Myth or misunderstanding?
In response to Jahanshah Rashidian's "The hidden legend"

Keyvan
February 9, 2006
iranian.com

While it is true that this messiah/Mahdi prophecy can be perverted and utilized by dangerous political leaders as a tool of justification for their personal agenda, this does not mean that such prophecy must be ruled out as simple "mythology." 

Throughout history, world leaders have used something "beyond them" as a justification for egomaniacal acts of reshaping the world in their own image. Hitler used Darwinian discoveries on evolution to justify genocide, toting that he was simply accelerating nature's course of "survival of the fittest." Clearly someone so psychologically unstable, like Ahmadinejad, will find something, be it prophecy, science, or "economic practicality," as a means to justify dangerous acts such as this. Thus, to infer that such prophecy is the reason why we have this problem with Ahmadinejad and company, is a narrow approach.

The term Mahdi is recorded to have been used frequently by Muhammad, and the Imamate that followed Him. Additionally, there are inferences of the Mahdi in the Quran was well. Ithna-Ashariyyih Shia (the majority Shia in the world, predominant in Iran) do believe that the 12th Imam disappeared and is in occultation. This belief came to be when a letter was delivered from the 12th Imam by His deciples to the people, which stated that there would be no successor after Him, and that He would return at the advent of the Hour to build the promised era of Peace and Justice worldwide. Unknowing of what to make of this letter, many scrambled through different interperetations, eventually predominantly settling on one to say that the 12th Imam was in occultation. This is a myth considering there is nothing to back it up, not even the words of the 12th Imam Himself.

The Bahai belief, is that this meant that the 12th Imam died like a normal human being, and His figurative "return" was manifest in The Bab, who first appeared on May 23rd 1844. This date is very important. People all over the world turned to this date as a fulfillment of their own religious prophecy. For Shi'a Muslims it was 1000 years after the "leave" of the 12th Imam, in 260 A.H. The Bab, in His life and background had fulfilled every universally accepted prophecy of Imam Mahdi, as outlined by Moojan Momen in An Introduction to Shi'i Islam.

A group of Christians at the time, came under the following of a man named William Miller, who through his calculations from the book of Daniel and the book of Revelations, believed that the second coming of Jesus would be May 23rd 1844.  When this date passed and the "Millerites" deemed that this event did not occur, many left, but some stayed under a different interpretation of their beliefs, in anticipation that the "return of Christ" would come at a later date, of which came to be the initial following of what is now called the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Another completely separate following, in Germany, under a man named Christoph Hoffman, had the same belief as Miller, and led his following to the Biblical site of Mount Carmel, within modern day Haifa, Israel/Palestine, to await the "second coming" of Christ. When this did not occur, the following fell apart.   Mount Carmel is now the site of the Bahai World Center, which was ordained by Baha'u'llah, Himself. 

Similar occurrences are recorded throughout the world at that time. Even my own great great great great grandfather derived from religious text that this date would be the coming of Imam Mahdi. When the date came and passed he was confused why Imam Mahdi had not come yet, but when he heard of the declaration of The Bab he immediately declared his belief in Him. 

There are countless books by Bahai scholars today, drawing back the prophecies of the scriptures of many passed world religions, that lead to this date of May 23rd 1844, as point-zero. A Thief in the Night by William Sears is a great example of such academic work. With such a phenomenon, we can hardly discount something is simply a "myth," without further investigation.

Furthermore, let us examine the claim of The Bab, and the Prophet that followed Him, Baha'u'llah, in their own declaration for the fulfillment of this Prophecy. 

The Bab Revealed that the idea of an "end of the world" was figurative for the coming of He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, a Prophet to follow Him. This "figurativeness" is key, because it begins to clarify and make modern sense of prophecy, in a perhaps more accurate meaning, and not one which we can cast off as mythology that contradicts science. The Bab explained the religion in the past needed to be revealed in figurative stories which nowadays resemble preceding mythology, because that was the limit of intellectual capability of the masses at the time. 

The Bab generated tens of thousands of followers in just a few short years, of which, 20,000 were killed, leading up to the martyrdom of The Bab Himself in 1850. Two years later came to claimed intimation of Baha'u'llah, as He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, prophecised by The Bab.  

Before I proceed, I find it important to make the following clarification for certain critics of what I am about to say. Persecutions of Bahai's have been rampant continuously, since the inception of the faith upon the declaration of The Bab. This is a product of the of the claims of The Bab and Baha'u'llah to Prophethood. Verse 33:40 of the Quran proclaims that Muhammad is the seal of the Prophets. However, this does not say that another Messenger will not come. In the Quran, a Messenger is someone like Jesus or Muhammad who comes with a new faith and a new book. A Prophet is someone who leads the congregation after the passing of that Messenger, like Joshua after Moses. Be one Sunni or Shia, this Jewish system of Prophet hierarchal succession was abrogated by Muhammad and the Quran.

Although, Muhammad, Jesus, and other Messengers are referred to as Prophets as well, so the common belief is that every Messenger is a Prophet but not every Prophet is a Messenger. However, three Messengers, the only Messengers described by the Quran to have had their messages rejected by the people, are only referred to as Messengers, never as Prophets. Clearly they could not be Prophets, since their religions were never accepted by the people, and thus they had no congregation to lead. Therefore, "Prophet" can be seen as a role, sealed in the Quranic Dispensation, and the prospect of another Messenger is not sealed. In fact, Imam Mahdi, as a Messenger is foretold in the Surah of Hud, specifically under 11:120.  Additionally, His right to reveal the allegory, the "hidden meanings" is anticipated in 3:7. 

Moving on, keep in mind that most interpereting the prophecy of the Mahdi, including Ahmadinejad today, believed that the prophecy of what He will do will be carried out by force. There are Islamic traditions of an "army of the Mahdi," that He would establish Islam as a world religion, and that a universal Sharia would be built.

Baha'u'llah fulfilled all of this, yet not under the dangerous terms interpreted by such people of the years.  The Quran refers to messengers that were sent throughout the world, not to be related in the text. Baha'u'llah revealed that these other Messengers were Zoroaster, Krishna, and Buddha; that over time their religions were distorted but that they come from the same one religion that the Quran recognizes. He explained that under this Revelation, all divided and distorted followings throughout the world would be united again, under the same one God, the same teachings.

This explains why all of these Prophecies of a "return of Christ, or Mahdi, or "Shah Bahram." or "return of Buddha" have so much in common, that there are so many parallels between these religions, but at the same time why they contradict each other so much. The "army" was His "following" that would spread throughout the world and proclaim the Bahai Cause, and that after the world has united by religions, races, nations, colors, genders, we can go on to establish a universal utopia under the tenants of a society based on peace, justice, and equality, as decreed by His Revelation.

Now, let us also point to the fact that Bahaullah was born Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, the son of Mirza Buzurg-i-Nuri, a powerful and wealthy worker for the Qajar dynasty. Mirza Husayn Ali, who was His eldest son, was set to inherit a grand position as well. This would have satisfied someone of ego, and greed. However, Mirza Husayn Ali said that He had a different destiny, and He refused this offered life. He proclaimed His mission, and was heavily persecuted; enduring a life of poverty, attempted murders, surviving a poisoning, and sent from prison to prison, for decades, yet prevailed and through it all gave forth His revelation. A revelation, mind you, of Peace and Justice.  

So you see, we cannot discount things as "myth," simply because in our own human imaginings these prophecies can be used for destruction and ego. Whether one believes in the Bahai faith or not, these prophecies have evidently been utilized for peace and selflessness.