after all this, is it not truly astonishing what Shaykh al-Ghazālī said in his recent work "Mushkilātuh" (p. 139): "From my memorization as a student, there is no explicit ḥadīth about the Mahdī, and what is explicit is not authentic"! So who are those who taught you this denial and made you memorize it while you were a student? Are they not the scholars of kalām who have no knowledge of ḥadīth and its narrators? Otherwise, how does this align with the testimony of the ḥadīth scholars affirming what they denied?! Does this not compel you to reconsider what you memorized as a student, especially concerning the sunnah and ḥadīth in terms of authentication and weakening, and the rulings and opinions based on that? This is better than causing Muslims to doubt the ḥadīths authenticated by scholars just because you were taught them as a student, and not by those with expertise and knowledge?! And know, my Muslim brother, that many Muslims today have deviated from the truth in this matter. Among them are those who have settled in their minds that the Islamic state will not be established except with the emergence of the Mahdī! This is a myth and a misguidance cast by Shayṭān into the hearts of many common people, especially among the Sufis. There is nothing in the ḥadīths about the Mahdī that suggests this at all. Rather, they all simply convey that the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) gave glad tidings to the Muslims of a man from his family, describing him with prominent qualities, the most important of which is that he will rule by Islam and spread justice among the people. He is, in truth, one of the renewers whom Allāh sends at the beginning of every century, as authentically reported from him (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). Just as this does not necessitate abandoning the pursuit of knowledge and acting upon it to renew the religion, likewise, the emergence of the Mahdī does not necessitate reliance on him and abandoning preparation and work to establish the rule of Allāh on earth. On the contrary, this is the correct approach, for the Mahdī will not strive more than our Prophet Muḥammad (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) who spent twenty-three years working to solidify the foundations of Islam and establish its state. So what could the Mahdī do if he emerged today and found the Muslims divided into sects and parties, and their scholars—except for a few—taken by the people as leaders! He would not be able to establish the Islamic state unless he unified their word and gathered them in one rank, under one banner, and this undoubtedly requires