“Section: He—meaning the Rāfidī whom this book was written to refute—narrated the following hadith from Ibn ‘Umar, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

‘At the end of time, a man from my descendants will emerge. His name will be the same as mine, and his kunyah (honorific name) the same as mine. He will fill the earth with justice just as it had been filled with oppression.’

This is the Mahdi. The response is that the hadiths cited as evidence for the Mahdi’s emergence are authentic hadiths narrated by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, Ahmad, and others, on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ūd and others. These include his saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the hadith narrated by Ibn Mas‘ūd:

‘If only one day of this world remained, Allah would prolong that day until a man from me—or from my household—emerged during it. His name would match mine, and his father’s name would match my father’s name. He would fill the earth with equity and justice just as it had been filled with injustice and oppression.’

Al-Tirmidhī and Abū Dāwūd also narrated it on the authority of Umm Salamah, with the wording: ‘The Mahdi is from my family, from the descendants of Fātimah.’ Abū Dāwūd narrated it through Abū Sa‘īd, with the wording: ‘He will rule the earth for seven years.’ He also narrated from ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with him, that he looked at al-Hasan and said:

‘This son of mine is a leader, as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, called him. From his descendants will emerge a man bearing your Prophet’s name. He will resemble him in character, but not in appearance, and will fill the earth with justice.’

Several groups have erred concerning these hadiths. One group denied them, citing the hadith narrated by Ibn Mājah in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘There is no Mahdi except Jesus son of Mary.’ This hadith is weak. Abū Muhammad ibn al-Walīd al-Baghdādī and others relied upon it, but it is not a report that can be relied upon. Ibn Mājah narrated it from Yūnus, from al-Shāfi‘ī, who narrated it from a man from Yemen called Muhammad ibn Khālid al-Jundī, whose reports cannot be used as evidence. It is not in al-Shāfi‘ī’s Musnad. It has also been said that al-Shāfi‘ī did not hear it from al-Jundī, and that Yūnus did not hear it from al-Shāfi‘ī.

Second, the Twelvers claim that this is their Mahdi, whose name is Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, whereas the Mahdi described by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is named Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh. For this reason, one group omitted the reference to the father so that it would not contradict what they had written. Another group distorted it, saying: ‘His forefather is al-Husayn, whose kunyah is Abū ‘Abd Allāh, so what is meant is Muhammad ibn Abī ‘Abd Allāh.’ They thus treated the kunyah as a personal name. Among those who followed this approach was Ibn Talhah, in the book he entitled Ghāyat al-Sūl fī Manāqib al-Rasūl.

Anyone with even the slightest discernment knows that this is sheer distortion and a lie against the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Does anyone understand his statement, ‘His name will match mine, and his father’s name will match my father’s name,’ to mean anything other than that his father’s name is ‘Abd Allāh? Does this wording indicate that his forefather’s kunyah is Abū ‘Abd Allāh? Moreover, how would this distinguish him? How many descendants of al-Husayn are named Muhammad! With reference to their ancestors, all of them could be called ‘Muhammad ibn Abī ‘Abd Allāh,’ just as this one has been.

How could someone intent on making matters clear refer to a man named Muhammad ibn al-Husayn as Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh, meaning that his forefather was Abū ‘Abd Allāh? As for this man, identifying him as Muhammad ibn al-Hasan or as the son of