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.

Zionism's saviour, Mr. Adolf Hitler

As the conflict in Gaza rages on, I write this post with a lot of anguish in my heart. Anguish, not because the people of Palestine are innocent victims of a conflict between two political ideologies (Zionism and Arab nationalism); After all, this is not the first conflict in the past few years where innocent civilians have been at the crossfire of war. No, my anguish is because unlike other conflicts in the world, here the people have no escape. On both sides of this narrow strip, border crosses have been mercilessly shut to avoid refugee influxes. Gaza was always in my opinion the largest prison in the world, and today it is the largest prison in the world that burns endlessly. The situation is a hopeless one, and thus I have always refrained about commenting too much on the issue due to it being ignored by the very people who caused it; but now I can only write in the hope that someone (Read leaders of Israel, Britain, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine) take inspiration from my opinions on the situation and look at implementing solutions which might bring some peace to this part of the world.

The U.N Plan from 1947-48      

(Click to enlarge)

The conflict has its roots on a summer in 1947, when a U.N mandate backed by the British stipulated that all Jews deserved a separate land, and of the two proposed locations; Palestine was chosen (the other being in Uganda, Africa). What many people are not aware of is that between 1925 and 1945, a sequence of events was responsible for the U.N mandate of 1947. Zionism had been on the rise since the early 1900’s, with demands to establish a Jewish state anywhere in the world, right from Russia to even Japan. However, the land of Palestine at the time was one that was ruled by the imperialists in Britain, who were being heavily opposed by Arabs fighting to drive the British out. It is therefore no surprise that the weakening British Empire favored a group of Zionists led by Theodore Herzl who took advantage of the situation.  There was also at the time, minor skirmishes between the Arabs and Jewish settlements owing to land disputes and other factors. The nail on the coffin against an Arab state came in 1938 when Hitler started his persecution of the Jews. When the war got over in 1945, widespread sympathy propelled the Jewish cause. Consequently, in his quest to exterminate the Jews, Hitler indirectly became the lone savior of the Zionists. A savior who switched world opinion to create the land that is today called, Israel.

The Original British plan of 1938-39
(Click to enlarge)

Since then, surrounding Arab Countries led by Jordan and Egypt have never acknowledged the creation of Israel having fought multiple wars to reiterate this fact. Attitudes changed by 1967, soon after the six day war, when the leaders of these nations decided that the war had caused too many displaced civilians to cross its porous borders and end up in either Egypt or Jordan. A ceasefire settlement was reached much to the dislike of factions within Palestinian lands, who were still opposed to the creation of Israel. The by-products of these factions are what we see today in Hamas, Fatah and the PLO in general. In my opinion, their cause is a just one since they were unfairly driven away from their own homes, yet I question their approach in the current context. It made sense to oppose and go to war with Israel in 1967 but today, Israel has established itself, so much so that it probably has a military capability that could rival even the United States. In such a scenario, would it not make sense to stop living in denial and acknowledge that Israel is here to stay and the only way peace could be reached is to look at a two state solution?

The solution

Ah!  But there lies another dilemma. How do you drive away people from their homes and then ask them to come back and share only part of their old home? And which part of their old home and how much? The solution according to me stems from a simple fact- Israelis and the Palestinians have fought too many bloody conflicts and will NEVER be capable of living side by side in peace. The solution needed in my opinion is a radical one; one that separates the conflicting parties by introducing non-state actors to serve as a neutral ‘protective shields’. My ideas here are for the most part idealistic yet can be thought provoking as it provides some means to move towards solving the current crisis. The ‘Zoltano proposal’ as I like to call it, requires huge sacrifices from all the players involved right from that summer in 1947- 

• For Israel, this means borders will have to be redrawn, with Israel going back to the original British proposed borders of 1939 (Somewhere between the original plan of 1939 and U.N mandated plan of 1947, the southern part of Palestine was given up completely in Israel’s favor).  Israel should accordingly remove all Jewish settlements from areas that are to be Palestinian Land. Tel-Aviv will be the new capital of Israel. 

• For Egypt and Jordan, their borders will be extended now into the Palestinian side such that they completely touch the proposed Israeli border. The Gazan Coast and its surrounding neighborhoods will now belong to Egypt and the population of this coast will be given the option of migrating to the newly formed Palestinian state or stay back. Similarly, on the Jordanian side, populations will be given the choice to move or stay back. To compensate for the land lost on the Palestinian side, the Egyptians and the Jordanians will sacrifice an equal area of land within their current borders. Furthermore, by covering up the borders of Israel as a protective shield, both Jordan and Egypt will secure their lands to ensure that Palestinians are not allowed on the Israeli side.

• Jerusalem will be a neutral, specially designated zone, controlled initially by the U.N for a 10 year period post which it will move to an independent monarchical type of setup where people of all faiths will be allowed to freely practice their religion without any restrictions. Governance will be led by a democratically elected mayor and democratically elected parties.

• Britain and its allies will for its part in unfairly causing all the mess that we see today, pay a ’compensation fee’ to the newly formed Palestinian state, by helping in building infrastructure and contributing in ways to boost the economy. 

• And at last the Palestinians will finally have their newly formed state by making the ultimate sacrifice-acknowledging that they lost their chance to “destroy Israel” when they lost the war in 1967. Instead, they will stop living in denial by accepting that Israel is here to stay, and now strive to look forward to the future. Extremist elements within the ‘State of Palestine’ will be dealt with harshly, and to help their cause, other Arab countries will contribute. Hebron will be the new capital of the Palestinian state.

Do I really see this proposal ever getting implemented? Quite frankly No; Arabs and Israelis have too many highly egoistic cooks who spoil this beautiful broth called ‘Peace’.  That said, I can no longer bear to see the suffering children and another generation of hate brewing. I see it as my obligation (as a problem solver in real life) to at least put to paper my thoughts on possible ways to end this bloody conflict. My hope is to finally see a day when half of the world’s conflicts that stem from the Israeli occupation, end forever.

The Curious Case of a Giant named Goliath

The story of David and Goliath (‘Dawud ‘and ‘Jalut ‘in Arabic) has forever been a literary cliché in self-help scenarios and as a precursor to ‘anything is possible’ speeches. It is one of those stories specifically highlighted in the Quran, Bible and Talmud making it significant for Muslim, Christians and Jews.

That said, the biggest problem that I have with historic stories such as these is that there are aspects in it which are quite far-fetched.  Take for example the fact that David who is known to be a shepherd boy of average size was able to ‘out maneuver ‘ and take on a very ‘powerful’ and ‘tactful’ giant Goliath which seems to suggest that there was a real competition playing out on that field that day. Not that it is impossible; however I felt gaps in understanding on how it actually played out. The ‘physics’ of it all somehow seemed to be out of place. Then last evening I got a plausible explanation: A recent book and a TED video by Malcolm Gladwell explains that the competition may not have been the spectacle that it was made out to be. 

For readers, who are not familiar with this story, it occurs in the 11^th century B.C (around the year 1040-50 BC) during a time when the Kingdom of Israel was at loggerheads with the Philistines, a sea faring tribe most likely originating from modern day Greece and Turkey. The two armies had gathered at Elah, a valley in the plains of Israel which was so conspicuous that any army advancing into the valley first would clearly be exposing themselves to failure. For this reason, the two parties decided to wait it out, till finally it was apparent that the only way there could be a winner was if either parties sent their finest warrior for a face to face combat. The winner of the duel would decide who had won the war. The Phiistines banking on scaring the opponent with size decides to send Goliath, a 9 foot giant from the hills of modern day Armenia while the Israelites still undecided on who to send turn to their leader and King Saul. A shepherd boy named David persists to be sent till King Saul finally agrees and lets him proceed. At this point, I must draw attention to the mystery of David’s confidence in facing this giant and convincing King Saul. Given his upbringing as a shepherd and little or no military experience per se, my view is that either this boy was unbelievably brave or there was a divine intervention (similar to Muhammad’s -PBUH victory at the battle of Badr) which guaranteed him of victory. In either case, David proceeds with a stick and his satchel containing stones for his slingshot. He takes a shot at Goliath between the eyes, and Goliath tumbles to the floor after which David used Goliath’s sword to sever the beast. 

Gladwell argues that Goliath might NOT have been the finest fighter that the Philistines had; instead he would have in most probability been their tallest, and heftiest which would serve well in scaring off the enemy. Given that Goliath’s height was close to 9 feet, it is most likely he suffered from Acromegaly, a condition related to Gigantism that in turn causes pituitary adenoma. Pituitary adenoma is a tumor like growth that affects eyesight and mobility. Gladwell supports this theory with the following observations:

•  On seeing David approaching, Goliath says “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks”. Why “sticks” when David was carrying only a single stick? Could it be that the giant’s vision was so poor that he was seeing double or even triple?
• Goliath was assisted down the hill by a helper. Why would their “finest” fighter need assistance? Also when David used his slingshot to hit Goliath, why was he so slow in reacting if he was indeed their ‘”finest” fighter? Both indicate a problem in mobility functions i.e. not being able to react and move quickly.

 According to me and it follows from Gladwell’s observations that David was probably made aware of these facts beforehand through divine sources. His faith coupled with this revelation probably catapulted this young man from being a mere shepherd boy to one of the greatest kings of the kingdom of Israel. Thus the story may not be about the victory of the underdog but instead of the fact that with immense unconditional faith, a solution to your problems always appears!