کتاب الفتن · نُعیم بن حماد

Abdullah bin Marwan told us, on the authority of Al-Haytham bin Abdul Rahman, he said: Someone who heard Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) told me: “If Al-Sufyani sends an army to the Mahdi and he overwhelms them in Al-Bayda, and this reaches the people of the Levant, they say to their caliph: The Mahdi has left, so pledge allegiance to him and enter into obedience to him, otherwise we will kill you. Then he will be sent to him with the pledge of allegiance, and the Mahdi will march until he descends on Jerusalem, and the treasuries will be transferred to him, and the Arabs, Persians, and people of war will enter.” And the Romans and others obeyed him without fighting, until mosques were built in Constantinople and below it, and a man from his household in the East would emerge before him, carrying the sword on his shoulder for eight months, killing and mutilating, and heading to Jerusalem, and not reaching it until he died.”

Al-Mahdi will pledge allegiance to seven scholarly men who went to Mecca from different parts of the world without an appointment. Three hundred and twelve men have pledged allegiance to each of them. They gather in Mecca and pledge allegiance to him, and Allah pours His love into the hearts of the people. He leads them along, and he turns to those who pledged allegiance to the horses of the Sufyani. On them is a man of crime. When he leaves Mecca behind his companions and walks in a loincloth and robe until the crime comes, he pledges allegiance to him, and a dog will regret his pledge of allegiance. Then he will come to him and pledge allegiance to him and he will dismiss him, then he will mobilize his armies to fight him and defeat him, and Allah will defeat the Romans at his hands, and Allah will remove the temptations at his hands and descend on the Levant.