Signs of the real Mahdi

 We must know that the hadiths about the Mahdi include a large section that is authentic, a section that is good, and a large section that is weak, some of which can be taken together, and some of which is reprehensible and cannot be used as evidence. The belief in the emergence of the Mahdi is a correct belief in brief, but this belief contains some of the information that makes the Muslim not lean right or left, and not be a tail for everyone who claims to be the Mahdi , as has happened many times in Islamic history.

This is because the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, described the Mahdi with signs, including his saying, peace be upon him: (The Mahdi is from us, the people of the house, God will reform him in one night)

The first condition for the Mahdi :

 To be from the people of the house ; he must not be a foreigner, by all accounts, nor be an Arab who is not from the people of the house, nor be from such-and-such tribe or such-and-such tribe and have no connection to the house of prophecy and the message. So he is from the people of the house of the Messenger, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace. This is the first sign.

The second sign:

 His name is Muhammad ibn Abdullah , because the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace , said: “The world will not end - and in another narration: the world will not go away - until God sends a man whose name matches my name, and whose father’s name matches my father’s name, who will fill the earth with justice and equity as it was filled with injustice and oppression.” So he is Muhammad ibn Abdullah, and this must have been his name since he was born, and not have been invented anew. It is a deception of the charlatans that they teach such hadiths, and they know that the Muslims believe in him and have been influenced and it has become a belief in their souls; therefore, they are called by this name anew.

The one who claimed to be a Qadiani prophet is called: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Al-Qadiani . This man is one of the greatest charlatans of this last century. He was named in the Indian way: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Mirza: a title meaning master, pasha, or bey.

Etc., but his name is Ghulam Ahmad, and the meaning of Ghulam Ahmad is: servant of Ahmad, so his name is not Ahmad , but his name is an adjective and an adjective to it, like Abdullah, so he is the servant of Allah and not Allah, so the servant is an adjective to Allah, likewise here Ghulam Ahmad, meaning he is: servant of Muhammad, the Indians are honored in their style to attribute one of them as the servant of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and some of them are called Noor Ahmad, so deleting the noor makes it clear that he is Ahmad, and his name is not Ahmad.

What did this charlatan do? When he started publishing his books in Arabic, he deleted the word “boy” and put his name “Ahmad.” Why? So that he could carry the verse: “ And giving good tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name will be Ahmad .”

[Al-Saff: 6] Meaning: He, his name is not Ahmad, but rather he is Ghulam Ahmad, but in order to mislead people, he omitted this first name that was added to Ahmad; so that he could use his reasoning to reach the masses of people.

Now we have two clear characteristics of the Mahdi:

First: He is from the family of prophecy and message .

Second: His name is Muhammad ibn Abdullah , and he must be known by this name from birth until he reaches the age of accountability and maturity, and the age of assuming the responsibility of guiding the nation to its happiness in this world before the hereafter.

 

Then there is a third characteristic in the first hadith that we take from the first hadith:

 ( God will fix it in one night ) This can actually be interpreted in two ways:

The first aspect: That he is not fit to lead the nation. He is a leader in his religion and in his righteousness, but it does not occur to anyone that he is fit to be the leader of the nation, so God reforms him in one night, inspiring him to rise up to lead the Muslims who gather around him to achieve the dream that Muslims seek today, which is to rule by what God has revealed. This is the first interpretation.

The other side : A man is not righteous in himself, he lives as many years as God wills, he is excessive towards himself, he is wasteful in some aspect of his religion, then God Almighty inspires him in one night to return to God repentant and guided, so God reforms him in one night. This is a third characteristic.

 

Fourth characteristic - and it is very important:

 He will emerge in Damascus , which is the capital of the Levant in ancient times and Syria in modern times, and this is stated in the authentic hadith.

Fifth characteristic :

 He meets Jesus, peace be upon him . They meet in Damascus, where Jesus, peace be upon him, descends at the white minaret east of Damascus. He descends at the time of the dawn prayer, and the prayer has been called for the Mahdi. When he sees that Jesus has come, he brings him forward to lead the people in prayer, but he refuses and says to him: No.

You come forward; God’s honor to this nation, meaning this Muhammadan nation. So when Jesus descends, he does not descend as a prophet, because he was a prophet to the Children of Israel and a messenger, but rather he comes as a follower of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. As indicated in the famous hadith (If Moses were alive, he would have no choice but to follow me).

(Then the Sheikh spoke about a narration that Jesus came across, which is not authentic...) The hadith with the wording of Moses is strong with all its chains of transmission.

The witness is that when Jesus descends and the prayer has been established for the Mahdi and the Mahdi presents him, he says, “Do not present yourself. Pray with them as an honor from God to this nation.”

 

These are signs that we must keep in mind, so that we are not deceived by some people’s claim that he is the Mahdi.

On the other hand, we must not assume or speculate and say: This is the time of the Mahdi’s emergence; because this is the unseen and no one knows the unseen except Allah. In every age there are people who say: Corruption has intensified on earth, corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned. So this is the time of the Mahdi’s emergence. Years and years and years pass and the Mahdi does not emerge; because the knowledge of the Mahdi’s emergence and time has not been given to anyone at all, and the same applies to the descent of Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him.

We have two things to do :

First, from the aspect of belief: We must believe in everything that is authentic about the Mahdi, and I have mentioned to you some of the fragments of this belief, this is from one aspect.

The second obligatory thing is that we should not tie ourselves to a time that we claim and allege is the time of the Mahdi’s emergence, because only God knows that. Only God, the Blessed and Most High, knows the time of the Mahdi’s emergence and the descent of Jesus. We must do what God Almighty has commanded us to do, and what His Messenger, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, has commanded us to do.

As I always say on such an occasion: We must act whether the Mahdi emerges in our time or not; because if he emerges, he will find people who need a leader to lead them, and if he does not emerge, then we will have fulfilled the duty that God has imposed upon us. With this, we respond to two different groups, and we are in the middle between them: a group that denies the hadiths about the Mahdi and the hadiths about the descent of Jesus, and a group that affirms these hadiths and does not act; claiming that there is no benefit in acting until the Mahdi emerges and Jesus, peace be upon him, descends.

We say as God Almighty said: { And say, "Do [as you will], for God will see your deeds, and [so will] His Messenger and the believers. And you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you about what you used to do. "} [At-Tawbah: 105]

We do not wait for the Mahdi to appear, because this is not our concern. If he appears, we will be on the right track, and if he does not appear, it will not harm us. Rather, we must do what God Almighty has commanded us.

 

Questioner: You said: The Mahdi will emerge from Damascus ?

: Yes.

Questioner: We know that a man takes refuge in the sanctuary and pledges allegiance under duress.

Sheikh: Do you know that the hadith is authentic ?

Questioner: I am asking you

Sheikh: I do not know its authenticity. We know that the Mahdi will meet Jesus, and if it is proven, then it is necessary to determine the earlier time from the later one, and this requires research.