After all this, is it not truly astonishing that Shaykh al-Ghazālī should say in his recently published Mushkilāt (“Problems”) (p. 139): “From what I retained as a student is that no explicit hadith concerning the Mahdi has been reported; and whatever has been reported explicitly is not authentic”? Who, then, instilled this denial in you and had you memorize it while you were a student? Were they not the scholars of speculative theology, who have no knowledge of hadith or its narrators? Otherwise, how can this be reconciled with the testimony of the hadith scholars, who affirm what those men deny? Does this not move you to reconsider what you memorized as a student—particularly regarding the authentication and weakening of the Sunnah and hadith, and the rulings and opinions built upon that? That would be better than casting doubt among the Muslims about hadiths authenticated by the scholars, merely because you were taught otherwise as a student by those who are neither specialists nor learned.

Know, my Muslim brother, that many Muslims today have deviated from what is correct in this matter. Some have become convinced that the Islamic state cannot be established except through the emergence of the Mahdi. This is a superstition and misguidance that Satan has cast into the hearts of many ordinary people, especially the Sufis among them. Yet none of the hadiths concerning the Mahdi suggests this in the slightest. Rather, they say no more than that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave the Muslims glad tidings of a man from his household, describing him with outstanding qualities, foremost among them that he will rule by Islam and spread justice among mankind. In reality, he is one of the renewers whom Allah sends at the beginning of every century, as is authentically reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Just as this does not entail abandoning the pursuit of knowledge and acting upon it in order to renew the religion, so too the emergence of the Mahdi does not entail passively relying on him and forsaking preparation and effort to establish Allah’s rule on earth. On the contrary, such preparation and effort are what is right. For the Mahdi will not strive more than our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who spent twenty-three years working to consolidate the foundations of Islam and establish its state. So what could the Mahdi do if he emerged today and found the Muslims divided into sects and parties, and their scholars—apart from a few—set up by the people as leaders? He would not be able to establish the Islamic state until he had united them in purpose, gathered them into a single rank, and placed them beneath one banner; and this would undoubtedly require