The Mahdism Utopia
By the Will of All-h (SWT) and the assistance of the Master of the Time (may All-h (SWT) hasten his appearance); we will study the global state of the political and economic state of affairs and the social trends in culture and communities. This will be compared to the utopist environment of the government of the Awaited Imam (AS).
Since the departure of the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (SAWW), the Muslim Ummah has deviated from the path he set out for them. There have been problems at every epoch in time and man-made ideas and solutions have failed to make the world a better place to live.
Political and Economic State of Affairs
The world has seen many political and economics systems. The failure of the previous systems has given rise to what is globally followed today, which is capitalism. Capitalism is based on personal interest devoid of spiritual and moral values. And because the majority by democracy governs the minority, it adopts a purely materialistic inclination to further its selfish interests. In turn what happens is that laws a legislated in favour of materialistic desires. Worse still, the economic freedom allowed under this system allows amassing wealth, regardless of how exorbitant it is or how deviant the methods of acquiring it are.
What we see happening is that the gap between the rich and the poor increases and that the need to expand production depends on the availability of raw material. Thus he who has a large share of such materials also will exploit others around the world in whatever manner possible to get control over their resources. This inequality in the spread of wealth can be observed in the analysis of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in countries around the world. In 2005, the difference in the country with the highest GDP to that of the lowest was over $100,000! This fundamentally shows that there is something wrong with capitalism.
The GDP shows how much people can spend and what they can afford for them selves. These statistics fundamentally shows two things. One is that there is a great inequality among the nations and peoples of the world. And two those who have this sort of lifestyle strive to continue maintaining it at any cost by exploiting the resources o of other countries, even if it means by going to war with them.
International trade laws for example, are biased to wards the West. The result is that the working of the international trade law has over the decades, been a massive boon for the U.S in particular and the West generally. Institutions such as the World Trade Organization serve the interest of the West alone. And organizations such as the Security Council of the United Nations impose the West’s hegemony on the rest of the world. Thus what we can judge in the general state of affairs is a massive wave of inequality and disrespect of the rights of others and a superimposed attitude towards the self and the lands governed by those in power.
The faith in the appearance of the Mahdi (AS) is not merely a source of comfort and solace, it is rather a source of strength and resourcefulness, because it 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. 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.
Social trends in culture and communities
Today, religion is looked down upon, the media encourages people to follow their base desires, there is no concern for the poor, people are running after this world, good is looked upon as evil and evil is looked upon as good. In many Western societies, the social culture has deteriorated to an extent that the evil of homosexuality, condemned in religious scriptures, has been legalized. We can thus see the decay of societies in reference to the following Hadith. Imam Sadiq (AS) has said that the Qa’em (AS) will appear, “When misguidance will increase, and guidance will decrease, oppression and mischief will increase and righteousness will decrease; men will satisfy their lust with men and women with women…”
Our societies have decayed and the conscience of All-h (SWT) has decreased. Misguidance has indeed increased. For example, addition we have the rise of so-called modern Muslims who twist everything Islamic and flout all the laws of Islam.
There is no concern for the poor. It is saddening to note that the percentage of the populating that is undernourished in the United Arab Emirates is less than 2.5% while that in Eritrea is 73%! This means that in some parts of the world there is a waste of wealth whereas in other people are dying of hunger.
The Advent of the Imam (AS)
In light of this reality of the world, the government of All-h (SWT) has to be established, for it is He who has created us and says in the Holy Quran, “He is Who has sent down His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, so that He may make it prevail over all other religions.” Imam Sadiq (AS) has said that his verse is about the Imam who will reappear and make the religion of truth prevail over all other religions.
This prophecy comprises many elements, some of them philosophical, others cultural, political, economic or social and still others human or physio-human. Some of the salient features after the appearance of the 12th Imam are:
• Final victory of righteousness, virtue, peace, justice, freedom and truth over the forces of egoism, subjugation, tyranny, deceit and fraud.
• Establishment of a world government (one government in the whole world).
• Reclamation and rehabilitation of the whole earth so that no area remains waste.
• Attainment of full sagacity by mankind, adherence to ideology and emancipation from animal impulses and undue social restrictions.
• Maximum utilization of the gifts of the earth.
• Equal distribution of wealth and property among all human beings.
• Complete eradication of all vices like adultery, fornication, usury, use of intoxicants, treachery, theft and homicide and total disappearance of abnormal complexes, malice and ill-will.
• Eradication of war and restoration of peace, friendship, co operation and benevolence.
• Complete coherence between man and nature.
The idea of the final victory of the forces of righteousness, peace and justice over those of evil, oppression and tyranny, of the world-wide spread of the Islamic faith, the complete and all-round establishment of high human values, the formation of a utopian and an ideal society and lastly the accomplishment of this ideal at the hands of a holy and eminent personality called, according to the Islamic traditions, the Mahdi (AS) is a belief which, of course with variations in details, is shared by all the Muslim sects and schools of thought.
Basically this is a Qur\'anic concept and it is the holy Qur\'an which in very clear terms, predicts:
1. The final victory of Islam.
As stated in the verse above
2. The absolute supremacy of the good and the pious.
“Indeed We have written in the Psalms after the Torah had been revealed: The righteous among My slaves shall inherit the earth".
3. The final collapse of the oppressors and the tyrants.
“We willed to show favour to those who were persecuted in the earth and to make them leaders and masters. It was also Our will to give them power in the earth and to show Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts to experience from their victims what they feared most.”
4. A bright and happy future for humanity.
“Moses told his people to seek help from Allah and exercise patience. The earth belongs to Him and He has made it the heritage of whichever of His servants He chooses. The Final Victory is for the pious.”
What is inferred from the holy Qur\'an is that the appearance of the Mahdi (AS) is a link in the series of fights between the righteous and the wicked and the Mahdi (AS) is the symbol of the final and complete victory of the righteous and the faithful. The holy Qur\'an says: “Allah has promised the righteously striving believers to appoint them as His deputies on earth, as He had appointed those who lived before. He will make the religion that He has chosen for them to stand supreme. He will replace their fear with peace and security. They will worship their Lord without fear and will not submit to anyone other than Him and will associate nothing with His worship and obedience.”
The well-known saying of the holy Prophet that Allah will fill the earth with justice after its having been filled with injustice and tyranny testifies to the fact that at the time of the appearance of the Mahdi (AS) there will exist two classes. One will consist of the oppressors and the other, howsoever small, of the oppressed who are subjected to injustice and tyranny. The promised Mahdi (AS) will realize the ideal of all the prophets, saints and fighters in the path of truth.
The concept of the Mahdi (AS) 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.
When we are called upon to have faith in the Mahdi (AS) 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 (AS), 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 (AS) 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.
The Method of Change on the Promised Day
We come finally to the point raised as to the conceivable method by which decisive victory for justice will be achieved at the hands of the Mahdi (AS) and tyrannical regimes opposing him will be abolished and the existence of a utopist society will be established.
The answer to this question depends upon the knowledge of the time and stage at which Imam Mahdi (AS) will be ordained to appear on the scene and the possibility of defiling the distinctive features and conditions of that phase so that with its light we can determine the form and course the process of change would take. And as long as we are ignorant of that stage and know nothing about its environment and conditions, it is not possible to predict what will happen on the promised day, though it is be possible to form a subjective, if not an objective, conception of that which might take place.
There is one basic probability which can possibly be accepted in the light of relevant traditions and experience of great changes in history. This assumption is that the advent of Imam Mahdi (AS) will be subsequent to a great void resulting from a setback and a choking civilizational crisis. This void would open the way for the spread of the new message and the setback would prepare the psychological atmosphere for its acceptance. This setback will not be an accident in the history of human civilization, but a natural consequence of the contradictions of a history that has severed its links with God Almighty, and for which there are no definitive solutions. This will eventually set ablaze a fire which will not leave anything unconsumed, and at this time the light will appear to extinguish the flames and establish heavenly justice on earth.
The Qur\'an says: God has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely make you successors in the land, even as He made those who were before them successors, and that He will surely establish their religion for them that He has approved for them, and will give them that He has approved for them, and will give them in exchange, after their fear, security: \'They shall serve Me, not associating with Me anything.\'
In the hadith-reports it is related that the above-cited verse refers to the twelfth Imam and his associates and followers. It will be through them that the religion of God, Islam (islam in the basic meaning of \'submission to the will of One God\'), will spread in every corner of the earth, replacing all other religions. The Qur\'an and the hadith from the Imams promise a day when the downtrodden people of the world will wake up from the deep slumber of heedlessness and ignorance concerning their own worth and realize the emptiness of the claims made by the arrogant, powerful tyrants about their own power.
At that time, under the leadership of the Mahdi (AS) will rally under the flag of the Unity of God, al-tawhid, and gaining power from their faith in God, they will confront the unjust rulers. With a single collective blow of powerful faith they will defeat their oppressors for ever. This will be the time when the rule of justice and equity becomes established and forces of disbelief and wickedness are permanently wiped out. There will be no more fighting among the people, since the justice of God will rule and will remove any reason for conflict and warfare. This will be the golden age of peace and harmony, under the government of God.
As for those people who expect their problems to be solved by the political, social, and economic system created by those who have no commitment to the faith or to its moral and spiritual components, have so far created systems which give rise to inequalities, immoderation in spending, injustices in distribution of resources, and the many other evils with which humanity is confounded today; it is these people that will realize that man-made solutions are nothing but worthless without divine leadership and guidance.
The Characteristics of the Utopist Society
It has been narrated that after the appearance of the Mahdi (AS) and after the Sufyaani and all those with him have been killed, the Mahdi (AS) will go to Kufa, which is where he will live. He will buy and free every Muslim slave. He will pay the debt of every Muslims and he will return the rights of all the Muslims back to them., He will not kill anyone without paying the blood money to his family, and no one from (among his companions) will bekilled without the Imam (AS) paying his debts on his behalf and appointing a salary for his family.
He will fill the earth with equity and justice, just as it will be filled with inequity, oppression, and aggression.
The he and his family will move to Rohbah, which is where Nuh (AS) lived. Rohbah is a blessed land, for every land in which someone from the family of the Prophets (SAW) has lived or has been killed is a blessed land. Verily, the Ahlul Bayt (AS) are the purified successors.
It has also been narrated that when the Mahdi (AS) emerges with the command, God, the Exalted, will make him place his hand over the heads of the people so that their consciences and their intellects will be perfected [to accept his lead in launching his universal revolution].
The holy Quran says: “That day, the kingdom shall belong to Ar-Rahman. It will be a very hard day for the infidels.” It has been narrated that “The Kingdom” belongs to Allah on “that day” and on every other day, but the above verse refers to the rising of the Mahdi (AS) when everyone will worship All-h.
Imam Sadiq (AS) has said that, “people will not need the light of the sun nor the moon (because) the light of the Imam will be sufficient.” He has also narrated that “when our Mahdi (AS) rises, the earth will not need the sun. Day and night will be the same, for darkness will disappear. At the time of the Mahdi (AS), every man will live for a thousand years and every year a son will born to him and no daughters will be born to him (if he so chooses). The fathers will clothe their children and the clothes will grow on the children as they grow, and the colour of their clothes will change according to the colour that they (the children) desire.
The Obligations of Muslims during the Occultation
It is true that the Prophet and the infallible Imam were appointed by God to undertake the governance of the community affairs as their rulers, and that the Prophet and the Imam should exert themselves to execute the divine will in this regard. Nevertheless, the essential obligation lies on the shoulders of the people who should provide the critical support needed by the Prophet and the Imam to attain the power and use it for advancing the purposes of God. As long as the people do not show their loyalty and obedience to these divinely designated leaders, it is difficult to see the ideal governance being effected.
By the same token, during the absence of the Imam, as in our own times, Muslims have the responsibility to seriously work for the establishment of the Islamic form of government. Islam, even under present conditions, has not suspended the duty of Muslims to implement and to follow its directives. In fact, many Islamic rulings are directed towards the generality of the Muslim community, for example:
“Go forth, light and heavy! Struggle in God\'s way with your possessions and your selves; that is better for you, did you know.”
“Struggle in the way of God with your possessions and your selves.”
“And fight in the way of God with those who fight with you, but aggress not.”
“The fornicatress and the fornicator -- scourge each one of them a hundred stripes, and in the matter of God\'s religion let no tenderness for them seize you…”
“O believers, be you securers of justice, witnesses for God, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents and kinsmen, whether the man be rich or poor.”
All these verses are addressed to the generality of the Muslims and demand from them that they respond to their social obligations that are related to the betterment of Islamic public order.
It is possible to conclude from these general addresses of the Qur\'an to all believing Muslims and the provisions made by the Prophet for giving permanence to the governance of Islamic public order through Islam\'s social-political-legal-moral teachings that during the occultation of the twelfth Imam Muslims have the obligation to work seriously towards the implementation of Islamic ideals in their everyday personal and social lives. As long as we believe that Islam came to provide happiness in this and the next world and, therefore, it legislated laws to cover every aspect of God-human and human interpersonal relationships, then we must maintain the necessity of managing our affairs in accordance with these laws.
This conclusion becomes even more pertinent if we remind ourselves that we also believe that these laws were not given for the short period of the Prophet\'s life only; they will be with us until God resurrects us for the Final Judgement. Hence, our endeavors to effect these norms today assume some urgency. Muslims must resolve to prepare themselves to be worthy of supporting the final revolution of the Mahdi by constantly evaluating their shortcomings and reforming themselves to undertake the great responsibility of making the Islamic public order the only viable order that can guarantee peace with justice and harmony on the earth.
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References
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