Islamic Millenarianism: An Analysis

In his time at Aba Island, Ahmad developed his views into an ideological system on an organizational, theoretical, and propaganda level. When he started off in 1868, Ahmad was a scholar, religious intellectual, and preacher. According to Fergus Nicoll, his thinking at this time was a combination of theological intellectual, a set of abstract Islamic ideals he believed in, and a mixture of ideas and influences from various sources which he had found favorable. In the early years of running the Mosque at Aba, Ahmad largely focused on converting people from the surrounding area, building his following, and training them in religious and spiritual instruction. Over the decade he would build a large following, and gained a popularity that would draw people over a wide area of Sudan. His teaching helped him to mentally organize the …show more content…
Ahmad returned to the practice of intense scholarly work. He would work on the codification and systemic education and propagation of his ideas for the remainder of his life. During this period he undertook an intense study of Mahdist prophesy and the popular Islamic millenarianism that was going on. While having spent his life trying to emulate the prophet Muhammad, his comparisons turned toward lining himself up with the criteria of the prophesized Mahdi. This would lead him to the belief that he was the Mahdi. This element seemed to help tie together his ideals and ideas into an ideological system. With it he could balance vision of religious purification and desire for social reform, he could integrate his ideas into something he could regard as a justified pure understanding of Islam, and he could have a claim of authority for building a reform movement; since the Mahdi was the one prophesized to restore true Islam and establish justice on earth. In 1881, he would make a public declaring of himself as the Mahdi and started the operations of his Mahdist