Hudhaifah bin Al-Yaman
reported that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu `alayhi
wa sallam said,
"Prophethood
(meaning himself) will remain with you for as long
as Allah wills it to remain, then Allah will raise
it up wherever he wills to raise it up. Afterwards,
there will be a Caliphate that follows the guidance
of Prophethood remaining with you for as long as
Allah wills it to remain. Then, He will raise it up
whenever He wills to raise it up. Afterwards, there
will be a reign of violently oppressive [The reign
of Muslim kings who are partially unjust] rule and
it will remain with you for as long as Allah wills
it to remain. Then, there will be a reign of
tyrannical rule and it will remain for as long as
Allah wills it to remain. Then, Allah will raise it
up whenever He wills to raise it up. Then, there
will be a Caliphate that follows the guidance of
Prophethood."
Then Hudhaifah
said, "The Prophet stopped speaking." [As-Silsilah
As-Sahihah, vol. 1, no. 5]
Al-Mahdi Muhammad
bin Abdullah
All those who are
gifted with sound comprehension know that the Mahdi
who the Shiites are waiting for, does not and did
not exist. The Muslim nation has faced numerous
hardships and calamities because of this mystical
belief that the Shiites carry and propagate
regarding this Mahdi.
In the Shiite
mythology, believing in the Imams is a cornerstone
of their faith. However such mythology is similar to
Greek and Persian mythology, as well as the beliefs
of the other nations of Al-Jahiliyyah.
The Sunnis believe
that Al-Mahdi will be an ordinary man, born to an
ordinary women raised by ordinary men and living an
ordinary life with the people of his time. He will
not live in caves, as the Shiites believe. They are
waiting for their Mahdi to appear from an alleged
cave, where they claim he has been in hiding for
over ten centuries.
In reality, Al-Mahdi
will be an Imam and a Caliph, among other Caliphs
who rule Muslims with justice. However, what
differentiates Al-Mahdi from other Caliphs is that
he will meet Jesus son of Mary sallallahu `alayhi wa
sallam.
Also, Jesus, the
Prophet of Allah, will pray behind Al-Mahdi. Allah
will give Al-Mahdi the ability to righteously rule
the Muslim nation in the span of a night. He will
fill the earth with justice, as it was filled with
injustice. He will lead the Muslim nation to the
second conquering of Constantinople and possibly
Rome.
A Caliphate That
Follows the Guidance of the Prophet sallallahu `alayhi
wa sallam
The Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam mentioned that
just before the end of this world, the Muslim nation
will be ruled by a Caliphate that will follow the
guidance sent with the Messenger of Allah sallallahu
`alayhi wa sallam.
Hudhaifah bin Al-Yaman
reported that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu `alayhi
wa sallam said,
"Prophethood
(meaning himself) will remain with you for as long
as Allah wills it to remain, then Allah will raise
it up wherever he wills to raise it up. Afterwards,
there will be a Caliphate that follows the guidance
of Prophethood remaining with you for as long as
Allah wills it to remain. Then, He will raise it up
whenever He wills to raise it up. Afterwards, there
will be a reign of violently oppressive [The reign
of Muslim kings who are partially unjust] rule and
it will remain with you for as long as Allah wills
it to remain. Then, there will be a reign of
tyrannical rule and it will remain for as long as
Allah wills it to remain. Then, Allah will raise it
up whenever He wills to raise it up. Then, there
will be a Caliphate that follows the guidance of
Prophethood."
Then Hudhaifah
said, "The Prophet stopped speaking." [As-Silsilah
As-Sahihah, vol. 1, no. 5]
The reason behind
mentioning this Hadith here is to state that Al-Mahdi
will live in the last period of rightly guided
Caliphs that the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi
wa sallam mentioned himself sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam.
In this Hadith, the
Messenger of Allah divided the history of the Muslim
nation into the following stages:
1. The reign of the
Prophet Muhammad
2. A Caliphate that
rules according to the guidance revealed to the
Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam
This period is called the reign of the rightly
guided Caliphs, starting with Abu Bakr, then Umar,
then Uthman and ending with the murder of Ali bin
Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased withthem all. Some
scholars included the short reign of Al-Hasan bin
Ali, the grandson of the Messenger of Allah
sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam These are the thirty
years which the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi
wa sallam stated comprised the reign of the rightly
guided Caliphs [The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam said? "The Caliphate will remain in my
nation after me for thirty years. Then, it will be a
monarchy after that." Ahmad, Tirmidhi and
others, Sahih Al-Jami` ' As-Saghir no. 3341].
3. The reign of
unjust rule. This reign contains some injustice to a
varying degree between one king and another. This
period started after Al-Hasan bin Ali and includes
the Umayyad, Abbasid, Mamluks and until the fall of
the Ottoman State in the twentieth century.
This period
includes all states that ruled in the Muslim World
during those centuries. However, we exclude the
reign of those rulers whose rule was similar to the
rule of the rightly guided Caliphs, such as the
reign of Abdullah bin Az-Zubayr and Umar bin Abdul-Aziz.
These two are considered among the just Caliphs from
among the tribe of Quraish who ruled or will rule
the Muslim nation.
4. The reign of the
tyrannical rule. This period started in the end of
the Ottoman state and continues. We ask Allah that
He saves us from the evils of this period and that
we witness its end soon.
This reign includes
all the regimes that ruled the Muslim World, whether
imperial, party oriented, governments controlled by
the disbelievers, like those after World War I,
populist or republic, which all sought to deprive
Allah from His right as the Only Legislator in all
matters of life and religion.
When the Messenger
of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam mentioned the
periods that this nation will experience, he
categorized them according to the type of
government, whether unjust, or that which follows
the guidance of the Prophet, or autocratic and
tyrannical, as we experience today.
5. The return of a
Caliphate that rules following the guidance of the
Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam This period
requires the Muslims to be prepared and strive for
its imminent coming, by spreading the knowledge of
the Book and the Sunnah and the way of our righteous
ancestors, As-Salaf As-Salih. This is because
nothing can resurrect this nation except that which
resurrected its ancestors. Until this final period
comes, the religion will become a stranger, the same
way it started in Makkah, a stranger to its masters
and slaves, the powerful and the weak, its women,
and its children.
Those who will
strive to establish this righteous period are those
ghurabaa strangers as the Messenger of Allah
sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam called them, who will
carry this religion with knowledge, sound
comprehension and determination. They will willingly
sacrifice their well-being, face hardships, and
persecution, with patience and steadfastness. They
will follow the advice of the Messenger of Allah
sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam when he said,
"Therefore,
hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly
guided Caliphs, hold it between your front teeth!
And beware of innovations (in the religion), for
every innovation is a bid'ah, and every bid'ah is a
deviation, and every deviation is in the Fire."
[Sahih Al-Jami ' As-Saghir, no. 2549]
The ghurabaa are
the ones who, by the will of Allah, will correct
that which people have altered and changed of the
Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi
wa sallam after his departure from this earthly
life. They will fight in the sake of Allah and
dominate those who oppose them. They will be
unrelenting even in the face of those who abandon or
defy them, until Allah brings about His Decree (the
Hour), while they are steadfast on this path.
We ask Allah, the
Praised and Ever-High One, that He grants us
steadfastness on the path of His Messenger
sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam and the path taken by
the companions and those who followed theirlead
until the Day of Judgment.
