To get involved in debates with such type of people is...

To get involved in debates with such type of people is indeed useless (for they illogically insist on their own views and do not accept the traditions available even in their own books). Despite all these, since the traditions on Mahdi have appeared in Sihah, Sunan, Masanid and other reliable sources that are accepted by all Muslims, therefore it is obligatory for every Muslim – whether a Shia or a Sunni – to believe in Mahdi as the twelfth Imam of Islamic community.

If researchers, however, accept the traditions on Mahdi as acceptable, they need then to accept Mahdi as the twelfth imam, for this is the implication of the traditions accepted by them. Some Sunni scholars have followed this line of thought. We mentioned examples of such scholars on previous pages.

The issue of Mahdawiyyat and important questions Let's now deal with important questions concerning the issue of Mahdawiyyat Imam Mahdi and his long life Among the important questions concerning the issue of Mahdawiyyat is Imam Mahdi's long life. Some Sunni scholars like Sa'ad al-Din Taftazani are of the view that Mahdi cannot live such a long life saying that it cannot be easily accepted that someone may live such a long life in this world.

Taftazani does not deny that Mahdi, son of Imam Hasan Askari is born. What he terms as unacceptable is his extraordinary long life. It is on the basis of such an opinion that some Sunni scholars based on existing evidence accept that Imam Mahdi is born but claim that now he is no longer alive. This is because they regard it as unlikely for a person to live an extraordinary long life.

Their opinion is however in contradiction with a prophetic tradition saying: من مات و لم یعرف امام زمانه مات میته جاهلیه He who dies without knowing the imam of his time, dies the death of ignorance. According to this tradition, there is no time without an imam. Given such traditions, some Sunni scholars, have, instead of speaking about the death of Imam Mahdi, said that they know that he is born but they do not know what has happened to him.

Since they cannot accept Imam Mahdi's long life, therefore they are not willing to confess to it. On the hand, since they know that the rejection of Imam Mahdi's long life is in contradiction with traditions, they do not explicitly reject his long life. As a result, they accept his birth, though they say they do not know what has happened to him.