Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The 12th Imam

Followers of Christianity and other religions might be surprised to learn that Islam has a whole doctrine on The End Times. Unlike Revelations, they’re very specific as to times and portents, and give a detailed description of their Mahdi (messiah), as well as the Anti-Christ.

In Shia Islam, belief in the Mahdi has developed into a powerful and central religious idea.” “Twelver” (as conspiracy theorists call them) Shia Muslims believe that the Mahdi is Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, who was born in 869 CE and was hidden by God at the age of five (874 CE). He is still alive but has been in occultation (the right astrological moment to reincarnate), “awaiting the time that God has decreed for his return.”

Shia traditions state that the Mahdi will 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 (followers and descendants of Muʻāwīya ibn ʼAbī Sufyān.) 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 (Jesus) will return.

Our prophecies, at least among Western astrologers, is that the Anti-Christ will be of Jewish birth (apologies to all my Jewish friends), will follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He will be born in poverty, preach peace, lead the young, and that he will come into power at age 30 and lead for three years. Seems to me, Jesus came for everyone, not just the young and no one is exactly certain anymore when he was born. There appears to be a window of seven years. But maybe I read my Bible wrong.

Last night, Glenn Beck spoke of Maajid Nawaz, who is 33 years old. He’s the right age and fits the description the Muslims give.

The Baha'i scholar Moojan Momen considers the following beliefs in relation to the Mahdi are shared by Sunni and Shia Muslims alike:

• The Mahdi will be a descendant of Muhammad of the line of Fatimah, He will be descendent by one side (by one of the parents) by Hassan and by another by Hussain.

• He will have the same name as Muhammad.

• He will be a fore-runner to Jesus' Islamic Rule.

• His coming will be accompanied by the raising of a Black Standard.

• His coming will be accompanied by the appearance of the Antichrist.

• There will be a lunar and solar eclipse within the same month of Ramadan.

• A star with a luminous tail will rise from the East before the coming of the Mahdi.

• He will establish the Caliphate.

• He will fill the world with justice and fairness at a time when the world will be filled with oppression.

• He will have a broad forehead, a prominent nose, and a natural mascara will ring his eyes.

• His face shall shine upon the surface of the Moon.

• The name of the Mahdi's representative will begin with the first-letter of a prophet's name and a verse of the Qur'an: ی (English: Y).

Mohammed himself had something to say about his successor:

“The world will not come to an end until the Arabs are ruled by a man from my family whose name is the same as mine and whose father’s name is the same as my father’s.”

“The Messenger of God said: ‘The Mahdi is of my lineage, with a high forehead and a long, thin, curved nose. He will fill the earth with fairness and justice as it was filled with oppression and injustice, and he will rule for seven years.

“The Messenger of God said: ‘At the end of the time of my ummah, the Mahdi will appear. God will grant him rain, the earth will bring forth its fruits, he will give a lot of money, cattle will increase and the ummah will become great. He will rule for seven or eight years.’”

Of those Sunnis that hold to the existence of the Mahdi, some believe the Mahdi will be an ordinary man, born to an ordinary woman.

“The dominion (authority) of the Mahdi is one of the proofs that God has created all things; these are so numerous that his [the Mahdi's] proofs will overcome (will be influential, will be dominant) everyone and nobody will have any counter-proposition against him. People will flee from him [the Mahdi] 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.”

At present, the word on the Net, among the young Muslims, is that they hate this Maajid Nawaz. He was born of mixed birth, to a Pakistani father and an English mother. Nor was he born Muslim; he converted, and at 16, influenced by The Nation of Islam, joined the militant Muslim organizations Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Liberation Party). He helped set up terrorist cells in London.

In 2002, he travelled to Egypt and was arrested in Alexandria for being a member of this banned organization. While in prison, he had “Paul of Tarsus” and decided to follow the path of peace. Once released, he became the darling of Western liberal society.

“His [the Mahdi's] aim is to establish a moral system from which all superstitious faiths have been eliminated. In the same way that students enter Islam, so unbelievers will come to believe. When the Mahdi appears, God will cause such power of vision and hearing to be manifested in believers that the Mahdi will call to the whole world from where he is, with no postman involved, and they will hear and even see him.”

Nawaz was one of the organizers of the Tahrir Squar rebellion, using all the latest technology to organize their uprising. The protesters to some non-technological props as well, though, riding a white horse into Tahrir Square as the Mahdi will supposedly do one day.

Actually, there are Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, riding steeds of various colors: white, red, black, and pale (gray). Interesting that one of the 9/11 planes was white, another was white, but look black as it headed towards the South Tower, the side facing away from the morning falling into shadow, one was silver grey, and the other, the American Airlines flight, was blue with bright red lettering.

Mohammed was also 33 years old when he died that morning, shares the name of the Prophet (twice, in fact – his full name being Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta) and had heavily mascared eyes. What’s more, rumors are that he had a beard until he shaved it off in order to appear American when he arrived here. Knowing nothing about the Egyptians, I wonder if this is something they do deliberately, or whether the feature occurs naturally.

What’s hard to believe is that they believe in the same Jesus Christ the Christians do. They would undoubtedly say we are weak and corrupt. But the Muslims, on the other hand, must have missed the lesson where Jesus spared a woman accused of adultery from stoning by the mob. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Or where He urged Peter and Matthew to put aside their differences and be brothers. They must have missed the 11th commandment. John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

“Love your enemies; do good unto them which hate you.”

It’s hard to believe that that same Lord and Messiah would have wished upon people of various degrees of innocence the fate of 9/11 – the “Babylon” of Revelations and Nostradamus’ New City: “For in on one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying ‘What city is like unto this great city…. Alas, alas, that great city wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness; for in one hour is she made desolate.’”

Is this the way Mohammed Atta saw himself and the way the Muslims see him, as a purveyor of the wrath of God? For those of us who knew people in the Twin Towers, this is a rather incredible story to swallow. The people working there were just ordinary people no better or worse than anyone else, of many different faiths, including Christianity. Still, but for the earliness of the hour and for other things unseen by us that may have gone wrong with the terrorists’ plans, many more might have perished.

For that, God was merciful, at least. Let us pray that this not the End Times but the end of times in which religious fanatics enslave their faithful through violence.

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