Chapter 16: Re-appearance of Imam Mehdi (as)
There is no confusion or difference of opinion among the Muslim scholars about the ar rival of Imam Mehdi (as) before the Doomsday. In a hadith, unanimously accepted by all Muslims as an authentic one, the Holy Prophet (sws) stressed that Imam Mehdi (as) will cer tainly come before the commencement of the Doomsday.
The Holy Prophet (sws) said;
"If there were to remain in life of the world but one day, Allah (swt) would prolong that day until He sends in it a man from my family and my household. His name will be the same as my name. He will fill the earth with equity and justice as it was filled with oppression and tyranny." Shia and Sunni ahadith about ImamMehdi(
as).
There are more than 3000 ahadith of the Holy Prophet (sws) and Holy Imams about Imam Mahdi (as) recorded by Shia scholars. Also, there are more than 70 books written by renowned Sunni scholars about Imam Mahdi (as). For example, Hafiz Muhammad ibn Yusuf ash-Shaafi, a renowned Sunni scholar, has written a book, "Al- Bayan fi Akhbar Sahibi'z Zaman," in two volumes, in which he has recorded the traditions regarding the coming of the Holy Imam.
The other books written by Sunni scholars inwhich
they have recorded hundreds of traditions about the Imam Mehdi (s) are:
Al Masnad of Ahmad bin Hanbal (d.241AH)
Sahih Bukhari (d. 256 AH)
Sahih Muslim (d.261 AH)
Sunan of Abu Dawood (d.275 AH)
Sahih Tirmidhi (d.279 AH)
The above most famous books are considered by all Sunni scholars as the most authentic books. As mentioned in the brackets, the authors of these books died either before the birth
of Imam Mahdi (as) or shortly after his birth.
Difference of opinion between Shia and Sunni about the appearance of ImamMehdi(
as)
Both Shia and Sunni are united in their basic belief that ImamMahdi(
as) will cer tainly rule the whole world before the occurrence of the Doomsday.
But, there is a strong controversy among Muslims on the issue of occultation (Ghaibat). Sunni scholars believe that Imam Mehdi (as) will be born anytime before the day of Qiyamat and will rule the world. Whereas, all Shia scholars have a strong belief based on Quran and hadith that Imam Mehdi (as) was born in 255 AH, and is still living in concealment as the Imam of his time, and will reappear by the order of Allah (swt) at His appointed time.
He has a title Imam ul-Asr, meaning the Imam of the period.
Briefly, ImamMehdi(
as) is the son of the 11th Imam, Hazrat Hasan al - Askari and Bibi Nargis. He is our 12th and the last Imam. He was born on 15th Shaban 255 AH / 869 AD in Samarra, Iraq. He lived under hisfather 's
care until 260AH / 874 AD.
As a normal trend of Imamat, just after the martyrdom of his father, Imam Hasan al - Askari (as), he became the Imam in 260 AH. He then by the Allah's Command went into occultation (ghaybah) immediately.
The occultation (period of ghaibat) of Imam Mehdi (as) is divided into two par ts.
1 - The minor occultation( ghaibatu'l
-sughra ), which occurred from 260 AH / 872 AD to 329 AH /939 AD, lasting 70 years.
2 - The major occultation( ghaibatu'
l- kubra ), which occurred from 329 AH / 939 AD and is still in process.
No one, except Allah (swt), knows the length of the major occultation. Even the Imam himself does not know about the time when his occultation will be over. No one, except Allah (swt), knows the exact place of Imam's residence. However, there are some reliable narration and reasonably trustworthy clues to form a hypothetical opinion about his station.
Philosophy of the occultation
It is important to do extensive research on the hadiths to know correctly about the purpose of occultation, and the way Imam Mehdi (as) would re- appear.
It is not as simple as we think that our Imam is just living somewhere in hiding, does hajj ever y year, helps people or Ulema and will reappear on any Friday to establish an unparalleled Islamic government after killing all the Kafirs by his sword.
There are some important questions concerning the occultation of the Imam which need rational explanation.
1 - What is the Divine scheme and purpose of keeping the Imam alive but totally invisible to the public?
2 - What is the daily routine of the HolyImam ?
Is he just helping the Ulema occasionally, passively observing the daily performance of the Shias, attending and helping the people in their desperate need and that'sall ?
What would be the productive turnout of his hundreds of years stay inoccultation ?
3 - How will the Holy Imam, on his arrival just as one single person, destroy the giant nuclear powers of the time by a conventional weapon - thesword ?
eg
. China alone has about 2 million troops on active duty, 600,000 people in reserve and about 1 million in its armed militia uses as a military draft. The combined armed forces of these nations that are trained to fight both in air and on land have more than 10 million troops on active duty.
We know that Muslim countries are not united to raise a strong army for the Imam nor they are technologically equipped to assist him in any other useful way.
How the conventional sword would match with intercontinental ballistic missiles, atomic bombs, artillery shells, mines, torpedoes and many other kinds of strategic nuclear weapons normally used in worldwars ?
We know that the United States alone has a war machine that could launch its forces within minutes of a warning and strike anywhere in the world.
4 - According to Sunnis belief, Imam Mehdi will be born before the Doomsday and will destroy the evil Empires of his time. Does it mean that the Imam will conquer the giant super powers by some supernaturalmeans ?
But it has never happened in the whole his-tory of prophethood. Even the Head of all prophets, the Holy Prophet (sws) did everything from the scratch to the establishment of Islamic government in normal and natural way.
These are indeed some valid and useful questions which need satisfactor y answers to strengthen the unshaken belief in the re-appearance of the Holy Imam (as).
According to my research, Imam is not just idly sitting and waiting for Allah's command to come out from the hidden place. I believe,
Imam must have a full scheme of work and a broad Divine agenda to follow up during the long period of occultation. But whatis
that Divine agenda and his scheduled occupation all through the long duration of his concealment?
The rational explanation of this question will convince the unprejudiced Muslim minds, the grave repercussion of the misconceptions they have about the coming of Imam Al-Mehdi (as). The Sunni believe that Imam's birth
will take place in future. This misconception jeopardizes the basic Divine objective of sending the Imam before the end of the world. There is a precise purpose of occultation.
However, our explanation may or may not be absolutely correct as there are many things beyond the range of our perception.
A powerful Empire behind the iron curtain.
We know that all the prophets were sent by Allah (swt) to guide the mankind in natural way. They all were human beings. They all lived in a natural way like other ordinary human beings. Our 12th Imam is also living in occultation in conformity with the normalsunnah
of the prophets and his eleven predecessors.
The Holy Prophet (sws) and all 11 Imams (as) had married women and had many children from them. Despite the very short life span of the Imams, and mass killing of saadat, a great number of sayyed exist today.
The 12th Imam must also have married many women. The Holy Prophet (sws) was granted by Allah a special provision of marrying more than 4 wives at a time because of some good reasons. We don't know if our living Imam is also having such provision of mar rying many wives at a time to raise a large population of momineen.
In any case, viewing his extremely long life span, we can genuinely imagine a large population of people in his generation. He must be living with millions, if not billion, of people from his own long chain of generation progressed in more than 1000 years. This population must be steadily increasing day by day in the dominion of the Holy Imam.
This is not merely a hypothetical guess work. There are some remarkable clues in suppor t of the speculation that there exists a powerful invisible country somewhere in the world. There are reliable traditions repor ted by great Shia scholars about the huge number of inhabitants living in a group of islands known as the JAZIRATUL KHADHRA (The Green Island).
These islands are totally cut off from the rest of the world by a large sea known as Bahrul Abyadh (WhiteSea )
.
There is a long story narrated by Muhammad bin Ali Alawi Hussaini, repor ted in an authoritative book Al - Najmus Thaqib. In this story, a reliable person tells in full detail, how he happened to visit these islands totally governed by the Imam Zaman (as). He told that there are large cities in these islands, highly developed and advanced. The names of these cities mentioned in the book are as follows:
(1) Mubaraka. (2) Raequa. (3) Sophia. (4) Zaloom. (5) Panatis. There are also some other authentic repor ts confirming the existence of a huge empire of Al-Mehdi(
as).
There are also some other reports by Non-Muslim news agencies disclosing the mysteries of these islands. These reports got a blaze of publicity throughout the world. International magazines, newspapers, radio and television gave substantial coverage to these repor ts. The encyclopedias and World Books have also endorsed these repor ts in full detail. We are giving here a report from the World Book Encyclopedia.
"There is a group of islands, known as Bermuda Triangle, in the southeastern coast of Florida where many ships and airplanes have disappeared. However, commercial and military crafts cross this area safely every day.
Many people believe the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle have taken place under mysterious circumstances. Only a few captains or pilots radioed distress messages. The first recorded disappearance of a United States ship in the Ber muda Triangle occurred in March 1918, when the U.S.S. Cyclops vanished.
On Dec. 5, 1945, a squadron of five US bombers disappeared, and a sea-plane vanished while searching for the aircraft." There are many other reports confirming many other such incidents of this nature occurred in this area.
These islands cover about 1,140,000 square kilometers area which is bigger than France, Germany, Greece, japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and many other countries of the world. These reports show that a powerful system is working in this par t of the world which can capture, destroy or jam the most advanced ships and aircraft of the world. Also, there is a lot of talk going on for years about the mysterious unidentified flying objects (UFO).
What is the reality of theseobjects ?
Scientists define these objects as something unidentified that has no obvious explanations. It means that these objects are the product of such highly developed technology that the world's top scientists can not understand them and, therefore, they are not able to identify them. Indeed, in such circumstances, any kind of scientific explanation is out of question. Let us see first what these unidentified objects are?
Here is the full report from the World Book Encyclopedia. "People have reported aircraft, missiles, satellites, birds, insects, and weather balloon. Investigators can explain all but a small percentage of UFO repor ts. The remainder may be due to an unknown phenomenon or merely to limitation in human perception, memor y, and research.
In 1952, the United States Air Force, in a program called Project Blue Book, investigated about 12000 UFO reports to determine whether UFO's were a potential threat to national security. In addition, from 1966 to 1968, the Air Force sponsored an independent study of UFO's by scientists at theuniversity
of Colorado. The Colorado scientists advised the Air Force that further study of UFO's was not likely to produce useful information concerning a security threat. As a result, the Air Force ended Project Blue Book in 1969.
Many people throughout the world believe that UFO's are spacecraft from other planets. Accounts of encounters with alien visitors have appeared in numerous books, newspapers, motion pictures, and TV programs. Some people have even repor ted that they have been abducted by aliens".
Reviewing and analytically judging all these international reports viz., the Bermuda Triangle, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO), and authentic narrative accounts of many religious people recorded in reliable books such as the one by Muhammad bin Ali Alawi in his book 'Al - Najmus Thaqib' about the Jaziratul Khadhra, ( the Green Island ), we can rationally arrive at some useful conclusions.
1- That these groups of islands, Green Islands or Bermuda Islands, may be occupied and governed by the Holy Imam Al- Mehdi (as) and his people, where he has established a powerful Islamic government.
2- The Imam's country is totally invisible and is protected and monitored by computerized electromagnetic devices that produce intense light beams.
There are some highly sensitive clockwork equipments, which can accurately ascer tain the identity of all the passing ships and airplanes. As repor ted above, they allow many ships and airplane to go while stop some in accordance with the programmed instructions to divert them to the desired destination for reason not known to us. Some pilots who were allowed to escape say that they believe the country has highly developed technology which can easily destroy orinterfere
all kinds of ships, airplane, radar and electronic navigational systems.
3 - The Imam's country, behind the iron curtain, is immensely developed in science and technology.
They have highly advanced aircrafts, missiles, artillery shells, satellites, and many other kinds of nuclear devices. According to the UFO reports, they have powerful long range-bomber aircrafts which are designed to launch an attack from great distances on specific targets in any par t of the world.
The peculiar birds and insects (UFO's objects) witnessed by many people may be these long-range bomber aircrafts. Quran has mentioned these kinds of ballistic missiles sent by Allah to destroy the big army of the elephant which came from Yemen under the command of Abrahah Al-Ashram to frighten the Muslims and to destroy the Kabah at Makkah. .
"Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the companions of theelephants.
Did he not make their plot goastray ?
And He sent against them Flights of Birds. Then He made them like an empty field of stalks of which the corn has been eaten up by cattle." (105:1-5)
These few samples of Imam's world, i.e., the UFO's, have demonstrated the fact that the so- called Super Power of this world and their allies are far behind in scientific and technological advancement. The scientists of this world can not even understand the level and standard of Imam's technology. This is why they call these technological products unidentified objects, meaning something beyond comprehension.
As mentioned above, several teams of specialists from different countries have made all possible efforts to know the origin of these flying objects. We know that different kinds of satellites such as weather, communication, navigation, space and earth observation satellites are constantly monitoring the world from space in all sides and at all times.
The US military satellite - often called as "Spy Satellite"- can detect the launch of missiles, the course of airplane in air and the movement of any kind of flying object. But despite this tight security of the planet, no one knows from where these different kinds of flying objects are coming. Out of frustration, some scientists said that they may be from any other planet. But the unmanned space crafts have already confirmed that there is no possibility of any kind of life in any of the planet.
Thus, we believe, the 12000 flying objects (UFO's) seen in different par t of the world may be the military maneuvering from the Imam's war depar tment. This gives an image of the imam's war machinery, which is certainly much superiorthan
the combined military power of the whole world. In fact, it is not even the 1% of Imam's military strength.
When Imam will reappear, his new kind of weapons will repeat the performance of his great grandfather 's
sword - THE ZULFIQAR. The whole world will surrender to him.
This is a rational explanation of what Imam has been doing during the occultation, which is a period of more than 1000 years, and how the Imam will defeat the strong nuclear powers of our time in natural way.
UFO's reports, which can not be denied, are a mystery for the non-believers and non-Muslim scientists because they have no ground to imagine a powerful country on this earth. But for us, it strongly connects us with our belief that Imam is alive and is fully busy in preparation of his reappearance to overthrow all the powerful Un-Islamic governments and their allies.
4- The whole population of the Imam's country is solely true Muslim. They are all the true followers of Ahlal -Bayate. The country and its all sectors are fully governed by the Holy Imam and his appointed Deputies.
There may be hundreds of highly advanced universities with vast laboratories and workshops, big industries and nuclear plants, space platform and manned orbiting habitat etc., all fully equipped and embellished with highly sophisticated and computerized tools. In these places, great scientists of all disciplines must be working under the supervision of Imam Al-Mehdi (as).
Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (as) got a little oppor tunity and limited time to do some work. But even then he had produced 4000students,
among them were great scientists such as Jabir bin Hayyan, Father of Chemistry.
Imam Muhammed Al- Mehdi (as) has been given a full oppor tunity and enough time to develop an ideal world in all respect. So he must produce thousands of great scientists, fuqha and scholars in every discipline of knowledge.
The modern scientific and technological revolution, which has stunned the world, is just 200 years old. It was not supervised by good and matured leaders. It can never compete with the 1000 years old scientific revolution, fully guided and supervised by the Holy Imam.
Thus, there is a strong possibility that from the beginning of the occultation, the Holy Imam Al-Mehdi has been working to develop a great powerful Islamic government, ideal in all respects, perfect in every sphere, in some part of the world. No one can surely know that place as everything belonging to the HolyImam(
as) is hidden.
It is mentioned in the Holy Quran that a time will come when the righteous people will take over the power and government of the world, where they will govern the whole earth in accordance with the perfect laws of Islam.
"We have written in the Scripture after the message had been given: The righteous amongMy
servants shall inherit the earth. Verily in this is a message to those who serveUs
." (21:105 )
The development of such an ideal government during the long period of occultation is an exciting and remarkable achievement of the Holy Imam (as). Ever since man has inhabited the earth, no such country has existed to lead a perfect social and intellectual life filled with happiness in its true sense.
When the Holy Imam Al-Mehdi will reappear, his absolutely perfect and ideal world which he would have established during the period ofoccultation,
will convey the Divine message to all mankind - this is the kind of peaceful and ideal world Allah's messengers were planning to make for you.
This was the Divine purpose of keeping the Imam in concealment. This is what Allah Subhanahu taala wants to show the inhabitants of the earth
before the Doomsday. The Divine message is apparent in the wordings of the hadith, that if there were to remain in life of the world but one day, Allah would prolong that day until He sends in it a man from my family and my household.
This is a rational explanation of Shia belief that Imam Al-Mehdi's birth
has taken place and he is alive and will re-appear to restore unprecedented peace and tranquillity in the world in a natural way. The Sunni belief that his birth
will occur in future to bring peace and order in the corrupted world fails to explain the means and mode of his revolution.
Nevertheless, though these conclusions are in good agreement with our belief in the existence of our living Imam in occultation, and also in conformity with the true understanding of the Holy Quran and ahadith, but nothing can be said with cer tainty and the whole idea about the Imam's powerful Kingdom is a guess network.
Does identifying the residence of Imam invalidate the purpose of occultation?
The Ghaibah of Imam has a Divine scheme that no one should know the whereabouts of the Imam. Some one can argue that if we know precisely where Imam is living then the purpose of occultation is not served.
But our guess-work of pinpointing a specific place of residence for Imam does not invalidate the philosophy of occultation. If our assumption that Imam is stationed on these islands is true and if the wholeworld realize
his presence there, even then they will not be able to see him, to approach him, or to reach him by any means. This is the purpose of Ghaibat of Imam which is fully preserved.
Al -Imam al- Hujjaah AI- Mehdi (as) said:
"Rest assured that no one has a special relationship with Allah. Whoever denies me is not my follower. The appearance of the Relief (al-faraj )
depends solely upon Allah ; therefore , those who propose a certain time for it are liars.
As to the benefits of my existence in occultation, it is like the benefit of the sun behind the clouds where the eyes do not see. Indeed my existence is an amnesty for the people of the earth. Pray much to Allah to hasten the Relief, for therein alsolies
the release from your sufferings."
This statement of the Holy Imam has made it very clear that everything regarding the Imam's occultation i.e., where he is staying, what he is doing and when he would reappear is an absolute secret and if anyone claims that he knows about it accurately and with cer tainty then he is a liar.
So, I want to clarify once again that whatever I have said is merely a guess work which may or may not be true. But the rationality of my guess work can clear the self-caused mystification, confusion and astonishment whichis
always disturbing the minds of our youths and of the people who have seen the UFO's objects and disappearance of several airplanes and ships. There can be no other possible explanation of the unidentified objects which is a proven reality.
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Author: Sayyid Qasim Mujtaba Moosavi Kamoonpuri
