Enemies of Hazrat Mahdi (as) will be scholars of religious law

Page 27 of the Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar:

“Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will preserve Islam at the end in the same way that the Prophet (pbuh) preserved it at the beginning. Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will leave no subsequent additions,” says our Prophet (pbuh). Our Prophet (pbuh) says that, as in his own day, the Mahdi (pbuh) will perform all the requirements of the faith but do away with all nonsense added on afterward.

“The enemies of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be those who imitate scholars of religious law,” some people from among the fanatics. “Because when they see that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) governs in the opposite manner to the imams of the sects, this will displease them, they will accuse him of not being one of the People of the Sunnah, and will refer to people of perversion and subsequent additions to the faith. But they will be unable to overcome him. The declared foes of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be scholars of religious law. Because they will have no more prestige among the public. Their knowledge will even decline. Ibn Arabi says this in Al-Futuḥat al-Makkiyya. In other words, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be branded as perverse and outside the people of the Sunnah. We can see this in the hadiths of our Prophet (pbuh), as well as in statements by Ibn Arabi. The Prophet (pbuh) says they will say. “He has ruined our religion.” The Mahdi (pbuh) will wish people to live by the Qur’an, but since they are used to living by nonsense, they will say, “He has ruined our religion.”