The Dubiety: How is it possible for Mahdi (PBUH) to have a long life based on what the Shias claim?
One of the usual questions raised constantly about Imam Mahdi is about his age. How is it possible for a human being to live over 1000 years? Shia adversaries use this pretext as a definitive reason to invalidate Shias’ belief about Mahdism. In this article we have made an attempt to investigate Imam Mahdi’s long life rationally, scientifically and narratively and answer the dubieties of the adversaries.
Examining and reviewing the dubieties
Ibn Taymiyyah’s proposed dubiety
Ibn Taymiyyah in his book “Minhaj al-Sunnah Nabawiyyah” says:
“Living a long time for a Muslim, more than a normal lifetime among Prophet’s Ummah (nation) is such an obvious lie; let alone living over 1000 years. In a correct narration of the Prophet it has been proved that Prophet Mohammed on the last days of his life said: ‘remember this night, after 100 years from now no one from people who are living now will be living on earth anymore. Therefore, a one-year old child on that time would not be able to live more than 100 years. While lifetime during that period did not exceed 100 years, so a fortiori the next generations would not live any longer than previous people because the lifetime of human beings gets shorter over time and will not get prolonged. As narrated correctly and edited by Al-Tirmidhi, Noah the Prophet (PBUH) lived 950 years among his nation. And people in that era used to live a long life. Then the lifetime of this nation ranges between 60-70 years and it rarely exceeds that. As this narration is changeless in the narration of Sahih.
Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrani al-Hanbali , Minhaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah. v.4, p.91.
This speech of Ibn Taymiyyah can be summarized on two sides:
- Such a long life (more than 1000 years) is not true and is also against the usual lifetime in Islamic Ummah
- If the companions of Prophet Mohammed have not lived more than 100 years, those coming after them would not generally live longer because human life gets shorter over time.
Concerning what Ibn Taymiyyah stated, we are firstly going to review the narration he adduced and then by mentioning some long-lived people in Islam we will provide cases in which Sunni scholars admit that Imam Mahdi (PBUH) is alive:
Reviewing and criticizing the narrations adduced by Ibn Taymiyyah
A: The review and critique of the first narration
As being observed in Ibn Taymiyyah’s words, he has adduced the narration of Prophet Mohammed to question Imam Mahdi’s long life. Prophet Mohammed during the last days of his life has said: “At the end of 100 years after this none of the current living people would survive on the surface of the earth.”
The narration mentioned by ibn Taymiyyah has been quoted in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih al-Muslim: Abdullah bin Umar reported that “Allah’s messenger led us Isha’ prayer at the last hours of his life and when he had concluded it by salutations he stood up and said: ‘Remember this night since 100 years after this, none of the living people on earth would survive.’”
Sahih al-Bukhari, v.1, p.34
Sahih al-Muslim, v.4, p.1965, Hadith 2537
Review:
This generally includes the people living during the prophet’s life not all the times after him. This narration is not problematic based on biographical evaluation but it doesn’t question Imam Mahdi’s long life since it says: “At the end of 100 years, after this, none of the living people would survive on the surface of the earth”. It only includes those who were living during the prophet’s life concurrently and Prophet Mohammed said they would not survive after 100 years. Therefore, this narration does not concern Imam Mahdi because he was born 242 years after Hegira and was not born at the time of the Prophet.
Ibn Qutaybah Dinwari for justifying and interpreting this narrations says: “What we say is that the narrators have omitted a word from this narration or they have forgotten it or the messenger of God (PBUH) said it lowly and the narrator did not hear it. But, we have no doubt that Prophet Mohammed said so: ‘At the end of 100 years, none of you will survive on the surface of the earth.’ And it means from all those who were present in that assembly (the companions or others) so the narrator has dropped the word “from you” (minkom).”
Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari, Tawil Mukhtalif al-Hadith, v.1, p.163
Ibn Qutaybah believes the phrase “from you” refers to those who were present in that gathering.
B: The second narration mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah finishes this way: as the time goes by, human life becomes shorter. Then, he gives an example that Adam lived a long life but the nation of Prophet Mohammed lived less and he tries to prove his speech through this narration. Ibn Taymiyyah has perceived from the narration that the usual lifetime for Islamic Ummah is between 60 to 70 years. So, the possibility of long life is not practicable. But such a conclusion is against the belief of Sunni scholars. Abdul Rahman al-Mubarakfoury one of the outstanding Sunni scholars in his book “Tuhfat ul-Ahwudhi bi Sharh Jami al-Tirmidhi” says: “Apparently the narration means an acceptable average of life for almost all of Ummah is a number between 60-70 years when most of the people have died. Including Prophet Mohammed himself, the great caliphs such as Siddiq, Farooq and Mortaza and numerous Islamic scholars and others which to enumerate them is difficult.”
Al-Mubarakfouri, Tuhfat ul-Ahwadhi bi Sharh Jami’, v.6, p.513
According to what was said above, this narration is about the average lifetime in Islamic Ummah not the exact age of all Muslims. Because there are so many Muslims who passed away before 60 or after this age. If Ibn Taymiyyah understands a limit (of age) in this narration, it’s necessary to ask him what about those who lived for a longer or shorter time? Are they included in Islamic nation or not? In any case he will not be able to answer and he will confess that long life is neither impossible for human beings nor beyond Allah’s power. Therefore, Imam Mahdi’s long life is justified through this reasoning and the Sunni scholars admit it also. We will discuss it at the end.
Investigating the possibility of longevity in terms of narrative, rational and scientific evidence
Ibn Taymiyyah believes longevity is normally impossible. Here by giving some examples, we are going to prove that it is not also possible but even there are so many people even throughout the Islamic history who against Ibn Taymiyyah’s claim lived a long life.
- Possibility of longevity according to the Quran
Considering the verses of the Quran, all the universe is under the power of the Almighty God. He gives life and causes death and life being short or long like all other events is not under the humans’ control and it is only Allah who knows the exact time of death.
Allah has created human beings from nothingness and he is definitely able to give him a long life and bestow him bounties for 1000 years as Allah has stated in the Sura of Fatir, verse 11: “Allah created you from dust, then from a (sperm) drop. Then he made you pairs. No female conceives or is delivered except by knowledge. He whose life is long, whatsoever is increased or decreased of his age is in clear book. Surely that is easy for Allah.”)35:11).
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi expresses the meaning of this verse by pointing to the will and power of Allah and fulfilling any action is easy for God:
Then Allah represents his dominance with regard to the verse: “He whose life is long, whatsoever is increased or decreased of his age is in clear book.” Therefore it proves Allah is the most powerful and the possessor of will. The idols possess no power nor will, so how do they reserve any worship?
These words of Allah that says: “Surely that is easy for Allah” means creating human beings from dust, giving long or short life to a person or to know what a woman carries are all easy for Allah.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Tafsir al-Kabir, v.26, p.227.
The rational possibility of longevity
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi one of the greatest Sunni interpreters says: “Considering human physical composition, the mind agrees with longevity. Those who believe living over 120 years is impossible are speaking against the reason and if they believe longevity is not common and normal we agree with it however, we believe that longevity is a blessing from Allah and there were some instances in history.
‘Mind agrees that life can be more than 120 years, due to the features humans have, longevity for humans is possible otherwise humans could not survive. And the lasting influence of the influencer is possible; if the influencer in the created essence is the Almighty God, the durability of the created essence is evident and if the influencer is other than the Almighty God; again the Almighty God is effective through a medium and the effect leads to the Almighty God and its effect is permanent. The effect of the Almighty God for a permanent time is admissible up to the time that survival in the created essence is possible and if the perception is that life over 120 years is not possible, it is due to a cause that is the possibility of nonexistence. And if there is no cause for nothingness, living for more than 120 is not possible because the inevitability of a cause which takes place for a human before that age. It is evident that their saying contradicts the existing narrations and wisdom. We believe that there is no discussion between us and them, since they say a long life is not more than 120 years of age and we say that a life over 120 years is not normal but is a divine bestowal, a normal life in our point of view is not more than 100 or 120 years”.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Tafsir al-Kabir, v.25, p.37.
To sum up what Fakhr al-Razi says we can say that life over 120 years is possible from wisdom point of view, though, we may say it is not normal and is a bestowal from God, instances of these bestowals existed and exist out there.
The scientific possibility of longevity
Scientific possibility doesn’t mean that human kind today is able to prove the possibility of a long life even up to 1000 years, but the goal is to prove that it is not impossible. A long life over 1000 years may not be possible for now in a scientific point of view, yet, no scientist can claim that it is impossible from a scientific point of view, no one can determine a definite end for humans or the end of a normal life and claims that life over that is impossible. This is evident and clear.
Nizam Al-Din Nishapouri the outstanding Sunni interpreter narrates physicians that “human’s normal lifetime is 120 years”. Then, he replies that Noah’s life and those of the people like him violate this norm. “Some physicians says that a normal life is 120 years for humans. By mentioning the age of Prophet Noah (PBUH) and some other people, this claim has been objected to. Based on the fact that some interpreters have said that Noah lived 1050 years and he was sent as a prophet at 40 and lived among his nation for 950 years; and after the great storm he lived another 60 years. But it was narrated from Wahab that Noah lived 1400 years: It may be said that physicians by normal lifetime mean the longest lifetime in each period of time. Extraordinary or different lifetime in each period does not contradict this matter. That is why Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said the average lifetime for my Ummah is between 60-70 years.
Nizam al-Din al-Nishaburi, Tafsir al- Gharaeeb al Quran. v.5, p.374.
Even today, there are people who are over 120 years of age; therefore, from a scientific point of view, we cannot determine a definite life span for humans and claim that more than that is not possible.
The practical possibility of longevity and the corresponding examples
It is obvious that the best way to prove the possibility of something is to look for its existence or occurrence even if something has occurred only once if so, it could be easily proved that it may happen in future again. There have been many people throughout the history who lived a long life or even almost 1000 years and some of them have been mentioned in Sunni resources. Considering the fact that naming each person is out of the scope of this session, we are going to mention only the living aged Muslims and the aged members of the Islamic Ummah and we exclude other aged people before Islam.
Aged members of the Islamic Ummah:
- Uday bin Wa’a- 300 years of age
- Rabea bin Dhabi’- 340 years of age
- Abdul Masih bin Amr bin Qais- 350 years of age
- Salman Farsi- 350 years of age
- Abu al-Tofail Kanani- 108 years of age
- Abu Ja’far Sejazi- 140 years of age
- Ghanemah bint Ghanem- 400 years of age at the time of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)
Abu Hatim al-Sajistani in the book “Almu’amarun wal-wasaya” (The Aged and the Wills) has explained about the aged people.
Skipping the topic of these aged people, there are also some other people who were born before Prophet Mohammed and are still alive. Among them is Prophet Jesus whom Christians believe was crucified but he resurrected and ascended to the heavens and he will return in his Advent. Yet, Muslims believe that according to the Quran, a similar person to Jesus was crucified and Jesus has ascended to the heavens and is still alive after 2000 years. There are also other prophets who Muslims and/or Christians believe are still alive besides Jesus.
The approval of Sunni scholars on the long life of Imam Mahdi (A.J.)
Sa’ad al-Din Al-Taftazani says: The long life of Imam Mahdi is only an opinion of Shias that they (Shias) consider not impossible but the rest of Islamic sects have denied such a life span. Shias suppose that like Noah, Luqman and Khidr who lived a long life, Mohammed bin Hassan al-Askari and his long life is true. However, other Islamic sects have rejected this aspect of Imam Mahdi.
Al-Taftazani, Sharh Al-Maqased fi Ilm al-Kalam, v.5, p.313.
We are going to mention some statements of Sunni scholars to prove that besides Shias, the belief about Imam Mahdi’s long life is believed in by other sects of Islam.
- Abdul Wahab Sha’rani is one of the scholars who believed Imam Mahdi has lived a long life and is alive. Kunduzi in his book “Yanabi al Muwaddah quotes him as: “My master Abdul Wahab Sha’rani has prescribed in his book ‘Yawaqit wa Jawahir’: Mahdi is the son of Imam Hassan al-Askari and was born in the middle of Sha’ban 255 A.H. He will be alive until the son of Mary, Jesus, reappears. Sheikh Hassan al-Iraqi has informed me of that after his encounter with Imam Mahdi (PBUH). And my master Ali Khawas agrees with him on this.”
Kunduzi, Yanabi al-Muwaddah, v.3, p.345
- Muhammad bin Yousef Kanji Shafe’ei: Kunduzi in his book “Yanabi al Muwadda” has made a chapter in the name of “Chapter eighty six of the sayings of those among the scholars of letters and hadiths from the Promised Mahdi the son of Imam Hassan Al-Askari” in which he refers to the statements of Sunni scholars on Imam Mahdi: “Kanji al-Shafe’ei has admitted to Imam Mahdi’s long life and his being alive and does not consider his long life as impossible.”
The Hadith narrator and religious scholar Sheikh Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Yousef bin Muhammad bin Kanji Shafe’ei in the book ‘Al-Bayan fi Akhbar Sahib al-Zaman’ at the end of chapter twenty five says: Mahdi is the son of Hassan al-Askari. He is alive since his disappearing. Due to Jesus, Khidr and Elijah’s longevity, Mahdi’s long life cannot be denied.
Kunduzi, Yanabi al-Muwaddah, v.3, p.347.
Conclusion
Relying on some narrations, Ibn Taymiyyah and Taftazani believed Imam Mahdi’s blessed long life is impossible in Islamic Ummah. In this paper firstly the mentioned narrations were criticized briefly and the possibility of Imam Mahdi’s long life was investigated according to the Quran and also scientifically, rationally and practically. We reached the conclusion that living a long time for humans or any other creature is only in the realm of Allah’s power and He will give it to those whom He deems correct. It will be possible and He is the Almighty Able. And longevity is not something scientifically impossible and the statements of Fakhr al-Razi and others were mentioned about this. Finally, the Sunni scholars also believe longevity is in some cases practical. There were also so many examples of longevity from the beginning of the Islamic history to the Islamic Ummah from the practical point of view which are the best reasons to prove the practicality of longevity and is not deniable. At the last part of the paper some statements of the Sunni scholars about Imam Mahdi being alive and his long life have been quoted in order to remove the suspicion caused by ibn Taymiyyah and Taftazani about Imam Mahdi.
