When was Imam Mahdi supposed to come?

Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan of Bhopal was a leading scholar of the Ahl-e-Hadith school. At the very end of the thirteenth Hijri century he wrote in a book that only ten years remained before the fourteenth century began; if the Mahdi appeared and Jesus descended at the head of that century, then they would be the Mujaddid, the reformer, of that century.

His son, Nawab Nurul Hasan Khan, wrote at the start of the fourteenth century in his book Iqtirab al-Sa‘ah: by the calculations the Mahdi should have come in the thirteenth century, but the century passed and the Mahdi did not come. Now we are in the fourteenth century; perhaps Allah will show mercy and the Mahdi will come within four to six years (p. 221).

On what basis were these scholars naming the time with such confidence? Let us look at those foundations.

A reformer at the head of every century

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) left his Ummah a lasting promise. Hazrat Abu Hurairah (ra) reported:

For thirteen centuries the Ummah saw this promise fulfilled. Hazrat Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (rh) in the first century, Imam Ghazali (rh) in the fifth, Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani (rh) in the sixth, Hazrat Mujaddid Alf Thani (rh) in the eleventh, Hazrat Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlawi (rh) in the twelfth, Syed Ahmad Barelvi (rh) in the thirteenth. And many others like them.

The saints of the Ummah also understood that the reformer of the fourteenth century would be someone special: the promised Mahdi and Messiah. That is why scholars like Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan were looking towards the fourteenth century.

Three centuries of light, then a thousand years

The Quran gives the measure of a long stretch of time:

Allah’s command, that is the teaching of Islam, was established on earth from heaven. Then it would slowly rise back up, over a “day” of a thousand years. When does this thousand years begin?

The Holy Prophet (sa) said, “The best of people are those of my age, then those who follow them, then those who follow them”; after that would come people whose testimony and oaths could not be trusted (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab al-Shahadat, Hadith 2652). In other words, the first three centuries were the bright age. And we see that after the first three centuries Islam began a gradual decline, which went on for the next thousand years, as this verse points out. Three hundred plus a thousand makes thirteen hundred years. Then, at the start of the fourteenth century, comes the time of revival.

The likeness between Moses (as) and the Holy Prophet (sa) says the same thing. In a sermon the Fifth Khalifa of the Messiah (aba) quoted the Promised Messiah (as): the chain of successors of Moses (as) ended with Jesus (as), who came in the fourteenth century after Moses (as); the likeness between the two chains requires that in the Ummah of the Holy Prophet (sa), too, the Messiah should come in the fourteenth century.

The man who stood up at the right time

A report is quoted from Allama Abdul Ghafur’s al-Najm al-Thaqib: Hazrat Hudhaifah ibn al-Yaman (ra) narrates that the Holy Prophet (sa) said that when twelve hundred and forty years have passed, Allah will raise the Mahdi (al-Najm al-Thaqib, vol. 2, p. 209).

And at exactly this time a voice was heard from Qadian. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) wrote: “When the thirteenth century of the Hijrah was drawing to its close and the beginning of the fourteenth century was near, Allah informed me through revelation that I am the Mujaddid of the fourteenth century” (Kitabul Bariyyah, p. 201). A few years later he announced that he was the very Messiah whose coming had been promised, and the Mahdi of whom the Holy Prophet (sa) had spoken thirteen hundred years earlier (Tazkiratush Shahadatain, pp. 1-2).

And after his claim, in Ramadan 1311 AH, the moon and the sun were eclipsed in the sky, the very eclipses foretold as a sign of the Mahdi. The time, the claim and the heavenly sign met at one point.

Questions people ask

A reformer comes every century; why must the fourteenth-century reformer be the Mahdi?

Think about the question from the other side. The fourteenth Hijri century ended in November 1980. According to the hadith in Abu Dawud, a reformer should have come at the head of that century too. Who was he? Only one man stood up at the start of that century, commissioned by Allah, claiming to be the Mujaddid, the Messiah and the Mahdi: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as). And the scholars of the time had written themselves that the reformer of this century would be the Mahdi and the Messiah.

Maybe the Mahdi will come at some later time; can we be so sure about the timing?

It was scholars opposed to Ahmadiyyat who did the sums and pointed to the start of the fourteenth century. As the century went by, many lost hope and wrote, “We accept that perhaps the Mahdi will not come; this does no harm to any essential belief of Islam” (Iqtirab al-Sa‘ah, p. 147). Yet the Quran says, “Verily, We Ourself have sent down this Exhortation, and most surely We will be its Guardian” (Surah Al-Hijr 15:10). Allah’s promise did not fail; the promised one came at the right time. The right response is not despair but to look into it.

Are numbers like “1240 years” from reliable hadith?

Reports of this kind are not from the six major hadith collections, and they are not our main evidence. The main evidence is established through sound sources: the hadith of a reformer every century (Abu Dawud), the hadith of the three best generations (Bukhari), the verse of the thousand years (Surah As-Sajdah) and the likeness to the Ummah of Moses (as) (Surah Al-Muzzammil). Together they point to the fourteenth century. The other reports and the writings of the saints only show that many scholars of the Ummah were also waiting for the same time.