and injustice. This man claimed descent from al-Hasan rather than al-Husayn, for he was not a Rāfidī, and he knew enough about hadith to frame his claim in accordance with it.
It is self-evident that he was not the one mentioned by the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
A number of others made similar claims: some were killed (1), while in other cases their followers made the claim on their behalf. Such people are so numerous that only Allah knows their number. One of them might benefit some people, even while harming others, as happened with the Mahdī of the Maghreb: some groups benefited from him, while others suffered harm through him (2). He had praiseworthy qualities, although (3) he also had blameworthy ones.
In any case, he and others like him are better than the Mahdī of the Rāfidah, who has no tangible existence or trace, and of whom no sensory evidence or report is known. No one has benefited from him, whether in worldly or religious affairs. Rather, belief in his existence has brought about evil and corruption whose extent only the Lord of all His servants can reckon.
In our own time, I know more than one shaykh who practices asceticism and worship, each believing himself to be the Mahdī. One of them may repeatedly be addressed as such, when it is Satan who is addressing him, though he thinks that the address comes from Allah.
One of them may be named Ahmad ibn Ibrāhīm, and he is told: “Muhammad and Ahmad are equivalent,