Al-Harith b.

Al-Harith b. al-Shurayh (d. 116 H). ii. Muhammad b. ‘Abd Allah al-Mahdi al-‘Abbasi (d. 169 H). iii. Muhammad b. ‘Abd Allah al-Maghribi (d. 524 H). iv. Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad b. ‘Abd Allah b. Hashim (d. 740 H). v. Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh al-Sufi (d. 869 H). vi. Sayyid Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Jawunburi (d. 910 H) vii. ‘Ali Muhammad al-Shirazi (d. 1850 CE). viii. Muhammad Ahmad b. ‘Abd Allah al-Hasani al-Sudani (d. 1899 CE) ix. Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyani (d. 1908 CE) x. Muhammad b.

‘Abd Allah al-Qahṭani al-Salafi (d. 1980 CE) Most of them truly had the name “Muhammad” and some of them were indeed from the Messenger’s offspring. However, only one – or none – of them could have been the prophesied Mahdi. Therefore, it is apparent that even those two criterions are not enough to fully identified the Awaited Imam. Something that comes to the mind of the researcher is: why would people identify ‘Ali b.

Abi Talib, for instance, as the Mahdi, knowing fully that he died long ago, long before the end of the world? After all, the Mahdi is expected to come out during the last generation of our Ummah . A lot of those who have been called the Mahdi – such as al-Baqir, al-Sadiq and al-Kazim – died more than a thousand years ago! Perhaps, more puzzling is the fact that these various sects who attributed mahdawiyyah (i.e.

office of the Mahdi) to people like ‘Ali and al-Baqir continued to do so even after witnessing their deaths! How can a Mahdi die before fulfilling his mission? Worse still, how can a dead person be the Mahdi who will purify our earth and rule over it with equity and justice?! As noted by Dr. al-Bastawi, those ancient sects of Islam had their solution to the huge puzzle.

Each of them believed in the concepts of al-ghaybah concerning its chosen saviour: that its he had not really died, but had only disappeared from human view to “reappear” at the end of the Ummah as the Awaited “Mahdi”. So, his death and burial were mere illusions – none of them was real – like in the case of ‘Isa b. Maryam[^2] too. For instance, the Sabaiyyah supposedly claimed that Imam ‘Ali is alive, and will reappear during the End Times to rule the world[^3].

Some of the Kaysaniyyah also made the same claims about Muhammad b. ‘Ali b. Abi Talib[^4] while some others among them attribute the ghaybah and mahdawiyyah to ‘Abd Allah b. Mu’awiyah b. ‘Abd Allah b. Ja’far b. Abi Talib instead[^5]. Some of the Jarudiyyah believed too that Muhammad b.