Richard Worthington - PhD Graduate in Mathematics, the University of Nottingham, UK

The so-called Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used the hadith mentioning that “the slave-girl will give birth to her master” to justify its renewal of sexual slavery. This hadith is talking about signs before the end of the world, so it could be interpreted by the same Temple theology technique that has been used in the biblical book of Revelation, which is also about the end of the world. “Temple theology” refers to the fact that many obscure and bizarre texts symbolically describe the rituals and politics of the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus, it will be argued that the whole hadith is talking about events that happened prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in ۷۰ CE (the Temple symbolized the world, so the end of the world refers to this incident). In particular, it will be shown that slave-girl refers to the Virgin Mary giving birth to Christ. The hadith is then linked to the start date of the building the Dome of the Rock in ۶۸۸ CE, which is the year ۹۹۹/۱۰۰۰ according to the “Seleucid Era” calendar, implying a nearness to a symbolic end of the world. As such, the “Islamic State” has no Islamic basis to use sexual slavery. As an appendix, the Dabiq hadith concerning the conquest of Constantinople is briefly discussed with reference to the possibility that Constantinople did fall to the Muslims before another symbolic end of the world, the year ۷۰۰۰ according to the Byzantine Calendar.

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), end of the world, Temple theology, Essenes, Dabiq