Mahdism in Twelver Shi'ism
Belief in Mahdi is more prevalent in Shi'ite Islam. Twelvers believe him to be the Twelfth Imam who is in occultation until he returns at the end of time. Mahdism in Twelver Shiʿism innate many of its essentials from previous sacred trends. According to the customary date most often taken, Imam Ḥasan ʿAskari, the eleventh Imam, died in 874. His death, like that of preceding Imams, gave rise to an age of commotion among the faithful, but this phase the calamity appeared even more solemn and the Imamis did not themselves waver to plea the eras that were to trail “the period of perplexity” or “confusion”.
The cryptic destiny of the assumed son of the eleventh Imam led to numerous rifts with prominent doctrinal adjustments. Some groups claimed that his son died at a very early age, others that he had survived until a certain age and then died, and still others solely denied his very reality, considering that Ḥasan ʿAskari never had a son. Only a small minority sustained the notion that the son of the eleventh imam was alive, that he was in “occultation”, and that he was to recur as mahdi at the end of time. This idea was progressively accepted by all Imamis, who accordingly became known as “Twelvers”. Sources from this era replicate, in their specific method, the hesitation and crisis believers experienced. A close study of these sources definitely seems to display that thoughtful hesitations and serious gaps occurred concerning a significant number of vital doctrinal fundamentals that became articles of faith.
There are many theories to about the twelve Imam. There are sources that attribute two dissimilar formations of the occultation to Mahdi. According to the first, mentioned by Ebn Bābuya, the Hidden Imam “exists in the world by his spiritual substance thanks to a subsisting essence”
According to another theory stated by Ebn Nadim, Abu Sahl is said to have kept that the twelfth Imam died, but covertly left behind a son as a descendant to him; the heredity of Imams would therefore be preserved in occultation from father to son until the last Imam reveals himself publicly as the Mahdi. Ultimately, none of the theories were continued, but here one distinguishes uncertain struggles to justify the notion of occultation. Everything of this inclines to show that through this stage of development, the Imami community experienced what one might deliberate an attentive identity predicament. This “time of confusion” is one of exploratory in the dark, of study, improvement, and the more or less tender formation of dogmas related to the power and legitimacy of the twelfth Imam. These doctrines were faced with, and overpowered, much confrontation before finally standing as articles of faith.
- Birth and occultation of the Mahdi
The eschatological Redeemer of Imamism is presented as Abu’l-Qāsem Moḥammad b. Ḥasan al-ʿAskari, twelfth and final among the Imams. He thus bears the identical title and konya as the Prophet, therefore satisfying the hadith that perhaps go back to ʿAṣem b. Bahdala from Kufa. It certainly owes its beginning to Moḵtār’s revolt in service of Moḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiya, son of ʿAli, who, once when he was called as Mahdi, stated that his honor entailed in bearing the same forename and konya as the Prophet . Nonetheless, it was imprudent to call the Mahdi by his title, according to a prohibition attributed to several among the imams, the intention of which was to defend the Protector from the danger modeled by the ʿAbbasid. This also mirrored doubts that evaluated upon the personality of the Mahdi.
According to particular explanations, Mahdi’s mother, to whom numerous names are specified (Narjis, Rayḥāna, Sawsan, Maryam), was a black slave of Nubian origin; according to other interpretations, undeniably well-known and hagiographic, she was the grand-daughter of the Byzantine ruler, himself adherent of the Apostle Simon. According to this account, the Byzantine princess was taken by Muslim troops and traded as a slave in Baghdad to a man belonging to the entourage of the tenth Imam, ʿAli al-Naqi who then came to Sāmarrāʾ and presented the girl to Ḥakima, the latter’s sister. Even before her confinement, the princess had a vision of Mary, mother of Jesus, as well as of Faṭima, daughter of the Prophet Moḥammad, both of whom had requested her to convert to Islam and let herself be seized by the Muslim masses as she was intended for a magnificent life. In Samarraʾ, the tenth Imam, having by prophecy acknowledged in her the future mother of the Mahdi, offered her in marriage to his son Ḥasan, the future eleventh Imam. Signs of the mother’s pregnancy as well as the birth of the child were astoundingly covered, since the ʿAbbasids wanted to abolish an anticipated child whom persistent gossips labeled as a Savior. The father revealed the baby to some forty close disciples, and then the child was concealed. According to numerous versions, the eleventh imam is said to have adopted a two-fold method to promise the child’s refuge. First, apart from his close circle, the Imam retained the birth of the child undisclosed, going so far as to entitle his mother, Ḥodayṯ, as his sole heir. Now, it is well known that according to Imami law, under some circumstances the legacy belongs to the mother of the deceased when the final does not leave behind a child. Secondly, Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskari had alternative to a trick to cloud the matter and divert attention. Sometime beforehand his death in 874, he allowed a report to spread that his servant Ṣaqil was expecting with his child. Informants of the caliph al-Moʿtamed carefully observed the activities of the Imam, who was kept under surveillance in the military camp at Sāmarrāʾ.< The Cave in Sāmarrāʾ is where the Hidden Imam is said to have arisen his occultation. Typologically, one can differentiate three groupings of stories of encounters, based on the prime dimension endorsed: a altruistic dimension in which the great kindness of the Hidden Imam towards his advocates and his worry for their comfort are stressed; an initiatory aspect in which the Imam demonstrates his followers prayers, conveys divine knowledge, and endures secrets; and lastly, an eschatological element, presented primarily by late spiritual sources, in which the happenstance encourages a believer’s specific spiritual revivification.
The end of time and rising of the Mahdi- The “end of time” or the date of the ultimate arrival of the Hidden Imam, is unknown and followers are insisted to anticipate liberation tolerantly and virtuously. The future approaching of the Savior is the most recurrently quoted topic in prophecies made by the Prophet, Faṭima, and the Imams: complete extensive chapters are devoted to the subject in the sources. This future is foreshadowed by a number of signs. The widespread signs are the prevalent invasion of the earth by Wicked, the overpowering of knowledge by unawareness, and the loss of an intelligence of the blessed and all that associates man to God and his neighbors. These, in some degree, require the demonstration and the rising of the Qāʾem, or else mortality will be astounded by obscurity. cite “Furthermore, there are certain specific signs among which five recur more regularly and are hence justifiably called the “five signs”: (1) the coming of Sofyāni, the enemy of the Qāʾem, who will command an army in battle against the latter (2) the advent of Yamāni, who appears in the Yemen to preach support for the Qāʾem; (3) the Cry/Scream of supernatural origin, coming from the sky and calling man to defend the Imam’s cause; (4) the swallowing of an army composed of the Imam’s enemies in a desert often located between Mecca and Medina, according to a hadith most likely propagated by ʿAbd-Allāh b. Zobayr during his war propaganda against the Umayyad caliph Yazid, during the latter’s campaign against Mecca and Medina, popularized by the traditionist of Basra, Qatāda and (5) the assassination by the Meccans of the messenger to the Qāʾem, often called Nafs or al-Nafs al-Zakiya (echoing the messianic rebellion and death in 762 of the Hasanid Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-Allāh, surnamed al-Nafs al-Zakiya).”
The Mahdi accordingly becomes visible, all the while having inexplicably kept his youth. He combats and ultimately deracinates Evil, re-establishing the world to its novel wholesome state. For this to happen, he must first retaliate the slaying of Imam Ḥosayn in order that the common of Muslims be removed of the wicked corruption that it ever committed. Furthermore, according to the eschatological guideline of rajʿa, a definite number of previous saints, fatalities of their society’s prejudice, and their oppressors originate back to life in order that the moral may take retaliation on the malicious ones. The Redeemer will so not only re-establish Islam, but all faiths, to their wholesomeness and new veracity, creating “submission to God” the worldwide religion. He will also convey knowledge to manhood by enlightening the obscure secrets of Holy Scriptures.
The whole world will be taken to submission. Powers of inequality and obliviousness will be all eliminated, the earth will be inflated with justice and wisdom, and mortality revitalized by knowledge. The Mahdi accordingly formulates the world for the last trial of the ultimate reappearance of the Last Judgment. According to some traditions, the Mahdi will be in control upon the earth for certain time, seven, nine or nineteen 7, 9, 19 years, after which ensues the death of all civilization just preceding the Judgment. Other traditions state subsequently the demise of the Qāʾem, the régime of the world will continue in the influences of the initiated for a definite period before the Day of Resurrection. .
Influence and consequences
Contrasting to Sunnism, where certainty in the Mahdi, although existing, never developed a vital article of faith, in Shiʿism in overall, and Twelver Imamism in specific, it is made a constitutive doctrine of its spiritual dogma, its dualist image of the world and more exactly, its commencement of, “place of return” or the henceforth. Throughout the course of period, Imami panegyric as well as hagiographic works devoted to the Hidden Imam tried hard to validate that the figure of the Mahdi, contemporary in Sunni hadith, mentioned to the twelfth Imam Imami urgings increased drive through the 13th century when certain great Sunni intellectuals subsidized their sustenance to the Imami doctrine of categorizing the Mahdi with the twelfth Imam:. “the two Syrian Shafiʿite scholars Moḥammad b. Yusof Ganji in his Bayān fi aḵbār ṣāḥeb al-zamān, composed in 1250-51, and Kamāl-al-Din Moḥammad ʿAdawi Naṣibini in his Maṭāleb al-soʾul, completed in 1252, and the renowned Sebṭ Ebn al-Jawzi in his Taḏkerat al-ḵawāṣṣ. Given the dates of these authors and their works, coinciding with the arrival of the Mongols, the end of Sunni caliphal power and the increasing political influence of the Imamis, one wonders if this doctrinal reversal was not dictated by a certain opportunism. One might note in this respect that Moḥammad b. Yusof Ganji was assassinated in Damascus in 1260 for having collaborated with the Mongol conquerors. In any case, it is from this period onward that one notices, from time to time, some learned Sunnis rallying to Imami Mahdism.” . The sensation is also manifest among Sunni sages. Already in the 11th century, Abu Bakr Bayhaqi had criticized the agreement of some Sufis regarding the documentation of the Mahdi with the last Imam of the Twelvers . Setting apart the effect of Imamism upon the eschatological hagiology of Ebn al-ʿArabi one can quote the devotee of the latter, Saʿd-al-Din Ḥammuya in his Farāʾed al-semṭayn, the Egyptian ʿAbd-al-Wahhāb Šaʿrāni in al-Yawāqit wa’l-jawāher or, more newly, the Naqšbandi master from Balkh, Solaymān Qonduzi in his Yanābiʾ al-mawadda . .
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 and was hidden by God at the age of five (874). He is still alive but has been in occultation, "awaiting the time that God has decreed for his return," When it comes he promised that no one who wanted happiness would be denied and no one who had believed will be left behind.
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 proofs will overcome (will be influential, will be dominant) everyone and nobody will have any counter-proposition against him.
People will flee from him 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, 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, 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.
Sadir al-Sayrafi says: I heard from Imam Abu Abdullah Ja'far al-Sadiq that: Our modest Imam, to whom this occultation belongs, 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 can explain the works of the Messenger of God.
The face of the Mahdi shall shine upon the surface of the Moon.
Read more about this topic: Imam Mehdi