Is 2015 the year of the Mahdi ?

Glossary - 'Hadith' is an Islamic historical account of the Prophets words and actions

With the Islamic event of Mid-Shaban having just passed us this week (June 3^rd-4^th), a few sources like discoveringislam.org are of the opinion that this would be the year that the Mahdi will appear. The conditions are ripe according to them, with Syria currently in a devastating war, an event prophesied by the Hadith as a condition for the arrival of the Mahdi during the Mid-Shaban. For the uninformed, Mahdi in simple terms is Islam’s answer to the modern messiah and just like Christians expecting the return of Jesus, there is a lot of anticipation building on the Mahdi’s arrival, given the state of the world today. 

According to the Hadith, the period of the Mahdi’s arrival will also coincide with the return of Jesus and an entity known as ‘Dajjal’, who for years has been speculated to signify everything from a deranged person to technological innovations like the internet / TV to even countries like the U.S and Russia.  Whatever ‘Dajjal’ maybe, we know that it contrives in propaganda, imparting suffering and sin. If I were to look at all this rationally, it might all seem far-fetched with inklings of some extraordinary story told by the Bedouins of Arabia but you cannot take away the fact that these narrations have accurately predicted the fall of modern day Iraq, Syria and more recently Yemen, three regions which at the time of the prophet were hugely successful. 

I have said in my earlier posts on how certain parts of the Hadith can in many cases seem suspicious with hidden agendas of people and it should therefore never be used to make decisions that affect people and their livelihoods. The Hadith however, for historical buffs like me, provides amazing insight into the thoughts and blocs of knowledge shared during the times of the prophet which makes a scintillating read. Take for example the paraphrased extract of the articles on the appearance of the Mahdi, ‘Dajjal’ and Jesus: 

 "The Mahdi will be among my nation. If he lives for a short period, it will be seven, and if he lives for a long period, it will be nine, during which my nation will enjoy a time of ease such as it has never enjoyed...”

Reference

: Sunan Ibn Majah 4083

 “He (Dajjal) would be twisted and blind in one eye…. He would appear on the way between Syria and Iraq and would spread mischief right and left….. We said: Allah's Messenger, how long would he stay on the earth? He (ﷺ) said: For forty days, one day like a year and one day like a month and one day like a week and the rest of the days would be like your (normal) days….and it would be at this very time that Allah would send Christ, son of Mary, and he will descend at the white minaret in the eastern side of Damascus wearing two garments lightly dyed with saffron and placing his hands on the wings of two Angels."

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2937a

It appears from these extracts that the sequence of the timeline would be Mahdi's appearance for 7 to 9 years, post which Dajjal and Jesus appear. Based on a continuing paragraph, Jesus and the Mahdi will then kill Dajjal at the gates of Lud in modern day Tel Aviv Israel. I understand from this text that Israel will also be involved somehow which doesn’t seem likely if we were to take 2015 as the year of the death of Dajjal (considering that Tel Aviv is now covered by a blanket of security). 

I also noticed that the word ‘day’ in Arabic in the text about Dajjal is actually translated to ‘period’ which could mean anything but let us assume for the purpose of this discussion the definition of ‘Period’ as per the Quran i.e 1000 Earth years. In other words, 1 day/period in the sight of God is equivalent to 1000 earth days/periods.

It follows that the Dajjal will be alive for 40 days/ periods where the first period/ day is equivalent to 365,000 Earth days (1 year), the second period/day is equivalent to 30,000 Earth days  (1 month) and the Third period/ day is equivalent to 7000 Earth days (1 week).  The remaining 37 days will be 37 Earth days. This sums up to 1101 Earth years.

We have established (based on an assumption of course) that the Dajjal will be present for 1101 years before being vanquished. The question remains now on what would be the starting point for Dajjal and for this I refer to this text:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "The greatest war, the conquest of Constantinople and the coming forth of the Dajjal (Antichrist) will take place within a period of seven months."

Reference:  Sunan Abi Dawud 4295

We know from history that Constantinople fell on May-June 1453 which means the Dajjal would have appeared 7 months later that is in 1454. If we add the 1101 years, which we got from before, the death of Dajjal is roughly placed in the year 2555. This means that Mahdi would appear 7 to 9 years prior which is either the year 2548 or 2546. 

This is all speculation at this point and I truly believe that the Almighty knows best, however if my calculations are right, it would mean that the state of affairs in Syria may not improve for the next 500 years which is really disheartening unless there is a scenario where the situation improves and then deteriorates around the year 2548 to match the prophecies of the hadith.

In any case, I am convinced that 2015 is in no way significant and we have many centuries to go before we enter the final days of our existence as a species. I leave it to the Almighty to decide when that might be.