APPENDIX
AHMADINEJAD ASKS ALLAH TO HASTEN COMING OF THE TWELFTH
IMAM AND BRING ISLAMIC "VICTORY": How should we respond?
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By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., September 24, 2010) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an inflammatory speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday. He began by praying, "O God, hasten the arrival of Imam alMahdi and grant him good health and victory and make us his followers and those who attest to his righteousness."
Imam alMahdi is another name for the "Twelfth Imam" or the "Hidden Imam." Shia Muslims believe this Islamic messiah will come at the End of Days to destroy Judeo
Christian civilization as we have known it, force infidels to convert or be executed, and will set up a oneworld Islamic government known as the "caliphate." Ahmadinejad believes the way to "hasten" the Twelfth Imam's coming is to annihilate the U.S. and Israel. This would bring about the "victory" that Ahmadinejad prayed for on American soil.
The speech went downhill from there. Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. government of masterminding the 9/11 attacks in order to save Israel. Few in the West, including our leaders, understand what Ahmadinejad and his colleagues in the Iranian government believe. And that's the problem. Unless the leaders and the people of the world wake up, war is coming. The leaders of Iran, including the Ayatollah Khamenei, believe it is their job to hasten the the apocalypse and the end of the world.
What should we do in response? We need to get ready and be prepared (Ezekiel 38:7). We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and mobilize others to pray, too. We need to travel to Israel to do pray walks and to encourage Israelis that we are standing with them. We need to care for poor and needy Israelis and Palestinians with unconditional love and unwavering support. We need to stockpile humanitarian relief supplies in Israel and build the infrastructure to distribute even more emergency aid when the next war comes. We need to strengthen the Church in the epicenter in real and practical ways. We need to help our brothers and sisters throughout the region preach the gospel and make disciples and plant churches and show that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and the only hope of reconciliation. Time is short. But our path forward is clear.
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Muhammad alMahdi according to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_alMahdi
According to Twelver Shi'as Imam Hujjat alMahd? (ÇáãåÏì) (or Hujjat ibn Hasan ibn Ali) is the twelfth Imam and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of mankind. Other Shi'a schools adhere to different Imam successions and do not, along with Sunnis, consider ibnAlHassan the Mahdi. Twelver Shi'as believe that Muhammad was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission.
Birth and early life according to Twelver Shi'as believe that Muhammad was born in 868 AD as Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Ali. There is debate within the Twelver community who his mother is. Many believe his mother, Narjis (Melika), was a Byzantine princess who pretended to be a slave so that she might travel from her kingdom to Arabia. [1] However, Hamid Algar states that it is more likely that his mother was a Nubian slave. [2] His father, Hasan alAskari, is believed to have been the eleventh and penultimate Shi'a Imam. Shi'as believe that his birth was kept a secret due to the persecution that the Shi'a were facing during this time at the hands of AlMu'tamid, the Abbasid Caliph. [3][4]
To support Muhammad's claim, Twelver Shi'as quote the following Hadith: "I and Àli are the fathers of this nation; whoever knows us very well also knows Allah, and whoever denies us also denies Allah, the Unique, the Mighty. And from Àli's descendants are my grandsons alHasan and alHusayn, who are the masters of the youths of Paradise, and from alHusayn's descendants shall be nine: whoever obeys them obeys me, and whoever disobeys them also disobeys me; the ninth among them is their Qa'im and Mahdi." [5]
The eleventh Shi'a Imam Hasan alAskari died on 1 January 874 AD (8th Rabi' alawwal, 260 AH)[6] and since that day, his son Muhammad is believed by Shi'as to be the Imam, appointed by God, to lead the believers of the era. The most popular account of Muhammad alMahdi in Shi'a literature is taken from his father's funeral. It is reported that as the funeral prayer was about to begin, Muhammad alMahdi's uncle, Jafar ibn Ali approached to lead the prayers. However, Muhammad alMahdi approached and commanded, "Move aside, uncle; only an Imam can lead the funeral prayer of an Imam." Jafar moved aside, and the fiveyearold child led the funeral prayer for his father.
It is reported that it was at this very moment that Muhammad alMahdi disappeared and went into ghaybat, or occultation.