Mahdism: Semitic Thought, Arabic Culture

In the political studies, the concept of Mahdism, is the deepest spirit of Aryan or Semitic cultural heritage. This Arabic term, has an equivalent with the Messianism in the theological orientation of the West-Christianity. It also represents the political orientation of secular Western people to await the golden era of capitalist globalization through a figure of messianic statesman. The West as the cultural imitation of the Hellenic Christianity and the Latin Christianity, inherited the Greek knowledge in the era of renaissance, in fact, they adopted, adapted, and reformulated the Hellenic messianic idea in the paradigm of post-modernism, secularism, capitalism, and then used it to find the form of other messianic, that is, the capitalist global messianic itself to represent the matrix as the hegemonic globalization. In the episteme of the West, one source of confusion is that the term ‘messianic’ has much wider range of meaning than ‘Messiah.’ The term ‘messianic’ is usually applied to everything in the Bible when it refers to the hope of glorious future. This suggests that central feature of the coming golden era is the expectation of the global savior. But, that fact, is hotly debated, for in the minds of most scholars today, the oldest and most general expectation was for the coming era of happiness. Many scholars concerned to a messianic idea, only in much later times, according to this academic consensus, was the hope of the Messiah connected with this expectation.
Moslem scholars have discussed the messianic idea of Islam in their various writing, but their researchers ironically without referring to the classical data beyond of Islamic literatures to dig up the real understanding of the Mahdism through a historical linguistic study of the Hebrew Bible, one of Semitic heritage. Therefore, as a result, without philological understanding, many Moslem theologies developed a wicked hermeneutic approach to understand the Mahdism as the messianic idea of Islam. Moslem academicians then fall into a fallacy thinking to interpret the term Al-Mahdī, in the Arabic context with which the origin of its culture deals with ‘an expected one’, in the Hebrew discourse.
The Sunnite state that the Mahdism deals with a theology of the hope, is totally rejected, then regard it as a myth of the hope, even, an utopist idea. They also claim that the Mahdism historically adopted from the Jewish messianic idea which was composed and designed as a common episteme by Shiites in the era of social and political captivity. The depression for the Shiites or the Jews, extremely then created a new political trend through a messianic imitation of Zoroastrian myth in the land of Babylonian Empire territory in the era of Ezra. In this context, the liberal Sunnites called it as a political spirit of post-exilic Babylonian captivity. But, I think, it is fallacy thinking to understand about the making of Islam and the Judaism as the Abrahamic religions in the context of history. In the light of Jewish history, and the Semitic tradition, it is a form of messianic spirit of post-exilic Egyptian captivity in the life and times of Moses when he was chosen by God as the first Israelite Messiah. In other words, the Messianism of the Jews has no relation with a tragedy of Babylonian slavery after the establishment of the Judaism as a religion, but it has a relation with a primordial tragedy of Egyptian captivity when the Judaism still in the making process, and appears as a religious community which is created by Moses himself.
The Mahdism of Islam, of course, is a version of Jewish messianic idea in other Semitic language, because Islam itself came after the establishment of Judaism. Linguistically, both Arabic and Hebrew were descended from the same mother language, the Semitic. As the messianic visions of Abraham which have historically been compiled in the Bible and the Quran, these messianic ideas refer to the Israelite and Ishmaelite expected ones whose will come from among ‘Ibrī, the Hebrews (Genesis 15:13-14) and ‘Arabī, the Arabs (al-Baqarah 2:127-129). Exegetically, the context of both Abrahamic messianic verses deal with the expected appearance of both prophets, namely Moses, the largest prophet of the Jews, and Muhammad, the largest prophet of Islam (peace be upon them). Indeed, the messianic philosophy of the Jewish faith, in the Hebraic episteme has a relation between Mosheh (Moses) and Moshiah (Messiah). Linguistically, the word Mosheh, as a Hebrew noun, is originally formed from consonantal triliteral root, מ (mem), שׁ (shīn) and ה (hē), and other word Moshiah, as a Hebrew noun, is originally also formed from consonantal triliteral root, מ (mem), שׁ (shīn) and ח (heth). In the Jewish Haggada, one of the Jewish literatures, the word Moshiah, as a Hebrew noun is early applied to Moses himself, the Israelite Messiah who had saved the Jews from the Egyptian captivity. In the context of linguistic analysis, it is really amazing. Historically, Moses as the prophet came to save the Israelites from the Egyptian slavery, and take them out from the land of Egypt; as well as Muhammad as the prophet came to save his people from the capitalist tribal slavery of the Quraishites. It means that both largest prophets per se are the Abrahamic prophethood which is theologically representing the ‘messianic idea’; and the appearance of Muhammad among the Arabs, is a fulfillment of Mahdism in pre-Islamic times to make a justice order among the tribes in all aspects of the life in the Arabia. It also means that the prophet of Islam as the fulfillment of pre-Islamic Mahdism is a Semitic thought in the Arabic culture.

Mahdism as ens realissimus in the future era is a globalist theological perspective to build up the new justice global order; it further fight the tyranny of politic on one side, and to marginalize the tyranny of religion on other side. Obviously, the spirit of Mahdism in Islam is to end the social riot, that is a manifestation of the collective violence in the world of capitalist globalization. The social riot, is a politico-social violence or cultural one in the era of capitalist globalization through the status quo of religion, ideology, and language. As a solution, we must inject the Mahdism among the global societies to fight against the capitalists, and to expect one government, one global village, something like the Kingdom of God, through the Mahdi.

Cultural Violence in the Capitalist Globalization Era

In the era of capitalist globalization, the cultural aspects which are considered as symbolic spaces to justify the social violence either the direct social violence or the structural violence are religion, ideology, and language. These aspects of culture do not stand in a separated way, but relate to one another in producing the influence to the event of violence. We try to describe them separately and to find out their appearance in some cases of violence prevailing in the capitalist global world.

Religion: the Making of an Image
The empirical study about religion has revealed that every religion contained the seeds of violence; and I think, the roots of violence were directly influenced by the symbolic actions of Abrahamic icons, like Jesus or Muhammad to fight against the symbolic hegemony of tribal capitalist economic practices in the Temples of Mecca and Jerusalem. Amazingly, they did the similar actions to fight against the quasi-truth in the days of same tribal religious celebrations. Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the Moed ha-Pesach (the Passover), and he entered into the Temple of Jerusalem and threw out all those selling and buying in the Temple. He poured out the coins of the money changers, and overturned their tables, and the branches of those selling doves. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam also entered into the Temple of Mecca in the holy day of ‘Ied al-Hajj (the Pilgrim). He poured out the idols of Quraishites, and overturned their idols over the floor. I think, their symbolic destructions of both Temples were the historical actions. Those were not the cases of prophesy historicized, those are, of the historical events. These attacks on the Temple trading system constituted, therefore, a most radical challenge to the authority of sacerdotal aristocracy, and these were also the truly revolutionary acts, for the high priests held their offices, and authority from Roman and the Quraishite capitalists; and were thus the essential factors for Roman empire in Judea and the Quraishite capitalist government in the Arabia. To challenge the rules of the high priests of the Jews as kohanīm and the high priests of Arabs as kāhins were thus, in fact, to challenge the rules of the Roman and the Quraishite aristocrats.
The contents of the doctrines formulated in dogma have from itself the exclusive character, especially in the concept of theology and christology. It means that there have been the limiting elements that cause consequently the other ideas and system of belief to be not included. The people who put the doctrines into practice form their social group that distinguished itself from the other social groups because of the different system of belief. As the Semitic religions, Christianity, Islam, Jewish faiths, show up a such exclusive character. The doctrines of religion lead indirectly their followers to do the violence when they are facing and confronting themselves with the other followers. The social riot in the global world have started with the conflicting and fighting between the ‘Ibrī (Israelite Hebrews) and the ‘Arabī (Palestinian Arabs), about the heritage of the land of Canaan. Based on theological interpretation of the Torah, the Israelite Hebrews claimed that God himself have given the land to the Israelites as the promised land through the mouth of Abraham. Meanwhile, based on theological interpretation of the Quran, the Palestinian Arabs also claimed that God himself have cursed the Israelites as the chosen people, so that why they can not inherit the land as the promised land of God. But later on these conflicts and fighting went on larger between the West and the Middle East, even, between the West and Islam. The sentiment basing on the religion spread out. The Arabs politically identified themselves with Islam, whereas the Hebrews with the West. By making an image of Biblical text, the Hebrews and the West, the representations of Judaeo-Christianity and the Hellenic-Christianity, considered Arab Moslems and non-Arab Moslems as αγαρμνοί, hagarenoi (the sons of slavery), goyim (unbelievers) and regarded them as beney pere adam (descendants of wild donkey), whereas the Arab Moslems also considered Hebrews and the West as kāfir and easily being cheated. These pejorative titles represented Arabs or Moslems as ‘being uncivilized and having no respect on local customs and culture’. The religion which ties up closely with its followers becomes then the essential element of the social group’s self –identity, and during the time of violence this element is taken out to be instrument of strengthening the self-identity of the religious followers against the other groups.
The dangerous social riot prevailing in the capitalist global world is also the sectarianism which is operated by certain groups under the banner of a certain religion. The violence and social riots are triggered out by the religious violence. The social riots in Iraq have been ridden by sectarianism that has aggravated the situation of conflicts becoming clash between Sunnites and Shiites.

Nowadays, in the capitalist global world, the religion is understood yet as the determinant of the national identity which is used to get the capital and to win it from the other in the era of liberal industry, so that why the Americans who were converted to Islam were no longer called Americans, but Moslems or quasi-Americans. In this context, national identity marker is politically dealing with the religious identity to win the capital. In the discourse of global politic, the West and Americans are identical with Christianity; Egyptians are identical with Islam, and India is identical with Hindu. Therefore, the native people identify themselves with the religion they have followed. The social riot is easily busted out, when the certain religion is either abused or used by all means to maintain the self-identity of its followers. The strategy to regulate how to omit such as understanding can only be managed by an effort to produce a wise regulation about the relationship between the religion and politics. On the one hand, the religion is used as an instrument to reach the political purpose; and on other hand, the politics can be used as an instrument to reach the religious purpose. The social violence in the capitalist global world is still tied closely with the religion as the instrument of self-identity of the certain social group.
To minimize the prejudice among the followers of Abrahamic religions and to minimize the clash of sectarianism in the era of capitalist global world, we always have to socialize a scriptural dialogue more than a theological dialogue or prophetical dialogue to discover a common platform, especially talking about one God and the essence of Islam in the Semitic tradition. Pope John Paul II respects to Islam which inherited Abrahamic tradition, based on monotheism, and was particularly close to Christianity as a spiritual brother.

‘The Church also has a high regard for the Moslems, who worship one God, living and subsistent, merciful, and omnipotent, the creator of heaven and earth ………. As a result of their monotheism, believers in Allah are particularly close to us.’


Meanwhile, Seyeed Hossein Nasr discovered the essence of Islam in the Abrahamic tradition through the other perspective, namely Brahmanic tradition. The essence of Islam as the primordial religion (al- dīn al-hanīf), according to him, is like the sanatana dharma of Hinduism.

‘Islam also considers itself to be the reassertion of the original religion, of the doctrine of unity, which always was and always will be. That is why it is called the primordial religion (al- dīn al-hanīf); it comes at the end of this human cycle to reassert the essential truth of the primordial religion. It is thus like the sanatana dharma of Hinduism ………….’

In the holy book of Hinduism, the Mahābhārata, one of Brahmanic religious tradition, the Shiites could also discover the primordial shadow of Ahl al-Bayt. In the holy Quran and the Hadiths, the Ahl al-Bayt is referring to five holy figures; Muhammad, Fāthimah, ‘Ali, Hasan, and Husein. Meanwhile, in the Mahābhārata, five holy figures referred to the Pandavās, namely Yudhistirā, Arjūn, Bhimā, Nakulā, Sahadevā. The relation between the Ahl al-Bayt and the Pandavās is representing the continuum of both levels; (i) from Brahmanic discourse to the Abrahamic discourse, (ii) from the Aryan tradition to the Semitic tradition. Obviously, five holy figures of Hinduism and Islam voiced the same to reject injustice in the Bhārat and Arab civilizations. Even, both civilizations also prophesized the era of messianic movement through the Mahdī or Avatār. These different terms represent the way of reformation in the domain of heavenly social critical movement. As the prophecies in form of revelation of all religions universally such as Meshīah, Mahdī or Avatār, these secretive messianic terms deal with a revolution to appear the just globalization and to fight the capitalist globalization itself; and Islam as the final religion of Aryan and other Semitic religions, regards that all religions in pre-Islamic times walked at the street of the prophets, because they announced the concept of Mahdism itself and the coming of the era of Mahdism which will fill the earth with the justice. Amazingly, our Mahdi as the twelfth Imam biologically, in the Shiite references, inherited the blood of Japhethic/Aryan race. He is of Parsee blood, from the Princess of Sahr Banu, the wife of Imam Husein; he is of the Greek blood, from the Princess of Nargis, the wife of Imam Hasan al-Askari. He also inherited the blood of Hamitic race; he is of Egyptian blood, from the Princess of Pharaoh, Hagar, the wife of Abraham. Even, he inherited the blood of Semitic race. He is of Ishmaelite blood, the son of Abraham, and a descendant of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Therefore, in the next future, the Mahdi of Islam, as an expected one by all religions is a common global messianic perspective to built up the justice global order.

Representation of Ideology
Ideology belongs also to one cultural aspect, because it is a product of the human creativity. It is a system of thought that becomes a principle providing the direction and the aim for the life of a society or a nation. Based on Biblical perspective and social activities, the West stands on apartheid and colonial ideologies. Philologically, these ideologies can be traced its sources back from the Torah and Bible; and these ideas are theologically used to marginalize other races; so that why they think that the white race was the clever, chosen by God, whereas the black race was the lazy race, cursed by God.
The social violence either direct or indirect violence can be triggered out by an ideology. During the time of apartheid in the South-Africa, an ideology that had been developed at that time had claimed that the white race was superior, even, civilized race, whereas the black race was inferior, even uncivilized race. The episteme of Western ideology in the era of capitalist globalization to the Eastern civilization, especially Islam and Moslems, was exposed clearly by Edward Said, in his book Orientalism (1978). In this book, the image of Orient and Islamic world have politically been constructed and reconstructed negatively by the West-Christianity through three colonial strategies; (i) the mission movement, the Westernized volkscholen, and political images to enrich the capital of the West. I think, in the era of post-colonialism, these colonial strategies become the seeds of violence among the Eastern men to understand the West and the Orientalism.
Based on the apartheid ideology and colonial orientation, the West have been doing the acts of persecuting, beating, forcing and sending the East into many forms of ‘slaveries’ such as an economic slavery which was politically justified and legitimated by a such ideology. So, an ideology can become an instrument of justifying the act of violence or of legitimating the act of violence. During the era of capitalist global world, there was very dangerous ideology; and the facts have proved that this ideology have produced many acts of violence. It is the national ideology; namely militarism. The militarism contains a national ideology which followers glorify their clan, tribes, and nation. This own military group is paid to do violence for reaching the political purpose. Both examples can be taken out from the social riots in Iraq and Palestine. Based on democratic-capitalistic America, they conquered Iraq in the name of democracy. Meanwhile, based on the Zionism, Israel imperialized Palestine to fight against terrorists.
To minimize the ignorance of Western episteme about the East, the Eastern intellectuals have to develop and enrich the Occidental Studies, such as the research of Hassan Hanafi about the roots of Western knowledge in Occidentalism (2001). Even, they have to create the dialogue of civilizations to marginalize the prejudice as an effect of clash of civilizations between the Western and Eastern civilizations, especially between the Hellenic Christianity and Islam, in the era of capitalist global world. The clash of civilizations is a cultural tragedy to represent an identity politic as a superior cultural identity marker. In this context, both have a common purposes to fight the matrix which represents the Western politico-cultural hegemony, because the matrix an sich is a cultural process through the universalization of particularism, or to universalize the capitalist cultural symbols through the process of globalization without the space to the other. One of the forms of capitalist industry is, of course, Mc Donald, etc.
Nowadays, the matrix as a reference refers to the domination of Western secularization. In the mind-set of the West, both cultural politic and religion have exclusive characters; and they must be separated from each domain. I think, this matrix in the world of hegemonic globalization will not stop and end in era of capitalism because the spirit of matrix formula itself is to minimize the role of religion (theology) in the context of private space, and to maximize the cultural capitalism in the context of all aspects of the life to other cultures, step by step, through both exploited and westernized global cultural strategies; and these strategies politically can be applied by the Western capitalist states in the form of hegemonic global government. If the modern men still adopt this system of thought to understand the just reality for universal humanity, they will get the utopist reality. In this matrix system, the capitalist states reject the myth of the hope of eschatological global government of Islam through the Mahdi, but in the same case, the secular Christians in the West can not reject the era of messianic movement of Jesus. It is not the myth of the hope, but a theology of the hope as the Gospel said about the age of reappearance of the Israelite Messiah literally. The atheists of the West recommended the capitalist global government era without the wall in the future of the world. To realize this secular reality, they use the forces of politic and culture in the internationals relations. I think, it indirectly also support a theory of secular messianic era. Obviously, the capitalist global community still expect the appearance of ‘the unthinkable global hero’ to win the capitalist cultural era in the battle among cultures.

The matrix, in the light of all religions, always rejects the government of the expected one, the Just Ruler to make a reformation in all aspects, and to end the capitalist exploitation through the power of state. The coming of him as an expected one in the next era, according to the Aryan and Semitic Scriptures, such as Kalkī Avatār of Hinduism in the Bhārat tradition , Jesus the Messiah of Jewish and Christianity in the Hebraic tradition or the Mahdi, the twelfth Imam of Islam in the Arabic tradition, is a global theological politic to fight against the power of hegemonic governments and to end the pseudo-justice from the hands of capitalists. About the messianic global era, Saeed Reza Ameli, in his article ‘Chosen Globalization and Hegemonic globalizations’ affirms that the divine globalization of justice which so-called the chosen globalization will destroy the hegemonic globalization of injustice as the dehumanized forms of globalization through one government of both holy men, they are Abrahamic Messiahs, namely the Mahdi, as the Ishmaelite Messiah, and Jesus as the Israelite Messiah.

The Power Behind the Language
Language has a significant role in constructing and deconstructing subject; and language itself is one cultural aspects utilized also for creating the violence. Language contains the constructive power but also the destructive power. Language that contains the destructive power can easily excites the emotional reaction of the people which is conducive to violence. In the capitalist global era, there are some expressions of language that have stereotyped and stigmatized conceptions. These two characters of the understanding sharpen also the condition and situation that induce to violence, even they justify the subjective prejudices that strengthen the reason to do violence.
The stereotyped conception means a conceptual insight about the characters of a social group based on the subjective prejudices, and this conceptual insight is really not true. The stereotyped images have seriously colored up the social interaction that stood upright very often to the destructive expressions of the language. The Indonesian Christians, for example, have stereotyped ideas about the West and Moslems. They consider that the West as the people who are clever, intellectual, and modern civilized society; and Moslems are considered as the people who have no prestige, gambler, orthodox, stupid, poorer, the existence of women in the public domain have no position, uneducated women, even uncivilized society, and they are sociologically able to be marginalized from the modern lifestyle.
The stigmatized conception is connected with the word or the negative idiomatic expression stamped or labeled to a certain person or a certain social group. The Indonesian Christian hard-lined group have stamped Moslem people, especially Indonesian-Moslems as the fundamentalists, and terrorists. Meanwhile, the Islamic hard-lined group have stamped the non-Moslems, especially the Christians as kāfir harbī and the unclean (najis). During the celebration of ‘Ied al-Fitr and Christmas, it is impossible for them to shake hands and to give greetings to other group. In the social riots of Poso, Indonesia, for example, the Christians came into amuck and burnt down the houses and mosques of Moslems, and then Moslems did the same to destroy the churches and their houses, right after Christians had teased and mocked Moslems by saying: ‘fundamentalists’, ‘terrorists’.
Obviously, the certain words or the certain idiomatic expressions are not, of course, the reason of social riots and violence. But the habits of using the certain negative words or idiomatic expressions with the stereotyped and stigmatized conceptions can have negative impact on creating the sentiment of hate in the social interaction. Those words are really considered as the time-bomb that is ready to be exploded.
To minimize the social riots in this language level, we have to maximize the functions of institutional dialogue, sponsored by Christian and Moslem institutions, and dialogue in community, sponsored by multicultural intellectuals, the elders of multiethnic, and the clergymen of interfaith to prove that they need the dialogue of life as the Scriptural Society. As the victims of cultural politic or others by the Western capitalists, they have to internalize the common global wisdoms, and religious moralities among them. In this context, both models are important as a way out to overcome the social crisis in multidimensional affairs. Indeed, these dialogues are really important to share the religious experiences among the people who have the basic of Semitic heritage, mainly about the origin and the common platform of Abrahamic faiths, especially to share the discourses of the kingdom of God, that is, the Messianism and Mahdism in the era of globalization order. Talking about the reappearances of both holy men, namely Jesus, the Judahite Messiah, and the Mahdi, the Kedarite Messiah in the Semitic episteme who will use the divine values of common global morals to judge the bad doers, and bring the peace, and justice without exploitations of economy, politic, and dehumanization, etc.