“At a time when trade routes and roads are cut and corruption has grown, seven scholars from various land, each accompanied by some three hundred and ten retainers, will come together in Mecca, each one unaware of the others. They will ask each other "What are you looking for here?" They will reply: "We have come to seek that personage by whose hand this corruption can be ended. Konstantiniyya (Constantinople) will be captured by him. We know him by name and his mother’s and father’s name and his army… The seven scholars will reach agreement and look for him and find him in Mecca. And they will say to him, "You are so-and-so, the son of so-and-so." And HE WILL SAY, "I AM MERELY SOMEONE FROM ANSAR.” And he will escape them... When they find him again in Mecca, they will say: "You are so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, and your mother is the daughter of so-and-so, these are the portents concerning you, you escaped us the first time, but let us now take the oath of allegiance to you." At that, he will say, "I am not the one you are looking for," and he will go back to Medina. When they look for him in Medina, he will return to Mecca. In Mecca they will find him by the Rukun and will say: "… if you do not protect us against the army of the Sufyani, may our sins be on your head and our blood on your hands." At that, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will sit between the Rock and the Station and will extend his hand and accept their oaths of allegiance... (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Hadiths from Jalaluddin al-Suyuti's Classification, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 61) |
