Now correct me if I am wrong but I have not found a reference anywhere in the Quran to the coming of an Imam to lead the "muslims"(Which sect??) to victory over the unbelievers and will correct all the things that are wrong with the muslim ummah. If anything, the Quran write contrary to this belief by the sunnis, and shias in chapter 13 verse 11 which states:
For his sake there are angels following one another, before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's commandment; surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition; and when Allah intends evil to a people, there is no averting it, and besides Him they have no protector.
Right, so based on the understanding of this verse, surely Allah is saying two things. First that he will not change the condition of a people until they themselves resolve their own problems. As we can see the muslim world today, is in a sorry state. Sectarian violence and hatred is a plague on the muslim population and we all know that hatred stems from the distrust that has been brewing over time and each sect's man made doctrines the source of such hatred. We know the Quran condemns strongly anyone who breaks up in to sects.
Anyways I am not going to go deep in to the concept of the mehdi prophecies as I am sure you are all familiar with it. My point is more to do with the logistics of how this this is all suppose to play out. We know that both sunnis and shias believe in the coming of a mehdi, but they do not agree on the finer details. sunnis believe he is merely a leader, whilst shias take him more as there last imam. Sunnis believe he will be appointed as someone from within the human race, shias believe he existed before and will be coming back.
Going deeper then in to the theoretical outcome of the fulfillment of this prophecy, how is this supposed to work out? If we take the position that Allah will not directly appoint anymore prophets or any other people not Earth will be spoken to directly, then we know that the sects are in contravention of Allah's wisdom and message. So how then is the mehdi supposed to be identified? Well some say he will be informed directly and will be informed by Allah (even though this is not supported in the Quran) others say, a scholar will inform him of his identify, (is this a hadith? if anyone can clarify)
Let's take the second scenario, of course it is all hypothetical, you may even just call it conjecture, but let's take the sunni and the shia position for a moment. Due to heightened troubles in the muslim world, many sectarians are crying out for a saviour, so lets set up a scenario, this is scenario A just for reference. A man is appointed as the mehdi from within the sunni sect, the sunni scholars believe the criteria has been met and he is the mehdi. Will Shia's accept this person as the mehdi? since both sects have their own concept of who the mehdi is and who he will represent. Let's say the shias do not accept this and at the same time, the sunnis claim that whoever does not believe in this mehdi, is an unbeliever. Would that mean then, that shias and anyone else for that matter are fair game for slaughter? Surely this will mean if you are not with us then you are with them? that could include christians, jews, shias, anyone and everyone then who is not a "believer" in their doctrines. This will cause further divisions and chaos once the scholars get involved and start passing fatwahs. Surely this will get a lot of innocent people killed, thanks to this horrible self fullfilling prophecy, that Allah has not once spoken about, nor would the prophet have done so, because the prophet states clearly in the Quran chapter 6 verse 50
Say: I say not to you, I have with me the treasures of Allah, nor do I know the unseen,
nor do I say to you that I am an angel; I follow only that which is revealed to me. Say:
Are the blind and the seeing alike? Do you not then reflect?
Let's take scenario B, a man is appointed the Mahdi from among the shias, but the sunnis do not accept him, some sunnis are even claiming that the shia mehdi will be dajjal, the anticrist. If this belief spreads further then surely this man will be killed at all costs, be him in iran, syria, wherever, I am sure he will be wiped out. Also then with sunni rejection, tensions will highten further and the end result again, we will just see more bloodshed, centered around a fake prophecy.
How about a scenario C? The non muslim world, start getting wind of all this arrival of mehdi stuff, so are becoming more conscious of this prophecy and start resenting muslims, all muslims, not just sunnis or shias, but all muslims since the concept of mehdi is associated with both the main sects. The non muslim world, are they going to sit idly by, whilst sectarians are saying that a leader is going to come and help them defeat the unbelievers? They may just take pre-emptive action and begin to kill muslims the world over, and they have the means to do so, many innocent people will die as a result.
Whatever way you want to look at this, it is bad news for the world's population, if and when such a thing is orchestrated, and which ever scenario plays out, we are going to see nothing but death and destruction. I do feel uneasy and worried about this, because I think some scholars are readying themselves for the mehdi, and are just waiting for the killswitch. Since relations between muslims and jews, and shias and sunnis and the growing resentment of muslim people by non muslims, this one event has the recipe for some serious chaos and destruction. We as muslims are setting ourselves up for a mighty fall, because people have put words in the prophet's mouth and have concocted this fantastical holy war prophecy, which has all the hallmarks of being self fulfilled maybe not too far from now.
The sectarians have forgotten Allah and seem to have this tunnel vision for the mehdi as a saviour, but when you try to apply logic and reason to this concept, and apply it to the real world, it has the potential for mass murder and a huge collapse in relations not only in the muslim world but the entire world.
it's something the fabricators did not have to worry about, because it wasn't to happen in their lifetime. But sectarians need to wise up and move away from such thinking, and focus only on Allah, ask Allah for help, for guidance, to strive and to correct our problems and to walk the correct path. IF they think Allah is going to help us and guarantee a victory then they should think again, because Allah tells us to take no protector but him, so we will be setting ourselves up for a fall. As a muslim this worries me greatly.
