The announcement of truth, rather than the
claim of truth
T
HE
PHENOMENON
OF
Mahdi
is the phenomenon of the
announcement of the truth rather than the claim to have
discovered the truth.
Mahdi
, or the believer, will not commence
his task by claiming to be a
Mahdi
. It will be purely by the
exceptional nature of his task that people will be able to
recognize him for who he actually is. The right way to approach
this matter is to see
Mahdi
in relation to God. In God’s eyes,
the actual point worth considering relates to others’ perception
of
Mahdi
rather than to
Mahdi
himself. Others should recognize
the Believer of their time, who has been called
Mahdi
in the
Hadith, and then give him the full support he needs to enable
him to play the role assigned to him. That is the test to which
his contemporaries will be put.
The traditions regarding the
Mahdi
, or
Masih
, and other
relevant data tell us in actual fact about a great
dawah
opportunity rather than about the mysterious special quality of
one or more individuals. God alone knows who, by His special
grace and succour, will be able to play this role. To my way of
thinking, ‘waiting for the advent of a person’ or claiming ‘I am
that person’ are both equally wrong.
It is important to clarify here that describing in principle
the issue of
Mahdi
, or
Masih
, is different from claiming for
oneself the title of
Mahdi
or
Masih
. An attempt to explain this
matter is a purely academic issue, and any knowledgeable person
can speak about it. Subsequently, scholars have the right to give
their verdict of rejection or acceptance in terms of the reason
they put forward. But a claim by anyone to be
Mahdi
, or
Masih
,
is something of a different nature and no one has the right to
make any such claim.
The case of the Prophet cannot be equated with that of the
Mahdi
, for it is essential for a prophet to begin his mission by
laying claim to being a prophet. The case of
Mahdi,
or
Masih
, is
quite different in that the identity of the
Mahdi
, or of the one
