Peace was to come with the Mahdi. Why were there two world wars afterwards?

The promise of peace names no date, and before the final peace great powers were to fight and exhaust one another. Moreover, those who accept the call are the first to experience this peace.

When a prophecy names no date, people often grow impatient and expect it to be fulfilled in their own lifetime. But some promises stretch over many generations. The first verse above already shows this. The victory of Islam over all religions was promised some 1400 years ago. To this day Muslims are a minority in the world. Yet the promise stands. The game is not over yet.

The second point is that something must happen before the final peace. The Holy Qur’an describes peoples who surge against one another like waves, one wave after another, until their own might destroys them. This refers to great powers in the West and the East that fight each other and exhaust themselves in doing so. The two world wars therefore do not contradict the promise. They fit what was to come before the peace.

The third point concerns people themselves. Every good promise is tied to people’s response. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) came to give new life to the whole world. But only those who followed his call received this life, as the third verse above says.

It is the same with the peace connected to the Promised Messiah. Whoever accepts him experiences this inner peace already now, in the middle of a restless world. Peace for the whole world will come. When, God knows.