Sai Baba as the Islamic Saviour ‘Mahdi’?

Sathya Sai Baba has been heralded as the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi and much has been written to try to prove he is ‘the one’. Indeed, this extremely inauthenticated text is publicised in a faked translation of Persian prophetic texts in Sai Baba’s self-glorifying Chaitanya Jyoti museum at Prashanthi Nilayam. Yet it would be difficult, if not impossible to find Sai Baba accepted as the Mahdi (much less accepted at all) by prominent religious-political Islamic figures, not least those who accept the notion of the foretold appearance of the Mahdi. One report noted that President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. General Assembly on September 26, 2007 again did as he had done the previous year in the same venue; opened his speech by praying to Allah to “hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi….” “the promised one,” the one who “will fill this world with justice and peace.” Wisely, he did not mention the fuller revelation, that the Madhi would come at the end of time and a great apcocalypse would ensue).

The Mahdi claims wrote off Ahmadinejad as a primitive kind of Shiite believer. Yet this belief has been – and still is – widely encountered in the history of the Islamic world, probably as widespread as is that of the Second Coming of Christ and the Judgement Day of the Book of Revelations. Such apocalyptic visions are also part and parcel of Hinduism, and Sathya Sai Baba also dabbled in various apocalyptic scenarios of this type. Here are a few excerpts from reports on Ahmadinejad’s “vision” at the U.N., which is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah:- “On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say ‘Bismillah Muhammad,’ he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura,” he says. “I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn’t move an eyelid, I’m not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!”

The next, more public venue for Khameini’s mouthpiece was the now-famous Columbia University speech, in which he proclaimed that there was no homosexuality in Iran, courting the helpless laughter of the large and well-educated audience. Ahmadinejad began his talk by praying for Allah to “hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi.” Yet no one, in the ensueing Q & A, bothered to ask him about this! Shi`ism’s self-styled spokesman tried to garner favor with his audience by reminding them that he is an academic himself and still teaches university students. One commentator (see Link below) wrote: “Ahmadi-nezhad broke new theological ground, even within Shia Islam, by claiming that not only would the Mahdi come, but that Allah himself will arrive with Moses and Christ and Muhammad to rule the world.” This was allowed to “pass without investigation, because the moderators were unprepared—or perhaps simply uncomfortable—with it.” From Everybody’s Got Something to Hide, Except for Me and the Mahdi

“He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.” “People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation,” says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran’s religious center of Qom: “The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific,” he adds. “There is a saying: ‘When the students are ready, the teacher will come.’”  Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil – with striking parallels to biblical accounts of “Armageddon.”” (WorldNetDaily: Iran prepares people for ‘messiah miracles’ )

Comment: The above saying about the teacher’s coming closely reflects what Sathya Sai Baba has stated about himself, that he is the Universal teacher come to save humanity. He is hailed as the Mehdi Mou’d by Zeba Bashiruddin, a Moslem teacher at his women’s college in Anantapur, near to his Puttaparthi ashram, and who he has made efforts to persuade (Shiite) Muslims to accept him. Like Ali Lari (above). Sai Baba has also said: When the soil is ready, the seed appears from somewhere! The Spiritual guru will be alerted and the thirst will get quenched.” (Sathya Sai Baba in Sathya Sai Vahini, p. 97. SSB Books and Publications Trust)

For a most thorough account and researched analysis of the carefully cultivated rumour that Sathya Sai Baba fulfils the requirements of the Islamic prophesy of the coming Mahdi [aka Mehdi Moud] saviour, see Sai Baba as the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi: http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Prophecy.htm and http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/indmmtrans.htm

Also see ‘Followers of Islam maligned by the Sathya Sai Baba movement’:  http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/7/Sathya_Sai_Baba_prophesies_and_rumors_on_Islam.htm. As to some kind of Armageddon, Sai Baba has also leaked many rumours about this. One can see the propaganda about Sai Baba’s world leadership being prophesied in an [alleged] Islamic source here.

Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
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(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES)