a long period of time, known only to Allah. Both the Sacred Law and reason require sincere Muslims to undertake this duty, so that, if the Mahdi emerges, he need only lead them to victory; and if he does not emerge, they will have fulfilled their duty. Allah says: “Say, ‘Work, and Allah will see your work, as will His Messenger.’”
Others—including some of the educated elite—realized that what we have related about the common people is mere superstition, but imagined it to be inherent in the belief in the Mahdi’s emergence. They therefore hastened to deny it, like the one who said: “Treat me with that which was itself the disease!” Their case is like that of the Mu‘tazilah, who denied divine decree when they saw that a group of Muslims had inferred determinism from it. Thus, they invalidated what must be believed, yet were unable to eradicate determinism.
Another group saw that the belief in the Mahdi had been badly exploited throughout Islamic history: many malicious people—or madmen—claimed it for themselves, and dark tribulations resulted from this. One of the latest was the tribulation of the Saudi Mahdi, Juhayman, at the Sacred Mosque in Mecca. They therefore concluded that the only way to uproot such tribulations was to deny this sound belief. Shaykh al-Ghazali alludes to this after his previous remarks.
Such people are like one who denies the belief in Jesus’ descent at the end of time—a belief whose mention has been transmitted through numerous authentic hadiths—because some impostors claimed it, such as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani. Indeed, some have explicitly denied it, such as Shaykh Shaltut. I am almost certain that everyone who denies the belief in the Mahdi denies this belief as well; some reveal this through slips of the tongue, though they do not state it plainly. In my view, all such deniers are like a man who denies Allah’s godhood in worship on the grounds that some Pharaohs claimed it for themselves. So is there anyone who will take heed?
1530 — “Send abundant blessings upon me, for Allah has assigned an angel to attend me at my grave. Whenever a man from my community invokes blessings upon me, that angel says to me: ‘O Muhammad, so-and-so, son of so-and-so, has invoked blessings upon you just now.’”