False Prophets by Sel.

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 24, 1884

False Prophets.

By Sel.

THE false prophets of Islam have been many, and not a few of them have endeavored to follow the example of Mahomet, and found an empire by force of arms. Not one of them, however, has been permanently successful, and if the Mahdi escapes capture or assassination he will be more fortunate than most of his forerunners have been. Moseilama, who raised the standard of religious revolt during the life-time of Mahomet, was defeated and slain during the reign of Abu Beer, by Khaled Ebn al Walid, and Al Aswad, who set up in the year of Mahomet's death, was almost immediately betrayed and decapitated. It was upon that occasion that Mahomet declared that ere the day of Judgment Islam would be troubled by thirty other impostors. Soon afterward Toleiha Ebn Khowailed arose, but seeing the error of his ways recanted, and Sejaj Bintal Moudar, an early exponent of woman's rights, led many after her. In the reign, too, of the Khalif al Mohdi, Hakeim Ebn Hashem, called Al Mokanna, and well known as the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, gained some successes, and might have gained more had he not despaired and committed suicide; and in the reign of Al Motasem the still more formidable pretender Babac was executed, but not until he had slain a quarter of a million of his enemies.

Then came the Karmations and the Ishmaelians, or Assassins, and the followers of Al Montanabbi, and of Baba the Turkoman, and of many more; so that, if Mahomet's thirty impostors have not already appeared and disappeared again, the Mahdi must surely be nearly the last of the series. If, on the other hand, all the false prophets have come and gone, who is the Mahdi? It is but too probable that Islam, or at least a great part of it, will answer the question by proclaiming that Mahomet Ahmed is the Messiah.—Sel.