On Mehdi

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Two translations of remarkable text of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al Sadr:


The Awaited Saviour: Who And What Of The Mahdi

"The Mahdi is not only an embodiment of the Islamic belief but he is also the symbol of an aspiration cherished by mankind irrespective of its divergent religious doctrines. He is also the crystallization of an instructive inspiration through which all people, regardless of their religious affiliations, have learned to await a day when a heavenly mission, with all its implications, will achieve their final goal and the tiring march of humanity across history will culminate satisfactorily in peace and tranquillity. This consciousness of the expected future has not been confined to those who believe in the supernatural phenomena but has also been reflected in the ideologies and cults which totally deny the existence of what is imperceptible. For example, dialectical materialism which interprets history on the basis of contradictions believes that a day will come when all contradictions will disappear and complete peace and tranquillity will prevail. Thus we find that this consciousness experienced throughout history is one of the widest and the commonest psychological experience of humanity.

The religion, when it endorses this common consciousness and stresses that in the long run this world will be filled with justice and equity after having been filled with injustice and oppression, gives it a factual value and converts it into a definite belief in the future course of humanity. This belief is not merely a source of consolation, but it is also a source of virtue and strength. It is a source of virtue because the belief in the Mahdi means the total elimination of injustice and oppression prevailing in the world. It is a source of inexhaustible strength because it provides hope which enables man to resist frustration, howsoever, hopeless and dismal the circumstances may be. The belief in the appointed day proves that it is possible for the forces of justice to face the world filled with injustice and oppression, to prevail upon the forces of injustice and to reconstruct the world order. After all prevalence of injustice, howsoever dominant and extensive it may become, is an abnormal state and must in the long run be eliminated. The prospect of its elimination after reaching its climax, infuses a great hope in every persecuted individual and every oppressed nation that it is still possible to change the state of affairs.

Although the concept of the Mahdi is more wide spread than the Muslim community, yet its detailed features, as determined by Islam, meet more fully all the aspirations attached to it since the dawn of history. They are in greater conformity with the feelings and sentiments of the oppressed and the persecuted of all times. It is Islam which has given a concrete shape to an abstract idea. It is no longer necessary to look forward to an unknown saviour who may come into the world at a distant future. The saviour is already here and we simply have to look for the day when the circumstances are ripe for him to appear and begin his great mission. The Mahdi is no longer an idea. He is no longer a prophecy. We need not wait for his birth. He already exists actually and we only wait for the inauguration of his role. He is a specific entity living among us in his real human form and shares our hopes and disappointments and our joys and griefs. He witnesses all the acts of oppression and persecution which are perpetrated on the face of the earth and, somehow or another, he himself is affected by them. He is anxiously awaiting the moment when he will be able to extend his helping hand to everyone whom any wrong has been done and be able to eradicate injustice and oppression completely.

Although this Awaited Saviour is living among us, waiting for the appointed moment for his advent, yet he is ordained not to proclaim himself nor to disclose his identity.

It is evident that the concept of the Mahdi, with its Islamic features, shortens the gap between the oppressed and the expected saviour. It spans the bridge between them, howsoever long the period of waiting may be.

When we are asked to believe that the Mahdi is a particular person already living a normal life, we are also expected to believe that the idea of absolute eradication of every kind of injustice and oppression by the Mahdi has already been embodied in the person of the Awaited Saviour who will reappear while he will be, as the tradition says, 'owing no allegiance to any tyrant'. The belief in him means the belief in eradication of all evils in a concrete form.

The tradition urges the believers in the Mahdi to keep on waiting for him and to continue looking forward for solace. The idea is to establish a close spiritual and intuitive link between the believers, on the one hand, and the Mahdi and all that he stands for, on the other. It is not possible to establish such a link without believing that the Mahdi has already been born and is a living and a contemporary personality.

Thus we find that the concept of the living Mahdi has given a new impetus to the idea of an expected saviour. It has made it a source of effective strength and consolation to every person suffering from deprivation and injustice, a person who rejects all forms of tyranny because he feels that his Leader, being a contemporary and a living personality and not a future idea, shares his sufferings and feels his misery.

Yet this concept, being beyond the imagination and comprehension of a number of people, has led them to adopt a negative attitude towards the very idea of the Mahdi."

http://www.al-islam.org/awaited/index.htm


Al-Tawhid Journal: A Discussion Concerning the Mahdi

"The concept of the Mahdi is not just the embodiment of an Islamic doctrine possessing a religious character but rather signifies a universal aspiration of mankind with the variety of its religions and creeds. It represents an innate aspiration through which people, despite the variety of their beliefs and their means of recourse to the Unseen (ghayb), perceive that there is, for all mankind on the earth, a promised day wherein the divine messages with their momentous significance will be fulfilled and their ultimate objective will be realized, bringing the long and arduous human journey through history to its ultimate destination. In fact, the consciousness of this unseen day and the awaited future is not limited to the religious believers in the Unseen (ghayb), but includes others as well, being reflected even in ideologies and creeds most vehement in their rejection of the Unseen and everything that relates to it, such as dialectical materialism. Dialectical materialism, which interprets history in terms of contradictions, believes in a promised day in which all the contradictions would be resolved and peace and harmony will prevail. Similarly, we find that the psychological experience pertaining to this perception of mankind through the course of history, is one of the most widespread of experiences and the most common among individuals.

When religion affirms this general perception and asserts that the world will eventually be filled with justice and equity after rampant injustice and oppression, it gives an objective value to this perception by transforming it into faith in the future of humanity. This faith is not merely a source of comfort and solace, it is rather a source of strength and resourcefulness, because the faith in the Mahdi is faith in the removal of injustice and tyranny even if it darkens the entire world and is an inexhaustible source of strength and resistance, as it is a ray of hope which removes despair from the human spirit by keeping the flame of hope lit in gloomy times when injustice assumes monstrous dimensions. This is because the promise of such a day affirms the possibility of justice defying a world filled with injustice and oppression, by pulling down the foundations of injustice to rebuild a new structure in its place. It implies that when injustice becomes monstrous and worldwide and spread its tentacles over human destiny, that is an unnatural condition which is bound to terminate. This great and inevitable defeat of injustice, at a time when it is at its zenith, gives a great hope to every victim of injustice and reassurance to every oppressed nation of the ability to tilt the scales and build a new order.

As the concept of the Mahdi precedes Islam and is of a wider occurrence, the detailed teachings furnished by Islam, being more fertile and more powerful in arousing the sentiments of the oppressed and the tormented throughout the course of history, give a greater vitality to all the aspirations which led to the emergence of this concept at the dawn of religious history. That is so because Islam has shifted this concept from the plane of transcendence to that of concrete reality, from the future to the present, and from the expectations of a saviour to be born in a distant and unknown future into a faith in an actual saviour who awaits along with others the promised day when all the conditions allowing him to carry out his great role are fulfilled.

Hence the Mahdi is not a saviour whose birth is awaited or a prophecy whose fulfillment is sought; rather he is a present reality whose active involvement is awaited and a particular individual living with his flesh and blood in our midst, whom we see and who sees us. With us he lives through our hopes and sufferings and participates in our joys and sorrows. He witnesses everything going on in the world stage, the sufferings of the tormented, the misery of the miserable, and the tyranny of the tyrants, and, from far and near; feels them all intensely, and, with his grief, await for the moment when he may extend his hand towards every victim of oppression, deprivation and distress, and crush the tyrants.

It has been decreed that this awaited leader shall not make himself known publicly nor disclose his life to others although he lives in their midst awaiting the promised moment.

It is also obvious that these Islamic teachings close the gulf of transcendence between the oppressed and their awaited saviour, building a bridge, in their inner consciousness, between them and him, regardless of the length of the period of waiting.

When we are called upon to have faith in the Mahdi as a particular individual, alive, who lives like we do and waits as we wait, the purpose is to instill in us the notion that the absolute rejection of all oppression and tyranny, whose embodiment is the Mahdi, is personified, in the very present in a waiting leader who rejects all injustice and who will appear in a state when he is free from any impediment arising from oath of allegiance to any tyrant, as reported in the traditions. Faith in him stands for faith in this living embodiment of unflagging rejection of injustice and standing by his side.

There is, in the traditions, a continuous exhortation to await `the day of relief' (intizar al faraj) and a demand upon the believers in the Mahdi to await him. In this manner a conscious link is established between them and the leader and all the values which he represents including the negation of injustice . This link and connection cannot possibly be established unless the Mahdi existed as a contemporary living person.

Similarly, we see that this embodiment gives a new impetus to the notion and transforms it, at a higher degree, into a source of resourcefulness and strength. Further, it also gives every individual taking an stand against injustice comfort and consolation and lightens the pain of injustice and privation as he realizes that his Imam and leader also shares and feels these pains as a contemporary human being, as he is not merely a notion relating to the future."

http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/default.asp?url=mahdi/discussion.htm
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