Daily Caller:Iran’s grand ayatollahs: Earth belongs to Muslims, end is near
Published: 12:03 PM 02/23/2012 | Updated: 12:25 PM 02/23/2012
By Reza Kahlili

Iran’s economy is struggling because of crippling new restrictions on the country’s financial system, but no amount of sanctions will keep the mullahs from their headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, which they hope will help usher in Islamic dominance of the world. The religious leaders believe it is their responsibility, as foreshadowed by the Quran, to bring about nuclear war to facilitate the coming of the last Islamic Messiah.Two Iranian grand ayatollahs are now saying that the Earth will soon be under the feet of Muslims, as promised by the Quran.The clerical establishment in Iran has long believed that the Islamic Revolution of 1979 was a sign by Allah that the end of times is near and that the duty and responsibility of the believers is to become ready for such an event.Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, indicated to his close associates that he saw a mandate for the final glorification of Allah to overthrow the Shah, establish an Islamic state and then pass the flag of Islam to the last Islamic Messiah. When asked if he would be the one to pass the flag, he responded that “the one after me will be the one” who will create the circumstances for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi, the Shiites’ 12th Imam.Many in the Islamic regime believe that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who became the Iranian supreme leader after Khomeini’s death, is the chosen one to pass the flag of Islam to Imam Mahdi. In fact, statements made by close associates of Khamenei indicate that the supreme leader himself is convinced that he is the one who will trigger the coming.Mahdi, in Shiite belief, will reappear at the time of Armageddon.In a recent statement, Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a top Iranian Twelver Shia and a “Marja” (source to follow), addressed the future of the world as per the Quran.“The Quran is very clear that the inheritors of the Earth will be those of the righteous who represent the force of the truth against the force of the false,” Sobhani says. “The Quran is the proof that the world will be controlled and managed by the forces of truth and that there will be one government ruling everyone throughout the world.”The Quran twice promises worldwide rule of Islam and its victory over all other religions, Sobhani says. According to hadiths, which have the tacit approval of the Prophet Muhammad, that will only happen when the last descendant of Muhammad, Imam Mahdi, returns and takes the rule of Islam from the East to the West.The grand ayatollah then quotes the Quran (Altobeh, 33): “It is He Who hath sent His prophet with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religions, even though the infidels may detest it.”Sobhani calls the Internet another sign of the end of times and the coming of Imam Mahdi as hadiths indicate that at the age of the coming, people in the East will be able to see people in the West while in a stationary position.The ayatollah reiterates the promised victory by the Muslims in referring to the Quran (Al Anbiya, 18): “We hurl the truth against falsehood, and destroy it, and behold falsehood doth perish.”Grand Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani, also a Twelver and a “Marja” with followers around the world, says the recent progress of Iran’s nuclear program is hailed as “significant and one that has shocked the infidels.”Hamedani states that it is said that in the end of times, the city of Qom will be the center of science and an elevated center for learnings of Allah. He says the current Arab Spring in the region is due to the Islamic regime in Iran and that this awakening must expand to the world stage for the coming of the last Islamic Messiah.The clerics in Iran have set up a center in the city of Qom specifically to track signs for the coming as they rely on centuries of hadiths from Muhammad and his descendants that have predicted signs in which the end of times will come and the last Islamic Messiah will reappear, killing all infidels and those who won’t convert to Islam and raising the flag of Islam across the globe.The coming of Mahdi only awaits these last signs, as all of the signs that the hadiths herald have already taken place: Chaos, famine and havoc will engulf the Earth; major wars with dark clouds (atomic wars) will burn the Earth; one-third of the Earth’s population will be killed, and the rest will suffer hunger and lawlessness.As revealed last year, an Iranian secret documentary, “The Coming Is Upon Us,” clearly indicates that the radicals ruling Iran believe that worldwide war and the destruction of Israel will trigger the coming of the last Islamic Messiah.See the video:



Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior fellow with EMPact America and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA).