Shu‘ayb ibn Salih The Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) said...

Shu‘ayb ibn Salih The Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) said: “The Sufyani and the bearers of the black banners will confront each other while among the latter there will be a young man from the Bani Hashim in the palm of whose left hand would be a black mole. He would be in front of his soldiers and would be from the tribe of Bani Tamim.

His name is Shu‘ayb ibn Salih.”[^3] Hasan al-Basri said: “In the land of Rey a person named Shu‘ayb ibn Salih will appear having broad shoulders, a dark complexion, and beardless. There will be an army of four thousand men under his command whose garments will be white and their banners will be black.

They will constitute the vanguard of the Mahdi’s army.”[^4] ‘Ammar ibn Yasir said: “Shu‘ayb ibn Salih is the standard-bearer of Hadrat al-Mahdi.”[^5] Shablanji said: “The commander of the advance forces of Hadrat al-Mahdi ( ‘atfs ) will be a man from the tribe of Bani Tamim with a slight beard and who will be called, Shu‘ayb ibn Salih.”[^6] Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyah said: “An army will set out from Khurasan that will wear black belts and white shirts.

One of the army’s vanguards will be the commander called Shu‘ayb ibn Salih or Salih ibn Shu‘ayb who is from the tribe of Bani Tamim. They will defeat the soldiers of the Sufyani and drive them away; they will arrive in Bayt al-Muqaddas and pave the ground for the government of Hadrat al-Mahdi.”[^7] 3.

Isma‘il the Son of Imam as-Sadiq (‘a) and ‘Abdullah ibn Sharik Abu Khadijah said that Imam as-Sadiq ( ‘a ) said: “I asked God to keep (my son) Isma‘il alive after me but He did not grant it, but granted him another station. He will be the first person to reappear along with his ten companions.

‘Abdullah ibn Sharik will be his standard-bearer and one of his ten companions.”[^8] Imam al-Baqir ( ‘a ) said: “It is as if I can see ‘Abdullah ibn Sharik al-‘Amiri who has put a black turban on his head with the two sides of his turban placed between his shoulders. With an army of four thousand men as vanguards of our Qa’im, they will climb the mountain slope and always utter takbir .”[^9] 4.

‘Aqil and Harith Hadrat ‘Ali ( ‘a ) said: “Hadrat al-Mahdi ( ‘a ) will let the army advance until they will arrive in Iraq in such a manner that soldiers will be moving to his front and at the rear. The commander of the advance forces will be a man named ‘Aqil while the commander of the rear soldiers will be a man named Harith.”[^10] 5.