will welcome, love and embrace him in ten to twenty years,
insha’Allah
. After that,
insha’Allah
, the world will be very delightful, bright, and prosperous.

According to Islamic tradition, in the last days the beast will emerge from Mecca. He will mark the foreheads of all true believers. What do you understand this “mark of the beast” to be?

The Dabbat al-Ardh [the beast coming out of the earth] is one of the portents that will appear in the end times, and there are a great many hadiths concerning the Dabbat al-Ardh, although some are confused and they may not all be true. I do not think this is a completely sound hadith. But the subject does appear in the Qur’an. In verse 82 of Surat an-Naml Allah says:
“When the Word is justly carried out against them, we will produce a Beast from the earth which will speak to them. Truly mankind had no certainty about our signs.”

The verse reveals that the Dabbat al-Ardh will appear from the earth, in other words that it is a product of the earth. It describes an entity that will talk to people. The hadiths refer to him being able to cross large distances in a single step, talking to people, and travelling everywhere. Since it is a product of the earth, it will be something made up of such minerals and metals extracted from underground as iron, copper, zinc, cobalt, and chrome. These substances are the basic components of present-day computers. Talking to people and covering large distances in a short space of time is a reference to the Internet. Thanks to the Internet it is very easy to access or transfer information, to speak to people, and establish communications with them. And thanks to the Internet, people will be told about the Qur’an even more quickly. In the end times, the Internet will be an important means whereby Islamic moral values come to prevail the world.

Will the Mahdi be able to bring together all religions, and if so, how will he do this?

The Mahdi will bring together with love people from all faiths and holding all kinds of ideas, will enable them to see one another’s good sides by strengthening their feelings of friendship and brotherhood, and will ensure they treat one
another with understanding. When Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) appears, love will rule the world and people will abandon all fellings of hatred and anger. So much so that the hadiths describe how even the fish in the sea and the birds in the air will be content with the environment of beauty and love of which Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be instrumental, and that love for Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will descend on everyone’s hearts. The sincere love that people feel for Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be instrumental in them trusting each other with love, affection, and compassion.

The career and life of Muhammad as well as that of his earliest followers is undeniably one that involves much bloodshed, assassinations, and wars of aggression. Your vision of the Mahdi is one of a peaceful and violent rise to power as well as a peaceful rule. Yet one must ask how the Mahdi would be able to do that which Muhammad was not able to accomplish? Does the Mahdi rule in a superior manner than even Muhammad?

The revelation of the Qur’an to our Prophet (saas) took twenty-three years. During the first thirteen years, Muslims lived as a minority in the idolatrous system in Mecca and were subjected to enormous oppression. Many Muslims were physically tortured, some were killed, most had their goods and homes plundered and were constantly exposed to insults and slander. Nonetheless, Muslims did not turn to war but always invited the idolators to peace. When the pressure they were exposed to from the idolators became intolerable the Muslims migrated to the city of Yathrib (later to be known as Medina), where there was a freer and more friendly climate, and established their own administration there. Even after establishing their own political order in that way, they still did not wage war against the idolators of Mecca. When they did fight, it was always for reasons of self-defense. The superior moral values demonstrated by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his
companions during these unavoidable wars have gone down in history as highly exemplary.

For example, Arab custom dictated that anyone taken prisoner in battle should be killed. Because of the commandments revealed by Allah, however, our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) ordered that captives be treated well and that Muslims should share their food with them. These characteristics of believers in revealed in verse 8 of Surat al-Insan,
“They give food, despite their love for it, to the poor and orphans and captives.”
All that was asked of people taken captive was, if they were able, for them to teach those Muslims who could not read and write to do so. Muslims’ justice, courage, and determination was instrumental in many Arab tribes converting to Islam; in other words, Islam was spread, not through war, but by the moral virtues and
taqwa
exhibited by Muslims. Another example of this took place during the capture of Mecca. The army of Islam set out for Mecca in AD 630. The Meccan idolators were terrified that the Muslims would wreak revenge for their previous oppression of them. According to Arab custom, the males of a tribe defeated in war would be put to the sword, and the women and children enslaved. The idolators of Mecca were convinced that was what would happen to them. But our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) declared that no vengeance would be extracted from the people of Mecca and that nobody would be forced to become a Muslim. This great forgiveness and tolerance has also attracted the attention of Western historians. For instance, the Haverford University academic Micheal Sells describes this superior moral virtue of the Prophet (saas) and says that when he arrived to Mecca, let alone taking a bloody vengeance, he embraced Meccans who were making war with him and struggling to kill him for three years. He further adds that this attitude evoked great admiration in the people of that time. Sells concludes that for that reason in the foundation of a religion, there existed great
benevolence, an extraordinary civility and compassion (
Islam Empire of Faith; An Empires Special
, PBS Home Video).

A Christian author named Dr. David Reagan has just released a very critical review of some of the things that I have written. In his criticism, he claims that I am “very misleading” when I claim that belief in the Mahdi is not exclusively held by the Shi’a belief but is also held by a wide range of Sunnis as well. Dr. Reagan then states that Sunnis are not looking for the Mahdi. What would you say to Dr. Reagan? In your experience, what percentage of Sunnis generally believe in the Mahdi?

According to Sunni belief (in the Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi’I, and Maliki schools), it is an absolute and unanimous article of faith that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will come, that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will descend from the sky, and will insist that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) act as his imam. It is perfectly normal for people who are not Sunni and who reject the hadiths also to deny the coming of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) and belief in Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). But none of the Sunni
ulama
(scholars) have ever rejected the coming of the Prophet Jesus and Hazrat Mahdi (peace be upon them), but have all been unanimously agreed on the subject for hundreds of years. Our scholars are in “full agreement” in imparting this truth to Muslims. For example, the great Imam Abu Hanifa, the founder of my school, reveals that the coming of the Prophet Jesus and the appearance of Hazrat Mahdi (peace be upon them) are matters “which cannot possibly be denied.”

The appearance of the Dajjal and of Gog and Magog, the sun rising in the West, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) descending from the sky and all the other trustworthy reports of the portents of Doomsday are true and inevitable. There are other great portents of Doomsday. Such as the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). All these events reported in trustworthy
accounts are true and will happen (Fiqhi Aqbar Translation,
The Great Imam Abu Hanifa
, edited by Ali Riza Ka

The great Imam Abu Hanifa, the founder of my school; Imam Hanbal, founder of the Hanbali school; Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school; and Imam Shafi, founder of the Shafi’i school, have all stated that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return to earth and that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will appear. These imams of the four great Sunni schools are all expounders of Islamic law. In addition to them, all great Islamic scholars have said that Islamic moral values will prevail in the world in the end times, that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return, and that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will appear. Sunni Muslims following in the path of these great scholars naturally believe in the coming of Hazrat Mahdi and the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon them). It is impossible for any Sunni to believe or say anything else.

NOTES