Promised Messiah will be an Imam from among the Ummah

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

اللهم صلى على سيدنا ومولانا محمد وبارك وسلم وصلى عليه

Years ago I wrote two articles, one in 2016 and the other in 2017, in which I explained that the words of the Hadith:

كَيْفَ أَنْتُمْ إِذَا نَزَلَ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ فِيكُمْ وَإِمَامُكُمْ مِنْكُمْ

What will be your condition when the Son of Mary descends among you and your Imam is from among you?

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

is a proof that the coming Messiah shall in fact be someone from this Ummah that will be our Imam “your Imam is from among you”. The promised Messiah is an individual raised up as an Imam from this very Ummah, and not the original Jesus son of Mary – the Israelite Prophet – who appeared some two millennia ago. Although most Muslims today believe the promised Messiah is that original Jesus and will physically descend from Heaven in the End Times the Hadith under discussion is a strong refutation of that idea.

Many Muslims argue that “your Imam is from among you” is not referring to the coming Jesus but to a second individual who will appear alongside Jesus, namely, the Mahdi. However, Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani has quoted the view of the early Ulama that “your Imam is from among you” refers to the coming Jesus and not a Mahdi who is an individual distinct from Jesus:

وَقَالَ أَبُو ذَرٍّ الْهَرَوِيُّ حَدَّثَنَا الْجَوْزَقِيُّ عَنْ بَعْضِ الْمُتَقَدِّمِينَ قَالَ مَعْنَى قَوْلِهِ وَإِمَامُكُمْ مِنْكُمْ يَعْنِي أَنَّهُ يَحْكُمُ ‌بِالْقُرْآنِ ‌لَا ‌بِالْإِنْجِيلِ

Abu Dharr al-Harawi said: al-Jawzati told us that some of the early Ulama said: the meaning of his [sall Allahu alaihi wasallam] saying ‘your Imam is from among you’ is that he [Jesus] will judge by the Quran and not by the Gospel (Fath al-Bari; v.6, p.494):

In other words, these early Ulama clearly understood the clause of the Hadith ‘your Imam is from among you’ as referring to the person of the coming Jesus and not a separate individual such as the Mahdi or anyone else. And they interpreted this description of the coming Jesus being an Imam from among the Ummah as proof that he will judge by the Quran and not like the original Jesus who judged according to his revelation – the Gospel.