2 2 Regional Issues I S I M NEWSLETTER 4 / 9 9

Middle East TIMOTHY FURNISH Among scholars of and some today, a curious misperception dominates: that only the Shica believe in the coming the awaited . Sunni Arab views of the Mahdi since the Six Days War of 1967 have reached heretofore unplumbed depths of es- in the Sunni Arab chatological belief and the vigorous debate among the Arab intelligentsia concerning these beliefs, as well as the degree to which they impact the Muslim social and political realms, have followed suit. World Today

Modern discourse, particularly in the Ameri- the 1880s in . Several other Mahdist- true Mahdiyah will not come by means of a useful oppositional paradigm to unjust re- can media, tends to distil Islamic ideological type movements in the last two centuries supernatural individual but via renewing gimes. More prosaic is the criticism of Mah- categories into only two: ‘fundamentalists,’ succeeded by transforming into separate re- and reforming Islam. dism found in the anonymous work, T h e who are portrayed negatively, and reform- ligions: the Baha’is of 19t h-century Iran, the This Sunni scepticism about the Mahdi Cutting Sword–The True Explication of the ers, who are depicted in a more positive Ahmadis of 19t h-century India. In recent has given way, in recent years, to positive Book ‘The Life-span of the Islamic Community light. However, this reductionist paradigm years only two such movements have devel- conviction about him. Ibrâhîm and the Nearness of the Appearance of the fails to take into account the eclectic views oped in the Middle East: that of a self-styled al-Jamal, in The Aggression and the Awaited M a h d i (Cairo, 1998), which critiques that of many Muslims, not least that group which Mahdi in Saudi Arabia in 1979, which met Mahdi (1980), says the Mahdi will come pro-Mahdist book for adopting irrelevant expects the imminent arrival of the Mahdi with a violent end; and the sub rosa m o v e- amidst unmistakable signs, but that Khome- Western concepts like ‘the end of history’ and attempts not only to anchor eschatolo- ment that accompanied the success of the ini is (was) not the one. Hamzah al-Faqîr in and for fostering the dangerous idea that gy in current events but also to reconfigure Ayatolloah Khomeini, in which whisperings Three Whom the World Awaits: the Expected the Arabs must re-take before the the politico-military context so as to hasten that he was the Mahdi (Hidden to Mahdi, the False , Messiah ( A m- Mahdi can come. his arrival. S h icites) went undenied. man, 1995), is one of a growing number of As this brief survey of modern works supporters of Mahdism who adduces Sayyid confirms, Mahdism, which has existed almost Eschatological figures Mahdism today Qutb (d. 1966), the Egyptian Muslim Broth- as long as Islam, shows no signs of waning. in Islam The Muslim world today is devoid of Mah- erhood strategist. More than most writers, For although Muslims are a-millennial, they The term ‘al-Mahdi’, meaning ‘rightly- dist claimants – so far. However, an Arab de- however, al-Faqîr attempts to link current do expect the coming of a m u j a d d i d, or ‘re- guided’, surprisingly appears nowhere in bate about the truth of Mahdism, and its events to those presaging the Mahdi’s ap- newer,’ every 100 years – an idea which can the Qur’an. Rather, the characteristics and meaning today, has been gathering steam pearance: particularly, he sees the ‘tyranni- be easily fused with that of the Mahdi. And role of the eschatological Mahdi, as well as and began boiling over after the Six Days cal rule’ of the exploitative ‘petty states’ un- since the next Muslim century begins in the political context in which he will appear, War of 1967. There are several reasons for der which most Muslims live as crying out 2076, ‘eschatological ideas will continue to are described in a number of h a d i t h, or tra- this. One is that millenarian movements for redress by the Mahdi, who will also hum- play an important role in the Islamic world in- ditions. Three of the six major 9t h-century CE within the entire Judaeo-Christian-Islamic ble ‘Pharaoh,’ otherwise known as the Unit- to the twenty-first century.’3 ♦ compilers of – Ibn Mâjah, Abu Dâ’ûd milieu escalate sharply in a period of socie- ed States. A more idiosyncratic view is that and al-Tirmidhî – do mention the Mahdi. tal angst, which 1967 proved to be for the of Kâmil Sacfân, The Twenty-Fifth Hour: the However, the two most authoritative com- A r a b s .1 Another is widespread frustration at False Messiah, the Mahdi, pilers, al-Bukhârî and Muslim b. al-Hajjâj, es- the failure of Arab economies to effectively (Cairo, 1995), who manages to work the P r o- chewed such accounts. The source of Mah- raise living standards, of Arab governments tocols of the Elders of , the Masonic dist narratives plays into whether one ac- to achieve unity and of the embarrassing Lodge and Jeane Dixon (the American psy- cepts the idea as legitimate, as we shall see dependence upon the world’s lone super- chic) into his philosophy of Mahdism. Amîn b e l o w . power, the United States. Finally, although Muhammad Jamâl al-Dîn, in The Life-span of Just who is this Mahdi, according to the non-millenarian in the true sense of the the Islamic Community and the Nearness of traditions? He is one of the five major es- word – Latin m i l l e n i means 1000, a period of the Appearance of the Mahdi (Cairo, 1996), chatological figures of Islam, along with Je- which holds no resonance for Muslims argues that the Mahdi’s coming is very close sus, the Dajjâl or ‘Deceiver’ (), the – the Islamic world has been unable to im- and will be immediately preceded by a Dâbbah or ‘Beast,’ and the collective entity munize itself against the influence of the world war – which he terms H a r m a g i d d u n Yâjûj and Mâjûj, ‘Gog and Magog’. The par- world’s largest religion, , and its () – between al-Rûm, the West, allels with Christian , m u t a t i s de facto world calendar. Secular millennial and either China, Russia and the communist m u t a n d i s, are obvious: all of these end-time issues like the Y2K bug, in tandem with reli- countries or Iran, Iraq and the Shica nations. figures appear in the , espe- gious aspects like the of A more ‘ecumenical’, less polemical ap- cially its final book, . However, Je- Christ, have fanned eschatological flames proach is that of Bâsim al-Hâshimî in T h e sus will reappear not as the Son of God and within the Arab portion of the Muslim Savior between Islam and Christianity: A Judge but as the Muslim sent back w o r l d . Study in the Cooperation between the Mahdi to assist the Mahdi in defeating the Dajjâl The slice of this debate examined here is and the Messiah (Beirut, 1996). He adduces and establishing socio-economic and politi- that taking place within the Arab print me- Qur’an, h a d i t h and New Testament to argue cal justice on . The Dajjâl will be the dia – specifically books.2 The analysis can be that the Mahdi and Jesus will cooperate to miracle-working leader of the unbelievers summed up in the following paradigm: create a ‘united world state’. and will be killed by Jesus. The enormous One final example of Mahdist believers is Dâbbah will emerge from the earth and L i t e r a l i s t s Fahd Sâlim who, in his 1996 book, The Signs mock unbelievers while the semi-human ar- 1 . Qur’anic – No Mahdi in Qur’an, so false of the Hour and the Attack of the West before mies of Gog and Magog will escape from the 2 . H a d i t h [the end of?] 1 9 9 9, maintains that the Mahdi prison built for them by Alexander the Great a . Not in Bukhârî or Muslim, so false will be preceded by an Iranian – Shîcî – Daj- to pillage across the planet until destroyed b . In other compilers, so true jâl. Sâlim is one of several Arab authors who by God at Jesus’ behest. Other end-time conflate Francis Fukuyama’s idea of the ‘end events include earthquakes, great fires, ap- F i g u r a t i v i s t s of history’ (the triumph of democratic capi- pearance of false , speaking ani- 1 . Mahdi pernicious superstition talism) with Samuel Huntington’s ‘clash of mals, increase in immorality, the rising 2 . Mahdi benign superstition civilizations’ (religio-cultural fault lines be- in the West, the striking of all words from tween cultures engendering conflict) into the pages of every Qur’an and the predomi- Many opponents of Mahdism take their an ancient plot by the West against Islam. nance of unbelief. Finally, at some point Je- cues from the brilliant Ibn Khaldûn (d. 1406 Sâlim also has an interesting way of explain- N o t e s sus and the Mahdi will die natural CE). This intellectual, considered by some ing the h a d i t h references to end-time war- 1 . Thrupp, Sylvia, ed. (1970), Millennial Dreams in and, in the eschatological denouement, the as the father of sociology, saw the Mahdi as fare being fought with swords: after Americ- Action: Studies in Revolutionary Religious Isrâfîl will blow his trumpet twice: at a pernicious Shici heresy which had crept a’s nuclear Armageddon against the Mus- M o v e m e n t s. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 31-42 the first all humans will die; at the second all into Sunnism via the . This is the lims, those will be the only extant weapons. and Ajami, Fouad (1981), The Arab Predicament: will be resurrected for the Judgement. view of two modern opponents of Mah- Also, interestingly enough, he adduces Nos- Arab Political Thought and Practice since 1967. Throughout Islamic history many religio- dism, cAbd al-Karîm al-Khâtib in The Await- tradamus’ 16t h-century predictions in de- New York: Warner Books, Inc. political leaders have claimed Mahdi-hood. ed Mahdi and Those Who Await Him ( C a i r o , fence of his arguments. 2 . English translations are given throughout the Most rapidly faded back into obscurity. 1980) and cAbd al-Qâdir Ahmad Atâ in T h e The non-Mahdist Muhammad Farîd Hijâb, article for Arabic titles. Some gathered followers, however, and a Awaited Mahdi between Truth and Supersti- in The Awaited Mahdi between Religious Doc- 3 . Hamblin, William and Peterson, Daniel (1995), few took power. The most successful such tion (Cairo, 1980). In fact both adduce Ibn trine and Political Meaning (, 1984), ‘Eschatology,’ The Oxford Encyclopedia movements were the Abbasids in the 8t h- Khaldûn’s motive for rejecting Mahdism: it has the most philosophical deconstruction of the Modern Islamic World, p. 442. century CE Islamic heartlands, the Fatimids is Sufi-transmitted Shicism. Al-Khâtib also of the Mahdist idea: that it is a conflation of in 10t h-century CE , the Almohads in calls upon the u l e m a to abandon such fool- the motifs of the ancient Near Eastern deliv- Timothy Furnish is a PhD candidate in Islamic 1 2t h-century CE North and, most re- ishness and turn their attention to renew- erer, Plato’s philosopher-king, and Machia- History, Ohio State University, USA. cently, ’s followers in ing Islam, while cAtâ maintains that the velli’s strong man which survives today as a E-mail: [email protected]