present throughout the lands yet hidden from sight, who bequeaths the staff and seals the open expanse. More than five hundred years ago, he entered the cellar of Samarrā as a young child. No eye has seen him since, nor has any news or trace of him been detected. Yet they await him every day! They stand with their horses at the cellar door and cry out for him to emerge: “Come forth, our master! Come forth, our master!” Then they return disappointed and deprived. Such is their constant practice—and his. How aptly the poet said:

Is it not time for the cellar to give birth to the one
You address in ignorance? Is it not time?
May dust cover your minds, for you have made him
A third beside the phoenix and the ghouls.

These people have indeed become a disgrace to humankind and a laughingstock mocked by every rational person.” (1)

• The hadith “There is no Mahdi except Jesus son of Mary” and the response to it:

Some who reject the hadiths concerning the Mahdi cite as evidence the hadith narrated by Ibn Mājah and al-Hākim from Anas ibn Mālik—may Allah be pleased with him—that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “Matters will only grow more severe, the world will only decline, and people will only grow more miserly. The Hour will come only upon the worst of people, and there is no Mahdi except Jesus son of Mary.” (2)