THE MYTH OF THE SHI'IA MAHDI
The 15th of Shabaan is a very significant date, both
to the Ahl as-Sunnah and the Shiah. The Shiah,
however, have their own reason for ascribing
significance to this night. To them it is the night of
the birth of their twelfth Imam, the Hidden Mahdi.
Who is this Mahdi whose return to this world is so
eagerly awaited by the Shiah, and belief in whose
existence in occultation forms such a integral aspect
of the Shi'ite psyche? Before an adequate answer to
this question may be given, there is a need to
understand certain aspects concerning the Shi'ite
doctrine of Imamah.
THE SHI'IA MAHDI BACKGROUND
The cornerstone of the Shi'ite faith is the belief
that the spiritual and temporal leadership of this
Ummah after the demise of Rasoolullaah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam is vested in the Imam, who is
appointed, like the Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam
himself, by Allah, and who enjoys all the distinctions
and privileges of the Nabi sallallahu alayhi
wasallam.
However, they believe that Imamah, unlike Nubuwwah,
can never come to an end. In this regard there is a
well-known Shi'ite ahaadeeth which says that the
world cannot exist without an Imam, and another which
goes that if the earth were to be without an Imam for
a single day it would sink.
Thus, when it came to pass that the first of those
whom they regard as their Imams Sayyiduna Ali
radiyallahu anhu left this world, a problem arose.
Some of those who regarded themselves as his followers
claimed that he did not in fact die, but that he will
return to establish justice. Others said that he was
succeeded as Imam by his son Hasan, who was in turn
succeeded by his brother Husayn.
When Husayn died there were some who claimed to follow
their other brother Muhammad (known as Ibn
al-Hanafiyyah) as their Imam. When he died his
followers claimed that he was in reality alive, and
that he will return in due time. Others amongst the
Shiah took Sayyiduna Husayns son, Ali, surnamed Zayn
al-Abidin, as their Imam, and upon his death
transferred their loyalties to his son, Muhammad
al-Baqir.
When al-Baqir died there were once again elements from
amongst the Shiah who denied his death and claimed
that he would return one day, while others took his
son Jafar as-Sadiq as their Imam.
When he died there was mass confusion amongst the
Shiah: each of his sons Ismail, Abdullah, Muhammad,
Zakariyya, Ishaq and Moosa was claimed by various
groups amongst the Shiah to be their Imam. In
addition to them there was a group who believed that
Jaafar did not really die, and that he would return
one day.
More or less the same thing happened at the death of
his son Moosa. Some of the Shiah denied his death,
believing that he will return, and others decided to
take as their new Imam one of his sons. Some of these
chose his son Ahmad, while others chose his other son
Ali ar-Rida.
After him they took as their Imam his son Muhammad
al-Jawwad (or at-Taqi), and after him his son Ali
al-Hadi (or an-Naqi). At the death of Ali al-Hadi they
looked upon his son Hasan al-Askari as their new and
11th Imam.
THE DEATH OF HASAN AL-ASKARI
The above is a very brief synopsis of a tumultuous and
confusing history a history from which a dedicated
researcher might extract some very revealing facts
about the development of Shiaism.
However, that is not our concern at this moment. We
have now arrived at the year 254 AH, the time when a
major section of the Shiah accepted as their Imam the
22-year old Hasan, son of Ali al-Hadi, and 10th lineal
descendant of Sayyiduna Ali and Sayyidah Fatimah
radiyallahuanhuma. Six years later, in 260 AH, Hasan
al-Askari, at the very young age of 28, is lying on
his deathbed, but unlike any of his forefathers he
leaves no offspring, no one to whom the Shiah might
appropriate as their new Imam.
The Shiah who had been regarding Hasan al-Askari as
their Imam were thrown into mass disarray. Does this
mean the end of the Imamah? The end of the Imamah
would mean the end of Shiaism. Were they prepared for
that?
The confusion that reigned amongst the Shiah after
the death of Hasan al-Askari is reflected by the
Shi'ite writer Hasan ibn Moosa an-Nawbakhti, who
counts the emergence of altogether 14 sects amongst
the followers of Hasan al-Askari, each one with a
different view on the future of the Imamah and the
identity of the next Imam. It must be noted that
an-Nawbakhti was alive at the time all of this was
taking place. Another Shi'ite writer, Sad ibn
Abdullah al-Qummi, who also lived during the same
time, counts 15 sects, and a century later the
historian al-Masudi enumerates altogether 20 separate
sects.
TRENDS
There were four major trends amongst these various
sects:
(1) There were those who accepted the death of
Hasan al-Askari as a fact, and accepted also the fact
that he left no offspring. To them Imamah had thus
come to an end, just like Nubuwwah came to an end with
the death of Rasoolullaah (s.a.w.s) . However, there
were some amongst them who kept hoping for the advent
of a new Imam.
(2) The second trend was one to which the student
of the history of succession to the Imamah would be
much more used to. This was the tendency to deny the
death of Hasan al-Askari, and to claim that he would
return in the future to establish justice upon earth.
We have seen this tendency emerge amongst the Shiah
at more than one critical juncture in the history of
the Imamah of the Shiah; it is therefore only logical
to expect it to resurface at a moment as critical as
the death of Hasan al-Askari.
(3) The third trend was to extend the chain of
Imamah to Hasans brother Jaafar.
(4) The fourth trend was the claim that Hasan
al-Askari did in fact have a son. It is the fourth
trend which ultimately became the view of the dominant
group in Shiaism.
THE MISSING SON
This trend was spearheaded by persons who had set
themselves up as the representatives of the Imam, and
who were in control of a network covering various
parts of the Islamic empire a network for the purpose
of collecting money in the name of the Imams of the
Ahl al-Bayt.
All followers of the Imams were obliged to pay one
fifth of their income to the representatives of the
Imams. (This is a practice which continues up to
today.) At the head of this network was a man called
Uthmaan ibn Said al-Amri. His manner of resolving
the predicament was unique: Hasan al-Askari was dead,
he admitted, but he was not childless. He had a 4-year
old son, Muhammad, with whom no one but he Uthmaan
ibn Said could have contact. And from that point
onwards he would act as the representative (wakeel) of
the Hidden Imam and collect money in his name.
To the fact that Hasan al-Askaris own family were
completely ignorant of the existence of any child of
his, and that his estate had been divided between his
brother Jaafar and his mother, Uthman ibn Said and
his ilk responded by denouncing Jaafar as al-Kadhdhab
(the Liar).
In due time a fantastic story was brought into
circulation about the union between Hasan al-Askari
and a Roman slave-girl, who is variously named as
Narjis, Sawsan or Mulaykah. She is mentioned as having
been the daughter of Yusha (Joshua), the Roman
emperor, who is a direct descendant of the apostle
Simon Peter. But history shows that there never was a
Roman emperor of that name. The Roman emperor of the
time was Basil I, and neither he nor any other emperor
is known to have descended from Peter. The story goes
on to tell of her capture by the Muslim army, how she
eventually came to be sold to Hasan al-Askari, and of
her supernatural pregnancy and the secret birth of the
son of whom no one aside from Uthman ibn Said and
his clique knew anything. Everything about the child
is enveloped in a thick and impenetrable cloud of
mystery.
THE FOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Uthman ibn Said remained the representative of the
Hidden Imam for a number of years. In all that time
he was the only link the Shiah had with their Imam.
During that time he supplied the Shi'ite community
with tawqiat, or written communications, which he
claimed was written to them by the Hidden Imam. Many
of these communications, which are still preserved in
books like at-Tusis Kitab al-Ghaybah, had to do with
denouncing other claimants to the position of
representatives, who had come to realise exactly how
lucrative a position Uthmaan ibn Said had created for
himself. The Shi'ite literature dealing with Uthmaan
ibn Saids tenure as representative is replete with
references to money collected from the Shi'ite public.
When Uthmaan ibn Said died, his son Abu Jaafar
Muhammad produced a written communication from the
Hidden Imam in which he himself is appointed the
second representative, a position which he held for
about 50 years. He too, like his father, had to deal
with several rival claimants to his position, but the
tawqiat which he regularly produced to denounce them
and reinforce his own position ensured the removal of
such obstacles and the continuation of support from a
credulous Shi'ite public.
He was followed in this position by Abul Qasim ibn
Rawh an-Nawbakhti, a scion of the powerful and
influential Nawbakhti family of Baghdad. Before
succeeding Muhammad ibn Uthmaan, Abul Qasim
an-Nawbakhti was his chief aide in the collection of
the one-fifth taxes from the Shiah. Like his two
predecessors, he too had to deal with rival claimants,
one of whom, Muhammad ibn Ali ash-Shalmaghani used to
be an accomplice of his. He is reported in Abu Jaafar
at-Tusis book Kitab al-Ghaybah as having stated: We
knew exactly what we were into with Abul Qasim ibn
Rawh. We used to fight like dogs over this matter (of
being representative).
When Abul Qasim an-Nawbakhti died in 326 AH he
bequethed the position of representative to Abul Hasan
as-Samarri. Where the first three representatives were
shrewd manipulators, Abul Hasan as-Samarri proved to
be a more conscientious person. During his three years
as representative there was a sudden drop in tawqiat.
Upon his deathbed he was asked who his successor would
be, and answered that Allah would Himself fulfill the
matter. Could this perhaps be seen as a refusal on his
part to perpetuate a hoax that has gone on for too
long? He also produced a tawqi in which the Imam
declares that from that day till the day of his
reappearance he will never again be seen, and that
anyone who claims to see him in that time is a liar.
Thus, after more or less 70 years, the last door of
contact with the Hidden Imam closed. The Shiah term
this period, in which there was contact with their
Hidden Imam through his
representatives-cum-tax-collectors, the Lesser
Occultation (al-Ghaybah as-Sughra), and the period
from the death of the last representative onwards the
Greater Occultation (al-Ghaybah al-Kubar). The Greater
Occultation has already continued for over a thousand
years.
ACTIVITIES OF THE REPRESENTATIVES
When one reads the classical literature of the Shiah
in which the activities of the four representatives
are outlined, one is struck by the constantly
recurring theme of money. They are almost always
mentioned in connection with receiving and collecting
the Imams money his loyal Shi'ite followers. There
is a shocking lack of any activities of an academic or
spiritual nature. Not a single one of the four is
credited with having compiled any book, despite the
fact that they were in exclusive communion with the
last of the Imams, the sole repository of the legacy
of Rasoolullaah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
When we look at the major sources upon which the
Shi'ite faith is based, we find that most of them were
written after the onset of the Greater Occultation.
Those works, like al-, which was written during the
latter decades of the Lesser Occultation, contain
scarcely a reference to any of the four
representatives as narrators from the Hidden Imam.
Instead it is filled with thousands of reports which
go back, via other channels, to the fifth and the
sixth Imams. That is indeed strange, considering the
fact that a man like Uthmaan ibn Said al-Amri is
claimed to have been closely associated with the 10th,
the 11th as well as the hidden 12th Imam, and also the
fact that his son remained the Shi'ite communitys
solitary link to that Imam for half a century. Would
it not have been better and more authoritative for an
author like al-Kulayni to report the hadith of his
Imams from the Hidden Imam via his representatives who
lived in Baghdad at the same time as he rather than to
trace it all back to the fifth and sixth Imams through
a myriad of doubtful channels?
But of course, he could not have done that, because
the activities of those representatives did not have
as much to do with authentically preserving the legacy
of the Ahl al-Bayt as with the collection of wealth in
their names.
In light of the fact that the Shiah explain the
necessity of Imamah in terms of the need for an
infallible guide who serves as the repository of the
legacy of Ahl al-Bayt, it appears extremely
incongruous that this particular guide has left no
sort of legacy of his own whereby the legacy of the
Ahl al-Bayt can be known. Despite the fact that an
infallible guide supposedly exists, it is upon
fallible persons such as Muhammad ibn Yaqub
al-Kulayni that the Shiah must depend for that
legacy.
The only bit of information that has come down to us
regarding the Hidden Imams authentication of the
hadith legacy of the Shiah is what is recorded by Aqa
Muhammad Baqir Khwansari in his book Rawdat al-Jannat.
He writes that al-Kulaynis book was presented to the
Hidden Imam who looked at it and declared, Hadha
Kaafin li-Shiatina (This is enough for our Shiah).
This is incidentally how the book received its name.
A report such as this creates a huge problem. It
appears to be a ratification of the contents of the
book al-KAAFI by the infallible Imam. Yet, 9 centuries
later the Shi'ite muhaddith, Mulla Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi, would declare in his commentary on al-, named
Mirat al-Uqul, that 9,485 out of the 16,121
narrations in al- are unreliable. What did Majlisi
know that the infallible Imam was so unaware of that
he would authenticate a book, 60% of whose contents
would later be discovered to be unreliable?
EVALUATION
The Iraqi Shi'ah scholar, Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr,
finds proof for the existence of the Hidden Mahdi in
what he calls the experience of a community. The
existence of the Hidden Imam, he postulates, was
experienced by the Shi'ite community as a whole in the
written communications that the representatives used
supplied them with.
The crux of this argument lies in the fact that an
individual experience might be doubted, but never that
of experience of an entire community. However, the
glaring flaw in this line of reasoning is that it very
conveniently overlooks the part of the representatives
as the individual go-betweens.
The community never had the privilege of seeing or
meeting the person they believed to be the author of
the tawqiat. Their experience was limited to
receiving what the representatives produced. Even the
argument of a consistent handwriting in all the
various tawqiat is at best melancholy. There is no
way one can get away from the fact that the existence
of the Hidden Imam rests upon nothing other than
acceptance of the words of the representatives.
The activities of those representatives furthermore go
a long way to show that they were much, much more
inspired by the desire to possess than by pious
sentiments of any kind.
So when the Shiah commemorate the birth of their
twelfth Imam on the 15th night of Shaban, or when
they seek to apply ahaadeeth in Sunni sources which
speak of twelve khalifahs to their twelve Imams, then
let us ask them on what basis do they accept the
existence of the twelfth one?
History bears witness to the existence of eleven
persons in that specific line of descent, but when we
come to the twelfth one, all we have is claims made by
persons whose activities in the name of their Hidden
Imam give us all the reason in the world to suspect
their honesty and integrity.
IN ISLAM, ISSUES OF FAITH CAN NEVER BE BASED UPON
EVIDENCE OF THIS KIND.
By Abu Muhammad Al-Afriqi
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I
am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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