The author of “KifÄyat al ṬÄlibâ€, Muḥammad ibn Yousef ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« who was of Sunni scholars, wrote a book about the Emergence of MahdÄ« (mgehr). He mentioned twenty-five of his [The ImÄm ‘s (mgehr)] characteristics and signs. He also said, “I narrated all of these, through non- Shia wayâ€.
The book “Sharh al Sunnah†by Huá¹£ayn ibn Sa’id BaghawÄ«, which is one of the famous reliable Sunni books, has an old version by the FaqÄ«r [Allamah MajlisÄ«]. On the book, [one can read] his scholars’ permission. There, he narrated five AḥÄdÄ«th about MahdÄ« (mgehr)’s characteristics from their [Sunni] SahÄh.
In addition, in the book “MisbÄh†which is was a moderate one among Sunnis then, Huá¹£ayn ibn Mas’ud FarrÄ’, narrated five AḥÄdÄ«th about MahdÄ« (mgehr)’s emergence. And some Shia scholars narrated one hundred and fifty-six AḥÄdÄ«th about this subject, from the reliable Sunni books.
Moreover, in the reliable Shia books more than one thousand AḥÄdÄ«th have been mentioned about: MahdÄ« (pbuh)’s birthdate, Occultation, being the twelfth ImÄm, and form ImÄm Haá¹£an AsÄkir (pbuh)’s descent. Most of these AḥÄdÄ«th are like miracles, since they informed [us] about all the ImÄms (pbu th) and the twelfth ImÄm (mgehr), his hidden birthday.
He wrote The Excellency has two Occultation periods. The second, [he mentioned,] would be longer than the first. Also The Excellency would be born in a hidden way, having the whole characteristics. All of these happened; yet, the books which included all these, were certainly written many years before the Emergence Era.
So regardless of the frequency of the narrations, this information can bring knowledge in some other ways. Moreover, in reliable Shia and Sunni books, it has been mentioned about:
The Excellency’s birth,
a large crowd who were informed of his birth,
and many people of trustworthy companions, who had seen the Excellency from his blessed birthday until his Major Occultation or even after that.
The above information, will be mentioned later, God willing.
And the authors of Al-FosÅ«l al-MÅ«hemeh, MatÄleb al-So’ūl and Shawahid Un NabÅ«wwat, also ibn KhallikÄn and many other opponents have quoted The Excellency’s birth in their books with other characteristics that have been narrated by the Shiites. Therefore, the birth of His Excellency’s pure ancestors are as authentic as his own. Therefore, the improbabilities that the opponents claim about The Excellency’s occultation duration, his hidden birth, and his blessed life span all are baseless. Besides, if something has been proven by conclusive proofs, it cannot be denied due to improbabilities.
Likewise, disbelievers of Quraysh denied the resurrection. On their mind, it was improbable that the rotted and buried bones can be revived.
But in Shia and Sunni AḥÄdÄ«th, it has been mentioned that what happened in the previous Ummahs [nations], will happen in that [IslamÄ«c] Ummah too.
To be continued…