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Concept Of Messiah In Islam
Hadith of Abu Dawud
The
Imam who will create a world state will make the ruling nations pay for
their crimes against society. He will bring succor to humanity. He will
take out the hidden wealth from the breast of the earth and will
distribute it equitably amongst the needy deserving. He will teach you
simple living and high thinking. He will make you understand that virtue
is a state of character which is always a mean between the two extremes,
and which is based upon equity and justice. He will revive the teaching of
the Holy Qur'an and the traditions of the Holy Prophet after the world has
ignored them as dead letters....
He
will protect and defend himself with resources of science and supreme
knowledge. His control over these resources will be complete. He will know
how supreme they are and how carefully they will have to be used. His mind
will be free from desires of bringing harm and injury to humanity. Such a
knowledge to him will be like the property which was wrongly possessed by
others and for which he was waiting for the permission to repossess and
use.
He,
in the beginning, will be like a poor stranger unknown and uncared for,
and Islam then will be in the hopeless and helpless plight of an exhausted
camel who has laid down its head and is wagging its tail. With such a
start he will establish an empire of God in this world. He will be the
final demonstration and proof of God's merciful wish to acquaint man with
the right ways of life."
Nahjul
Balagha, Khutba 141, 187
(Shi'ite
Islam)
(World Scripture, IRF, Paragon House Publishing, 1995, p.
785.)
The Concept of Messiah in Islam
by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi
This is the transcript of the talk given on "Islam in Focus" TV program on
December 6, 1997.
In the name of Allah, the Kind, the Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the universe.
May God shower His blessings upon Prophet Muhammad & his progeny.
INTRODUCTION
Islam, being the youngest of the three great revealed religions, shares many
ideas and concepts with Christianity and Judaism because the origin of all three
religions is the same God. One of those ideas is that of messianism, the idea of
expecting someone who will came as the saviour to establish the Kingdom of God
on earth.
In today's talk, let us briefly look at the concept of messiah in Islam.
MESSIANISM IN ISLAM
Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last prophet and messenger of God. Muslims
also believe that God will grant total and comprehensive victory to Islam over
other religions. The holy Qur'ăn talks about this promise in three different
verses. It says:
He (Allah) is the one who sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with the guidance and
the religion of truth so that He may grant victory to it over every religion."
(The Qur'ăn 9:33; 48:28; 61:9)
When and how will this promise of God be fulfilled?
According to the unanimously accepted saying of the Prophet Muhammad, God will
bring about a saviour before the end of time to establish the global domination
of Islam over all religions. In other words, the saviour will establish the
Kingdom of God on this earth. In Islamic traditions, that saviour is known by
the name of "al-Mahdi".
The establishment of God's Kingdom on earth at the hand of the righteous people
has been clearly mentioned in the holy Qur'ăn. God says:
We would like to bestow a favour upon those who have been oppressed in the earth
and make them leaders and make them inheritors (of the world)." (The Qur'ăn
28:5)
He again says,
Certainly, We wrote in the Psalms (Zabur)...`As for the earth, surely My
righteous servants shall inherit it.'" (The Qur'ăn 21:105)
Even the present version of Psalms has this promise of God in chapter 37:1-29
where it says: "And just a little while longer, and the wicked ones will be no
more...But the meek ones shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves
in the abundance of peace...The righteous themselves shall inherit the earth."
This shows that the belief in the saviour is not unique to the Muslims. The
Christians and the Jews are also are waiting for him: the Christians are looking
forward to the second coming of the Christ while the Jews are still waiting for
the Messiah.
MAHDI IN ISLAM
The belief in al-Mahdi —as the embodiment of the messiah or the saviour who will
appear at the end of time— is a belief in the fulfillment of God's promise. It
is a belief common to all Muslims based on the unanimously accepted sayings of
the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).
The Concept of Messiah in Islam
Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi
http://www.ummah.net/khoei/mahdi.htm
"The series of the
twelve imams ends with Mahdi (Ali-Mahdi = the divinely guided
one; sometimes called Al-Montadher, cf. Grade Encyclopedia, vol.
20, p. 686-587), an immortal, hidden imam who will come back to
install peace and righteousness on Earth on the Day of Judgement.
. . .
The most important cosmic
force is the divine Light of guidance, pre-eternal, the real
instrument of creation. The spiritual relation made the
"Light" passed from one imam to the next.
Amongst
the Ismaelites there were also concepts on an esoteric dimension and also
the imams, similar to the Twelver Shi'ites.
For
the sake of providing a wider range of what the subject we deal with here
meant to Islam, we shall mention that also the Ahmadiyya movement
considers that Mahdi was the incarnation of both Jesus and Muhammad and at
the same time was one of Vishnu's Avatars."
(for all of above see H.A.R.
Gibb, J.H. Kramer, Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, E.J. Brill,
Leiden 1953, pp. 24, 31, 165-166, 174, 310.)
Dan
Costian, Bible Enlightened
(Dan Costian, Bible
Enlightened, 1995, p. 241-42.)
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