will rule for seven years, that he will fill the earth with justice, that Jesus, peace be upon him, will emerge and help him kill the Antichrist, and that he will lead this nation in prayer, with Jesus praying behind him” (1).
2 - Muhammad al-Barzanjī (2) said in his book al-Ishā‘a li-Ashrāt al-Sā‘a: “The third chapter concerns the major signs and imminent portents after which the Hour will come. They are many; among them is the Mahdī, and he is the first. Know that the hadiths transmitted concerning him, despite their varying narrations, are virtually innumerable” (3).
He also said: “You now know that the hadiths affirming the Mahdī’s existence and his emergence at the end of time, and stating that he belongs to the family of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, through the descendants of Fatimah, may Allah be pleased with her, have reached the level of mass transmission in meaning. There is therefore no basis for denying them” (4).
3 - The eminent scholar Muhammad al-Saffārīnī (5) said: “There have been many concerning his emergence—that is: