The Mahdi and Jesus' Return in Islamic Teaching

Christians confess every Sunday that Christ "shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead." Many are surprised that Muslims also expect Jesus, called ʿIsa, to return near the end of time, fight a great deceiver called the Dajjal, and rule with justice. Alongside him many Muslims expect a second figure, the Mahdi, "the guided one," a descendant of Muhammad who will fill the earth with justice.

The overlap is real, and so is the gulf. This article sets out what the Qur’an and the hadith say, how Sunni and Twelver Shia Muslims differ about the Mahdi, and who has claimed the title. It then gives the Orthodox answer: the One who is coming is the crucified and risen Son of God, and the Jesus of the hadith is not He.

In brief

The Qur’an denies that Jesus was crucified, says God raised him to Himself, and has two verses (4:159 and 43:61) that many commentators read as pointing to his return, though both can be read otherwise. It never mentions the Mahdi; the detailed expectation comes from hadith. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim report that the son of Mary will descend as a just judge who "will break the Cross and kill the pigs" and abolish the jizya, and Sahih Muslim has him kill the Dajjal at Ludd. Reports naming the Mahdi appear in other collections, such as Sunan Abu Dawud, but not in the two Sahihs, and Muslim scholars have long debated them; Ibn Khaldun judged that "very few" were above criticism. For Twelver Shia Muslims the Mahdi is the Twelfth Imam, born in the ninth century and living in hiding ever since. Several men have claimed the title. The Orthodox Church teaches that Christ, true God and true man, will return in glory as Judge of all, with the Cross as His sign.

Thesis: The Islamic Jesus who returns to break the Cross and confirm Islam is not the Christ of the apostles, and the Church awaits no Mahdi but the Lord Himself, coming in glory to judge the living and the dead.

What the Qur’an says, and what it does not

"They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him"

The starting point is Qur’an 4:157-158. In the Sahih International translation, the Jews are blamed for saying "we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allāh," and the text replies: "And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them... Rather, Allāh raised him to Himself."¹ Most Muslims therefore believe that Jesus did not die but was taken alive into heaven, which is why he can return.

Not every Muslim reads the verses this way. Qur’an 3:55 and 5:117 use a verb that Sahih International renders "I will take you" and "You took me up," while M. A. S. Abdel Haleem renders 5:117 "Ever since You took my soul."² The Ahmadiyya movement, founded in 1889, holds that Jesus survived the cross and later died a natural death in India; mainstream Sunni and Shia scholars reject that view.³

Two verses about his return

Qur’an 4:159 says: "And there is none from the People of the Scripture but that he will surely believe in him [i.e., Jesus] before his death." Whose death? Mufti Muhammad Shafi's commentary Ma’arif al-Qur’an records two explanations. One, given by Maulana Ashraf ʿAli Thanavi, refers "his death" to each of the People of the Book, who will see the truth about Jesus moments before dying, too late to benefit. The other, which Shafi says was held by many of the Companions and their successors and "also has the support of authentic Hadith," refers it to Jesus, who will return and be believed in before he dies.⁴ Ibn Kathir takes the second view and notes that Abu Hurayrah recited this verse after reporting the hadith of Jesus' descent.⁵

Qur’an 43:61 shows how much depends on translation. Sahih International reads: "And indeed, he [i.e., Jesus] will be [a sign for] knowledge of the Hour." Abdel Haleem reads the same pronoun differently: "This [Quran] gives knowledge of the Hour."⁶ Ibn Kathir calls the reference to Jesus' descent "the correct view," supported by an alternate recitation, and adds that "Many Mutawatir Hadiths report" his descent before the Day of Resurrection.⁷

{{strong: The Qur’an never mentions the Mahdi, and the expectation of Jesus' return rests mainly on hadith, with two Qur’anic verses that Muslim commentators read in more than one way.}} Encyclopaedia Britannica states the first point plainly: "The Qurʾān does not mention him."⁸

Jesus' descent in the hadith

The best-known report is in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the collections Sunni Muslims hold in highest regard. In Bukhari's version, Muhammad says: "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, surely (Jesus,) the son of Mary will soon descend amongst you and will judge mankind justly (as a Just Ruler); he will break the Cross and kill the pigs and there will be no Jizya." Wealth will be so abundant "that nobody will accept it."⁹ Sahih Muslim gives the same saying: "He will break crosses, kill swine and abolish Jizya."¹⁰

Other reports fill in the picture. Bukhari records: "How will you be when the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you and your imam is among you."¹¹ In Sahih Muslim, Jesus descends and the Muslims' commander invites him to lead the prayer, but he declines: "No, some amongst you are commanders over some (amongst you). This is the honour from Allah for this Ummah."¹² In Sunan Abu Dawud (graded sahih by al-Albani), Jesus "will fight the people for the cause of Islam," and "Allah will perish all religions except Islam." He will destroy the Antichrist, "live on the earth for forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him."¹³

The Dajjal

The long report of al-Nawwas ibn Samʿan in Sahih Muslim describes the Dajjal, the false messiah, as "a young man with twisted, contracted hair, and a blind eye," who appears "on the way between Syria and Iraq," stays forty days, commands rain, and calls people to follow him. Then God sends Jesus, who "will descend at the white minaret in the eastern side of Damascus," pursues the Dajjal, and kills him "at the gate of Ludd." Gog and Magog, a time of blessing, and the Last Hour follow.¹⁴

In this picture Jesus returns as a Muslim. He prays behind a Muslim leader, abolishes the jizya, the tax paid by Christians and Jews under Muslim rule, breaks the Cross, and dies an ordinary death.

The Mahdi in Sunni Islam

The Mahdi is a separate figure. The clearest reports are in Sunan Abu Dawud, which has a short chapter on him. "If only one day of this time (world) remained, Allah would raise up a man from my family who would fill this earth with justice as it has been filled with oppression."¹⁵ Another says: "The Mahdi will be of my family, of the descendants of Fatimah," and a third: "The Mahdi will be of my stock, and will have a broad forehead a prominent nose... and he will rule for seven years." One version adds that his name and his father's name will match Muhammad's. The modern hadith scholar al-Albani graded these reports sahih or hasan; other modern graders judged the "seven years" report weak.

{{strong: Reports naming the Mahdi appear in Abu Dawud and other collections, but not in the two Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim.}} Britannica notes that such traditions "are notably absent from the two most-revered compilations," and that many Sunni theologians "accordingly question Mahdist beliefs."⁸ The fourteenth-century historian Ibn Khaldun began his chapter on the subject by observing that it "has been well known (and generally accepted) by all Muslims in every epoch" that a man of Muhammad's family would appear at the end of time and be called the Mahdi. He then examined the chains of transmission one by one and concluded: "Very few are above criticism." He also discussed a report that "There is no Mahdi except Jesus, the son of Mary," citing al-Bayhaqi's verdict that it is "weak and disturbed."¹⁶

The Hidden Imam in Twelver Shia Islam

For Twelver Shia Muslims, the largest Shia branch, the Mahdi is a man already born. Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi's Shia textbook on Al-Islam.org gives the teaching as the community holds it. Muhammad, son of the eleventh Imam Hasan al-ʿAskari, "was born on 15th Sha‘ban 255 A.H. (868 CE) in Samarra." His imamate began with his father's death in 260 AH. For "the first 69 years," known as the Minor Occultation, believers could reach him "only through his specially appointed agents," four in succession; "after 329 A.H., no such agents were appointed," and the Major Occultation, which continues today, began. He is "Living in Occultation & will appear before the end of time."¹⁷

Historians describe the origins differently. Said Amir Arjomand's entry in the Encyclopaedia Iranica explains that after the eleventh Imam died in 260/873, his followers split into some fourteen groups, and that the agents who controlled the Imam's affairs "claimed to be acting on behalf of a son of Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, who was in occultation." Communication ended with the death of the fourth agent in 329/941.¹⁸ Article 5 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran provides that during the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam ("may God hasten his reappearance"), the leadership of the community belongs to a just and pious jurist.¹⁹

The two expectations do not fit easily: the Sunni report gives the Mahdi's father the name of Muhammad's father, ʿAbdallah, while the Twelver Mahdi is the son of al-Hasan. Twelver hadith also place Jesus among the figures who accompany the Mahdi in the final struggle, as Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi notes in the Encyclopaedia Iranica.²⁰ The two communities share the hope of Jesus' descent and disagree about who the Mahdi is.

Claimants to the title

The title has often been claimed by leaders of revolts. Britannica lists ʿUbayd Allah, founder of the Fatimid dynasty (909); Muhammad ibn Tumart, founder of the Almohad movement in twelfth-century Morocco; and "Muḥammad Aḥmad, the mahdī of the Sudan who, in 1881, revolted against the Egyptian administration."⁸ Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, founder of the Ahmadiyya, claimed to be both the Mahdi and the Messiah; his community's literature says his position "is exactly that of the Mahdi."³ On November 20, 1979, the first day of the year 1400 AH, armed men seized the Great Mosque of Mecca, and their leader, Juhayman al-Otaybi, proclaimed Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Qahtani the awaited Mahdi. Saudi forces retook the mosque after a two-week siege.²¹ Christ warned of the same danger: "if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it" (Matthew 24:23).²²

The Orthodox answer

The Jesus of these reports is not the Jesus of the Gospels

Muslims speak of Jesus with reverence, and Christians should never mock that. But reverence for a name is not faith in the Person. The Qur’an's Jesus is a creature "like that of Adam" (3:59), not crucified, not risen, not the Son of God.¹ The chapter on the "heresy of the Ishmaelites" in On Heresies, attributed to St John of Damascus (its authorship has been doubted, but modern specialists attribute it to him wholly or in part), summarized this teaching in the eighth century: the Jews "seized His shadow and crucified this. But the Christ Himself was not crucified, he says, nor did He die."²³ The Church judged that teaching then as it does now: it is false.

The apostle John gives the test: "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either" (1 John 2:22-23).²² A returning "Jesus" who denies that he is the Son, breaks the Cross, and leads people away from the Holy Trinity would not be the Christ of the apostles. Measured by the apostle's words, such a figure would deny the Son, which is the very mark of antichrist. Christians say this not to insult Muslims, many of whom love the name of Jesus sincerely, but because the apostles taught them to test every claim against the faith once delivered.

He comes from heaven, openly, as Judge

The Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople confesses that the Son, "of one essence with the Father," was "crucified for us under Pontius Pilate," rose on the third day, "and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end."²⁴ At His ascension the angels told the apostles, "This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). He Himself said, "as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:27), and "the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father" (John 5:22-23).²²

St Cyril of Jerusalem taught his catechumens in the fourth century: "The true Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, comes no more from the earth. If any come making false shows in the wilderness, go not forth."²⁵ The Christ of the Gospel does not come to pray behind another leader and die after forty years. He comes "on the throne of His glory," and "All the nations will be gathered before Him" (Matthew 25:31-32). Muslims, Christians and all people will stand before Him.

The Cross is His sign

The hadith say the returning Jesus will break the Cross. The Gospel says the Cross will herald His coming: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven" (Matthew 24:30). St Cyril explains: "Now Christ's own true sign is the Cross; a sign of a luminous Cross shall go before the King, plainly declaring Him who was formerly crucified."²⁵ For St Paul the Cross is the one thing worth boasting of: "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). {{very-strong: That Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate is one of the best-attested facts of ancient history.}} The site's article on whether Jesus was really crucified sets out that evidence. A report that Jesus will return to destroy the sign of his own death contradicts history and the apostolic faith alike.

No deliverer but Christ

The Orthodox Church does not wait for a ruler who will reign for seven years and set the world right before the end. She looks for the general resurrection, the judgement, and a Kingdom that "shall have no end." On the last things, see Heaven, Hell, and Final Judgment: An Orthodox Guide; on why the Church rejects the rapture and the earthly millennium, see the article on dispensationalism.

Objections and replies

"Muslims and Christians both await Jesus, so the hope is shared"

The name is shared; the Person is not. Christians await the One who was crucified, rose, and is worshipped with the Father and the Spirit. The Jesus of the hadith comes to abolish the worship Christians offer Christ. Two hopes that point in opposite directions are not one hope. See also Jesus in Christianity and Islam.

"The descent of Jesus is mass-transmitted (mutawatir), so it must be true"

In Muslim hadith science, mass transmission means a report is reliably traced to Muhammad. It does not show that Muhammad received it from God. Christians do not believe that Muhammad was a prophet of God or that the Qur’an is the word of God, so a well-transmitted saying of his is still a saying of his. Christians receive instead the apostolic witness: St Paul hands on what he "received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).²²

"The Dajjal and the Christian Antichrist are the same figure, so the eschatologies agree"

Both expect a great deceiver before the end. But in Islam he is defeated by a Muslim Jesus who confirms Islam; in the Gospel "the lawless one" is destroyed by the Lord "with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 8), and the apostle defines antichrist as the denial of the Father and the Son. The shape is similar; the center is opposite.

"Not every Muslim believes in the Mahdi"

True, and Christians should not attribute the belief to every Muslim. But the descent of Jesus rests on reports in the two Sahihs, and that is where Christians must answer.

What we can say confidently

• The Qur’an denies the crucifixion (4:157), says God raised Jesus to Himself (4:158), and does not mention the Mahdi.
• Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim report that the son of Mary will descend, break the Cross, kill swine and abolish the jizya, and Sahih Muslim has him kill the Dajjal.
• Reports naming the Mahdi are found in Abu Dawud and other collections, not in the two Sahihs, and Muslim scholars such as Ibn Khaldun have criticized most of them.
• Twelver Shia Muslims identify the Mahdi with the Twelfth Imam, believed to be in occultation since the ninth and tenth centuries.
• The Orthodox Church confesses that Christ, the eternal Son, will come again in glory from heaven to judge the living and the dead, and that the Jesus of the Islamic reports is not He.

What remains disputed

• Whether "his death" in Qur’an 4:159 refers to Jesus or to each Jew and Christian, and whether 43:61 speaks of Jesus or of the Qur’an: Muslim commentators and translators differ.
• How reliable the Mahdi reports are by the standards of Muslim hadith criticism, and how central the belief is, are debated among Sunni scholars.
• How the doctrine of the occultation took shape: the Shia account and historians such as Arjomand differ.
• Whether the chapter on the Ishmaelites was written by St John of Damascus in full, or in part.

Conclusion

Islamic teaching about the end of time borrows the name of Jesus and much of the shape of Christian hope, but empties it of its heart. The Jesus who returns in the hadith is a prophet of Islam who breaks the Cross; the Christ of the Gospel is the eternal Son who was crucified for the life of the world, rose on the third day, and will come again with the sign of the Cross before Him. The Orthodox Church does not wait for a Mahdi, a hidden Imam, or any human deliverer. She waits for her Lord, and she invites Muslims, who already honor His name, to come to know Him as He is: the Son of the Father, crucified and risen, received in faith and baptism. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20).

Notes

1. Qur’an 4:157-158; 19:33; 3:59, Sahih International translation, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/4/157-159).
2. Qur’an 3:55 and 5:117, Sahih International and M. A. S. Abdel Haleem translations, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/5/117).
3. "Aḥmadiyyah," Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ahmadiyyah; "Claims of the Promised Messiah," Al Islam (Ahmadiyya Muslim Community), https://alislam.org/library/q-and-a/claims-of-the-promised-messiah.
4. Mufti Muhammad Shafi, Ma’arif al-Qur’an, English translation, on Qur’an 4:159, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/4:159/tafsirs/en-tafsir-maarif-ul-quran).
5. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), on Qur’an 4:155-159, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/4:159/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir).
6. Qur’an 43:61, Sahih International and Abdel Haleem translations, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/43/61).
7. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), on Qur’an 43:57-65, at Quran.com (https://quran.com/43:61/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir).
8. "Mahdī," Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/mahdi.
9. Sahih al-Bukhari 3448 (see also 2222), https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3448.
10. Sahih Muslim 155a, https://sunnah.com/muslim:155a.
11. Sahih al-Bukhari 3449, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3449.
12. Sahih Muslim 156, https://sunnah.com/muslim:156.
13. Sunan Abi Dawud 4324, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4324.
14. Sahih Muslim 2937a, https://sunnah.com/muslim:2937a.
15. Sunan Abi Dawud 4283; see also 4282, 4284, 4285 (gradings by al-Albani as given on the site), https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4283.
16. Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, ch. 3, section 51, trans. Franz Rosenthal, https://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter3/Ch_3_51.htm.
17. Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, Islam: Faith, Practice and History, Lesson 49, "The Twelfth Imam (Muhammad al-Mahdi)," Al-Islam.org.
18. Said Amir Arjomand, "Ḡayba," Encyclopaedia Iranica X/4 (2000), https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gayba/.
19. Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979, rev. 1989), Article 5, English text at Constitute Project, https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Iran_1989.
20. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, "Islam in Iran vii. The Concept of Mahdi in Twelver Shiʿism," Encyclopaedia Iranica XIV/2 (2007), https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/islam-in-iran-vii-the-concept-of-mahdi-in-twelver-shiism/.
21. "Seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca," Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/seizure-of-the-Great-Mosque-of-Mecca.
22. Bible quotations from the New King James Version: Matthew 24:23-27, 30; 25:31-32; John 5:22-23; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Galatians 6:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 8; 1 John 2:22-23; Revelation 22:20.
23. St John of Damascus, On Heresies 101, trans. Frederic H. Chase, Writings, Fathers of the Church 37 (1958), text at http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx.
24. The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed), Orthodox Church in America, https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/prayers/symbol-of-faith.
25. St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15.10 and 15.22, trans. Edwin Hamilton Gifford, NPNF2 vol. 7, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310115.htm.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
• The Qur’an. Sahih International translation; M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an: A New Translation (Oxford University Press). Both at Quran.com.
• Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim; Sunan Abi Dawud. English translations with gradings at Sunnah.com.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• The Symbol of Faith. Orthodox Church in America.
• St Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechetical Lectures. Trans. Edwin Hamilton Gifford. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 7. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894.
• St John of Damascus. Writings. Trans. Frederic H. Chase. Fathers of the Church 37. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958.

Other scholarship and reference

• Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. "Islam in Iran vii. The Concept of Mahdi in Twelver Shiʿism." Encyclopaedia Iranica XIV/2 (2007).
• Arjomand, Said Amir. "Ḡayba." Encyclopaedia Iranica X/4 (2000).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Mahdī"; "Aḥmadiyyah"; "Seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca."
• Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Constitute Project.

Islamic sources

• Ibn Kathir. Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged English). Quran.com.
• Shafi, Mufti Muhammad. Ma’arif al-Qur’an. English translation. Quran.com.
• Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Trans. Franz Rosenthal.
• Rizvi, Sayyid Muhammad. Islam: Faith, Practice and History. Al-Islam.org.
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. "Claims of the Promised Messiah." Al Islam.