The Shi’ite branch of Islam, which has flourished as the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the various ayatollahs for the last half century, believes in the return of the so-called Twelfth Imam, who is descended from Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali ibn Abni Talib. Talib was the fourth caliph assassinated in 661 in a succession war, after which the split between Sunnis and Shi’ites eventually became permanent. According to the traditions of Twelver Shi’ism, the twelfth of these Imams, a boy of five years old, disappeared under mysterious and disputed circumstances in the year 874 – but remained alive. Though communicating with the world through various agents, he entered the state of “occultation” in 941, promising to return when the time would be propitious.
The reigning authority on Twelver Shi’ism is the historian Emmanuel Sivan, who, in his magisterial volume on the subject, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics, warned that an integral part of Shi’a Islam’s belief and thought involves the initiation of a planetary conflagration. This belief system posits that Allah’s kingdom will be established on earth by the Twelfth or Hidden Imam, also known as the Mahdi, whose advent can be hastened by creating the right set of circumstances: friction and misunderstanding among the nations and violent upheavals in a welter of blood and fire. The nuclear option is Iran’s favored methodology to bring this about.
Incredulous westerners who would pass this off as merely a quaint belief to be taken with a grain of salt, or indeed with a whole salt shaker, should reconsider. Sivan spends many pages describing and analyzing the Shi’ite vision of an “ideal, legitimate state to be instituted by its leader, the Hidden Imam.” Over the course of history, he writes, a “minority of Shi’ites, quite substantial and dangerous at times, would move from pessimistic idealism to an optimistic brand of the same approach—the imam’s arrival is imminent, Allah’s kingdom is bound to be brought upon earth by this messiah (mahdi), and one should help precipitate its descent by armed revolt.” The Mahdi’s arrival has, indeed, been eagerly anticipated.
What the world does not yet know is precisely what the Iranian mullahs have been gleefully assuming, namely, that the Twelfth Imam has already returned and been hard at work arranging the approaching apocalypse. An occult scripture, unearthed in a clay jar at an excavation works near the Arak nuclear site and labeled the Arak Codex #190001, reposes in the Inscriptions Department of the Malik National Museum of Iran in Tehran. Only the ayatollahs and a few select individuals (including the present writer) have been privileged to this document. According to the scripture, the Mahdi has indeed returned and has fulfilled all the signs and portents that announce his presence.
He is half black, half white. He is tall and strides with a lope. He possesses dead eyes and prominent ears and is starkly skeletal in appearance. His background is both obscure and exotic. He is persuasively eloquent and is adept at saying one thing while doing another. His head swivels from side to side when addressing the multitudes, as if reading from prepared texts no doubt lowered from on high and inscribed by the Lord or one of his mala’ikah. He gives the distinct impression of being a man-child. He is supremely confident and exudes a certain boyish charm many find irresistible. He is devoted to popular sports involving holes and nets as emblems of ensnaring. He bows frequently in false humility, cajoling the high and mighty of the earth, yet brooks no objection to his will when dissent is offered. He is to be found in many different places from one day to another. He is surrounded by loyal minions, many of whom appear to be imbeciles, who do his bidding without question or scruple. He is the keeper of the jinn and the ifrit. And he is building a fortress-like library in a major city of the enemy to consolidate his legacy.
Let me be very clear about this, for there are those who cannot bring themselves to confront the evidence of the Twelfth Imam’s uncloaking that I, privy to the discovery of the mystical codex through means I am forbidden to reveal, now set before them. All his actions have been directed toward igniting the flames that wait to engulf the world. He has diligently undermined the laws, security, and prosperity of the people he pretended to represent as a Manchurian president, and continues to turn one against the other, sowing discord among the populace.
He is the prince of lies. He sponsors and supports warlike groups and aggressive regimes that seek world hegemony. He is an undeclared enemy of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. He is a great friend to Islam in its march toward imposing a caliphate upon unsuspecting nations. He smiles upon the ayatollahs and has signed agreements that facilitate their holy designs to kindle universal violence and establish Allah’s kingdom on earth. He has delivered untold riches to the rulers of Iran to assist them in developing weapons of mass annihilation.
He has been schooled at the feet of sages and oracles and learned from the masters of canon and creed. He is the repository of sacred teachings and potent incantations, and is adept at uttering sonorous phrases that please as they befuddle. He is the embodiment of consecrated, numinous, and venerable doctrine. He is the dark haruspex of what is meant to be. He is no longer Hidden except when he determines it is apposite and will from time to time exult among us in all his glory. He is the bringer of chaos and the last days. He will inaugurate a new world order.
Doubters and skeptics must give way. The Twelfth Imam has returned, confirmed in his exaltation by innumerable tokens and crests and auguries. Devastation will follow him, and resurrection will surely come in his wake. The infidel shall be destroyed, destroyed utterly, and the believer shall rise from the smoldering ruins in triumph and gladness of heart. All this shall come to pass, for it is written.
The prophet of destruction is among us. He operates in the shadows and in the light of day. He is livid and vituperative. He is the Mahdi.
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