بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ
In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful
يا نبي سلام عليك
The false Mahdi called Muhammad Jaunpuri (1443-1505) was in the apparent a pious man and due to that exterior saintliness was able to attract a following in his time, in various parts of India during the late 15th century CE. The false Mahdi of Jaunpur was undoubtedly a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who deceived some of the Muslims into following him. He reportedly went to Mecca with some 360 followers and declared himself the expected Mahdi. His followers are known as Mahdawis, and comprise a new, distinct sect in the Ummah which has cut itself off from the main flock of the Muslims, which is Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah—the Sunnis.
The true Mahdi, when he appears, will not initiate a distinct sect that breaks off from the Jamaah of the Muslims. Rather, the righteous saints and sages of this Ummah will recognize the true Mahdi and render their allegiance to him in the shade of the sacred Kaabah, between the Rukn and the Maqam. He will not reject the traditional Sunni schools of law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali), or nullify the principal Sufi orders of the Sunni Muslims (Naqshbandi, Suhrawardi, Chishti, Qadiri, Rifai, Shadhili, Kubrawi, Khalwati). I do not believe that the true Mahdi when he appears will establish a new school of fiqh or a new Tariqah that is not connected to one of the established silsilahs.
Those false Mahdis that have appeared in history, like Muhammad Jaunpuri, Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan, and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, all disconnected themselves from the Jamaah of the Muslims, and established new sects, movements, or orders that were not derived from the traditional Sunni schools or traditional Sufi silsilahs.
Rather, the true Mahdi when he appears shall be zealous for the Sunnah and for the Saved Sect of Islam which is Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah:
هُوَ رَجُلٌ مِنْ عِتْرَتِي يُقَاتِلُ عَلَى سُنَّتِي كَمَا قَاتَلْتُ أَنَا عَلَى الْوَحْيِ
“He is a man from my progeny, who shall fight upon my Sunnah as I fight upon the Wahi” (Kitab al-Fitan li-Nuaym bin Hammad, p.371, #1092)
It is important to know that the Mahdi will not merely be some dervish who gathers a circle of disciples around him or leads a secluded life cut off from the public. Rather, like the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, the expected Mahdi will be a warrior and a conqueror, upon whose shoulders will rest the government. Even if he appears in the garb of a dervish and exudes an other worldly vibe, he will nevertheless be the perfect warrior-saint, in the mould of the Prophet and his four rightly-guided Successors.
This confirmed sign of the Mahdi, a warrior, saintly Imam, was conspicuously absent from Muhammad of Jaunpur. His followers till this day insist he was the expected Mahdi, yet he never established his rule, never filled the land with justice as it had been filled with oppression and never distributed countless wealth to the people.
For me, one of the compelling reasons to totally reject this false Mahdi of Jaunpur is that the saintly Imams of his time were dead against him, and warned the people about him and his falsehood. Chief among them was Mujaddid Alf Thani—the Reformer of the Second Millennium, Imam Rabbani, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624), may Allah have mercy on his soul:
ایک گروہ اپنی نادانی کی وجہ سے ایک شخص کے متعلق گمان کرے گا جس نے اہلِ ہند میں سے ہوتے ہوئے مہدی موعود ہونے کا دعویٰ کیا تھا کہ وہ مہدی ہوا ہے۔لہذا وہ اپنے زعم میں کہیں گے کہ وہ مہدی تو گزر چکا ہے اور فوت ہو چکا اور اس کی قبر کا نشان بتائیں گے کہ وہ فرہ میں ہے۔لیکن وہ صحیح احادیث جو بحدِّ شہرت بلکہ معنی کے لحاظ سے حدِّ تواتر کو پہنچ چکی ہیں وہ اس گروہ کی تکذیب کرتی ہیں کیونکہ آں سرور علیہ ،علی آلہ الصلاة والسلام نے جو علامتیں مہدی کی بیان فرمائی ہیں وہ علامات ان لوگوں کے متعقد شخص کے حق میں مفقود ہیں
A group, due to their ignorance, will assume that a person who claimed to be the promised Mahdi from among the people of India has become the Mahdi. Therefore, they will say in their opinion that the Mahdi has passed away and died, and they will say his grave is in Farah. But those authentic Hadiths that have reached the level of fame, or rather the level of tawatur in terms of meaning, refute this group because the signs that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has described about the Mahdi are missing in the case of the person they believe in.
حضرت عیسیٰ علیٰ نبینا وعلیہ الصلوٰة والسلام ان کے زمانے میں نزول فرمائیں گے اور وہ دجال کے قتل کرنے میں حضرت عیسی علی نبینا وعلیہ الصلوٰة والسلام کی موافقت کریں گے۔اور ان کی سلطنت کے ظہور کے زمانے میں زمانے کی عادت کے بر خلاف اور نجومیوں کے حساب کے بھی بر خلاف چودہ ماہِ رمضان کو سورج گرہن ہوگا اور اسی ماہ کے شروع میں چاند گرہن ہوگا۔
اب انصاف سے دیکھنا چاہئے کہ یہ علامات جو بیان کی گئی ہیں اس فوت شدہ شخص میں موجود ہیں یا نہیں۔
Jesus (peace be upon him) will descend in his [Mahdi’s] time and he will cooperate with Jesus (peace be upon him) in killing the Dajjal. And during the time of the emergence of his government, contrary to the custom of the time and also contrary to the calculations of astrologers, there will be a solar eclipse on the fourteenth of the month of Ramadan and a lunar eclipse at the beginning of the same month. Now it should be seen with fairness whether these signs that have been described are present in this deceased person [Muhammad Jaunpuri] or not (Maktubat Hadrat Mujaddid Alf Thani, Idarah Mujaddidiyyah, v.2, p.245, #67)
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We observe that virtually every false Mahdi that has appeared in the history of this Ummah falls into one of two categories; either he claimed to be the Mahdi in order to launch a Mahdist insurrection or armed uprising, or in the garb of a dervish sought to be different from other mystics in gathering a following on the basis of the prestige of being a disciple of the Mahdi. In the former category were initially various early Shiite movements which were particularly keen on overthrowing Abbasid rule, and later various anti-colonial insurrections in North Africa that rallied some Muslims around them with the aim of throwing off the shackles of slavery to the British or the French. In the latter category fall such notorious individuals as Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.
We see that in the case of the false Mahdi of Jaunpur, Allah raised up a righteous saint and reformer, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, to repudiate his falsehood, and in the case of the Antichrist of Qadian, Allah raised up such pious men as Pir Mehr Ali Shah of Golra and Ala Hadrat Imam Ahmad Rida Khan of Bareli to falsify him. So it is that Imams of the Naqshbandi, Chishti and Qadiri orders were honored by Allah to serve as His generals to counter the evil of those two false Mahdis, thereby incurring prestige for these blessed silsilahs.
Remember, the true Mahdi will not be an ambitious man who seeks power and unilaterally declares himself the Mahdi for that purpose. Rather, the Hadith suggest that the people of Mecca shall recognize him and coerce him into accepting their pledges of allegiance:
فَيَأْتِيهِ نَاسٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ مَكَّةَ فَيُخْرِجُونَهُ وَهُوَ كَارِهٌ فَيُبَايِعُونَهُ بَيْنَ الرُّكْنِ وَالْمَقَامِ
A people from Mecca will come to him and bring him out while he is under duress. They will pledge allegiance to him between the Rukn and the Maqam (Sunan Abi Dawud)
A mere claim to being the Mahdi does not necessitate kufr if such a claim is not true in the sight of Allah, especially if it is made under sincere ijtihad, as in the case of Imam Nafs al-Zakiyah, Muhammad son of Abdullah, and reportedly by Muhammad bin al-Hanafiyyah prior to him. But those individuals who insist on proclaiming themselves the Mahdi when they are well aware that they do not fulfill the authentically reported principal signs of the Mahdi from the tongue of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, should fear Allah and cease playing with fire.
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