—who affirm the emergence of the Mahdī exactly as the sound texts have stipulated with regard to his name, his father’s name, his lineage, his qualities, and the time of his appearance. They do not exceed what the hadiths themselves state. His advent will be preceded by unmistakable portents and signs, all of which the scholars have enumerated.
Al-ʿAllāmah al-Saffārīnī said, “So many opinions have circulated about the Mahdī that some have even claimed, ‘There is no Mahdī except Jesus.’ The correct position held by the people of truth is that the Mahdī is someone other than Jesus, that he will rise before the descent of Jesus son of Mary, and that the reports concerning him are so numerous that they reach the level of recurrent mass-transmission in meaning (tawātur maʿnawī). This has become so well-known among the scholars of the Sunnah that belief in it is counted among their creeds …”
He then continued: “Multiple narrations have come down from those Companions already mentioned—and from others as well—and likewise from the Successors after them, whose combined testimony yields certain knowledge. Hence believing in the Mahdī’s appearance is obligatory, as the scholars have affirmed and as is recorded in the creeds of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah.”
Al-Saffārīnī also described the Mahdī’s conduct: “The scholars say that he will live according to the Messenger’s sunnah. He will not awaken a sleeper, and he will fight on behalf of the sunnah—reviving every neglected practice and abolishing every innovation. He will re-establish the religion at the end of time just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established it: he will break the cross, slaughter the swine, restore unity and blessing to the Muslims, and fill the earth with equity and justice after it had been filled with tyranny and injustice.”
In another passage he states: “Then a man from the Household of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) will emerge, rightly guided and of exemplary conduct. He will campaign against the city of Caesar, and he will be the last commander of the community of Muhammad. During his era the False Messiah will appear, and Jesus son of Mary will descend.”
He further said, “Al-ʿAllāmah Shaykh Marʿī relates in his book Fawāʾid al-Fikr, on the authority of Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, that the hadiths have reached the level of tawātur and have spread widely through their numerous transmitters …”