[ by Charles Cameron — significant posts from Harun Yahya and Tim Furnish ]
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Two items came over my transom recently that I want to report to you, since they tie ISIS — happening now — and the Mahdi – a timeless figure whose apperance in time is eagerly awaited by some, feared by others, ignored by many, and entirely unheard of by yet a fourth group.
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Item.
The “end times” writer Joel Richardson pointed myself and Tim Furnish to a recent “conversation” held (and videotaped) by Harun Yahya, aka Adnan Oktar, a Turkish writer on creationism, Mahdism and all points in between, in which he identifies ISIS entry into Syria as a clear, triple indicator of the imminent arrival of the Mahdi. Here’s my transcript, with Yahya in plain text and his interlocutors in italics:
(Hadith): Our Prophets (saas) told: “Black banners of Ibn Abbas appear from the East.” That is to say, among the Arabs those with black banners appear. After they proceed for a while, again this time a smaller group with black banners appear from the East (the Middle East). They fight against a man from the descend of Abu Sufyan and come under the obedience of Hazrat Mahdi.”
Who is Sufyan?
Assad. Hafez Assad. Notice that it is said “… fighting against someone from the descend of Sufyan”, see how clear it is, right? “They come under the obedience of Hazrat Mahdi.” At the end, they abide by Hazrat Mahdi (as). At the end, they abide by Hazrat Mahdi (as). Otherwise if that power were leaderless, that would devastate the world .. but because they will come under the obedience of Hazrat Mahdi (as), the problem would be settled.
First al-Qaida’s black flags appeared, the big black banners. Now, they are smaller, again from the East. “… this time small black banners appear and fighting against someone from the descend of Sufyan”, right now this is already happening, “… they come under the obedience of Hazrat Mahdi.” I said everything is related with Hazrat Mahdi (as), and they feigned ignorance about it.
(Hadith) [Another hadith] “Await for the reappearance of the awaited one on three occasions.” Notice that our prophet says, “Await for the reappearance of the awaited one on three occasions.” He was asked what those three occasions are:” “our Prophet (saas) replied: Syrians fight among themselves” This is the first one. There is a fight among the Syrians. Many groups in Syria can’t get along, they fight. “When black flags arrive” and “when there is terror and fear in the month of Ramadan” How many days let to the month of Ramadan now? So they are all true. Our Prophet (saas) tells the truth.
(Hadith) “Related from Muhammad ibn Hanaffiya:” Muhammad ibn Hanaffiya is my grandfather as you know in the lineage. He is the son of Hazrat Ali. My lineage goes back to him. “Black flags will appear. Then another group of black banners with black caps and white dresses will appear.” As you may have noticed, they all have black caps. They wear black and their clothes are white but they have black caps. “They will defeat Sufyan’s friends.” Right now Sufyan has already been defeated. Syria is razed to the ground. “Ultimately they will arrive at Bayt Al-Muqaddas, and they will prepare the governance for Hazrat Mahdi (as).” Whatever our Prophet (saas) foretold, they all come true.
Kirkuk came entirely under the grip of Peshmerga, Kurds are celebrating [this incident]. It seems that Iraq is being technically divided into three: Kurdistan, Sunni and Shia.
Our Prophet (saas) says that Iraq would be divided in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (as) .. as a portent of the appearance of Hazrat Mahdi (as). I wrote this 25 years ago in my book. That Iraq would be divided into three.
Barack Obama said that he does not exclude any group in providing help to Iraq. In case any security concerns related to his country arise, they are ready for military intervention. The rooting of such a radical structure in Syria and Iraq is not in the favor of the USA.
Obama must start explaining the issue of the system of the Mahdi. He should not wait until radicalism harms him. They always avoid it. What can they accomplish by avoidance? Radicalism is getting hold of them.
What they mean by intervention is launching airstrikes. Not sending any troops there.
Air strikes are what ISIS wants. Syria ruined its own country. ISIS also wants Iraq to ruin its own country. They want the devastation of buildings; that destruction already devastates the people in the spiritual sense. The people leave the city and they acquire a spirit of war.
They assume Islam to be a cruel religion made up of ugly women and men … a religion ordering the chopping up of people, shooting them with machine guns as ISIS does, preventing people from going out, depriving them of their freedom. The mindset does not allow women to laugh, or to use perfume. They have devastated Islam with this mindset. We are trying to purge this scourge. We are cleansing what you ruin.
Almighty God adorns Turkey day by day. The number of mosques are increasing.
The Islamic communities are expanding. But [first and foremost] Almighty God started to make us feel the existence of the system of Mahdi clearly. I said that radical Islam, that is the kind of Islam based on the hadith, would choke you and you won’t be able to cope with it. They did not care at all. They are now terrified. Radicalism is snowballing all over the world now. This scourge will end only by the system of the Mahdi.
The appearance of the ones with black banners is a portent and Hazrat Mahdi (as). In the hadith collections there are hundreds of hadith referring to them. The appearance of black banners, and they all come about as it is related.
You can find the video here.
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Item.
Let’s just say that that’s an eerie match for Tim Furnish’s post of a few days back on MahdiWatch site, The Hour of ISIS Power, which is far too long for me to quote in full but worthy of your attention. Here are the key paras, for my purposes here:
5) As if ISIS is not bad enough with its jihadism, there are disturbing hints of eschatological thinking and Mahdism among that group and its allies. In a 2011 communique, al-Qa`ida in Iraq — the ISIS predecessor organization — referred to the Shi`i militia Jaysh al-Mahdi (“Army of the Mahdi”) as the “army of the Dajjal.” Al-Dajjal or more fully al-Masih al-Dajjal is “the Deceiving Messiah,” who comes before the end of time to combat the (Islamic) forces of the returned Muslim prophet Jesus and his ally, the Mahdi. Perhaps AQI was merely invoking the Dajjal to mock Muqtada al-Sadr’s group; if not, then AQI/ISIS would seem to have an eschatological bent.
This latter explanation is reinforced by the eschatological explanations offered just six months ago by the official spokesman for the Chechen contingent of ISIS in Syria: “Issa [Jesus] … will come down here, and al-Dajjal will come out here, it is the land of epics and the land of resurrection.” ISIS’s rival Jabhat al-Nusra was even more overtly eschatological, openly invoking the primary End Times figure of Islam: the Mahdi. For most, if not all, the Sunni groups fighting jihad in Syria and, now (again), Iraq, eschatology is a key motivator — in terms of enemies (“Safavids,” “army of the Dajjal”), motivation (preparing the way for the Mahdi’s coming) and goals (regional, then global caliphate as well as eventual conquest of al-Quds, Jersualem); ISIS is likely no exception to this world-view.
Some thought Usama bin Ladin was the Mahdi (and, after he assumed room temperature, that he had become the Hidden Imam. No one has yet proclaimed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the Mahdi — but if Islamic history is any guide, it’s just a matter of time. Once the caliphate is firmly established, then the likelihood of a Mahdiyah being proclaimed increases. And as I noted in my book Holiest Wars, Muslim messianic movements are to fundamentalist uprisings what nuclear weapons are to conventional ones: triggered by the same detonating agents, but far more powerful in scope and effect.”
