Al-Alusi said...

Al-Alusi said: If al-Mahdi does not appear at the end of the current century whatever he foretold of will be destroyed. And as is not hidden for you, everything has already vanished. But after the elapse of the century — the thirteenth Hijrah century — in which al-Alusi lived, with eighty-six years of the fourteenth century, al-Mahdi did not appear, leading then to demolishing whatever al-Suyuti foretold of and confused in.

In his Maqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun said: They said: the rise of al-Dajjal will be in the year 743 H. 450 Discussion of this subject may be prolonged with no avail. Besides, I abandoned to cite any reports about the seditions that occurred, and provisions of the hour (of appearance), and descension of Jesus, that were filling the Sunnah books which were reliable among Muslims, and sanctified by shaykhs of religion.

Also I neglected any reference to the traditions reported about the emanation of (the rivers of) the Nile, Euphratese, Sihoun and Jihoun out of the root of Sidrat al-Muntaha over the seventh heaven, which are recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and other books. Beside those ones about God's creating everything out of the Prophet's light, and rejoicing of the beasts at him, with alike odd and eccentric traditions and reports.

Whoever desiring to be acquainted with the details of these reports can refer to the Sunnah books, and the fifty-second chapter of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, which he dedicated for "the affair of al-Fatimi and what people think in his regard, and unveiling the truth about this matter." A General Word on Traditions of Provisions of the Hour and Alike After refuting the traditions on provisions and ensigns of the last Hour, like the seditions, al-Dajjal, al-Jassasah and reappearance of al-Mahdi, and other marks, al-Allamah al-Sayyid Rashid Rida reached the following valuable conclusions.

451 1- That the Prophet was not aware of the Unseen: "Say: neither I own for my self any benefit nor harm except, what willeth God; and had I known the Unseen indeed I would have had much of good and evil had touched me not, and I am not but a warner and the bearer of good news for a people who believe," a fact that is necessarily known from religion. But Allah gave him knowledge of some unseen matters through what He revealed to him in His Book, which is of two parts: manifest and deduced.

Undoubtedly most of the traditions have been narrated according to meaning, as is widely known and unanimously agreed by the ulama’.