Monday, December 10, 2007

8: Time of Mahdi's Appearence

Abu Qatada narrates that the Holy Prophet said: Special signs will appear after two hundred years.[1]

Imam Hakim finds this hadith authentic on the standards set by both Bukhari and Muslim. [2]

It speaks of the appearance of special heavenly signs after two hundred years. When we look at the third century hijra, we see no notable events as would warrant a definitive statement of this type from the Holy Prophetsaw. Mullah Ali Qari opines that the article al (the) in al-miatain may be indicative of thousand years. Hence al-miatain would mean thousand plus two hundred, which is also the general time period of the appearance of Messiah-Mahdi and the Dajjal. [3]

Ali Qari's inference gets support in a tradition related by Abdullah ibn Amr, in which the Holy Prophetsaw describes the latter days in these words: Signs will appear with such rapid frequency as if a broken necklace was spilling its beads.[4]

These signs were evident in abundance in the thirteenth century hijra, among them:
  • The ascendancy of the Cross.
  • Rising of the Sun (of knowledge) from the West.
  • Invention of entirely new modes of travel.
  • Decline of Muslims.
  • Earthquakes, famines and plague.
  • Appearance of unusually large number of comets and meteors.
  • Lunar and solar eclipses in the month of Ramadan.
Another hadith clearly puts the time of the coming of the Mahdi in the thirteenth century: Allah will send the Mahdi after the passage of twelve hundred and forty years.[5]

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani was born in 1250 A.H. In 1290 A.H. he received his first revelation. He proclaimed being the reformer of the time (mujaddid), the Messiah and the Mahdi. About this particular hadith, he was shown in a vision that his name, Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, in the Abjad numerals comes to exactly 1300 and that no other individual alive at that time had the same name. He was the same Messiah who was to appear at the completion of the thirteenth century and, amazingly, whose time of appearance was already coded in his own name.[6]

[1] Sunan Ibn-Majah Kitab-ul-Fitn Babl-al-Ayat

[2] Mustadrak Hakim, vol. 4, p. 428, pub. Al-Nasr Al-Hadithia, Riyadh.

[3] Marqah Al-Mafatih Sharah Mishkat Al-Masabih, vol. 5, p. 185, pub. Mamniyah, Egypt.

[4] Timidhi abwab-al-Fitn, Bab Maja fil Halul Al-Maskh wal Khasf.

[5] Al-Najm al-Thaqib, vol. 2, p. 209, pub. Ahmadi, Patna Mughlapura, ref. Ibn Abi Shibah.

[6] Summarized from Azalah-e-Auham p. 186, Roohani Khazain vol. 3, p. 190.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

the mahdi was supposed to be saviour of the muslims and he was supposed to return the lost glory days of muslims. its been more than a 100 years i guess since the alleged mehdi came and passed away. can anybody honestly say that muslims have not plummeted into further trouble each passing day since he came rather than otherwise. Sadly, it shows he was unable to do wat he came for.

please do not say that it happened because muslims didn't recognize him. it is still his failure, if muslims didnt recognize him. some might argue that ahmadis are better off, but they are mere 1% or so of muslim population. Muslim world is doomed, this is no hidden fact. Perhaps mehdi is needed, but if he is needed than we surely need one who will actually b able to deliver as promised.

A Omer said...

Your litmus test of truth finds little support in the Holy Quran. Only those were saved who got into the Noah's ark. Those who chose to mock and stay away, they all perished, including his son. And neither did their dismal end, in any way, count as Noah's failure.

Anonymous said...

The analogy doesn't seem quite correct as Noah was not expected to save a whole nation unlike the promised Messiah who was promised to b the savior of the Muslim Ummah and not just 1% of them.

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