The Twelvers and Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, has been called many things by the West. “Crazy and looney” might come to mind. However, this leader of over 66 million people, has a strange world view, at least to many in the West.

Not only does he deny that the Holocaust occurred, but he has vowed to destroy Israel. Iran’s nuclear ambitions are clear to the U.S. government, and much ado has been made by Israel, Europe, and the U.S. about the need for Iran to stop its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

However, perhaps the strangest element of this leader’s world view is his staunch adherence to the mahdaviat, which is “belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi.”

The Mahdi is the twelfth and final imam, and those who believe in the historical succession of the imams are called “The Twelvers.” According to the theology of Twelvers, twelve successors of Islam’s founder, Muhammad, have an infallible gift not only to rule over the Shia branch of Islam with justice, but to be able to keep and interpret the Sharia, or body of Islamic religious law. The prophet and imams’ words and deeds are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result, they must be free from error and sin, and must be chosen by divine decree through Muhammad.

For the most part, each imam was the son of the previous imam. Being an imam was risky business, because all but one of the first eleven were poisoned. The twelfth imam is still alive, however, and has been alive since 872 AD, ready at the appointed time by Allah to come forth and usher in the end of the world.

What is of interest is that the Shia branch of Islam is composed mostly (85%) of Twelvers and most of the Twelvers are found in Iran.

If you’re interested in “end-times” prophecy, Ahmadinejad has suggested that ‘Jesus would return to the world along with the emergence of the descendant of the Islam’s holy prophet, Imam Mahdi’. It is well known that Ahmadinejad sees himself as the chosen one to bring forth the 12th Imam, to ‘pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi’. The suggestion that Jesus and the 12th Imam would return to earth at the same time is something new and quite disturbing.

Ahmadinejad sees Jesus and Mahdi working together to ‘wipe away every tinge of oppression, pain and agony from the face of the world’. The Mahdi ‘will reign on earth for seven years before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world’.

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program called “The World toward Illumination,” that the Mahdi will form an army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

The Mahdi’s far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa.

Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time Allah will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other…

And when will the 1137 year-old Mahdi come to be revealed? Ahmadinejad got the message that it would have been in 2007.

“These are the signs of the appearance of the Imam Mahdi who will appear within the ‎next two years,” the president said as quoted in Aftab News on November 16, 2005.

Such remarks by the president (which have been followed closely by the public since the ‎distribution of a video clip of Ahmadinejad in which he claims to have been surrounded by a ray ‎of light when giving a speech at the United Nations General Assembly) have gone so far that he ‎has recently criticized those who have cast doubts on the validity of his beliefs and remarks ‎about the Imam Mahdi. For example, following his trip to the United States and his ‎controversial speech at Columbia University in New York, the president has claimed that the ‎Imam Mahdi “managed” that meeting and accused those who doubted this claim of being “close ‎minded.” “I know that close minded people don’t believe these things,” he said, “but I was ‎certain that the Imam Mahdi will come and manage the meeting. I said, ‘Oh Imam! I want to ‎witness your miracle.” (Raja News – November 12, 2007) In a more pointed attack, ‎Ahmadinejad has likened those who poke fun at his remarks about the hidden Imam to goats: ‎‎”the entire universe has been created for that holy event to take place; the day when all the ‎prophets and martyrs will come to help the Imam. Some people make fun of these beliefs; this is ‎because their hearts are devoid of faith. These are modern day pagans and heathens. They ‎pretend to be intellectuals but don’t have the understanding of a goat” (Fars news agency- ‎November 11, 2007).

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In other words this soul-shaking revelation that the ‎president who heads the Iranian government in one of its most critical moments in history is a ‎person who “really” believes that the hidden Imam is accompanying him when eating food, and ‎that the Imam will eventually reappear before the end of his presidential term, should shed new light on Iran’s continued march toward the development of a nuclear warhead.

After all, why not hasten Armaggedon, if you have the power to hasten the day when the Mahdi and Jesus will rule the world under sharia law? We have more than a crazy man in Ahmadinejad. We have a man who could pull off his own Holocaust in his lifetime. ‎