Humanitarian rights in the time of appearance of the Mahdi (Pbuh) or world promised Saviour
“Peace be upon al-Mahdi (Pbuh) through whom Allah has promised to unite nations, put and end to disunion, and fill the earth with justice.”
FOREWORD
“Generosity is that which is by one´s initiative, because giving on asking is either by way of self-respected or to avoid rebuke.” (1)
The promised Messiah or Saviour will rule the world with justice and equality for all humanity. Nobody will suffer of hunger or will be oppressed by others. He will avoid tyranny, and his appearance will mean the end of the corruption of the economic, social and political system of today´s world. He will propitiate an equal distribution of world´s resources. He will appoint wise political leader to govern with transparency and honesty, following the Will of God on earth.
The aim of this paper is to highlight the dramatic situation of the stateless and internally displaced people in our world today before the appearance of the Mahdi (Pubh) or Saviour and to present some of the values and principles that will have to be implemented in order to avoid this suffering to millions of people that do not have access to food, to medical assistance and not even have a place to die.
I.-The four most relevant sacred emigrations in the past. God´s promises to their unshakeable faith.
ABRAHAM
“His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hititte, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchase from the Hitittes. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah.” (2)
Abraham is the Patriarch of the three Semitic religions and the oldest representative of monotheism. He is also the archetype of prophetic religions and a friend of God. Father of Ishmael, his first-born child, who founded the Kaaba together with him as central sanctuary of the One God; and father of Isaac.
From the spiritual point of view, Abraham and Ishmael are the exemplary figures of the entire system of the pilgrimage.
Now the Lord said to Abraham , “Go from your country and your kindred and your father´s house to the land that I will show you, I will make of you’re a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one that curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (3)
Abraham abandoned the land of his fathers without a complaint, without conditions. He took his wife Sarah and his nephew, Lot, the son of his brother, and left with all the chattels he had earned and the household members that he had acquired in Aram Naharayim, heading for Canaan. At that time, the Canaanites were in the country. Abraham crossed Canaan and headed for the sacred site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.
Hunger assailed the land and Abraham had to go down into Egypt seeking pasture and food. From Egypt, on his continuous peregrinations, he went back once more to the Negev accompanied by his wife and Lot, but the land no longer made it possible for them to remain together because his chattels had multiplied and quarrels usually broke out between the shepherds of Abraham and those of Lot.
The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him:
“Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that your see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (4)
Abraham believed in God and understood faith as “being firm”, not as “holding to be true” what could not be demonstrated; rather, it was an unyielding faith in a promise that could not be fulfilled by human means. He was a man who, on the basis of that faith, was capable of surmounting the greatest tests to which he was submitted, down to the extreme measure of sacrificing his own son.
After Moses, Abraham is the most-cited Biblical figure. And in the Qur´an he is mentioned in twenty five Suras, whereby the fourteenth Sura bears his name.
When Abraham´s Lord tested him with certain commandments, which he fulfilled, He said, “I will make you a leader of people. Abraham asked, “And will You make leaders from my descendants too? God answered, “My pledge does not hold for those who do evil.” (5)
MOSES
He is the most often cited Old Testament character. Many see him as the founder of the Jewish religion. His name is Egyptian, although probably he was not Egyptian but Semitic. Moses led the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt.
Then the Lord said: “ I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry…...Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey..(…).”(6)
He led the march of his “tribes” through the desert and conducted them towards an uncertain future. He was sustained only by his deep faith in God and in the fulfilment of his mission, accepted with a profound submission and obedience towards the divine commands. He knew that he had to fulfil the will of God, and he did not doubt at any time that that will was good for his people.
Moses said, “Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of all the Worlds, duty-bound to say nothing about God but the truth, and I have brought a clear sign from your Lord. Let the Children of Israel go with me.” (7)
Nowadays, no one will argue that the Fathers of Israel came from the desert and were nomads. Their nomadism simultaneously encompasses conquest, immigration and constructive social revolution within a coherent and absolutely structured social, political and religious model.
Through his faith and by fulfilling the will of God, he initiated and led this process of social, political and economic change played out by a group of emigrants leaving Egypt in order to “be free men”, guided by the power of God.
