One of the bigger questions has been, “Who is the Messiah?”
It’s a kind of personality question.
Among the Jews we have a long list, many dozens of people who claimed that they were the Messiah, before Jesus, and after Jesus.
Now some of them are completely forgotten, some of them may have left marks, some of them were basically good people, and some of them were vicious.
It is not in the Qur’an, but the idea is now part of the Muslim religion, both for the Sunnis and the Shiites.
For the Shiites the idea of the Redeemer is very important.
The idea of the Hidden Imam. That he is supposed to come at any time.
And in some form, the secular redemption movements like Communism had the same idea, the same hope, and for some strange reason they had to grow their own messiah.
Even those who were trained in Marxism, who didn’t believe in any heroes because everything is a process.
They created gods, or demigods: Mao, Stalin.
They created messianic figures. So it seems that this is a common belief.
It’s a belief.
We don’t have any proof, at night, that there will be another sunrise.
But we have a strong hope for it.
It would be very hard if we thought that possibly the sun wouldn’t shine.
So I believe that the sun will shine.
But I have no guarantee.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From an interview in Parabola Magazine