The Mahdi will be concealed until the time comes, and when the promised moment comes, then he will appear. His martyrs are the most auspicious of martyrs, and the people he trusts, his viziers, are the most reliable of the trustworthy.
Allah has appointed a group of people to be his viziers. Allah has concealed these people. I have learned these truths by discovery and vigilance. In addition, I have witnessed things Allah foresees for His servants. These will act at the forefront. In the same way that the leading companions kept their world to Allah, so these people will be confirmation of those words. In addition, they will not be Arabs, but foreigners. Although they are not Arabs, they will speak no other language than Arabic. They will have a protector who is not of their kind, who has never opposed Allah in any time. He will be the purest and most genuine of viziers.
In particular, these viziers will be very well-informed on all subjects. But the Mahdi himself… he will be a man of politics in the true sense. Another of these viziers’ distinguishing features is that they are never defeated on the field of battle. For example, they will capture the city of the Greeks, Istanbul, solely by reciting the takbir. At the first takbir one-third of the ramparts will collapse, at the second, another third will collapse, and at the third takbir the remaining walls will fall down. Thus they will capture the city without the sword and using no weapons. This is the truth itself, the brother of victory.
The Mahdi’s viziers will require nine things in order to perform their duties in the best way, no fewer. These things are:
Sharp sight,
To immediately recognise the divine word,
To know how to interpret what comes from Allah,
To know the ranks and stations of those in positions of command,
To know mercy at times of wrath,
To know the ruler’s needs and other things,
To know the connections between matters,
To know the proper bounds when meeting people’s needs,
To know those hidden things required in their own times.
(“Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya”, 366, Vol. 3, p. 327- 328)
Fill out a form, write your check, get your ticket, head down to the University.
Listen to Imam such-and-such speak, hang out with friends after and relax. Rinse and repeat.
This is the paradigm for Suburban Muslims which has been put forward to the youth, and it seems to be failing miserably. Everyone knows someone who has left faith at some seminars doorstep.
The foundation of this approach is based on a few unspoken assumptions which no one questions.
I will question them.
First, they should be listed:
1) American culture is the primary definition of the way we dress, the food we enjoy, the entertainment we seek (Movies, TV, video games).
2) Islam can be understood practically as a filter of the ‘bad’ aspects of the American lifestyle out of ones life. The bad aspects are the obvious haraam (forbidden actions). It can also be an encouragement of the ‘good’ aspects of American life.
3) Since Islam is a filter of good and bad, one needs to obtain ‘ilm’ (religious knowledge) in order to learn how to behave. Studying ‘ilm’ is paramount in Islam, and most ‘ilm’ is in Arabic.
4) What is taught by people in classes at seminars and ‘events’ is a translation and summarization of what is considered ‘ilm’.
5) Your status is defined by how much of this seminar-event-based ‘ilm’ you know.
6) Your source of English-’ilm’ is infinitely better than other peoples source of English-’ilm’.
7) If you learn Arabic yourself you will one day know exactly without a doubt that #6 is true.
8) ‘Ilm’ can be expensive.
9) What defines a good Muslim is how well integrated he is with Suburban-Middle-class Society (job, wife, kids, house) plus the combination of his ‘ilm’
10) With real ‘ilm’ we can combat a Non Suburban-Capitalist-Islam. The end result of Non Suburban-Capitalist-Islam is a lifestyle absent of the luxuries and principles of Suburban Capitalist Islam, primarily #1.
11) Non Suburban-Capitalist Muslims are extremists of different sorts, and Suburban Capitalist Muslims are moderate. They are moderate because they are largely indistinguishable from n0n-Muslim Americans within the workforce, except for a beard/Hijab and some dietary requirements.
12) Isa’s (AS) return, Imam Mahdi (AS) and the Dajjal are topics of events far in the future. They are so far that they are largely understood as metaphors without meaning.
13) Islamic history is something left to be studied in a superficial manner, because most of Muslim history is filled with various mistakes and evil people. It is far more important to learn about the primary sources of ‘ilm’ and attend more seminars.
14) Actual change from a Western to an Islamic society will come from those who participate in the political and economic system and give Dawah within.
15) Most immigrants have no idea about ‘ilm’, because they have never attended these seminars. Therefore most parents are without knowledge.
I will add more later. If you have some more to add, put them in comments sections and later I will flesh all of these out.
The seriousness and persistence with which scribes and scholars in the Islamic world were able during that period to preserve and transmit the text of the most important of all books in that world, the Koran, and, next, the traditional collections of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet of Islam, meant that, once codified, their preservation and transmission could remain free of the many problems besetting the preservation and transmission of most other books, both religious and secular, during the transition from the manuscript age to the age of printed books. In contrast, the disturbing manner in which European printers took liberties with the text of the Koran (when compared to the care taken in printing the Gutenberg Bible, for instance) could not but raise doubts among Muslims regarding the virtues of printing when they first came into contact with the new technology.
One look at the title page of the Koran printed in Hamburg in 1694 (figure 1.1) must have made Muslim readers of the Koran think that only the Devil himself could have produced such an ugly and faulty version of their Holy Book; and the same must have been the impression made on them by Alessandro de Paganino’s Venice Koran printed in the 1530s, where the printer, perhaps following some contemporary Arabic vernacular, did not distinguish between certain letters of the alphabet, such as thedal and the dhal (figure 1.2). One would expect a handbook on medicine and medicaments, such as the Arabic text of Avicenna’s Canon, to be free of printing errors, since errors in a book of this nature can easily lead to unfortunate results. Yet the Medici edition (Rome, 1593) of this work commits a serious grammatical fault, to say nothing of the syntactical infelicities, on the title page itself (figure 1.3).
Unlike a faulty manuscript copy by some ignorant scribe, such printed books involve an orderly organization, extensive financing, and the distribution of a large number of copies with the same errors, making it less easy to dismiss them as unimportant or inconsequential incidents.
ref: Mahdi, Muhsin. The Book in the Islamic World, “From the Manuscript Age to the Age of Printed Books” (1995). State University of New York Press, New York.
Naksibendi’s are often criticized for strong beliefs of Imam Mahdi’s (AS) imminent coming. This is an adjusted version my comments on the topic of the latter in a conversation.
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My beliefs (if I can call them my own) are simply in line with basic Islam. A reminder for us would be that nearly all Sunni Sheykhs have referenced this day and age as the time immediately before Imam Mahdi (AS), a time of trials. In the same manner, it was sunnah to explain and describe things in this way. So much so that even the Sahabi who lived over 1400 years ago would expect Qiyamat, Imam Mahdi (AS), and the Dajjal as very imminent things.
Yet, is this yielding to a philosophy of life based on prophecy of events and people to come, defeatist in the present?
I assert that holding this religious position is not defeatist but a necessary factor in refocusing our efforts inward, which yields better outwards results (as a natural consequence) in the most clean and organic manner.
The way of Islam is that even if you know that Qiyamat is tomorrow, you are still expected to plant your tree, coming from a Hadith of the Holy Prophet (S).
However, by interpreting this tradition as belief that valuable knowledge of future spiritual realities is to be *ignored* in favor of any and all practical work would be a sad mistake. This is because the fundamental factor here is change of attitude, of perception. Modification of attitudes allows me to now focus on planting my tree, in my garden, but with the knowledge that it may or may not give fruit and give benefit for others tomorrow. We plant with hope.
The lesson to take here is not to act in ignorance of spiritual knowledge, but rather, to build your life in a way of Islam, and allow it to grow. Since then, the community changes, because you are a part of that community. The ‘government’ itself changes, because the people have changed, and Allah changed the conditions for such a people.
The way of Ahl ul sunnah leaves ‘big picture’, hard-turn, forceful changes of societies for the Awliya to manage and direct, and lets us focus on establishing ourselves as Muslim servants within an Islamic community in the best manner possible. One that allows us to keep our faith and live simply.
This approach directly contrasts with the example of secularists and their ‘activist reform’ that directly target political institutions and various ’causes of the day’ and sucks dry the spiritual progress of the activist individual in bitter arguments. Delusion upon layer of delusion piles on the individual as they believe they are changing society for the better, when they end up compromising principle after principle personally.
Sadly, I don’t think any of us are prepared to put aside our nafs and be able to dictate to each other how entire governments need to be run, especially when we can’t figure out how to run our own households.
Believing in Imam Mahdi (AS) and his imminent arrival is hardly a reason to stop working on improving our personal situation. If anything, it is more of a reason to focus on improving our personal relationship to our faith, which yields the best results for those around us in a very practical manner.
The trials of Imam Mahdi’s (AS) time will be huge, in fact, numerous Muslims won’t even be properly able to identify him due to their own personal weaknesses of faith. Shouldn’t that concern us? Working on building that faith for the above reason, if not our own ‘personal’ Day-of-Judgement (death), gives us renewed energy to get us thinking about our own faith, its strength, its weaknesses.
Finally, while a faith in the future ‘Utopian ideal’ focuses us on personal development it is also a reason to let us abandon imposing our various socio-political-economic viewpoints on other people. It allows us to concern ourselves -with- ourselves and in that way be helpful to others.
Worry about governments is compost heap for our time and energy. Governments have very little imposing factors on real Islamic communities, especially rural ones living lives of simple Islam. This is really regardless of where in the world we decide to settle.
As the Prophet (S) said in Sahih Bukhari:
“Allah’s Apostle said, “There will come a time when the best property of a Muslim will be sheep which he will take to the tops of mountains and the places of rainfall so as to flee with his religion from the afflictions. ”
When will we decide that things will be bad enough to take a little bit of that holy advice?
Most Muslims, even so called ‘traditional’ Muslims, carry a wide gap of knowledge when dealing with their tradition. That gap is history.
Indeed, the history of Muslim nations may not be relevant to ones personal faith. Faith is faith, and nation is nation. Yet, Islam is a faith that, as espoused by most Muslims, contains answers for matters of public utility and the foundation and details of creating a just, moral nation. Hence, various political organizations have come into being, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb Tahrir, and numerous so-called ‘Islamists’ groups. Most educated Muslims are familiar with them and their efforts in attempting to inject Islam piece-meal into the political landscape.
Unfortunately, the pieces these groups try to inject are usually in the wrong order, if not the wrong pieces all together.
The efforts of these organizations are usually of some interest to Muslims in their active regions. They work on educating many Muslims towards a ‘proper’ understanding of their faith (as understood through the lens of their own political machinations). Generally their explanation of Islam is completely ahistorical, and that is because a historical view of the practice of the faith is actually completely contrary to their rigid interpretation of the religion.
The history of Islamic nations is only as useful to Muslims in as much as it can be used to bolster their self-confidence. When we speak of Muslims contribution to mathematics, the sciences of optics, and medicine, we feel satisfaction that Islam brought progress to humanity. Yet, we are so easily able to forget and dismiss the leadership which created the environment which allowed people of different faiths to come together, a society which carried and defended Islam in the first place. Instead, many Muslims have bought into a fake historical tale which was put together by the combining the gossip and imaginations of the enemies of Islam.
Let us put analysis of successes aside, as most modern Muslims may tend to avoid that subject to concentrate on the ever-important ‘present’. These are the ones who would say, “Why should I care about what happened so long ago?” Often the verse of the Quran is quoted to further cement that disconnection:
BismillahirRahmanirRaheem
Those are a people who have passed away; theirs is that which they earned and yours that which ye earn. And ye will not be asked of what they used to do. (2:141)
However, it is an odd contradiction that these same people will clamor over learning and understanding classical Arabic so they can spend time reading fiqh and aqeedah works from centuries past, whether it be Imam Ghazali or Ibn Tayimiyya. For some reason, these ancient people and texts are extremely important and relevant. How can it be then, that the lifestyle, texts and manners of a living, thriving, Muslim society of not only 100 years ago is completely irrelevant?
One might say that the aforementioned figures were giants in their field, and that is what gives them the right to be studied today. Yet, they too have passed away, and their teachings are not being carried by any nation. Unlike the nations gone astray mentioned in the Quranic Ayat, the Ottomans were and are Muslims, and Muslims are not a nation that has passed. We are not a people to forget the legacy of our greatest leaders and teachers.
Let us put aside that the direct spiritual inheritors of the Ottoman example live today, the Sultans were also giants in their field, which was Islamic leadership and with strength and tolerance. The awliya of the time were also giants, and yet we learn very little of their lives and how they practiced Islam as a reality. Put that aside, we are so disconnected that we learn very little how even the average Muslim lived their lives.
This present-centric Muslim will, focusing on the news of the day, speak of the problems and depravities of the various modern day states. “Lashing a woman for being raped? Bombings in Palestine? Heads rolling in Iraq? That is not part of Islam!”
Yes, you are right it is not part of Islam, but other people seem to think otherwise, so who should we choose from to represent Islam? The Saudi’s are doing the lashing. The bombings continue by Palestinian groups. And the heads are still rolling in Iraq by those proclaiming “AllahuAkbar!”.
So is it only a purely theoretical, personal Islam that we have to present as a proof of a different understanding of Islam to the world and to our own selves? Are Muslims and Islam becoming like college students wearing dark rimmed glasses professing communism: an ideal which never reaches any practicable form? Or are we only somewhat controllable and palatable as a faith and as a nation when we are living within the boundaries of a westernized host-state?
Why don’t we count on the simple reality that not only a hundred years ago, the Islamic world was much more compassionate, considerate, and just?
The relationship between our generation and the Ottomans should be very tight indeed. Yet, often Muslims know more about the Abbasids or the times of Andalus (if even that), than they know of the Ottoman Sultan prophesized by the hadith:
“Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will her
leader be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!” -Hadith (related: Ahmed, Bukhari)
Not only was the Ottoman empire ended not yet a hundred years ago from our time period, it ruled for over 600 years leading Muslims into an environment of modern day diplomacy, economics, and approaching globalization. Frankly, it is the circumstances of the Ottoman Empire which closely match the challenges that Muslims of today have faced, and it is in their example that we may find numerous answers towards dealing with the modern world.
For traditional Muslims this is even more of an important connection. The reality is that when Wahabis and Salafis speak of ‘returning’ to the Quran and Sunnah, it is largely the Ottomans which they wish to forget. It is the Ottomans they took up arms against. In fact, it is the Ottomans that carried what is commonly understood as “traditional” Islam in its spiritual and political form together as a reality. It was in Ottoman times that the Sultans that came to sit at the feet of the Sheykhs of the true Sufi orders.
Modern day Muslims are usually pleasantly surprised to learn only a sample of the true facts of the Ottoman Empire. Through those facts, the last great Islamic empire becomes understood as highly educated, sober and scrupulous about Islam’s edicts, charitible, and scientific. As a consequence, the false history written largely by combining the medieval gossip and conjecture of the enemies of Muslims becomes obliterated.
However, Muslims may say, “The Ottoman Sultans ultimately failed.” Or, even more disturbing (and slightly obscene when compared to the facts ), they will attempt portray the Ottoman Sultans as corrupt (and hence why they lost their power). On the other hand, high scholars such as Mufti Taqi Usmani and Sheykh Abdul Hakim Murad have written about the departure of power from the Sultans in a completely different light:
This was the beginning of the Uthmaani or Muslim reign over Istanbul and Turkey which lasted for five centuries. The Uthmaani Sultans reigned over it with great splendour and it ended in the beginning of the twentieth century through the treachery of Kamal Ata Turk, and the secular state which came into being. – Mufti Taqi Usmani
Shaikh Abdul Hakim Murad’s work on the Ottomans is a testament to his study on the matter, and his fluency in the Ottoman tongue gives him unique access to the records relevant to coming to appropriate conclusions. What was his take on the downfall of the Ottomans?
Much of the recent history of the Umma can be understood as the simple consequence of ghafla – of heedlessness of Allah ta‘ala. The Ottoman empire, for instance, is a good example. By Allah’s decree and permission, this state continued for an astonishing six hundred years or more, from 1280 until 1924. In fact, the Ottoman sultans were the longest-reigning of any significant dynasty in world history. No family, in China, India, Europe or anywhere else, ruled for so long. And the achievement is the more remarkable when we look at the size and the diversity of the empire. Many races, religions and languages were present; there was no obvious unifying criterion for all the sultan’s subjects; and yet the empire endured.
It is not difficult to see why Allah should have given the Ottoman state such success. The sultans always respected the ulema and the shuyukh: Sultan Mehmed, who liberated Constantinople from the Byzantine oppression, was the disciple of Ak Shamsuddin, himself of the lineage of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, radiya’Llahu anhu. With such men to pray for them, the early sultans could hardly be defeated in battle. Another factor in Ottoman success was the insistence of the Ottoman ulema on tolerating differences of opinions among Muslims. All classical writers on Muslim political theory have taken to heart Imam al-Ghazali’s insistence that the Muslims are never served by attempts to impose one narrow definition of the faith on everyone else. That kind of totalitarian approach results only in hatred and civil war, bringing misery and weakness to the Muslim community.
The Ottoman demise resulted not from the adoption of a narrow definition of Islam that set Muslim against Muslim, but from a thoughtless Westernisation among the ruling classes. Adopting the materialism of Western Europe, the Ottoman nobility and middle classes began to abandon the Sunna. The turban began to disappear, followed by the remainder of Muslim dress. Houses began to be designed to bring the sexes together, rather than to separate them. The mosques in rich sections of town emptied, except on Fridays. And the high men of the state, with some exceptions, were increasingly reluctant to ask the great ulema for their prayers.
The Ottoman empire ended, effectively, with the First World War. Sultan Abd al-Hamid had been overthrown by a Westernising clique which then decided to bring the empire into the war which ended in its dismemberment. If the Ottomans had remained loyal to the Sunna, and hence avoided injustice, bribery, and weakness on the field of battle, the Ottoman state would in all probability be in existence today, and its model of an Islam which tolerates diversity would still prevail, instead of the nervous, intolerant little groups which fill the Islamic scene today.
The Sultan may have been removed by ‘the people’, but it was not the Sultans who suffered as a result of people choosing unbelief over belief. They lived fairly simple lives before and after the removal of power, Sultan Abdul Hamid died continuing his love for carpentry. It is us, the people, who have suffered.
In any event, this is not a call to a new political party or some other form of obtuse power play. The spiritual inheritors to the Ottomans are making subtle preparations awaiting Imam Mahdi (AS) rather than making bold power moves. Rather this is a small reminder that when understanding things about our tradition, the Ottomans should not be forgotten. And it is a history which should be learned at the feet of one of those spiritual inheritors.
It is there we dropped the flag, and it will be from there that Muslims will pick it up.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
