One of the portents of the End Times as revealed in the hadiths of our Prophet (saas) is that people will despair of Hazrat Mahdi ever coming. According to the indications in the hadiths, people living face-to-face with war, famine, injustice, moral collapse and contagious diseases in the End Times will lose all hope of these disasters ever coming to an end. Many Muslims will cease to expect the Golden Age to begin, the moral values of the Qur’an to reign supreme on Earth and will believe that the tribulations will increase and continue. It is revealed in hadiths that people with such a perspective will claim that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will never appear:
Allah will send Mahdi (as) at a time when people are despairing and say, “There is no such thing as the Mahdi”... (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 55)
... Mahdi (as) will appear with the standard of the Messenger of Allah at a time when scourge on scourge fall on people’s heads and they despair of his appearance... (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 55)
Mahdi (as) will not appear until innocent people are slaughtered and the dwellers in the earth and sky can no longer bear the killing... (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, p. 37)
As indicated in the hadiths of our Prophet (saas), many people today imagine that the Prophet Jesus (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as) will never come. Yet that thinking is actually one of the portents of the End Times. In fact, and on the contrary, both holy personages will appear, by Allah’s leave, when this negative state of mind is widespread and when hope of their coming has been abandoned.
By Allah’s leave, the Prophet Jesus (as) will return to Earth and, together with Hazrat Mahdi (as), despite all the difficulties they experience, their numbers being very small, lack of support and even the negative activities designed to oppose them, they will bring true religious moral values to prevail over all the world. In the same way that the world is filled with oppression and injustice prior to the coming of these holy figures, it will, by our Lord’s leave, be filled with justice, peace, security and abundance afterwards.
