o The Mahdi will only appear at a time when people are...

o The Mahdi will only appear at a time when people are experiencing great fear and are afflicted by disturbances and civil war and other disasters.(Reported by Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali) Most hadiths about the Mahdi's advent focus on the prophecy that turmoil, insecurity, and disorder will rule the world before his coming. Massacres, wars, and confrontations are one of the major features of such a period.

Besides, the hadith draws attention to the fact that massacres will occur all over the world. During the two world wars of the twentieth century, an estimated 65 million people were killed. The number of the…