بِسۡمِ
اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ
In
the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful
الصلاة
والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله
وعلى
آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله
Apocalyptic
fervor was an undeniable feature of Islamic religious discourse
throughout the early days of Muslim history. The Holy Quran is an
apocalyptic text which speaks about the imminent Apocalypse,
Resurrection and final Judgment. Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad صلى
الله عليه وآله وسلم sounded
the alarm with regard to portents of the Hour, such as the appearance
of the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Jesus. This type of
narrative motivated much excitement about the end of the World,
especially near the beginning of the second century Hijri, a time of
turbulence and civil war in the Abbasid Empire. In this article I
shall outline several apocalyptic movements among the Muslims in
those early days and mention various figures claiming an apocalyptic
role, especially Mahdi claimants:
The
Mahdi
We
Sunni Muslims believe in the Mahdi prophecy, a man from the Prophet’s
عليه
السلام blessed
progeny through his daughter Fatimah رضى
الله عنها whose
name shall be the Prophet’s name (Muhammad or Ahmad), and shall
fill the land with justice as it was previously filled with
injustice. He shall be a glorious warrior and conqueror in whose time
there will be much wealth distributed among the community of
Believers. However, historically and presently, some Muslims
questioned or outright rejected the concept of the Mahdi for various
reasons. One such group believed that Jesus عليه
السلام alone
shall fulfill the role of the Mahdi and that there is no other Mahdi
to come in addition to him, including from the Prophet Muhammad’s
offspring, “others recognized only the Second Coming of Jesus. As
one tradition put it, there would be ‘no Mahdi except Jesus, the
son of Mary.’ While such individuals seem to have shared a
historical vision common to many prophecies in seeing a perpetual
decline shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, they openly
rejected the idea of a Mahdi figure.” (Yücesoy,
Hayrettin. Messianic
Beliefs & Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The Abbasid
Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century,
p.2)
The
belief in the Second Coming of Jesus is more fundamental in Sunni
Islam than that of the Mahdi who shall rise from the descendants of
the Holy Prophet صلى
الله عليه وآله وسلم
While
there may be room for disagreement concerning the details and
identity of the Mahdi, questioning the Second Coming of Jesus surely
removes one from the Sunni fold.
The
Qahtani and the Mansur
The
Holy Prophet Muhammad صلوات
الله والسلام عليه said:
لاَ
تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَخْرُجَ
رَجُلٌ مِنْ قَحْطَانَ يَسُوقُ النَّاسَ
بِعَصَاهُ
The
Hour shall not be established until a man from Qahtan comes forth
driving the people with his staff (Sahih al-Bukhari & Sahih
Muslim).
Apparently,
Abd al-Rahman bin Muhammad bin al-Ash’ath al-Kindi claimed he was
the Qahtani spoken of in this prophecy during his failed revolt
against the Umayyads and their governor al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf. He also
claimed to be the Mansur “aided one”, another apocalyptic figure.
This claim to being the Mansur was likewise made by the Murji’ite rebel al-Harith bin Surayj during his failed uprising against the
Umayyads and their governor Nasr bin Sayyar in Khorasan (Yücesoy,
Hayrettin. Messianic
Beliefs & Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The Abbasid
Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century,
p.20).
The
Sufyani
The
prophecy concerning the Sufyani, whose authenticity is contested,
inspired Umayyad revolts against the Abbasids, “Abu Muhammad Ziyad b. Abdallah, one of the grandsons of the second Umayyad caliph, Yazid
b. Mu’awiya, claimed the title of al-Sufyani during his revolt
against al-Saffah as the expected savior who would return the
caliphate and the fortune, or dawla,
of the Umayyads to the Sufyanids” (ibid, p.21). The second major
Umayyad figure to make this claim was Abu al-Amaytir, “Ali b.
Abdallah b. Khalid b. Yazid b. Mu’awiya who declared himself the
expected Sufyani who would restore the Umayyad rule, revolted in
Damascus in Dhu al-Hijja 195 / August-September 811. In doing so, he
was clearly attempting to fulfill earlier prophecies. An aged (in his
nineties) Umayyad notable and scholar with no extraordinary previous
fame, Abu al-Amaytir was a Hashimi from his mother’s side and an
Umayyad from his father’s. Thus he had enough reason to see himself
all at once the Sufyani, the Mahdi, the commander of the faithful,
and al-rida min al Muhammad” (ibid, pp.74-75).
The
Kaysaniyyah
Perhaps
the first figure in Muslim history to be considered the Mahdi was
Amir ul-Mu’minin Ali bin Abi Talib’s son through his wife Khawlah
bint Ja’far al-Hanafiyyah, Muhammad, “al-Mukhtar designated Ibn
al-Hanafiyya the Mahdi. The supporters of Ibn al-Hanafiyya continued
to believe that he was the Mahdi even after the defeat of al-Mukhtar.
Some of his ardent supporters, who gave birth to the Kaysaniyya movement, began to claim soon after his death that Ibn al-Hanafiyya
was not dead but was in hiding and that they expected his return”
(ibid, p.24).
The
Hashimiyyah and the Bayaniyyah
Ibn
al-Hanafiyyah’s son Abu Hashim Abdallah, was believed by some of
his followers to be not only his father’s successor to the Imamate,
but also the Mahdi, “His party, known as the Hashimiyya, split into
several groups after his death. One group claimed that Abu Hashim was
the Mahdi and that he was alive, hiding in the mountains of
Radwa...The followers of Bayan b. Sam’an (d. 119/736), known as the
Bayaniyya, believed that Abu Hashim would return as the Mahdi”
(ibid).
The
Harbiyyah
Some
of the Hashmiyyah accepted Abu Hashim’s death, but disputed over
the identity of his successor. One such disputant was “Abdallah b.
Amr b. Harb, one of the Hashimiyya, claimed that the imamate had
passed to him after Abu Hashim. After Ibn Harb died, he was believed
to be still alive and was expected to return” (ibid).
The
Khidashiyyah
Another
faction that descended from the original Hashmiyyah were known as
“The Khidashiyya were the followers of Ammar b. Yazid, nicknamed
Khidash, who was an Abbasid propagandist active in the area of
Nishapur and Marw. After Muhammad b. Ali and Khidash had a fallout
over doctrinal differences, the supporters of Khidash announced that
Muhammad b. Ali had given up the imamate and that it had passed to
Khidash. After the execution of Khidash in 118/736, his supporters
claimed that he was alive and had been raised to heaven by God”
(ibid).
The
Janahiyyah
The
Janahiyyah, followers of the Talibid Abdallah bin Mu’awiyah,
inherited their heretical beliefs from Ibn Harb and the Harbiyyah,
“Consisting mainly of the former Harbiyya, the Janahiyya sect
supported the imamate of Abdallah b. Mu’awiya. Abdallah b. Mu’awiya
is reported to have encouraged their extremist beliefs, claiming that
the Divine Spirit had been transferred through the prophets and imams
to him and that he was able to resurrect the dead. After he died in
131/748-49 in the prison of Abu Muslim, who was a Khurasani and the
head of the Abbasid revolutionary army, a group of Abdallah b.
Mu’awiya’s followers claimed that he was alive and hiding in the
mountains of Isfahan. Some said that he would return as the Mahdi,
while others held that he would surrender the leadership to a
descendant of Ali before his death” (ibid, p.25).
The
Abu Muslimiyyah
Abu
Muslim al-Khurasani was the main general of the Abbasid uprising in
Khorasan, “Abu Muslimiyya was a subgroup of the Kaysaniyya and
maintained that the imamate had passed from the first Abbasid caliph,
al-Saffah, to Abu Muslim, whom the group considered its leader. After
the execution of Abu Muslim by the caliph al-Mansur in 137/755, some
of the supporters of Abu Muslim maintained that the imamate had been
transferred from al-Saffah to Abu Muslim and that Abu Muslim was
still alive. This group, called the (Abu) Muslimiyya, believed that
al-Mansur had killed not Abu Muslim but a person who only resembled
him and that Abu Muslim had gone into hiding” (ibid). Incidentally,
two originally non-Muslim (Zoroastrian) figures, Sunbad and the false
prophet al-Muqanna, led revolts in the name of Abu Muslim, “Believing
that Abu Muslim was not killed and would return to rule, Sunbad
revolted only two months after Abu Muslim’s murder in 755 to avenge
his death, but was defeated. Another revolt in Transoxiana in the
name of Abu Muslim was led by al-Muqanna, the Veiled One, in Marw in
777. His was an ideology of incarnation and transmigration of souls,
as he claimed to be divine and an incarnation of Adam, whom God
created in his image. He claimed to have been incarnated in Noah and
reincarnated in Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and finally Abu Muslim”
(ibid).
The
Mughiriyyah
Apparently,
the righteous Imam Muhammad bin Abdallah, Nafs al-Zakiyah, who led a
failed uprising in Medina against the Abbasids, considered himself
the Mahdi. He certainly fulfilled many though not all of the
recognized signs of the Mahdi, such as bearing the name Muhammad son
of Abdallah and being a descendant of the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم
A
devious heretic, al-Mughirah bin Sa’id, taught many falsehoods in
the name of Nafs al-Zakiyah, “The followers of Mughira b. Sa’id
al-Bajali, a blind old man who practiced magic and jugglery,
supported the belief that the Hasanid Muhammad b. Abdallah, the Pure
Soul, would come forth as the Mahdi. When Muhammad b. Abdallah
vanished from the authorities’ sight, the Mughiriyya claimed that
he was alive, hiding in Mount al-Tamiyya, which was located east of
the route from al-Hajir to Mecca. In his doctrine, Mughira b. Sa’id
al-Bajali elevated the Alid imams to the rank of divinity.
Nevertheless, until the appearance of the Pure Soul as the Mahdi,
al-Mughira taught that he himself was the imam, the imamate of the
Alids having elapsed. He claimed to be a prophet and taught that
Muhammad b. Abdallah had given him from his mouth the Holy Spirit,
with which he was able to bring the dead to life and to heal those
who are blind or have leprosy” (ibid, pp.25-26).
Other
Mahdi Claims
The
Mughiriyyah weren’t the only ones to believe Muhammad Nafs
al-Zakiyah was the Mahdi, “The Pure Soul’s fame among the more
moderate Shi’is as the expected Mahdi in Medina was also
widespread. His popularity increased to the degree that no one, if we
believe al-Isfahani, had any doubt that he was the Mahdi. In fact he
honored himself with this name in one of his addresses to his
supporters: ‘You have no doubt that I am the Mahdi, I am indeed
he.’ After him, his brother Ibrahim, who adopted the title al-Hadi,
led an unsuccessful uprising against al-Mansur. After Ibrahim’s
death, some of his supporters claimed that he was the expected one.
In the Husaynid branch of the Alids, some of the followers of Ja’far
al-Sadiq and his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, saw them as Mahdis. Later
the followers of the Husaynid Musa al-Kazim (d. 799) declared him to
be the messianic Qa’im. When he died, they awaited his return from
concealment. These were known as the Waqifa” (ibid, p.26). The
Abbasid ruler, al-Mansur, claimed his son Muhammad was the Mahdi,
“al-Mansur honored his son, Muhammad b. Abdallah, as the Mahdi
around the year 143/760-61, even before his victory over the Pure
Soul and before adopting his own title, al-Mansur, and made a
concerted effort to publicize this. He did not shy away from publicly
arguing that the Mahdi was indeed his son, not the Pure Soul. In the
succession dispute within the Abbasid family, the caliph al-Mansur
forced the heir apparent in line, Isa b. Musa, to cede his place to
his son Muhammad because, al-Mansur argued, ‘he was the expected
Mahdi.’” (ibid, pp.26-27). For a while, a son of Imam Ja’far
al-Sadiq, Muhammad al-Dibaj, thought he might be the Mahdi, “In
200/816 another Alid and the uncle of Ali al-Rida, Muhammad al-Dibaj
b. Ja’far, claimed the title commander of the faithful in Mecca for
a short while...Muhammad b. Ja’far hoped that he was the expected
Mahdi and al-Qa’im...He used to say, ‘I hope I am the Mahdi, the
Qa’im’” (ibid, p.70).
Analysis
and Conclusion
The
sheer number of apocalyptic and Mahdist movements and claimants in
the early days of Islam is fascinating. While all the aforementioned
ones were either failures or heresies (and usually both), this should
never be a reason for us mainstream, orthodox Sunni Muslims to
abandon messianic expectation and fervor. Yet a Sunni apocalyptic
movement must necessarily refrain from any premature and violent
uprising against the ruling system or government. Hence, when the
real Mahdi is recognized and given the pledge of allegiance in the
shade of the sacred Ka’bah in Mecca, a supernatural sign shall
occur confirming him in that an army that seeks to attack him from
the direction of the north will be decimated and swallowed up by the
ground beneath their feet. Any armed uprising in the name of the
Mahdi before this cataclysmic event is premature and violates the
Sunni doctrine of maintaining obedience to the established government
of the Muslims.
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