In the Bible there are many predictions of Imam Mahdi, peace be with him and his kingdom of justice. We will indicate only to the few of those:
First of all here are two visions from the book of prophet Daniel.
Chapter 2 (Vision One):
“What you saw, O king, was a huge statue standing before you, striking in appearance. And terrifying. The head of the statue was pure gold, the chest and arms were silver, the belly and hips were bronze, the legs were iron, and the feet were an iron and clay mixture. While you were looking at this statue, a stone cut out of a mountain by an invisible hand hit the statue, smashing its iron-ceramic feet. Then the whole thing fell to pieces—iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold, smashed to bits. It was like scraps of old newspapers in a vacant lot in a hot dry summer, blown every which way by the wind, scattered to oblivion. But the stone that hit the statue became a huge mountain, dominating the horizon. This was your dream.
Now we’ll interpret it for the king. You, O king, are the most powerful king on earth. The God of heaven has given you the works: rule, power, strength, and glory. He has put you in charge of men and women, wild animals and birds, all over the world—you’re the head ruler, you are the head of gold. But your rule will be taken over by another kingdom, inferior to yours, and that one by a third, a bronze kingdom, but still ruling the whole land, and after that by a fourth kingdom, iron like in strength. Just as iron smashes things to bits, breaking and pulverizing, it will bust up the previous kingdoms. “But throughout the history of these kingdoms, the God of heaven will be building a kingdom (that is the kingdom of Mahdi, peace be with him) that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom ever fall under the domination of another. In the end it will crush the other kingdoms and finish them off and come through it all standing strong and eternal. It will be like the stone cut from the mountain by the invisible hand that crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. “The great God has let the king know what will happen in the years to come. This is an accurate telling of the dream, and the interpretation is also accurate!” (1-45).
Chapter 7:
I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea (the nations). And four great beasts, each different from the other, were coming up out of the sea. The first was like a lion, but it had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, was like a bear, and it stood on one side, and three fangs were in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings like those of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and power to rule was given to it. After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, I saw a fourth beast, terrible and extremely strong; and it had huge iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns. While I was considering the horns, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, and three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots before it; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth boasting of great things. I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His garment was white as snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire; its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; a thousand thousands were attending Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand were standing before Him; the court was seated, and the books were opened. Then I kept looking because of the sound of the great and boastful words which the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their power was taken away; yet their lives were prolonged only for a predetermined time.
“I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, on the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man (i.e. Imam Mahdi peace be with him) was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion (supreme authority), Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and speakers of every language should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one, which will not be destroyed.
As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’ Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than the other ones. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, it means out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change their holiday times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But then the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him (the kingdom of justice of Mahdi, peace be with him.’
(1-27).
So, what are those prophesies are saying? First there are mentioned the four symbolic figures – gold, silver, bronze and iron; respectively meaning lion, bear, leopard and the beast with ten horns. Practically all commentators are uniramous that those four figures symbolize four kingdoms historically superseding each other – Babylon, Persian, Greek and Roman. At the same time the last Roman kingdom is mentioned as the most long-lasting and terrible for it has ‘iron teeth’, it ‘devours and destroys, stamping with its feet what is left’; besides it has ‘ten horns’. Those ‘ten horns’ may mean multiple ‘kingdoms of evil’, into which the world Roman Empire collapsed and which claim to be its successors, fighting each other for the past power of Rome over the earth. These include first of all Byzantium (‘Second Rome’), Western Roman Empire, Arabic and Ottoman caliphate, modern Europe and the USA. All of them that way or the other perceive themselves as the successors of Rome, reflecting this continuity in their ideology and politics.
Hence from Rome there are outlined many of its subversions fighting each other for domination over the world throughout entire cycle of history, which follows the coming of Muhammad (Allah bless him and his progeny). And to be specific the main content of this final cycle has just constituted the last prophesy on one hand, whilst on the other there is fight of multiple versions of the ‘fourth kingdom’ (Rome) with each other for domination over the mankind: Caliphate with Byzantium and the West, West with Russia, USA with the Soviet Union, etc. And what is more all those subversions of Rome manifesting just another embodiment of Distortion figure are trying to extinguish the light of last prophecy, which illuminates the final, twilight epoch of the mankind, the Muhammad cycle.
So what is actually the ‘small horn’ of the fourth beast that has ‘the eyes of human being and the mouth speaking boastfully’? This is a false-Islamic caliphate. The presence of the eye may mean its somewhat higher spiritual nature (as opposed to the other kingdoms, it emerges on the basis of the distorted Revelation), whilst the ‘mouth speaking boastfully’- in English and German interpreted respectively as ‘great words’ and ‘grosse Worte’ signifies the fact that he does not deny the ‘great words’ of the prophesy, but distorts those. It is quite symbolic the capital of Abbasid caliphate was the city of Samarra – the city planned as the ‘new Babylon’ right up to the reproduction of the cyclopic form of pagan zikkurates.
However the most convincing evidence in terms of likening the ‘small horn’ with Sunni false caliphate is founded on the specific timelines referenced by the prophet Daniil – 1260 days, where the ‘days’ by the biblical tradition are to be understood as the ‘years’. For the duration of caliphate existence constituted exactly 1260 years – from proclamation of Muawiyya the caliph (July 660 year) to the peace treaty of Sevr, which declared by the results of World War I the cancellation of caliphate and transfer of its provinces to the European countries (in 1920). Thus the ‘small horn’ signifies Muawiyya Ibn Abu Sufyan and founded by him false caliphate right up to the period of his Ottoman heirs.
It is interesting that just the same duration of ‘1260 days’ is mentioned in chapter 12 of Apocalypses, the one that mentions the ‘woman clothed with the sun’ (Fatima, peace be with her, the daughter of Prophet, Allah bless him and his progeny):
‘The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may feed her one thousand two hundred sixty days’.
As we already said in accordance with the biblical symbolism, a thousand two hundred and sixty days should be understood as 1260 years – the exact duration of the non-righteous caliphate. This means that the spiritual descendants of Fatima (peace be with her), the Shiites will have to live for 1260 years in the ‘wilderness’, i.e. in constant fear and oppression, in internal exile within the false caliphate.
‘And there happened the war in heaven: Michael and his Angels were fighting the dragon, whilst the dragon with his angels were fighting against them, however they could not withstand, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. And deposed was great dragon, ancient serpent, called diablo and satan, seducing the entire universe, down to earth, and his angels were deposed with him. And I heard loud voice speaking in heaven: now has come the time of salvation and power and kingdom of God of ours and the command of His Messiah, for deposed is the slanderer of our brethren, slandering against them to God day and night’.
This means that the turmoil of usurper’s caliphate is destroyed and by force of the angels his filth and impiety were crashed never to rise again. ‘Deposed is the slanderer of our brethren’ – this means giant work of the caliphate on discrediting and slandering of the selected community, creation of ideologies hostile against it, etc.
‘They defeated him with the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and did not love their own soul even up to the point of death’.
This means that due to following the way of Imam Husain, peace be with him, and all of the oppressed and martyred Imams, peace be with them, the selected community managed to defeat the caliphate of turmoil and impiety.
Let us go back to the prophesies of Daniel. How should we understand the prophetic words ‘will be speaking words against Almighty and oppress the saints of Almighty; even dreaming to cancel their holiday times and the law’ (Daniel 7:25)? By the ‘people of the saints of Almighty’, without doubt, are meant the Shiites, which were then and still remain the only keepers of the true Islam, undistorted by the tyrants and their ‘kingdoms’, which the Shiites have always opposed. The modern writer Igor Bessonov in his book ‘The biblical prophesies of Islam’ relates: ‘One can only talk of prosecution of the supporters of the legitimate caliph, the Shiites, by Muawiya and his successors in their aspiration to alter the very religion of Islam (the more accurate translation is not to ‘cancel’, but to ‘alter’). This version is supported by the fact that ‘this horn was confronting the saints and overwhelmed them’ (Dan 7:21) – Muawiya and his son Yazid undertook successful military actions against the supporters of Ali and his son Husain, peace be with them, however none of the Muslim rulers had never conducted warfare against the jews. Outlining the role of Muawiya in the capacity of ‘small horn’ (related in the Christian tradition with the false messiah) provides certain arguments in support of the Shiite version of Islam – the periods of reign of the hypocrite caliphs in itself has the apocalyptic meaning.
And finally the vision of Daniel is ending with the breakdown of the giant by the falling stone and transfer of the kingdom to ‘the people of Almighty’s saints’, ‘whose kingdom is the eternal kingdom, and all the rulers shall serve and obey him’. ‘And in the days of those kingdoms God of the heavens will raise the kingdom, which will not be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be transferred to any other people; it will smash and destroy all other kingdoms, whilst itself will stand forever’. The meaning of this prophesy is again quite clear and it indicates the messian Kingdom of truth, embodied for the Shiites (‘the people of the saints of Almighty’) in the person of Mehdi, peace be with him, living presently in concealment the descendant of the Prophet (Allah bless him and his progeny), personifying the eschatological Leader of all the faithful, whose coming at the end of times will happen for punishment of the tyrants and establishment of the kingdom of global justice (‘the son of the man’) , ‘whose kingdom will not be destroyed’ according to he words of Daniel). And the vision of the judgment over ‘the beasts’ is completely corresponding to the Shiite doctrine of rajaat, as per which the villains and tyrants along with the righteous persons who died at their hands will return to the earthly world during the rule of Mahdi, peace be with him to get the reward for their deeds.
Muslims believe that Jesus, peace be with him, mentioned in Quran ‘the portent of Judgement Hour’ and ‘the Messiah’ will also return to earthly world with Mahdi, peace be with him, in order to defeat the Antichrist. As Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and his progeny) said about those times: ‘There will be no enmity, nor malice among the people. The scorpions and snakes will not have venom so that a child will play with a snake and it will not sting them; a girl will want to play with a lion and the lion will not do any harm to her; the wolves will walk among the sheep, like the shepherd dogs. Just like the cup is filled with water, the world will be filled with the unity of faith. The people with not worship anyone, except Allah. There will be no wars or turmoil… The plants and the fruits will be growing in abundance just like in the time of prophet Adam, peace be with him’.
These words are almost exactly repeating the paragraph from the book of Isaiah: ‘He will be judging the poor justly, and the matters of the sufferers in the earth by the truth; and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion will be grazing together, and a little child will lead them. And a cow will be grassing with the she bear, and their cubs will be lying down together, and a lion, just like a bull, will eat straw. And a child will be playing over the den of a serpent, and a child will extend the hand toward the den of the snake. There will be no commitment of evil or harm throughout entire sacred mountain of Mine, for the earth shall be filled with the custody of the Lord, just like the waters fill a sea’ (11:4-9).
Even more evident prediction of Mahdi (peace be with him) we can read in the Third book of Ezra, chapter 13:
‘The seven days passed, and the following night I had a dream. In my dream I saw a wind coming up out of the sea and stirring up great waves. I kept watching and there came out a stout man with the divine army, and when he turned his face, everything he looked at began to tremble; and when he spoke, everyone who heard his voice melted like wax in a fire.
And after that this is what I saw: there, a great many people gathered, which could not be numbered, from the four heavenly winds, I looked again and saw a crowd too large to count. They were people gathered together from all parts of the world to fight against the man who had come up out of the sea (wars of the people of the world against Imam Mahdi, peace be with him). Then I watched the man carve out a high mountain and fly up onto it. I tried to see the place or the region from which the mountain was carved, but I couldn’t.
Then I saw that all the people who had come together to make war against him were terrified, but they still prepared to fight him. When the man saw the great crowd advancing to attack him, he did not take up any weapons; the only thing I saw was what looked like a stream of fire coming out of his mouth. He sent a flaming wind from his lips and a storm of sparks from his tongue. The stream of fire, the flaming wind, and the great storm combined. And swept down on the crowd that was coming to attack him, and burned them all up. In a single moment, that crowd too large to count vanished, and there was nothing left but powdery ashes and the smell of smoke. I was shocked when I saw what had happened.
Then I saw the man come down from the mountain and call another large crowd to come to him – this was a peace-loving crowd. All sorts of people came: some were happy, some were sad, some had their hands and feet tied, and some brought others – I was so frightened that I woke up. I prayed to God Most High and said: ‘Lord, you have been showing me all these marvelous things. You have considered me worthy and have heard my prayers; now please show me the meaning of this dream also, for I have been thinking how terrible it will be for the people who will be living in those days, but how much worse for those who do not survive. For they will be in great sorrow because they will not enjoy any of the pleasures reserved for the last days. But how terrible also for those who do survive; they will have to face great dangers and many troubles, as these dreams have shown. Nevertheless, it is better to pass through these dangers and reach the end than to disappear like a cloud from this world and never see what takes place in the last days.
He answered: ‘I will explain to you the meaning of the vision and answer the questions you have asked. You have raised questions about those who will survive until the end and the answer is that the one who brings the dangers in those days will also protect from danger the people who have stored up good works and faithfulness with God the Almighty One. You may be certain that those who survive are far more fortunate than those who die.
This is the meaning of the vision. The man you saw coming up out of the sea (indication to the ‘Green Island’ (Jazirat hizra), where Imam, peace be with him, lives during the period of concealment according to some accounts), represents the one whom God Most High has kept ready for many ages (indication to the Great concealment of Imam, peace be with him, which lasts long), and he will free the world of created and establish the new order for those who survive. You saw the wind, fire, and storm going out of the man’s mouth, and you saw that without the use of a spear or any other weapon he destroyed the great crowd that was advancing to attack him. This means that the time is near when God Most High will begin to free the people on earth, and at that time everyone will be close to panic. They will begin to make war against one another, city against city, region against region, nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (indication to the wars of the last times).
When that happens, the signs I told you about earlier will take place, and then I will reveal my son, whom you saw as a man coming out of the sea (this means that Mahdi, peace be with him, will come out of concealment when the world will be overfilled with injustice and tyranny)…
Then I said, ‘Lord and Master, please tell me why the man came up out of the sea? He answered, ‘No one can explore the bottom of the sea to find out what is there. In the same way, no human being can see my son or those who come with him until the day that has been fixed (indication to the concealment of Imam, peace be with him, and his close friends). That is the meaning of your dream. You alone have been given this information’.
(1-53)
