who played the role of
Masih
, can be known only on the Day of
Judgement, after this has been announced by God. This being
so, claims to being
Mahdi
or
Masih
are baseless. In any case,
how can such claims be verified? In this world there is, in reality,
no way of ascertaining the authenticity of such claims. The truth
is that being
Mahdi
or
Masih
is not a matter of self-appointment:
anyone who regards this as such must be either illiterate or mad.
Mahdi
or
Masih
A
CCORDING TO A
certain tradition, we learn that
Mahdi
and
Masih
are two symbolic names of the same personality. There is only
one personality to appear during the last stage of human history,
who in some traditions is called the Believer, in other traditions
the
Mahdi
, and in yet other traditions the
Masih
. This person,
being a member of the Muslim community, is referred to as a
Believer. In another respect, he is called
Mahdi
(the guided one)
because he will discover complete guidance in the age of the
darkness of misguidance. Then, in yet another respect, he is
called
Masih
, since he will play the same role as performed by
Masih
during the last days of the Jewish Community.
These three words evidently express three different aspects
of the same personality, rather than three different personalities.
Two aspects of the scientific revolution
M
AHDI
,
M
ASIH
,
D
AJJAL
—are in no way mysterious personalities.
In actual fact, these roles will emerge in the scientific age.
According to the explanation of the Quran, it always happens
in the present world that evil with good and good with evil co-
exist. (24:11). According to this natural principle, the same
happened with the scientific revolution. It also had both minus
and plus points. Then it was but natural that two characters
should emerge. One is the character who will exploit the negative
aspects of the scientific revolution, while the other will be one
who makes good use of its positive aspects.
42
The alarm of Doomsday
