Q: you mentioned 6 keys or tenets of Islam, with the 6th being believe some form of eschatology. Is that widespread? I’ve always heard there are “5 Pillars” of Islam.
A: Curiously, the Mahdi is not mentioned in the Qur’an. But according to a 2012 survey, 42% of Muslims worldwide believed that the Mahdi would come before the year 2050 (see page 79 of my book Second Letter to the Tribulation: with Islamic End-Time Prophecies of the Mahdi, versus the Book of Revelation).
Below are quotes from my 2nd book. There are five pillars of Islam. There are six articles of faith, one of which is “belief in the Last Day”. The Last Day involves belief in the Major Signs. One of the Major Signs is the descent of `Isa ibn Maryam from heaven, another is the appearance of the Dajjal, enemy of the Mahdi and the `Isa. Before the Major Signs of the end times, the Mahdi will appear. The placement in my cyber timeline (as guided by Revelation) is indicated by the H section numbers. The Mahdi comes in H16, the first of the Major signs in H19.
Page 290 footnote: The five pillars of Islam are: the profession of faith (the shahada), the five daily prayers (salat), alms-giving (zakat), fasting during Ramadan (saum), and pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), in Elizabeth Macaulay, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-cultures-religions-apah/islam-apah/a/the-five-pillars-of-islam.
Page 53: Every Muslim is expected to believe in the Last Day. It is one of the six articles of iman (faith). Five are given in Surah 2:177:
1.
Belief in Allah.
2. Belief in the Last Day.
3. Belief in angels.
4.
Belief in the scripture.
5.
Belief in the prophets.
The sixth and last article comes from Surah 9:51, and from
other passages of the Qur’an:
6.
Belief in the divine decree.
Page 54: Muslims are additionally required to believe in certain events associated with the Last Day called the Major Signs. Of lesser importance to the faith are the Minor Signs. In future sections I will be touching on the Major Signs. There is no set number of them that Islamic theologians agree upon, but ten are given in the hadith at the top of this section:
o
the smoke (see H22)
o
the Dajjal (H19)
o
the beast, or Dabbat al-ard (H45)
o
the rising of the sun from the west (H45)
o
the descent of `Isa ibn Maryam (H24)
o
the Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog) (H45)
o
landslides, three in number: in the east, in the west, and in Arabia (H39)
o
a fire will burn forth from the Yemen (H46)
Page 49: It (the Last Hour) will not come until you see ten signs …
the smoke, Dajjal, the beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the descent
of `Isa ibn Maryam, the Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog), and land-slides in
three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of
which fire would burn forth from the Yemen, and would drive people to the place
of their assembly.
Narrated by Hudhaifa b. Usaid al-Ghifari, Sahih Muslim
2901a, Book 41, Hadith 6931, https://sunnah.com/muslim:2901a,
accessed July 6, 2024 ; also referenced in Rahma p.144.
Page 24: before the Major Signs of the end times, the Mahdi will appear.
H16 Page 144: Allah Almighty will send the Mahdi after despair has reached
a point that people will say, “there is no Mahdi.” Three hundred and fifteen of
the people of Syria … will bring him out of the valley of Makka from a house at
as-Safa. They will force him to accept their allegiance.
Narrated by Abdullah
ibn `Abbas, in Nu`aym ibn Hammad, quoted in `Ibn Izzat p.28.
When you see the black flags
coming out from the direction of Khorasan, then go to them even if you have to
crawl on snow, for verily among them is the khalifah of Allah, the Mahdi.
Narrated by Abu ‘Abd Allah Na’im b. Hammad al-Maruzi, Kitab al-Fitan
(Dar al-Fikr; 1414 H) [annotator: Prof. Dr. Suhayl Zakar], part 4, p. 188,
quoted in Toyib Olawuyi, https://www.al-islam.org/imam-al-mahdi-twelfth-khalifah-sahih-sunni-ahadith-toyib-olawuyi/5-black-flags-khurasan,
accessed May 15, 2024; see also Thawban, in Al-Hakim, ad-Dani, Nu`aym ibn
Hammad, and as-Suyuti, quoted in `Ibn Izzat p.43.
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