These traditions are designated as Mutawatir...

These traditions are designated as Mutawatir, meaning that they have been reported from the Prophet successively by so many different unbroken chains of transmission and such a number of narrators in every generation that it would be virtually impossible to fabricate their existence without such fabrication becoming known.[^14] The verses of the Qur’an concerning the Mahdi have also been interpreted by numerous traditions through Sunni chains of transmission, as will be seen in the third chapter.

There are many other important terms and practices widely accepted by the Sunnis but that are not explicitly mentioned in the Qur’an. The authenticity or otherwise of the traditions of classical and post-classical collections of hadith are open to discussion as regards all fields of Islamic thought, not only on the subject of the Mahdi .

Moreover, despite the absence of the term “ Mahdi ”, both the Qur’an and the prophetic traditions ( hadith) in the two Sahihs provide strong grounds for expecting the appearance of someone who, both through thought and deed, will…