Will the expected Mahdi resemble the Messenger (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him)? What about the voices that have emerged in recent
times and claim that he is here and has been born, i.e., he exists at
present?.
Praise be to Allaah.
The appearance of the Mahdi at the end of time, when he will fill the
earth with justice and fairness after it had been filled with
injusticeand wrongdoing, is something that is mentioned in the
saheehSunnah, and some of thescholars of hadeeth said:The ahaadeeth
about the Mahdi are mutawaatir because of their large number, and the
descent of 'Eesa ibn Maryam (peace and blessings be upon him and our
Prophet) and hispraying behind him is something that is well known.
The name of the Mahdi and the name of his father will be like thename
of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and the
name of his father; he will be one of the descendents of Faatimah
(may Allaah be pleased with her).
It should be noted that this Mahdi who is mentioned in the ahaadeeth
is not the so-called awaited Mahdi mentioned by that deviant group,
the Ithna''Ashari (Shi'ah) who claim that he entered the tunnel and is
awaiting the order to emerge, and whose name they say is Muhammad ibn
al-Hasanal-'Askari. This is an illusion and a myth, and the refutation
of that is discussed in books, and there is no room to go into it
here.
But we advise you to read Minhaaj al-Sunnah by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn
Taymiyah and summaries of it such as Manhaj al-I'tidaal by al-Dhahabi,
and Tuhfat al-Ithna 'Ashariyyah by Muhibb al-Deen al-Khateeb. It is
essentialto note that every groupis awaiting a Mahdi suchas the Jews
who are awaiting the Mahdi, but for them he will be the Dajjaal who
will be followed by the Jews of Isfahaan. The Christians are awaiting
a Mahdi which is the descent of the Messiah (Second Coming of Christ).
We Muslims have no doubt about the descent of 'Eesa ibn Maryam (peace
be upon him), when he will break the cross and kill the pigs, and will
abolish jizyah and rule according to the sharee'ah of Islam, and at
that time there will beno war.
Throughout history there have appeared liars who claimed to be the
Mahdi. Some historians have counted them and said that therewere more
than thirty ofthem, including Ibn Tumart in Morocco and the Mahdi of
the Sudan, etc.
As for the view that he exists at present and that he has been born,
this is merely a claim that is made by some people, but there is no
evidence for it. It is most likely that it is a myth. The ahaadeeth
that havebeen narrated about theMahdi do not mention where he will be
born orwhen, and they do not tell us to look for him or to bring him
up, rather they say that Allaah will prepare him in a single night and
that the Muslims will swear allegiance to him as their caliph and will
be united behind him.
When will that happen?
Only Allaah knows.
And Allaah knows best.
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