1. The Name of Imam Mahdi’s (aj) Father:
One of the most important controversial issues about the promised Mahdi (aj) is his father’s name. What has caused this controversy is an expression that appears in some narrations according to which the Prophet (s) declared that the promised savior will bear his name and his father will bear the name of the Prophet’s father. Therefore, the dominant opinion among Sunnis considers the promised Mahdi to be a person named Muhammad bin Abdullah. This is while all Twelver Shias believe without any doubt that the promised Mahdi (aj) is the son of Imam Hassan al-Askari (as), because this has been emphasized in numerous narrations from Ahlul Bayt (as).
Many researchers believe that the part about his father’s name did not exist in the Prophet’s original hadith and was later added by supporters of two claimants to Mahdism whose names were Muhammad bin Abdullah. They consider the narration of these hadiths, without the part about the father’s name, in the books of major narrators like Tirmidhi and Ahmad bin Hanbal as evidence for their view.
2. His Genealogy:
As mentioned, there is no doubt or disagreement that Imam Mahdi (aj) is from the lineage of Ali and Fatima Zahra (as); but whether this lineage reaches him through Imam Hassan (as) or whether he is in the line of descendants of Imam Hussein (as) has become a controversial issue between Shias and a group of Sunnis. The most important factor that caused this controversy is a hadith that is narrated in an interrupted form in Sunan Abu Dawud according to which Imam Ali (as) said that the promised Mahdi (aj) would be from the descendants of his son Hassan (as).
This is while in numerous narrations, Ahlul Bayt (as) have explicitly emphasized that he is from the descendants of Imam Hussein (as), and it appears that in that hadith, either intentionally or by mistake in writing, an error occurred in the word “Hussein”.
3. Birth and Longevity:
The Shias believe that the promised Mahdi (aj) was born in the middle of Shaban in the year 255 AH, and that despite the passage of more than 1200 years since his life, he is still alive by divine will and hidden from people’s sight. Beyond the mutawatir and certain evidence such as the hadiths of the twelve caliphs and the hadith of Thaqalayn which, without belief in the birth and existence of Imam Mahdi (aj), would lose their main message, namely the continuity of the imamate of the twelve successors of the Prophet (s) until the Day of Judgment, from the Shia perspective, there are documents attesting that Imam Hassan al-Askari (as) and others who had the privilege of meeting him have testified to the birth of such a son.
However, the dominant opinion among Sunnis is that the promised savior has not been born yet and that in the future, a person with those characteristics will be born from the descendants of Fatima (sa) and will fill the earth with justice. Nevertheless, a number of major Sunni scholars have mentioned in their works the birth of the son of Imam Hassan al-Askari (as) and have accepted this fact.
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The above content was published on 20/3/2025 on Imam Ali (AS) Foundation Library