and grant him peace, and whose father’s name will match that of the Messenger’s father, and who will be known as the Mahdī and assume leadership of the Muslims, with Jesus son of Mary, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, praying behind him—as indicated by the numerous, widely transmitted hadiths from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which the Muslim community, apart from a few dissenters, has accepted, believing what they establish—I decided to make this matter the subject of my lecture, for two reasons:

First: The hadiths concerning the Mahdī do not appear in detail in the two Sahīh collections, but only in general terms. They are reported elsewhere in forms that explain what appears in those two collections. Some might suppose that this diminishes their standing, but that is a clear error. Authentic hadiths—and even those graded sound—found outside the two Sahīh collections are accepted and relied upon by hadith scholars.

Second: Some writers in this age have ventured to impugn the hadiths concerning the Mahdī without knowledge—indeed, out of ignorance or in imitation of someone who was not among those devoted to the study of hadith. I have read a note by ‘Abd al-Rahmān Muhammad ‘Uthmān on Tuhfat al-Ahwadhī, recently printed in Egypt. In volume six, in the chapter “Reports Concerning the Caliphs,” he writes:

“Many scholars hold that all the hadiths concerning the Mahdī are open to doubt and are not authentically attributable to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Rather, they are fabrications of the Shia.” End quote.

Commenting on the Mahdī in the chapter “Reports Concerning the Contraction of Time and Curtailing Worldly Hopes,” in the same volume, he writes:

“Many trustworthy, reliable scholars hold that the hadiths specifically concerning the Mahdī are nothing but fabrications of the Bātiniyyah, the Shia, and their like, and that they cannot authentically be attributed to the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” End quote.

Indeed, some have ventured even further. We find Muhyī al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Hamīd saying in his commentary on al-Suyūtī’s al-Hāwī lil-Fatāwā, at the end of the treatise al-‘Arf al-Wardī fī Akhbār al-Mahdī, on page 166 of volume two:

“Some researchers hold that everything reported about the Mahdī and the Dajjāl comes from Jewish or Christian traditions.” End quote.

More dangerous and far graver still is the comment by Abū Rayya, head of al-Azhar’s mission in Lebanon last year, on Ibn Kathīr’s al-Nihāyah, to the effect that the hadiths concerning the Mahdī, the descent of Jesus son of Mary, and the Dajjāl merely symbolize the triumph of truth over falsehood.

For these two reasons, and because every Muslim who sincerely seeks his own good is obliged not to hesitate in believing whatever the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, reports, I decided, as I have said, to make this matter the subject of my lecture. I have entitled it The Creed of the Followers of the Sunnah and Transmitted Tradition Concerning the Awaited Mahdī.

So that you may know in advance, dear listener, the topics of this lecture, I set them out below: