Ustadhsis: False Prophet of Khorasan

 

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds

Peace and benedictions upon you, my Master, Apostle of Allah

The false prophet Ustadhsis of Khorasan launched an insurrection against the Abbasid dynasty in the year 767 CE (150 H). The historian al-Yaqubi confirms that this individual claimed he was a prophet (Tarikh al-Yaqubi; v.2, p.380)

While there is a scarcity of details concerning Ustadhsis’s prophetic claim and the nature of his religious worldview, it is safe to assume that he was part of the broader trend of syncretism, the mixture of Islamic and old Iranian religion, which was the basis for several individuals claiming prophesy and stirring up dissension against the central Muslim authority based in Baghdad. Ustadhsis was the successor of the Magian Bihafarid, who also claimed to be a messenger of God. Whether these two individuals should be included in the list of the thirty false prophets which the Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم warned about, that they would arise from his Ummah, is questionable. It is understood that the thirty or so false prophets that are warned about in the Hadith will come from this Ummah, meaning they will have some initial link to Islam. But Bihafarid and Ustadhsis don’t seem to have ever belonged to the Millah, rather they were heresiarchs in the Zoroastrian tradition. I am not aware of any true Prophet in history who led a failed uprising against the government of his day. Surely, that is not the purpose for God sending a Prophet into this world.