Message of Thaqalayn
Volume:16 Issue: 4, Winter 2016

The ‘End of Times’ – a period studied in the eschatologies of the dominant world religions – refers to the world’s state of affairs before and after the coming of Imam Mahdi, when worldwide justice and peace will be established. The previous articles in this series presented an outline of the concept from the viewpoint of the major world religions. The Islamic perspective is also given, using the Qur’an and hadith as sources to visualize future events, and with the purpose of increasing our knowledge on the advent of Imam Mahdi to establish a positive relationship with the Imam, and preparing for his return. Topics such as the quality of the people during this time, including their intellectual condition and scientific and technological advancements were explained. This part includes the people’s cultural, moral, and religious condition during the End of Times, explaining what will arise concerning family relationships, youth, women, mosques, Islamic law, and the general representation of Islam.

ABSTRACT: For Muslims, the Qur’an is the unchallengeable word of God. Its inimitability, eloquence, outstanding use of the Arabic language, and scientific accuracies has been the subject of many discussions among Muslims and non-Muslim scholars alike. And given the issue of alteration in other divine scriptures, the discussion of tahrif (alteration) has also been examined. Has the Qur’an been changed like other divine books? Moreover, how is God a preserver over the Qur’an? As God challenges human beings to bring forth a text that resembles the Qur’an, is this due to its magnificent nature, or that humans are incapable due to God’s divine intervention at every endeavour? This paper explores the practical measures taken to ensure the Qur’an’s survival as an unadulterated text, exploring the following areas to display these strategic stylistic methods, namely 1. The odd placement of controversial verses, and 2. The omission of names of contemporaries of the Prophet Muhammad. Part two of this paper will explore the Qur’an’s easy and accurate memorization, omission of details, and scientific ambiguity.

Shafāʿah (intercession) and tawassul (intermediation, instrumentation, solicitation) are two Qur’anic concepts that pertain to the practical implications of monotheism (tawḥīd). In both cases there is an involvement of a being other than God in the achievement of some request, the fulfilment of some need, or the endowment of some bounty. They pose a challenge to the Qur’anic and monotheistic idea that God is the only source of power, blessing and impact in the universe. As this article will show, the main problem lies in independence. Intercession and intermediation would only be extensions of monotheism, not contrary to it, given two conditions: (1) the intermediaries should be selected and indicated by God, not based on one’s opinion; and (2) one should refer to these means not as independent sources of impact, but only as reflections of God’s power, mercy and will.

Imamate is a divine institution, and the Imam is responsible for administering the affairs of society through being linked to the main source of guidance – Allah. The acquisition of understanding what does or does not contribute to believers’ religion and their world are important issues that necessitate the existence of a divine guide ( hujjah ) in society. On the other hand, man’s constant need for guidance further raises the question of existence of a guide. The role of Imamate in safeguarding against faults and errors is another function that manages the relationship between believers, and guides their beliefs and divine religion. This paper investigates the existence and impact of Imamate.

One of the mandatory and sometimes recommended actions in Islam is writing a will – where a person puts forth a legal document expressing a number of purposes – how his or her property is to be distributed, for socio-political reasons, offering moral recommendations and advice for others to heed, especially for the testator’s beloved ones. Historically, religious leaders have left their wills; Prophet Muhammad wrote his for his Ahlul Bayt, and Imam Ali left his for his son, Imam alHasan. Lady Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet, renowned for her flawless character and well-educated on Qur’anic instructions, also left a will for generations to come. This article examines the personal requests and counsel in her will, and offers an analysis of the events that revolved around sociopolitical issues.

It is crucial for a community to have a shared identity and to work towards a joint cause. Regardless of whether it is on a worldwide or lesser scale, establishing a community is currently becoming more crucial, and successful community involves specific requirements and qualities. This series of papers studies the importance of community-building and Prophet Muhammad’s efforts to implement it. Prioritized qualities such as truthfulness, trustworthiness, justice, unity, persistence, moderation, humbleness, enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and maintaining a healthy balance in working for this world to eventually lead to a blissful hereafter were expounded on. This part further builds upon the concept of truthfulness in Islamic theology and is moral system; of Allah as the true being, revelation as the truth, the prophets’ mission to serve the truth, and the importance of communities striving to become truthful.

This book, by Angelika Neuwirth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) published by OUP in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, contains forty pages of front material, 430 pages of text, including notes at the end of each chapter, and another forty pages divided among the bibliography, index of Qur’anic citations, index of Biblical and Post-Biblical citations, and a general index. The text is a collection of articles that were written between 1990 and 2012, some of which have been substantially revised for this collection, and many of which are translations of German publications. The author, who has been acclaimed with honorary doctorates and academic prizes, including the Iranian book of the year award for her D e r K o r a n a l s T e x t d e r S p ä t a n ti k e , and, most recently, the prestigious Leopold-Lucas prize, holds a chair for Arabic philology as professor at the Freie Universität in Berlin, and is director of the Corpus Coranicum project. 2