The Prophet Jesus (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as)

The Hadith regarding the descent of Jesus (as) Are "Tawatur"

Tawatur: A tradition, which has been handed down by a number of different channels of transmitters or authorities, hence supposedly ruling out the possibility of its having been forged. (Great TUR-DAV Dictionary, 3003)

       

 

Hadith Revealing the Coming of the Prophet Jesus (as)

None of the state of affairs revealed as portents of the coming of the Prophet Jesus (as) in the above hadith have yet taken place. Christianity maintains its corrupted, distorted form, people still believe in the trinity and still eat pork although it is unlawful. The world is in a state of disorder, war and civil conflicts continue and there is no climate of peace and security. There are shortages, rather than abundance. This all goes to show that the Prophet Jesus (as) has not appeared yet. But the time of this superior Prophet’s (as) coming is very nigh. The hadith related by our Prophet (saas) and the accounts provided by Islamic scholars give the good news that Prophet Jesus (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as) will return to Earth, in the 14th century. The century in which we live right now is the 14th century according to the Hijri calendar.

 

 

Jesus (as) and the messiah dajjal

The messiah-dajjal: One who portrays truth as falsehood and falsehood as truth. According to trustworthy hadith, he is a person who will come in the End Times and deny Allah, claiming to be divine himself, will spread discord in the world. (Great TUR-DAV Dictionary)

Many false messiahs (dajjal) will appear before the coming of Jesus (as):

Because the Prophet Jesus (as) will be left to Earth in the state in which he was initially taken into the sky, there is no possibility of anyone with a mother and father and having reached the age of 33 being the Prophet Jesus (as). The false messiahs (dajjal’s) who appear before him will also have mothers and fathers. Once they reach a certain age they fraudulently claim that they are the Prophet Jesus (as). However, careful, foresighted and rational people will recognize these lies for what they are and will not be taken in by them. This will correspond to the time when the dajjal employs the materialist-Marxist strategy aimed at becoming the ruler of the world.

This time the dajjal will change its strategy again for world domination and he will seek to use “Creationism,” which will have defeated materialism, for his own end. He will employ the Creation against human beings, he will appear in the name of Allah, and even claim that he is a prophet, but from the fitnah that comes into existence, it will be evident that he is the dajjal.  

 
The messiah dajjal will perform many misleading marvels by using such methods as hypnotism, magnetism and magic. He will claim to be the anticipated Messiah (as) [that is, Prophet Jesus (as)]. (The Messiah is one of the names of the Prophet Jesus (as)).

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, the great Islamic scholar, explains the fraudulent nature of Messiah dajjal as follows:

And the greatest of them who assumes leadership of them, the dajjal who works great marvels by way of hypnotism and magnetism, will go even further and in his tyrannical rule will declare his greatness, imagining himself to be a kind of divinity. (Mahdi and Dajjal, Şaban Döğen, p.74-75)

As Said Nursi states in these words, dajjal may deceive many people of weak faith who are deprived of information with displays of hypnotism and magic. Especially during a period in which the entire Christian world awaits Prophet Jesus (as) and Jews await the Messiah (as), the false miracles and frauds displayed by dajjal may cause many a people to be deceived by him.

The dajjal, who calls himself the Messiah, will further encourage the immorality, sexual perversion and homosexuality which is being portrayed as legitimate andencouraged in  and in many countries around the world. Many people who will expect to have benefits from him, who are deceived by his plots, and deceived to assume the hell he shows as paradise will join the dajjal. In the guise of a false prophet, the dajjal will also try to influence the devout. However, he will actually try to create dissent among them, debilitate them and even cause tribulations among them. The dajjal will be the greatest enemy of sincere, devout Muslims, Christians and Jews.

 

Some misled Christians will be expecting Prophet Jesus (as) as a person having the characteristics described in the distorted Bible. The dajjal will perform deceptive marvels, of just the kind they are expecting to see. For example; claiming he possesses the superior attributes which All-Mighty Allah granted to Prophet Jesus (as), under hypnotism he will show someone his dead mother, speaking. Again using magic and hypnotism he will cause that person to hear his mother encouraging him to join the dajjal. There will be visual and aural hallucinations. (Anyone not under the spell in question and looking on from the outside will be unable to see these hallucinations.)

In addition, the dajjal will first claim to be the anticipated Jesus (as) which he will declare his own divinity, saying that Allah has entered into him (Surely Allah is beyond that), rather like the Christian belief in the trinity. Employing this perverted method he will gain a huge following. His teachings and counsel will be mainly directed toward pleasure and fun and immorality, and the number of his followers will increase still further because of that.

The Hazrat Mahdi (as) will be a pioneer in dispelling deceptive marvels of the dajjal but the wicked plot of dajjal will not come to an end. Only the Prophet Jesus (as) will totally dispel those deceptive marvels consisting of hallucinations and the devious plots of dajjal and annihilate his intellectual system.

Bediuzzaman explains this fact as follows:

Related Verses:

The Prophet Moses (as) was only able to dispel the deceptive marvels of the dajjals of the time by working miracles.
 

Jesus (as) will encounter messiah dajjal at the Gate of Lud, and defeat him in argument; what is meant by his killing is the elimination of his ideology. Likewise, Prophet Moses (as) defeated Pharaoh’s ideology. Prophet Ibrahim (as) on the other hand, defeated Nimrod’s ideology. Hazrat Mahdi (as) will defeat dajjal’s ideology, not kill him in person. Jesus (as) will also eliminate dajjal’s ideology. Indeed what matters is the elimination of the perverted ideology spread by these people, the wicked intellectual systems drifting communities into destruction.

The Christian world which will understands that Jesus (as) is the real Messiah who eliminated the dajjal’s ideological system will, by Allah’s leave, rapidly adhere to the path Allah predetermines in destiny, that is, the righteous path Islam. As it is stated in the verse, “There is not one of the People of the Book who will not believe in him before he dies.” (Surat an-Nisa, 159), the entire world will adhere to Allah’s righteous religion and disbelief will be eradicated. Jews will show obstinacy, and will be defeated after a war (Armageddon) they will make with Muslims. Following this, only a single religion, Islam will remain.

 

The World Will Be at Peace in the time of Jesus (as)

Prophet Jesus (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as) will eliminate dajjal's entire ideological system and will rule the world after demolishing his system. At that time, racism and national egoism will vanish as one faith, Islam, alone spreads across the world; love, brotherhood and moral virtue will become the dominant ideas; in addition, freemasonry, Zionism, materialist philosophy, communism, fascism, capitalism and other perverted ideologies will all be eradicated, and perversions such as egoism, selfishness, hatred and enmity will all wither and vanish. Since the causes of war and conflict will cease to exist, great sums of money spent on military expenditure can now be spent on legitimate needs which are extremly important and necessary, such as food, building, technology, science culture, health and the like, together with other investments essential for human happiness. (Allah surely knows the truth)

There Will Be Great Abundance in the Time of the Prophet Jesus (as)

There Will Be Great Prosperity

In the time of the Prophet Jesus (as), scientific advances will increase the production of animal and plant foods, science and technology will reach the highest levels, and the world will enjoy the most technologically advanced age since its creation. Due to the technological means at their disposal, people will live in comfort and plenty. This blessed period pioneered by Prophet Isa (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as) is a period of welfare during which people will live in ease, peace, security and bliss. That is why this period is known as the “Golden Age.” (Allah knows the truth)

Jesus (as) Will Not Bring a New Religion

Kadi Iyaz said: "Jesus’ (as) return and slaying of the dajjal is true and real. That is because of the true hadith of the people of the Sunna on this subject. There is no rational evidence nor anything in the Sar al-Sharif to dispute this view. This is an absolutely certain matter. Some members of the Mutadhila and Jahammiya schools and their followers suggest that the hadith on the subject is invalidated by the words of the verse Surat al-Ahzab verse 40, “Muhammad is … the Messenger of Allah and the Final Seal of the Prophets” and the fact that our Prophet (saas) will be the last of the prophets and his Shariah will prevail until Doomsday, and the idea that his laws will ever cease to apply is a violation of Islamic dogma. But this claim and rationale is totally null and void. Because Jesus’ (as) intention in descending to Earth is not to come as a prophet and replace the validity of our law with a replacement Shariah. There is no such thing in this or any other hadith. Indeed, it is an established fact in trustworthy hadith that Jesus (as) will return as a just judge and a resuscitator of the law abandoned by the people.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, 10/338)

When the Prophet Jesus (as) returns to Earth in the End Times, he will not do so as a prophet charged with a new Shariah. As stated by trustworthy hadith and in expositions by Imam Rabbani, he will apply the Shariah of our Prophet (saas). He will rule in accordance with the verses of the Holy Qur’an. 

The Physical Appearance (Hilya) of Jesus

The Prophet Jesus (as) will complete his duty and die after remaining on Earth for some 40-45 years. Muslims will perform his funeral prayer and bury him alongside our Prophet (saas).

Jesus (as) in the Risale-i Nur Collection

Jesus (as) Will Be Sent Back to Earth:

The hadith about the Hazrat Mahdi (as) and Sufyan express that two currents of disbelief will gain strength during the End Times.

The First Current is: Under the veil of duplicity, a fearsome individual named the Sufyan will deny the messengership of Prophet Muhammad (saas), and coming to lead the dissemblers, will try to destroy the Islamic Shari‘a. To oppose him, a luminous individual called Muhammad Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet (saas) will come to lead the people of sainthood and perfection, who are bound to the luminous chain of the Family of the Prophet (saas), and he will kill the current of hypocrites, which will be the collective personality of the Sufyan, and scatter it.

(Letters, 53)

Hazrat Mahdi (as), revealed in the hadith as coming before the Prophet Jesus (as), will seek to repair the spiritual damage caused by the Sufyan in the Islamic world and will strive to rejuvenate Islam and spread it across the world.

Hazrat Mahdi (as) will completely silence all philosophies and theories built on opposing the existence of Allah and in particular will close all institutions and bases of strife and corruption originating from the Sufyan. With his title of caliph, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will assume leadership of the Islamic world, will expound the Holy Qur’an and the fundamentals of the faith in the light of the conditions of the day, and will strengthen believers’ faith.

The second current is this: a tyrannical movement originating from naturalism and materialist philosophy will increasingly gain strength and will spread by way of materialism in the End Times and become sufficiently powerful to engage in denial. As a wild man who does not recognize the Sultan and does not accept he has officers and soldiers in his army gives a kind of rule to everyone, every soldier, so he gives all the soldiers in the movement that denies Allah a kind of lordship in their earthly desires dominated by the law of Namrud. And the greatest of them, who becomes their leader, the dajjal who works marvels by way of spiritualism and hypnotism, will go even further and declare his divinity based on a tyrannical rule. For a human being, who can be laid low by a fly and is unable even to replicate a fly’s wing, to declare his own greatness is obviously mindless stupidity.

At that point (when Messiah dajjal appears) when the current appears to be very strong, the religion of true Christianity, which comprises the collective personality of Jesus (as), will emerge. That is, it will descend from the skies of Divine Mercy. Present Christianity will be purified in the face of that reality; it will cast off superstition and distortion, and unite with the truths of Islam. Christianity will in effect be transformed into a sort of Islam. Following the Qur’an, the collective personality of Christianity will be in the rank of follower, and Islam, in that of leader. True religion will become a mighty force as a result of its joining it. Although defeated before the atheistic current while separate, Christianity and Islam will have the capability to defeat and rout it as a result of their union. Then the person of Jesus (as), who is present with his human body in the world of the heavens, will come to lead the current of true religion. These are being conveyed relying on the promise of One Powerful Over All. (Letters 53, 54)

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At a time when the dajjal is very powerful, Christianity will be purged of all the heresies and false beliefs in it (such as the trinity, the cross, eating pork etc.) and will return to the form in which it first appeared. Since the divine faiths are continuations of one another and sent to correct one another when one is corrupted and to set out new laws, Christianity will become a form of Islam after being cleansed of its heretical beliefs, and consequently Christians will abide by the Holy Qur’an. The same situation will hold true for Judaism. As a result of their unification, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, believers who were defeated when they existed in their separate forms, will gain strength and become powerful enough to eliminate the atheistic current. Meanwhile, Prophet Jesus (as), sent by Allah in his physcial form to the Earth, and Hazrat Mahdi (as) will assume the leadership of believers. And Allah will of course keep His promise.

These are the elements set out in tawatur hadith. To think or maintain of the Prophet Jesus (as) whose coming in the End Times is anticipated, as a “collective personality or community” rather than a single individual or to claim that “he has already come, done his duty and died,” is a denial of this subject which has become totally tawatur, and may incur spiritual responsibilities and wreak grave harm on Muslims. In another of his works, Bediuzzaman reuveals that the return to Earth of the Prophet Jesus (as) is absolutely certain.

Yes, in the words of the hadith, the descent of the Prophet Jesus (as) from the heavens being certain; in its is an individual with a heavenly appearance; as with other marvels, this is an indication of the miraculous nature of this marvel.
(Kastamonu Addendum, 50)

Jesus (as) Will Slay the Dajjal:

There is a definite, sound narration which says: “Jesus (as) will kill the great dajjal.” The knowledge is with Allah, there are two aspects to this:

The First Aspect: It could only be a wondrous person with the power of miracles who could kill and change the way of the awesome dajjal, who will preserve himself through wonders, bestowed on him by Allah in order to lead him astray, such as magic, hypnotic powers, and spiritualism, and will spellbind everyone. And that person will be Jesus (as), who is the prophet of the majority of mankind, and whom most people follow.

The Second Aspect is this: It will be the truly pious followers of Jesus (as) who will kill the gigantic collective personality of materialism and irreligion which the dajjal will form—for the dajjal will be killed by Jesus’ (as) sword—and destroy his ideas and disbelief, which are atheistic. Those truly pious Christians will blend the essence of true Christianity with the essence of Islam and rout the dajjal with their combined strength, in effect killing him. The narration: “Jesus (as) will come and will perform the obligatory prayers behind Hazrat Mahdi (as) and follow him,” alludes to this union, and to the sovereignty of the Qur’an and its being followed. (The Rays, 493)

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The dajjal, who survives by impressing everyone with astonishing marvels such as magic and hypnotism, and his system, will be destroyed by Jesus (as) supported by miracles when the time for him to act is right.

When the Prophet Jesus (as) returns to Earth he will bring no new faith, but will adhere to Islam. But since he is a prophet, he will be given a revelation and will work miracles.  

The followers of Christianity, which will unite with Islam under the administration of the Prophet Jesus (as) will neutralize and destroy the atheistic current of the dajjal and the idea of denial of Allah with the strength provided by this unification.

A community worthy of the name of “Muslim Christians,” a devout Christian community seeking to unite the faith of the Prophet Jesus (as) with the true faith, Islam, will slay and disperse the committee of the dajjal, which overturns civilization and human spirituality in the human sphere with its denial of divinity, under the leadership of the Prophet Jesus (as) and will save humanity from the denial of Allah. (Letters 413)  

 

Not Everyone Will Recognize Jesus (as) When He Comes:

When Jesus (as) comes, it is not necessary that everyone should know him to be the true Jesus (as). His elect and those close to him will recognize him through the light of belief. It will not be self-evident so that everyone will recognize him. (Letters, 54)

Bediuzzaman reports that in the first years of the Prophet Jesus’ (as) return to Earth, he will only be recognized by his close followers, through the radiance of his countenance, and that nobody else will be able to recognize him. 

In fact, although when Jesus (as) comes he himself will know he is Jesus (as), not everyone will know.  (The Rays, The Fifth Ray, 487)

When the Prophet Jesus (as) comes to Earth for the second time he will not know himself immediately, as part of the secret of the test, and will only realize his identity later. His followers will later be sure of his identity through the radiance of his face.  Nobody will immediately have the conviction of him being the Prophet Jesus (as). He will commence his struggle within a small Christian group.

After Jesus (as) has appeared, everyone who can see will recognize him and know that he is the true Prophet Jesus (as). But there will still be those who doubt and wonder “Is this truly Jesus (as) ?”; such doubters cannot be accused of denial, because this subject is not one of the tenets of faith. But such people may be deprived of this holy individual’s spritual blessing and plenty.

Jesus (as) Will Have a Small Community:

...it is an allusion and sign that quantitively the spiritual community of mujahidên who will recognize Jesus (as) and follow him, will be very few and small comparatively to the ‘scientific’, physical armies of the dajjal. (The Rays, 495)

The Prophet Jesus (as) will begin work in a very small community. He will mainly operate in Israel and in regions close to Israel. He will have followers in schools and in military units, and they will initially conceal themselves. (Allah knows the truth)

Hakim al-Tirmidhi narrates in the "Nawadiru al-Usul:" Our Prophet (saas) said: There will be various peoples among the disciples of Jesus son of Maryam (as). In another account, our Prophet (saas) said:  Certainly the Messiah (Jesus)(as) will come to various tribes of this community, and they are like you. But they are more auspicious than you. Allah will never shame a community including the Messiah, one of my line. (Death-Doomsday-The Hereafter and the Portents of the End Times, 501) The Messenger of Allah (saas) said: I swear that Jesus son of Maryam (as) will descend to the 800 most auspicious men and 400 most auspicious women on Earth on that day. (Death-Doomsday-The Hereafter and the Portents of the End Times, 498)

Some of the Hadith about Jesus (as) Are Allegorical:

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi explains that some hadith about the descent of Jesus (as) and his slaying of the dajjal are allegorical, and need to be properly expounded. In other words, their allegorical content has to be clarified. Otherwise, he says, so-called scholars have fallen into doubt by looking only at their surface content and not considering their allegorical aspects, or have even rejected the hadith entirely.

Since the meaning of hadith about the appearance of Jesus (as) in the End Times and his slaying of the dajjal is not properly understood, some superficial teachers have looked at the superficial aspects of these accounts and hadith and fallen into skepticism or else they have denied their soundness, or have attached a nonsensical meaning to them, giving them an absurd form and harming the world of Islam. Atheists, on the other hand, attack and mock the truths of Islam by misinterpreting these hadith that look irrational on the surface. The Risale-i Nur has shown the true meaning of such allegorical hadith through the riches of the Qur’an. I declare the following single instance as an example:

At the time of Jesus’ (as) struggle with the dajjal, when Jesus  (as) slays him he will jump ten Turkish yards (5 meters) up in the air but only be able to plunge his sword in his knee, and the dajjal will be ten or twenty times taller than Jesus (as). This account’s superficial meaning is incompatible with the secret of the test, but favors the law of Allah currently in force. (Kastamonu Addendum, 49)

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It says in a narration in connection with Jesus’ (as) killing the dajjal the following: “The dajjal will have a colossal form, he will be extraordinarily big and taller than a minaret, while Jesus (as) will be very small in comparison.”    None knows the Unseen save Allah,  one interpretation must be as follows: it is an illusion and sign that quantitively the spiritual community of mujahidên who will recognize Jesus (as) and follow him, will be very few and small comparatively to the ‘scientific’, physical armies of the dajjal in terms of schools and soldiers. (The Rays, 495)  

After describing how Jesus (as) slays the dajjal in his struggle against him he will only be able to plunge his sword into the dajjal’s knee despite having leapt 10 Turkish yards (5 meters) into the air, Bediuzzaman explains that the dajjal must be 10-12 times (18-20 meters) taller than Jesus. Such a creation is within Allah’s power but a violation of His law (Adatullah).

Adatullah: The unchanging laws Allah has installed in the universe

However, the matter becomes much more rational and accessible if explained in terms of Jesus (as) and his community being much fewer in number than the dajjal’s military might and educational institutions and his armies that are superior in every respect.