Talk:Mahdi

I replaced the following text from the article with a sentence about the dispute, based on sites arising from [1] (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22Mirza%20Ghulam%20Ahmad%22%20eclipse), such as [2] (http://www.irshad.org/exposed/eclipse.php), which I expect are also disputed.

This has only happened once when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad announced that he was the Promised Messias and Mahdi. The eclipses that took place when he made his announcement were seen all over the world.

The previous text was:

This has never happened before in history [as of Jumaada al-awal 1424 AH / July 2003 CE]. Only the year 2005 stands out uniquely when a Solar and Lunar eclipse would both occur during the month of Ramadan and these eclipse be visible from Middle East and Arabia.

Perhaps someone else can incorporate the various beliefs about the eclipses in a verifiable and NPOV manner ...? -- Zigger 09:49, 2004 Jul 3 (UTC)

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Contents

1 Question About Islamic beliefs 2 Does this rewording of the Ahmadi claims help the NPOV any? 3 features of al-Mahdi 4 Quran or Hadith?

Question About Islamic beliefs

According to this article, it says muslims believe Jesus is god's savior. I was under the immpresion this was the christian doctrine and that muslims beleve he is only a phrophet of god, and the messiah has not yet appeared. Im not a religious scholar, though, so ill refrain from editing this.

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There is only one Messiah in the Quran.

Quran 3:45 PICKTHAL: (And remember) when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in the world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (unto Allah).

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It should be noted that, in other sections here and, in Islam in general, there is a huge debate about the supposed inadequacies of the the Picthal translation. Many muslims I know seem to find it is too much like the translators are trying to unify the christian Bible with the Quran rather than give an accurate translation. All in all I'd say that Picthal is in dispute and you'll have to verify it with other translations.

Does this rewording of the Ahmadi claims help the NPOV any?

"According to the Ahmaddiya movement, one of the signs which will indicate the emergence of al-Mahdi will be that in the month of Ramadan prior to his emergence two eclipses will occur, one of the sun and one of the moon, both being visible from the Middle East and Arabia. These signs are said to have been visible right after the claim of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, and are supposed to happen again during Ramadan AH 1426 (roughly October 2005 CE). These claims are disputed by many non-Ahmadi Muslims." (My recent attempt toward an NPOV here.)

It seems to me (a non-Muslim) that we should try to include "variant" positions on the Mahdi in Wikipedia, as different doctrines concerning the Messiah are addressed in that article. I think too that maybe the layout of this article should be changed, adding a "non-Sunni and non-Shia" section that the Ahmadi claims would be fit into. (Am I correct that the Ahmadiyya are generally thought of as being neither Sunni nor Shi'ite?)

To further the general appearance of coherence as well, I would also remove the next sentence ("The title has been claimed by various individuals in history[...]") to the "People who saw themselves as Mahdi" section and rework that.

Or maybe it'd be better to note that "The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has other doctrines and predictions concerning the Mahdi" and for that off into another article entirely (something like "The Mahdi in the Ahmadi tradition")? Maybe the hypertextish nature of Wikipedia can be employed to good advantage here too?

I put the Ahmaddiyah view of the Mahdi in it's own section. The Ahmadiyya movement is a very small one among worldwide Muslims, but if you want to include their view of the mahdi, I do not think there is a problem with it. However, it should be seperate from the Sunni view as most Sunnis do not view the Ahmadiyya movement as a Muslim one. Thus, I have created a new section for it within the article, and removed the NPOV notice. DigiBullet 20:41, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

features of al-Mahdi

I think it would be nice if someone knowledgable quote books of hadith for this and possibly references to hadith books online (or, is there wikisource Bukhari at least?) 18:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Quran or Hadith?

Can someone confirm if the Mahdi is mentioned only in the Hadiths, or is he also specified in the Quran? If so where? mpa