The Reality of Khilafah — Page 85
Chapter Two—About the Mahdi 85 in the Quran. We must judge according to these clear signs and not pay any heed to those who have rejected the truth. Those who are waiting for the Mahdi to appear in Makkah or Madinah have clearly gone astray. How can this be when Allah, by His special grace, has taken it upon himself to safeguard those blessed lands. The terror of the Dajj a l shall not enter those places, nor shall the dwellers therein get even a whiff of this tribulation. On the other hand, the lands where the Dajj a l will have the most impact are more deserving of being blessed by His grace and that He causes the harbinger of heavenly lights to appear among them, just as the Dajj a l has appeared with earthly powers in the manner of Satan. As for the claim that the Mahdi is hiding in the cave, this is just as baseless as to say that Jesus did not die and was raised bodily to heaven and will descend in the tumultuous times when the Dajj a l appears. They hold onto this belief even though the Quran informs us of Jesus’ death in categorical terms. The truth is that both ‘ I s a and Imam Muhammad cast off their material bodies and their Lord caused them to die and placed them alongside the righteous. Allah did not grant everlasting life to any of His servants as they were all mortals. Do not be impressed by the narratives that describe Jesus as being still alive and do not pay heed to the sayings which speak similarly of the Imam, even if they seem to be so elaborate. The truth is that they are metaphors for the benefit of the discerning. The truth which reveals these secrets and clarifies this ambi- guity is that Allah has always described righteous ones who have passed away as ‘living’, and He does this to send a message to their enemies, or as glad tidings to His friends, or to honour His right- eous servants. Allah says of the martyrs: ‘Do not think of them