Spirit of al-Imam al-Mahdi is Alive in the Middle East
Supplement to Archive Updates 113C & 157C
August 21, 2005
The spirit of Jihad and the cry for a messianic leader is growing in the Middle East. The takeover in Gaza is setting the stage for a growing confidence in
the Islamic mind for an eventual complete victory in the Middle East. The coming months of haggling in the West Bank will also end in what Islam will proclaim as a victory, no matter how few or how many settlements the Israelis finally end up pulling out. The following article was taken from the DEBKAfile, and gives a sort of preview of the current trend, and the ever increasing victorious rhetoric of the factions within and without the Palestinian Authority.
BEGIN DEBKAfile ARTICLE
Abu Mazen declares in Gaza: The Great Jihad has begun
August 20, 2005
The Palestinian leader demanded Saturday that Israel hand over fully evacuated land in West Bank too, after Gaza.
He set the Palestinian general election date for Jan 25, 2006.
DEBKAfile: Abbas is increasingly borrowing from Hamas threatening rhetoric.
It is now promising to carry on its terrorist campaign in the West Bank.
In an earlier speech Friday, Abu Mazen told Gazans: We are marking a h historic celebration.
Israel’s Gaza withdrawal was bought by the sacrifices of the Palestinian people and the blood of its martyrs.
END DEBKA FILE ARTICLE
During my 20 plus years in military service, from time to time I went to school with the followers of Islam, and trained one in meteorological severe weather prediction at the Federal Office building in Kansas City, Missouri. The information which follows is about a traditional teaching involving the arrival of an Islamic Imam Mahdi (al-Imam al-Mahdi) at the end of this last age before the resurrection. The word Imam means “to walk before,” and carries the title of Caliph, and the word “Mahdi” means “a leader, and a spiritual guide and director.” The Muslims expect this leader and prophet to appear on the earth before the world ends, and he is expected to be the Islamic Messiah. The belief is based on thousands of traditions that claim to go all the way back to the Koran, but I have never been able to find a legitimate reference in the Koran without twisting its context. Of course, I do not believe Islamic tradition or the Koran, but what I believe is beside the point.
The point is that most Muslims do believe it.
So when a man does arise among them they can label as an Imam Mahdi, then I believe he will be the antichrist of which the Bible teaches, which I do believe, and it will make it much easier for some 700 million Muslims, most of which live in the Middle East, to follow him in a great and united Jihad against Israel. The al-Imam al-Mahdi will carry the title “The Just Leader of Humanity.”
Even though it cannot be found in the Koran, there are a large number of learned Muslims who claim the belief in Mahdi was widespread during Muhammad’s lifetime among them. Many say on more than one occasion he had announced the future coming of the Mahdi, and that at times he would inform the people about Mahdi’s wonderful government, plus the signs preceding his rise among the people. Ancient Islamic documents do quote the Prophet as saying: “The world will not come to an end until a man from my family line, who will be called al-Mahdi, emerges to rule my community.” A couple of other quotes from Islamic documents are also valuable in understand Muslim beliefs on this subject; one makes a statement that is quoted as having been uttered by the Prophet three times: “Listen to the good news about the Mahdi! He will rise at the time when the people will be faced with severe conflict and the earth will be hit by a violent quake. He will fill the earth with justice and equality as it is filled with injustice and tyranny. He will fill the hearts of his followers with devotion and will spread justice everywhere (Mihal, Vol. 1, p .256: Firaq, p. 62).” And, in Milal, Vol. 1, pp. 273, 278 and Firaq, pp.
67, 80, 83, the Prophet has declared: “The day of Resurrection will not take place until the True Qa’im rises. This will happen when God permits him to do so. Anyone who follows him will be saved, and anyone who opposes
him will perish.
O servants of God, keep God in your mind and go towards him even if it happens to be on the ice, for indeed he is the Caliph of God, the Exalted and Glorified, and my successor.”
Shiites revere 12 Imams historically, the last of whom is believed to be currently in hiding, but will make himself known to Islam as the al-Mahdi in the last days of this age. There is also a traditional teaching that he will rise from the dead before the end of time.
The subject of Imams is what led to the great split in the Islamic ranks between the Sunni, the largest party, and the Shiite, the second largest party.
But the Kurds and other splinter groups also have their religious Imams, which is one of the major reasons there can never be a democracy in Iraq, because of the bitter enmity between the Islamic divisions. However, if a strong leader, with great religious charisma, should arise out of hiding to unite them all in the belief he was the Imam Mahdi of Islamic tradition with the power of Allah, the fanaticism of the Muslims would create much more than just an occasional suicide bomber – It would generate a massive flood of millions charging across the northern border of Israel unafraid of death. Of course, I do not believe the Koran or the traditional teachings of Islam. I decided long ago, from Micah 5:1-9, that the antichrist would be of Assyrian lineage, and would come out of the area that included Lebanon, extreme southern Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq, or the extreme tip of northwestern Iran (See Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, and 69 in our Prophecy Archives). And I am confident he will be of the Islamic faith (See Prophecy Updates 160B and 161C in our Prophecy Archives). If you really want your eyes opened to what was taught prophetically before 1740, then check out the following Prophecy Updates in our archives: 73D, 74A, 78, 82A, 114A, 117B, 56, 57, 58, 123B and 123D. It may be you will discover that what is going on now in the Middle East fits what pre-1740 prophetic teachings indicated would be happening, in the last days, more accurately than the twentieth century popular teachings of end time events. As I stated earlier,
I do not believe the Koran or Islamic traditional teaching, but it is ironic that they are primed to receive the one we call the antichrist from their own writings, which identify him as their Messiah. Before too much longer I expect a man from within the area I previously identified, probably Syria, to be manifested as someone behind which all Muslims can unite to meet their goal of driving Israel out of the land from Dan to Beersheba, and with a view toward overcoming all the infidels in the name of Allah.