You Await Imam Al-Mahdi (p).
But Do You Know How His Matter Begins?
Every Shia knows Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Al-Mahdi (p). Yet the narrations of Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) also speak of a guided man who precedes the public rise, calls to the Companion of the Matter, carries the most guided banner and establishes the proof upon the people.
Who Is the Man Ahl al-Bayt Command the Shia Not to Turn Away From?
Among the inevitable signs connected with the rise of Imam Al-Mahdi is the Yamani. But the narration does more than announce his appearance: it gives him an extraordinary religious status.
“There is no banner more guided than the banner of the Yamani. It is the banner of guidance because he calls to your Companion... and if the Yamani appears, rise toward him... and it is not permissible for any Muslim to turn away from him; whoever does so is from the people of the Fire, because he calls to the truth and to a straight path.”
The Most Guided
The narration does not merely call his banner acceptable or righteous. It describes it as the most guided banner.
Truth & the Straight Path
His call is explicitly connected with the Companion of the Matter, truth and the straight path.
Do Not Turn Away
The narration attaches an extraordinary consequence to turning away from him.
Can God command such obedience to an ordinary fallible military commander?
What Does the Narration Itself Require Us to Conclude?
If a man may lead people into falsehood, unconditional religious obedience to him cannot be made binding. Yet the Yamani is described as calling to truth and the straight path, and turning away from him is forbidden.
Calls to Truth
His call is not described as partly true and partly mistaken.
Follow Him
The believer is not permitted to turn away from him.
Divine Authority
The narration attributes to him a status greater than an ordinary fallible commander.
If a fallible man could lead people into religious error, commanding unconditional adherence to him would expose believers to that error. Yet the Yamani is described as calling to the truth and to the straight path, while turning away from him is forbidden.
Taken together, these descriptions point to an authority greater than an ordinary political or military leader: a divinely guided Hujjah connected to Imam Al-Mahdi (pbuh).If the Yamani is an infallible and a Hujjah of God—but most Shias know only the Twelve Imams (pbut) as the infallible authorities after Prophet Muhammad (p)—then who is the Yamani? Do the narrations speak of other infallibles (pbut) besides the Twelve Imams (pbut)?
The Will Left by Prophet Muhammad (p) on the Night of His Death
Among the Shia hadith books, the Will recorded by Sheikh al-Tusi is the only transmitted Will attributed to Prophet Muhammad (p) on the night of his death that names his successors in this form. It begins with the Twelve Imams and then continues with the Twelve Mahdis.
“O Ali, after me there will be twelve Imams and after them there will be twelve Mahdis. You, O Ali, are the first of the twelve Imams...”
Also cited in Bihar al-Anwar, vol.53, p.147 • Ghayat al-Maram, vol.2, p.241
The Will then identifies the first of the Mahdis with three defining descriptions:
AHMED
AL-MAHDI
THE FIRST OF THE BELIEVERS
“Then there will be twelve Mahdis after him. When death approaches him, he should hand it over to his son, the first of the close ones. He has three names... Abdullah and Ahmed, and the third name is Al-Mahdi. He is the first of the believers.”
The First Mahdi is described as the first to believe in Imam Al-Mahdi (p). For that description to apply meaningfully, he must be present before the public rise of the Twelfth Imam (p), so that he can be the first believer in and supporter of that rise.
If he were only to be born after the rise had already begun, the identifying description “the first of the believers” would lose this meaning.Recorded by Sheikh al-Tusi — “Sheikh al-Ta'ifa,” the Leader of the Shia
The Will was recorded by the classical scholar Sheikh al-Tusi, known as Sheikh al-Ta'ifa. The case for the Will's authenticity relies in part on al-Tusi's own classification of the relevant reports and his testimony concerning their transmitters.
“As for what proves the authenticity of these reports, then the Imami Shia sees them on the level of tawatur, unlike the others. And the way to authenticate this is present in the Imami books and the texts from the Prince of the Believers (p), and the way is one.”
Al-Tusi also places the Will among reports transmitted through the Shia and identifies its narrators as belonging to the particular Shia transmitters. Later biographical evaluation depends heavily upon the testimony of early authorities such as al-Tusi concerning narrators; the Will therefore cannot simply be dismissed by applying a later judgment while ignoring the testimony of the classical source that preserved it.
The Will identifies a Hujjah connected to Imam Al-Mahdi (p) before the public rise: the First Mahdi—Ahmed, Al-Mahdi, the First of the Believers.
The Yamani Is a Hujjah. The Will Identifies the Hujjah Before the Rise.
Section 3 established from the Yamani narration that this is not an ordinary fallible commander, but a divinely guided Hujjah connected to Imam Al-Mahdi (p). The Prophet's Will then identifies the Hujjah who is present before the public rise as the First Mahdi—Ahmed, Al-Mahdi and the First of the Believers.
The Hujjah Who Precedes the Rise
- Most guided banner
- Calls to the Companion
- Calls to truth and the straight path
- It is not permitted to turn away from him
- His authority is greater than that of a fallible commander
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The Hujjah Named in the Will
- Connected directly to Imam Al-Mahdi (p)
- First of the Mahdis
- Named Ahmed
- Called Al-Mahdi
- Described as the First of the Believers
The Yamani is the First Mahdi, Ahmed.
The Yamani is the divinely guided Hujjah who precedes the public rise. The only Hujjah identified in the Prophet's Will for this position is the First Mahdi, Ahmed—the First of the Believers. The two descriptions therefore converge upon one person.
Do Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) Speak of Hujjaj From the Family and Descendants of Imam Al-Mahdi (p)?
Yes. More than one hundred reports are cited from Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) concerning the family, descendants and successors connected to Imam Al-Mahdi (p). These reports support the broader picture introduced by the Prophet's Will rather than leaving it dependent upon one narration alone.
Forty Hadiths on the Mahdis and the Offspring of the Riser
Sheikh Nadhim Aloqaili collects forty narrations specifically concerning the Mahdis and the progeny of Imam Al-Mahdi (p), together with their source references and discussion.
Read / Download Forty Hadiths →“Among us after the Riser are twelve Mahdis from the progeny of al-Hussain.”
“There will be twelve Mahdis after the Riser.” Imam al-Sadiq (p) said: “He specifically said twelve Mahdis... They are people from our Shia who call people to our allegiance and knowledge of our rights.”
“The Companion of the Affair has two occultations. One of them will be long... and no one will know about his place, not even his children or others, except the mawla who will succeed his affair.”
Can the Truth of God's Hujjah Be Decided by the Position of Non-Infallible Scholars?
For many Shia Muslims there is a question before the evidence is even examined: “If this were true, would the maraji' and scholars not already have recognized it?”
What is the proof that God has made imitation of a non-infallible scholar a religious obligation?
Consulting someone with expertise is one question. Claiming that God has made following a fallible scholar religiously binding is a different claim altogether—and one that itself requires clear evidence.
Expertise Can Be Consulted
A non-specialist can reasonably consult someone with greater knowledge. The argument does not require denying expertise.
Consultation Is Not the Same Claim
The fact that consultation is reasonable does not by itself prove that God has made obedience to a fallible scholar divinely obligatory.
Who Carries Binding Divine Authority?
Binding religious obedience belongs fundamentally to God's appointed Hujjah.
Consulting a Doctor Does Not Create a Divine Obligation
A patient may consult a doctor because of the doctor's expertise. But the patient can seek another opinion, weigh risk, decline treatment or choose another course. The analogy may establish the reasonableness of consulting an expert; it does not by itself establish a divine obligation to imitate a non-infallible person.
“They have taken their rabbis and their monks as lords besides God...”Qur'an 9:31
A narration from Imam al-Sadiq (pbuh) is cited in connection with this verse to warn against religious imitation that turns human rulings into binding religion.
If a claimant presents the evidence of God's Hujjah, can the opinion of a non-infallible scholar become a substitute for examining that evidence?
The Law of Knowing God's Hujjah (The Vicegerent)
A divine appointment cannot be left to guesswork. The Qur'an, reason and the narrations of Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) point to a recurring law by which God's Vicegerent is identified: the Text, the Knowledge and the Banner.
The Three Elements Appear From the Beginning
“Indeed, I am making upon the earth a Vicegerent.”
“And He taught Adam the names—all of them.”
“Prostrate before Adam...”
Even a Human Owner Does Not Leave His Affairs Without an Identified Leader
Imagine a factory, a ship, a garden or any workplace with people operating within it. A wise owner who wants his purpose fulfilled appoints a leader, identifies that person clearly, chooses someone capable and knowledgeable, and commands the workers to obey the appointed authority.
If a human being who failed to do this would expose his own project to confusion and disorder, how could the Absolute Wise leave His servants without an appointed, identified and knowledgeable Hujjah?
Text. Knowledge. The Prophet's Banner and Inheritance.
“The Imam must be infallible, and infallibility is not from the physical features so that he becomes known by that; that is why he has to be mentioned by text.”
“Three things are from the proof that would not combine in any man except the Companion of this Matter: that he shall be the first of the people before anyone, that he shall have the weapon of the Messenger of God (pbuhahp), and that he becomes the Companion of the Apparent Will...”
A man asked Imam al-Ridha (pbuh): “By what is the Imamate of the claimant established?” He replied: “By the text and the evidence.” He was asked: “And what is the evidence of the Imam?” He replied: “In knowledge and answering the request.”
“Whatever causes you confusion should not cause you confusion regarding the Will of the Messenger of God, his banner and his weapon... do not ever follow a man until a man from the sons of Hussain comes with the Will of the Messenger of God, his banner and his weapon.”
God Identifies
The Hujjah is not recognized by physical appearance or popular choice. A divine text or identifying testimony establishes the appointment.
God Teaches
The appointed Hujjah bears the knowledge required to clarify the religion and answer the needs of the people.
He Calls to God's Authority
“Say, ‘O God, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will…’”
The Hujjah carries the banner and command of the Messenger and calls people back to God's authority rather than to an authority invented by people.
If this is the law established by God and taught by Ahl al-Bayt (pbut), the next question is simple: does Ahmed Al-Hasan fulfil it?
Should the Hujjah Be Tested by God's Law—or by Conditions We Invent?
Doubts and Responses – Part 1 repeatedly addresses objections built upon proposed tests that are not themselves part of the established Law of Knowing the Hujjah.
What the Claim Is Actually Tested By
- The identifying text / Will
- Knowledge
- The banner of God's Supremacy
- God's testimony corresponding with the text
Conditions People May Add
- “Perform the miracle I demand.”
- “Show me every physical inheritance.”
- “Speak every language.”
- “Answer every question I invent.”
- “Conform to every scholarly expectation.”
The question is not whether Ahmed Al-Hasan satisfies every test people can invent. It is whether he fulfils the law by which God's Hujjah is known.
Ahmed Al-Hasan
The standard has now been established independently of the claimant. Ahmed Al-Hasan says that he is the Yamani, the First Mahdi and the Hujjah who precedes the public rise of Imam Al-Mahdi (p). The question is therefore not whether he makes a claim—but whether the same law applies to him.
Does the Divine Text Identify the Position He Claims?
The Prophet's Will existed before Ahmed Al-Hasan's public claim. It names the succession after the Twelve Imams (pbut), then identifies the first of the Mahdis with the names Ahmed and Al-Mahdi, and describes him as the first of the believers.
Ahmed
First Mahdi
First of the Believers
“Then there will be twelve Mahdis after him... He has three names... Abdullah and Ahmed, and the third name is Al-Mahdi. He is the first of the believers.”
Ahmed Al-Hasan claims precisely this identifying position and presents the Will as the divine text by which his claim should be tested.
A safeguard from misguidance cannot itself become a successful instrument of misguidance.
The argument is not that every false claimant must immediately disappear. It is that an identifying text established as a protection from misguidance cannot be successfully appropriated by a false claimant in a way that causes sincere people to be misled precisely because they relied upon that safeguard.
Does His Knowledge Bear the Sign of God's Hujjah?
The claim to knowledge should not be accepted because followers praise him or because he has written books. The reader can test the knowledge itself: does it explain, resolve and clarify matters of divine religion that remain disputed or unanswered?
What Does It Mean to Truly Know God?
Ahmed Al-Hasan addresses divine unity, the divine attributes, transcendence and the limits of human knowledge of God.
Can Difficult Religious Texts Be Resolved?
His answers address allegorical and disputed passages from the Qur'an, narrations and the lives of the prophets.
Knowledge Put to Direct Questions
Collections of answers allow readers to examine responses across doctrine, jurisprudence, Qur'anic interpretation and prophetic history.
Can Religion Confront Modern Knowledge?
He engages evolution, genetics, human origins, cosmology and modern science while presenting an interpretation of revelation he argues is coherent with established evidence.
“He shall have knowledge, and when the time of his emergence comes, this knowledge shall be disseminated from himself...”
What Does Ahmed Al-Hasan Call Humanity Toward?
Ahmed Al-Hasan's banner is the Supremacy of God: that divine appointment and divine legislation belong to God, and that humanity does not independently create God's Hujjah or God's religion.
“Say, ‘O God, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will…’”
This directly corresponds with the principle already established for the Yamani: his banner calls to truth, the straight path and the authority of the Companion of the Matter.
Examine the Banner →Three Signs. One Standard.
The case for Ahmed Al-Hasan does not rest on his name alone, his knowledge alone or his banner alone. The question is whether all three elements of the same law converge upon the same claimant.
What If the Highest Witness Is God Himself?
The Law of Knowing the Hujjah does not reduce identification to a written document alone. God's own testimony can also corroborate His appointed Hujjah, provided that testimony corresponds with the personifying text rather than replacing it.
“And God is sufficient as Witness.”
“But God testifies to that which He has revealed to you... and God is sufficient as Witness.”
Truthful visions are not foreign to revelation.
The Qur'an records meaningful visions involving Joseph, Abraham and others. The point is not that a dream replaces the proof, but that God's testimony can corroborate the person already identified by the divine text.
The call of Al-Mahdi (p) is not presented as resting on dreams alone. Reported visions are treated as corroborating testimony that must agree with the identifying text—not as a substitute for the Will, knowledge or banner.
Reported Testimonies From People Who Sought an Answer
Believers in this Call describe how they sought guidance from God and what they say they experienced through visions, supplication and other forms of divine testimony. These are personal testimonies offered for examination, not a substitute for the identifying evidence itself.
Download The Biography of Biographies →After being told to ask God, he says he made tawassul through Fatima al-Zahra (pbuh) and asked God to show him whether the matter was true. That night he reports seeing Imam Al-Mahdi (pbuh) in a vision.
After istikhara and supplication, he says he asked Imam Ali (pbuh) through tawassul for a vision. He then reports seeing Imam Al-Mahdi, who told him: “By the heaven and earth, Ahmed is Haqq like you speak.”
He recalls a vision of Imam Hussain (pbuh) shortly before hearing of the Call, and another earlier vision in which Imam Al-Mahdi instructed him to leave what he was doing and “come with my group.”
Some believers report seeing Prophet Muhammad (p) in visions in which the truth of Ahmed Al-Hasan's Call was confirmed or they were directed toward the promised matter.
Other believers describe visions involving Imam Ali (p) or Fatima al-Zahra (p), understood by them as testimony directing them toward Ahmed Al-Hasan and the Call of Al-Mahdi (p).
A recurring category of testimony describes Imam Al-Mahdi (p) appearing in a dream or vision and identifying, affirming or directing the seeker toward Ahmed Al-Hasan.
If You Still Do Not Know—Ask God Himself.
Ahmed Al-Hasan repeatedly directs the sincere seeker back to God. The invitation is not merely to accept the words of a scholar, follower or website, but to examine the evidence and then ask God to make the truth clear.
“Is it difficult for you to prostrate and not raise your head until you hear the answer of your Lord to survive in the Hereafter and the world? Is it difficult for you to fast for three days and pray during its nights to God, for Him to answer you and know the truth?”
“How can I believe, through the shortest way, that al-Sayyed Ahmed Al-Hasan is the messenger and the vicegerent of Imam Al-Mahdi (pbuh)?”
“The shortest way to believe in the unseen is the unseen. Ask God after fasting for three days and begging by the right of Fatima (pbuh), daughter of Muhammad (pbuhahp), that you get to know the truth from God through visions or kashf (vision during wakefulness), or by any prodigy of His kingdom's unseen prodigies.”
Fast for Three Days
Approach the question as an act of sincere seeking rather than debate alone.
Ask by the Right of Fatima (pbuh)
Turn directly to God and ask Him to make the truth known.
Ask God for His Testimony
Seek an answer through a truthful vision, kashf or another sign from the unseen.
Questions that deserve an answer
A sincere objection should lead us deeper into the evidence.
The Shia objections page examines the questions that commonly stand between a reader and the Call of Al-Mahdi (pbuh)—carefully, respectfully and with references to the Qur’an, Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) and the classical Shia sources.
Isn’t the chain of the Will weak?
The answer examines more than one narrator: the Qur’anic command to leave a will, the writing promised as protection from misguidance, corroborating reports and Sheikh al-Tusi’s own method.
Sanad, tawatur in meaning, al-Tusi’s “particular Shia,” and why the Will must be assessed cumulatively.
Where are the Sufyani and Khurasani?
The narration synchronizes their open military emergence. Does it also say that the Yamani cannot be known, call or gather supporters before that stage?
The distinction between a call, public recognition and the later coordinated khuruj.
Does the final letter to al-Samari forbid every later claim?
The answer separates the ending of the four special deputies from every possible meeting, communication or later Hujjah who arrives with divinely appointed proof.
The tawqi‘, the meaning of “witnessing,” and how major Shia scholars treated encounters during the Major Occultation.
If the Call were true, wouldn’t the scholars follow it?
Scholarly knowledge deserves respect. But has God made the judgment of a fallible scholar the evidence by which His appointed Hujjah is accepted or rejected?
Consultation versus obligatory obedience, the prophetic pattern and why men cannot replace the identifying evidence.
Bring the question. Examine the complete answer.
Search all 42 objections, browse by theme and open the question that is stopping you. Each response begins clearly, then explains the reasoning and relevant sources.
You Await Imam Al-Mahdi.
Are You Prepared to Recognize the Beginning of His Matter?
The issue is not whether you believe in the Twelfth Imam. The issue is whether the narrations have prepared the Shia to recognize the Hujjah who comes before the public rise and establishes the proof.
If these narrations converge upon one man, the question is no longer whether this is what we expected. It is whether this is what Muhammad and Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) told us to expect.