[Eighth: Those I have found reported to have rejected or doubted the hadiths concerning the Mahdi, with a brief discussion of their statements]

Someone may ask: “You have quoted extensively from the scholars to establish that the Mahdi will emerge at the end of time. Why? Have you come across any mention of someone denying his emergence, or at least expressing doubt about it?”

The answer to the first question is that I have presented some of the scholarly statements I have found concerning the Mahdi’s emergence at the end of time so that you, the listener, may become firmer and more certain that believing in his emergence at the end of time is the established path. You should know that this is the truth, from which it is not permissible to depart or turn to another view. The scholars’ basis for this is the hadiths reported from the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning it. Personal opinion has no place in such a matter; revelation is the only means of knowing it, since it belongs to the unseen.

As for the second question, I have not found anyone among earlier generations named as having rejected the hadiths concerning the Mahdi or expressed doubt about them, apart from just two men. The first is Abū Muhammad ibn al-Walīd al-Baghdādī, whom Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned in Minhāj al-Sunnah. I have already quoted the words of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah in Minhāj al-Sunnah, and I have already quoted what Shaykh al-Islām said about him: that he relied on the hadith, “There is no Mahdi except Jesus son of Mary.” Ibn Taymiyyah said: “It cannot be relied upon because it is weak.” End of quotation. Among the statements quoted earlier, it was explained that, were this hadith authentic, it could be reconciled with the hadiths concerning the Mahdi. I have not found a biographical account of the aforementioned Abū Muhammad.

The second is ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Khaldūn al-Maghribī, the well-known historian, who is widely known to have declared the hadiths concerning the Mahdi weak. I consulted his discussion in the introduction to his history, and it appeared to me that he expressed doubt rather than categorical rejection. In any case, rejecting these hadiths or hesitating to believe what they indicate is a deviation from the truth and a departure from the well-trodden path. Shaykh Siddīq Hasan rebutted him in his book al-Idhā‘ah, saying:

“There is no doubt that the Mahdi will emerge at the end of time, without any particular month or year being specified, given the mass-transmitted reports on this subject and the agreement of the majority of the community, generation after generation, apart from those whose dissent carries no weight.”

He also said:

“There is no reason to doubt the promised and awaited descendant of Fātimah whose coming is indicated by the evidence. Indeed, denying this is an act of great audacity in the face of the widely transmitted, well-known texts that reach the level of mass transmission.” End of quotation.

I have some observations on Ibn Khaldūn’s discussion that I think appropriate to mention here:

First: Had doubt concerning the Mahdi come from a man well versed in hadith, it would have been considered a lapse on his part. How much more so when it comes from one of the chroniclers, who are not specialists in this field! Shaykh Ahmad Shākir put it well in his documentation of the hadiths of al-Musnad, saying: “As for Ibn Khaldūn, he pursued matters of which he had no knowledge and plunged into hazards for which he was ill-equipped. He also said that, in the chapter he devoted to the Mahdi in his Introduction, Ibn Khaldūn lapsed into incoherence