The Uprising of al-Sufyānī (Arabic: خُرُوج السُّفيَاني) is one of the five inevitable events that happens before the Reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi (a). The uprising happens in Syria. According to a hadith from Imam al-Rida (a), the Reappearance of al-Qa'im (a) will not happen without the uprising of al-Sufyani. According to other hadiths, after nine months of rule in Syria, al-Sufyani and his army advance towards Medina and will be devoured by the Earth in a place called "Bayda'".
In Shiite and Sunni hadiths, al-Sufyani is said to be from the progeny of Abu Sufyan and is characterized as a bloodshedder and cruel and people are frightened by seeing him. Different names are mentioned for him, such as Anbasa b. Marra.
The Name and Features of al-Sufyani
Different names have been mentioned for al-Sufyani in Shiite and Sunni sources of hadiths. For example, in different hadiths from Imam Ali (a), his name is variously mentioned as Anbasa b. Marra,[1] Harb b. Anbasa,[2] and Uthman b. Anbasa,[3] and it is said that he is from the progeny of Abu Sufyan.[4] In Sunni sources, his name is variously mentioned as Harb b. Anbasa[5] and Mu'awiya b. Utba.[6]
According to hadiths, al-Sufyani is a bloodshedder, homicidal, and brutal.[7] Moreover, according to hadiths from Imam 'Ali (a), al-Sufyani is a broad-shouldered, his face is full of acne, and has one eye, and people are frightened upon seeing him.[8] According to a hadith transmitted from Imam al-Sadiq (a) in Bihar al-anwar, al-Sufyani is an enemy of the Shi'as, and his crier in Kufa announces that anyone who beheads a Shi'a will be given one thousand dirhams.[9]
Inevitability
According to hadiths from Imam al-Sadiq (a), the uprising of al-Sufyani is characterized as inevitable,[10] and is referred to as one of the five signs of the Reappearance of the al-Qa'im along with the Riot of al-Yamani, the Heavenly Cry, the Murder of the Pure Soul, and Khasf al-Bayda'.[11]
There is also a hadith from Imam al-Rida (a) according to which the Reappearance of the al-Qa'im is inevitable, and the uprising of al-Sufyani is likewise inevitable, and without the al-Sufyani's uprising, al-Qa'im is not going to reappear.[12] According to a hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (a), the uprising of al-Sufyani is inevitable and is going to occur in the Rajab month.[13] There is a hadith from Imam al-Baqir (a) implying that the uprisings of al-Sufyani, Sayyid al-Yamani, and Sayyid al-Khurasani are going to occur in the same year, same month, and the same day.[14]
Khasf al-Bayda': The Collapse of al-Sufyani
According to hadiths from the Prophet (s), one sign of the Reappearance of al-Mahdi (a) is the uprising of an army from Syria who will be devoured by the Earth in an area called "Bayda'". This came to be known in sources of hadiths as "al-Khasf al-Bayda'".[15]
According to another hadith, Imam Ali (a) points to the Qur'an 34:51, [16] suggesting that al-Sufyani will rule Syria for nine months and then when he leads his army towards Medina, God takes him inside the Earth in Bayda'.[17]
Notes
- ↑ Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Tashrīf bi l-minan, p. 296.
- ↑ Shūshtarī, Iḥqāq al-ḥaqq, p. 567.
- ↑ Tāj al-Dīn, al-Majālis al-mahdawīyya, p. 223.
- ↑ Shūshtarī, Iḥqāq al-ḥaqq, p. 567; Tāj al-Dīn, al-Majālis al-mahdawīyya, p. 223.
- ↑ Muqaddasī, ʿAqd al-durar, p. 128
- ↑ Muqaddasī, ʿAqd al-durar, p. 116.
- ↑ See: Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Tashrīf bi l-minan, p. 115-117; Muqaddasī, ʿAqd al-durar, p. 76.
- ↑ See: Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 52, p. 205.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 52, p. 215.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, Kamāl al-dīn, vol. 2, p. 678, hadith, 5; p. 680, hadith, 14, 15.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, Kamāl al-dīn, vol. 2, p. 678, hadith, 5.
- ↑ Ḥimyarī, Qurb al-isnād, p. 374, hadith, 1329.
- ↑ Nuʿmanī, Kitāb al-ghayba, p. 302.
- ↑ Nuʿmanī, Kitāb al-ghayba, p. 369.
- ↑ Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Tashrīf bi l-minan, p. 158, hadith, 205, 206.
- ↑ "Were you to see them when they will be stricken with terror, without any escape, and are seized from a close quarter."
- ↑ Nuʿmanī, Kitāb al-ghayba, p. 305.
References
- Ḥimyarī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar al-. Qurb al-isnād. Qom: 1413 AH.
- Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. Al-Tashrīf bi l-minan fī al-taʿrīf bi l-fitan known as Malāḥim wa al-fitan. 1st edition. Qom: Muʾassisat Ṣāḥib al-ʾAmr, 1416 AH.
- Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Wafāʾ, 1403 AH.
- Muḥammadī Reyshahrī, Muḥammad. Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī. Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1393 Sh.
- Muqaddasī, Yūsuf b. Yaḥyā. ʿAqd al-durar fī akhbār al-muntaẓar. Qom: Intishārāt-i Masjid Jamkarān, 1428 AH.
- Nuʿmanī, Muḥammad b. Ibāḥīm al-. Kitāb al-ghayba. Tehran, Maktaba al-Saduq, [n.d].
- Shūshtarī, Nūr Allāh al-Ḥusaynī al-. Iḥqāq al-ḥaqq wa izhāq al-bāṭil. Edited by Marʿashī al-Najafī. Qom: Kitābkhāna-yi Āyatollāh Marʿashī al-Najafī, 1409 AH.
- Ṣadr, Sayyid Muḥammad. Tārīkh al-ghayba. Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf, 1412 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Kamāl al-dīn wa itmām al-niʿma. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī. Tehran: Islāmiyya, 1395 AH.
- Tāj al-Dīn, Mahdī. Al-Majālis al-mahdawīyya. Qom: al-Maktaba al-Ḥaydariyya, 1437 AH.