Selected Narrations about the Twelfth Imam volume 2

Section Nine

The traditions that indicate he is from the descendants of Imam al-Ḥusayn, peace be on him

Comprised of 208 traditions

  1. Ṣifat al-Mahdī[^1]: From Ḥudhayfa, may Allah be satisfied with him, who recounts:

The Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him [and his family], delivered a sermon about the events that will occur in the future. Then he said, “Even if one day remains from the world, Allah, Mighty and Majestic be He, will prolong that day until He sends in it a person from my descendants Whose name is my name.” Salmān al-Farsī, may Allah be satisfied with him, stood up and enquired, “O Messenger of Allah! From which one of your sons?” He answered, “He is from his descendants,” and patted al-Ḥusayn, peace be on him.”

In `Iqd al-durar[^2], the same tradition has been recorded from Ḥudhayfa using another wording: “The Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him [and his family], said, ‘If there remains only one day from the world, Allah will certainly send in it a person whose name is my name and whose character is my character. His epithet will be Abū `Abd-Allah.’”

[He says]: Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nu`aim has recorded it in Ṣifat al-Mahdī. He has narrated a more complete version from Abū l-Ḥasan al-Raba`ī al-Mālikī, from Ḥudhayfa, who said:

The Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him [and his family] said, “If there remains only one day from the world, Allah will raise in it a person whose name is my name and whose character is my character. His epithet will be Abū `Abd-Allah. People will pledge allegiance to him between the Rukn and the Maqām. Allah will return religion through him and will grant him victories. There will remain no one on the face of earth but that he will declare, ‘There is no god but Allah.’” Salmān stood up and asked, “O Messenger of Allah! From which of your sons is he?” He replied, “From the descendants of this son of mine,” and he patted al-Ḥusayn.

  1. Al-Bayān fī akhbār Ṣāḥib al-Zamān[^3]: Through his chains of narrators from al-Dāraqutnī, through his chain (sanad) from Sahl b. Sulaimān, from Abū Hārūn al-`Abdī who recounts:

I came to Abū Sa`īd al-Khudrī and asked, “Were you present during the Battle of Badr?” He replied in the affirmative. I enquired again, “Can you narrate to me something that you heard from the Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, concerning `Alī, peace be on him, and his excellences?” He replied, “Yes, I will inform you. Surely the Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, became ill and was recovering. Fāṭima, peace be on her, came to visit him and I was sitting on the right side of the Messenger of Allah, Allah's blessings be on him and his family.

When she saw how weak the Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, had become, she started gasping until her tears rolled down her cheeks. The Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, asked, ‘Why are you crying, O Fāṭima? Do you not know that Allah, the Exalted, searched the earth thoroughly and chose from it your father, whom He sent as a prophet? He searched it thoroughly a second time and chose your husband.

Then, He revealed to me and I married you to him and made him the executor of my will (waṣī). Did you not know that because of the respect that Allah, the Exalted, has for you, He married you to the most knowledgeable, the most patient, and the foremost from them in accepting Islam?’ [On hearing this] she smiled and rejoiced.

So, the Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, decided to increase her joy greatly by informing her about what Allah had destined for Muḥammad and his family. He continued, ‘O Fāṭima! `Alī has eight virtues: Belief in Allah and His Messenger, his wisdom, his wife, his sons al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, peace be on them, and his enjoinment of good and forbidding from evil.

O Fāṭima! We Ahl al-Bait have been granted six characteristics that have been granted to no one before us and no one after us. Our prophet is the best of prophets and he is your father; our heir (waṣī) is the best of heirs and he is your husband; our martyr is the best of martyrs and he is Ḥamza, your father’s uncle; from us are the two grandsons of this nation and they are your two sons; from us is the Mahdī of this nation—behind whom Jesus, peace be on him, will pray.’ Then, he patted al-Ḥusayn on the shoulder and said, ‘From him is the Mahdī of this nation.’”

I say: This is how al-Dāraqutnī, the author of al-Jarḥ wa l-ta`dīl has recorded it.

  1. Al-Fitan[^4]: Narrated to us al-Walīd and Rushdain, from Abū Lahī`a, from Abū Qubail, from `Abd-Allah b. `Amr who said: “A person from the descendants of al-Ḥusayn, peace be on him, will emerge from the East. If mountains come in his way, he will destroy them and create paths through them.”

The traditions with the following numbers—directly and indirectly—show the aforementioned concept: 80, 113, 126, 127, 129, 167, 168, 170, 171, 173, 176, 178, 181, 191, 193, 196, 205–308, 382, 397, 414, 428, 465, 466, 526, 527, 528, 532–543, 546, 547, 548, 550–571, 588, 600, 608, 612, 641, 770, 786–807, 859, 918, 973, 1104, 1116, 1139, 1140, 1159, 1168, 1216, and 1230.

[^1]: `Iqd al-durar, chap. 1, pp. 24–25. He says: “al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nu`aim has recorded it in Ṣifat al-Mahdī”; Dhakhā’ir al-`uqbā, pp. 136–137. He says the traditions that mention he is from the descendants of the Messenger of Allah, Allah’s blessings be on him and his family, and from the descendants of Fāṭima, refer to the fact that he is from the descendants of Imam al-Ḥusayn, peace be on him. Yanābī`’ al-mawadda, chap. 94, pp. 488 & 490; Kashf al-ghumma, citing Abū Nu`aim’s al-Aḥādīth al-arba`īn, vol. 2, p. 469, no. 6; Farā’id al-simṭain, vol. 2, pp. 325–326, no. 575; Lisān al-mīzān, vol. 3, p. 238, from ibn Ḥibbān, from al-Abbās b. Bakkār al-Ḍabbī al-Baṣrī who said: “Narrated to us `Abd-Allah b. Ziyād al-Kalbī, from al-A`mash, from Zirr, from Ḥudhayfa, may Allah be satisfied with him, who said about the Mahdī . . . Salmān asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah! From which of your sons will he be?’ He replied, ‘From this son of mine,’ and he patted al-Ḥusayn, [peace be on him], with his hand.” Dhahabī has narrated this from ibn Ḥibbān in Mīzān al-i`tidāl, no. 4160. I say: People like al-Abbās b. Bakkār have committed no crime except narrating some traditions about the virtues of the Ahl al-Bait, peace be on them. He has not concealed these traditions because of greed for this world or the rewards of the kings and politicians. He did not fear imprisonment, whips, and getting killed, whilst, the courtier scholars and narrators had the habit of concealing the merits and excellences of the Ahl al-Bait and not narrating them. As for ibn Ḥibbān, he is criticized by the Sunnis for denying prophethood because he believed that prophethood “is naught but knowledge and action.” They deemed him to be an atheist and denounced him. They complained against him to the Caliph who ordered him to be killed. Such prophetic information about the unseen cannot be accepted from a person like him who holds such beliefs!

[^2]: `Iqd al-durar, chap. 2, pp. 31–32; al-Bayān, chap. 13, p. 129, through his chain of narrators from Ḥudhayfa.

[^3]: Al-Bayān fī akhbār Ṣāḥib al-Zamān, chap. 9: “The Prophet’s declaration that the Mahdī is from progeny of al-Ḥusayn, peace be on him,” pp. 121–122; al-Fuṣūl al-muhimma, pp. 195–196; Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 38, chap. 56, pp. 10–11, no. 17, and vol. 51, p. 91; Kashf al-ghumma, vol. 2, pp. 481–482; Dalā’il al-imāma, p. 234.

[^4]: Al-Fitan, “Nisbat al-Mahdī,” vol. 5, p. 199; al-Bayān, chap. 16, p. 93. He writes: “al-Ṭabarānī and Abū Nu`aim have narrated it from him”; al-Malāḥim wa -Fitan, pp. 85–86, chap. 195, citing al-Fitan, with the difference that he has narrated from `Abd-Allah b. `Umar and he has said “he will break them up.” ; `Iqd al-durar, chap. 5, p. 127, citing al-Ṭabarānī in his Mu`jam and Abū Nu`aim and Nu`aim. He has also recorded it on chap. 9, sect. 3, p. 223, with the wording: “The Mahdī will. [He will be] from the descendants of al-Ḥusayn.”