Imam Mahdi: Religious Belief or Historical Reality?

Does Imam Mahdi exist? Can historical documents support the idea of the son of the eleventh Imam of Shia Islam, his occultation, and his lifespan of over a thousand years? Is the concept of Mahdism and Imam Mahdi a religious belief or a historical reality? Sajjad Nik-Aeen, a religious researcher, and Majid Mohammadi, a sociologist with religious education, discuss these questions in this week's taboo. We begin the program with Mr. Nik-Aeen. Mr. Nik-Aeen generates questions about the belief in Imam Mahdi, so I start with the question of what evidence we have to accept the birth of the son of the eleventh Imam and the existence of the twelfth Imam. Sajjad Nik-Aeen: When we talk about the existence of Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance), we are discussing the last link in the chain of fundamental beliefs of a faithful individual. We can present reasons at two levels. One level is theological reasons, arguments, and proofs that establish the existence of the Imam in the present time; a narration from the Prophet Muhammad states that whoever dies without recognizing his Imam dies the death of ignorance. Therefore, the first level of evidence is the concept of Imam Mahdi. From this perspective, there are a series of rational arguments, the argument of divine grace, and references to the sayings of the Prophet after the position of the Shia Imams. However, the second level of evidence involves historical reports that are also discussed, and as a Shia believer, when you discuss this, or even as a Muslim believer, you have to accept a series of premises. Yes, we can discuss from an external religious perspective and critique the overall religion and concepts such as revelation and monotheism as described by Abrahamic religions. This is a preliminary discussion to the argument that is the last link in the chain of beliefs. I emphasize that if this discussion is to begin, we have to accept a series of premises. Thus, within the religion, if you want to discuss, with this perspective, anything is accepted. Nik-Aeen: You see, it is not that anything is accepted. Ultimately, within the religion, you cannot say that everything is accepted, no! As long as it aligns with the general principles that the religion has outlined. Now, in Islam or even in other monotheistic religions, the concept of a savior is an accepted concept. Now, regarding who this savior is, Judaism has one view, Christianity has another, and Shia Islam has another. Mr. Mohammadi, you heard Mr. Nik-Aeen's response; he somewhat says that if we accept religious foundations, it is natural to accept such issues alongside them. My question is, how can this be accepted from a historical perspective? Now, Mr. Nik-Aeen says he is speaking from an internal religious perspective, but the question is how even believers can confidently accept such a thing? Majid Mohammadi: I believe that even within the framework of internal religion, the belief in such a person is not part of the foundations of Islam and Shia. It is not just an external religious discussion. Within the framework of external religious discussion, since we look at the subject through reason and experience, there is no evidence, no proof presented for non-Shia, non-Twelver Shia individuals that such a person exists. However, even within the internal religious framework, I have not seen strong arguments in the works related to Mahdism and the hidden Imam, nor in Mr. Nik-Aeen's current statements. Just because we should accept this within the framework of divine grace, well, we can believe many other things within the framework of divine grace. Essentially, the type of narratives presented in this area are not reliable because they are isolated narratives without any continuity. The documents mentioned regarding this story are not reliable. Historical narratives that confirm such a person have not existed at all. However, if we want to look at it rationally, since Muslims are not supposed to deny reason even within their internal frameworks, two arguments are presented for Imam Mahdi; one argument is the very argument of divine grace that Mr. Nik-Aeen mentioned, which is based on the premise that since we need an Imam, he must exist. This argument seems weak to me. The belief is that there must be a spiritual grace or divine proof on earth, therefore he exists. The second argument is that it is possible that such a being exists and we have not seen him, and from possibility, they reach necessity. Many things may be possible, but whether they exist in reality or not, we must have evidence for that; individuals must have observed it or it must have been observed in the present or past, and this news must be transmitted reliably, not just from believers but from different trustworthy individuals. Just like a news story, we need to receive it from various channels to be able to believe it; otherwise, someone might create a story on April Fool's Day, and later it becomes clear that this story was fake. In fact, these narratives are very diverse regarding the twelfth Imam. Some have said that the eleventh Imam had no children at all, some have said that the eleventh Imam was the awaited Mahdi himself and will return, some have said that he was his brother, and even in the narratives, you see references to family disputes over the inheritance of the eleventh Imam. Imam Mahdi, Mr. Nik-Aeen, I ask you based on the argument you presented, therefore, it seems more present in religious history from your perspective than in scientific history. Nik-Aeen: Before I answer this question, Mr. Mohammadi has denied or deemed weak the existence of such hadiths regarding Imam Mahdi, I must say that when we say a hadith is weak, unfortunately, it is a plague that generally affects all intellectuals or self-proclaimed intellectuals who weaken hadiths whenever they do not like them. When we say a hadith is weak, we must provide a basis for its weakness; then we can say that the hadith regarding the birth of Imam Mahdi or the existence of Imam Mahdi is historically weak. The hadiths reported at least in the Shia religious heritage include fifty-one hadiths from Imam Ali, five hadiths from Imam Hasan, fourteen hadiths from Imam Husayn, eleven hadiths from Imam Zain al-Abidin, sixty-three hadiths from Imam Baqir, one hundred and twenty-four hadiths from Imam Sadiq, six hadiths from Imam Musa Kazim, nineteen hadiths from Imam Reza, six hadiths from Imam Jawad, six hadiths from Imam Hadi, and twenty-two hadiths from Imam Hasan Askari. If we want to weaken this level of continuity, we can just say it is weak and erase the entire issue with this weak claim. But how can someone be Shia and not believe in Imam Mahdi? It is clear that when we say Twelver Shia, it cannot stop at the eleventh Imam and then call itself Twelver Shia. Mr. Nik-Aeen, whether Imam Mahdi has existed at any time or whether someone is said to exist, no one sees him, has a lifespan of thousands of years, and will appear one day, do these all mean the same thing? Nik-Aeen: No, see, I am saying this. Just because today you do not see someone who has lived for thousands of years does not negate the existence of Imam Mahdi. If you accept the Quran as a Muslim, the Quran mentions Noah, who lived nine hundred and fifty years; it mentions a prophet named Khidr who is still alive and whose age is certainly over two thousand years; it mentions Jesus, who was not crucified and is still alive. Therefore, long life does not create a contradiction. For this reason, I say there is no discussion in that. We are not supposed to suspend reason, but there are a series of obvious truths and premises that the belief in the existence of Imam Mahdi, who has lived for over a thousand years, does not contradict those claims and premises. Imam Hasan Askari repeatedly announces the birth of his son on various occasions, even hints at it. This is from the perspective of religious sources within Shia Islam, the historical reports that you say are not historical reports, I say they are, and I have presented examples. Very well, Mr. Mohammadi, now at this point, perhaps some of our listeners want to look at the issue from this angle that Mr. Nik-Aeen, who speaks of hadiths and the continuity of these hadiths, it is mentioned in the Quran that do not follow what you have no knowledge of. Do you think Muslims can rely solely on these hadiths that have come in a continuous manner and be aware of the existence of Imam Mahdi? Mohammadi: Your answer is clearly no. Muslims are not supposed to suspend reason, experience, and knowledge. You see, there is a fundamental confusion in Mr. Nik-Aeen's statements, which is the confusion between reality and belief. He mentioned various hadiths from the first Imam of Shia to the eleventh Imam regarding Imam Mahdi. The first Imam of Shia did not see the Imam Mahdi to testify to him. These are actually news of the future. We call them prophecies. These do not testify to a reality. These are hadiths that are actually reports - now I doubt the authenticity of all these hadiths - let’s assume that all these reports are correct, these reports do not testify to a reality because the second Imam of Shia, the third Imam of Shia, Imam Baqir, did not live to see an individual born named Muhammad. They lived several decades or several hundred years before him. When we discuss historically, we must refer to historians to see what is written in historical books. Throughout Shia history, Shia literature before the eleventh Imam does not contain the expression Mahdi at all. In Quranic interpretations regarding this subject, they all come and interpret the phrases in a way that they want. Neither in the Quran do we see evidence that such an individual will come, nor do we see such expressions in Shia narrations. The belief in a savior, of course, exists among religions, in Abrahamic religions. However, from the fact that this belief exists, it cannot be concluded that such a thing has been realized. Such a thing does not exist. It has only been said that Hasan Askari had such a child, but no one has seen his birth, nor has anyone witnessed his growth. We fundamentally have no evidence for the existence of such an individual. In fact, in this idea of Imam Mahdi in Shia, there are five more specific ideas. One idea is the idea of Mahdi as a revolutionary figure who comes and starts a revolution, which takes shape during the Abbasid period. The second belief is eschatological beliefs that take shape during the Umayyad period. The third belief is the belief in immortality, which existed among Zoroastrians and was transferred by Muslim births. The fourth belief is the belief in occultation, which was primarily raised among the Kaysanites and later transferred to Shia, and the fifth belief is the belief in global dominance, which was stated by the Ghulat Shia. When you put these five beliefs together, it becomes the idea of the Imam of the time, the Mahdi of Shia. All five beliefs have historically taken shape over a three-hundred-year period and have come from various places and transformed among Shia. This is a belief and not a reality. Mr. Nik-Aeen, in fact, the point that Mr. Mohammadi raised is that what you present in defense of the existence of Imam Mahdi is a belief and has no relation to historical reality.