The Doctrine of Mahdism. Tradition and Modernity – Man’s relation with Nature. An Anthropological approach, a pathway out of clash and conflict
1. “Expectation”.
Islam - with its own concrete culture and reality – can no longer be disregarded. It does represent a pivotal moment. No doubt, it is a key-factor on the stage of history. The sentence “the world is a global village” is a well-known cliché. But this global village is pluralistic in a religious and cultural sense as well, and within this global village Islamic civilisation has forged its own order and dimension.
Islamic reformism was a modern movement, which came into being in the wake of European supremacy and expansion. It first emerged in the nineteenth century, and gave life to various schools of thought and religious thinking. Neo-reformism is emerging at the dawn of this present new age, the response to foreign challenges, to the integration of the Islamic order into the Western secular/economic system.
Without going into the details of another long, thorny topic, in the following discourse I purposefully leave aside both the political-strategic dimension and ensuing military-security issues on the one hand, and inter-religious dialogue on the other. In these respects there are more appropriate and authoritative forums. Conversely, I wish to focus my attention on some realities within the Muslim world, its beneficial experience on other peoples’ civilisation (with whom it has come into contact), and its own highly significant cultural heritage and legacy within the world order which is nowadays dawning: the Doctrine of Mahdism and Expectation.
Obviously, these notes are the reflection of my academic life and personal experience. Both as a Catholic and as a human being, I have spent many years in the Islamic world, sharing with my Muslim friends sorrow and grief, joyful days and merry events: mutually beneficial relationships, which have largely contributed to shaping some of my worldviews.
The Doctrine of Mahdism has always been at the core of Muslim thinkers and philosophers. In other Religions too, the ideal and doctrine of a Saviour, who will come back one day to judge and reform the situation of the world, represents a focal point, is very deep in thoughts and forges Men’s life, attitudes and behaviours.
The concept of ‘Expectation’ is a culture. It can give reasonable answers to some essential questions. It can also provide a valuable contribution to certain strategic and anthropological domains and lead to piety, understanding, mutual friendship, hope, felicity, reformation.
Within its broader framework, the Mahdism Doctrine can have an anthropological and social impact before and after the age of appearance.
A closer look reveals that one of the major threats for political and civil society undoubtedly derives from new inequalities: the new rich and the new poor, the educated and the ignorant, the powerful and those who - although having riches - have no access to power.
The Mahdism Doctrine can provide us with the hope of a pathway out of conflict and clashes. It is a pathway that, drawing from Tradition and traditional thinking, steps towards Modernity without losing its roots. No human being is despised for his colour, race, language, social status, geographical borders. Piety and friendship nullify distinctions such as wealth, beauty, social rank and position, and replace them with spiritual qualities. Hence, the Doctrine of Mahdism can involve society in its entirety, amalgamating it, creating new links between civil society and political society, and, through an accurate balance between technological development and the preservation of ancient traditions, it can make possible spiritual piety, social and economic justice.
This is the social impact of the Doctrine of Mahdism before the age of appearance. In this period, people have experienced different pathways, which they felt could bring them tranquillity, peace, coexistence, justice and freedom. However, they could not delete disturbances, environmental crises, global disturbance, suffering from injustice and exploitations of all kinds and various nature, bringing to relativism, instability in faith and religious beliefs, and a positive proliferation of doctrines and dogmas. This is a reality, which certifies that the contemporary Man will never manage to overcome his own barriers if he ignores his divine identity. Within this framework, and with particular regard to Modern-Contemporary times, Man’s demand for Mahdism and the heavenly Saviour can provide a concrete pathway do deliver himself from this conditions. Modernism, Post-Modernism, New-Realism are at the core of present-day debates. The relationship between Man and rationality, between the new-Man and the metaphysical notions through spirituality and worldly morality are amongst the most popular means to release himself from psychic illusions and surmount the anxieties of modernity, technology, material concerns and find Man’s lost identity.
But this pathways can also induce a number of neo-thinkers to prefer the impending process of Modernity to Religion. Religion is studied through the lens of social and humanitarian ethics, pre-posing material/rational interpretation to religious notions. On the other side, a number of traditional researchers state that time and space are not genuine, they have no consistency. So, instead of modernity, they focus on the eternal realities of religion, which enjoy internal, intrinsic unity and are beyond times and all spatial boundaries.
These issues are largely discussed and heard of also in the traditional culture of the ordinary people, and lead us to re-think our own speculative parameters, traditional paradigms and models of society and power, mankind and statehood. In the eyes of this new intellectual trend, through studying traditional sources, it appears that we have not lost (or eliminated) our spirituality and spiritual values, merging all forms in the material and economic dimension of life.
Within this global, traditional insight, today the anthropological impact has a role to play.
Following the science reasoning, and the ancestors’ experience, the main principles of Religion never allow us to desist from, or ignore, the religious thinking and sincerity. In religious thought, one has to conform the religious precepts of rationality, human affairs, economics and business, technology, science/sciences and learning, and other subjects, not at the cost of fencing the religious beliefs.
The peaceful coexistence and the growth of Man’s knowledge are here, amongst and with us. Undoubtedly, to day we are facing a sharp confrontation between tradition and modernity. I have just very briefly mentioned some pathways to overcome this contradiction. However, any consistent pathway cannot disregard religious tenets. This is the social impact of the Doctrine of Mahdism after the age of appearance. The study of traditions testifies the need of essential reforms in such fields as social management, economics, business, social and human affairs, experimental sciences and some specific cultural fields.
Some Man’s innate needs are common to all peoples, beyond the colour of the skin, beyond race and language, social status, etc. And religions cannot treat them with indifference. However, disregarding utopian solutions, and on a reduced scale, we must admit that, notwithstanding various schools of thought in both time and space, there are some ideals which are common to all human beings. Hence, we are facing a global, anthropological approach, a domain without geographical borders, language, race, tribe and other conventions among nations, which can allow us to speculate about solutions for social and individual problems, representing a positive pathway out of conflict, towards social justice and peaceful coexistence.
God is at the centre of the virtuous society, and only His righteous judgement and His norms can revive what has been sunk into oblivion.
This anthropological impact of the “Doctrine of Mahdism” after appearance, poses some common views, some common concepts such as deliverance, salvation, reformation, Divine dominion and perfection: a universal community, which goes beyond the narrow enclave of boundaries, race, colour and language. We are confronted with a comprehensive order where common sense, pragmatic choices, religious feeling, higher idealism and altruistic concern for humanity’s well-being constantly act and interact.
Within this dimension, there are some major features, such as Man’s relationship with God, Man’s relationship with his self, Man’s relationship with society, Man’s relationship with nature.
2. Viewed through an anthropological aspect and within this dimension, Man’s relationship with Nature has a fundamental role to play.
Beyond the new technological and economic dimension, Man and the spiritual dimension of human existence are a critical factor that cannot be disregarded. Modernisation, progress, efficiency, growth, production do not clash with principles such as social justice and economic progress, or with Man’s inherent need to transcend and reach out to the Creator. The global trend of the resurgence of Islam, observable all over the world, does not mean either an unhappy existence or militancy, which must renounce hope of peaceful process of coexistence. It is a orderly and harmonious universe in its nature and direction, regulated by one single Law which binds all its parts in harmonious and orderly sequence. The task of human beings is to receive, to respond to, to adapt and apply the immutable characteristics of Divine rules. The human intellect - although refined, ambitious, scientific, educated, learned - well, the human intellect has always to swim in the sea of the unknown. Nevertheless, these human activities do not conflict with development and technology; they constitute progress and result in gradual improvement, within the harmony of the cosmic order. They must take place within pre-determined perimeters and on the basis of a fixed axis. Man religious instinct is a reflection of the organic structure of the cosmos and its interrelated components.
