(a.s) and claimed to be the Yamani
himself. He died shortly after this
but only after causing much
confusion. And since he was born in
Meesan, these Hadith could be
referring to him as the very first
imposter/Dajjal from the imposters.
However, some people like to use
Haidar Imshatat (l.a) as a proof
against Imam Ahmad (a.s), not
realizing that there are many
followers of previous Prophets (a.s)
that opposed them later on. And
one of these is Judas Iscariot who
was once healing people as his
master Jesus (a.s) did, and later on
betrayed Jesus (a.s) and secured
himself a spot in hellfire.
Now a Hadith about the Mahdis
(a.s):
Imam Hussain (a.s) said:
"From us is twelve Mahdiyan
(Mahdis), the first of them is the
Prince of the Believers Ali ibn Abi
Talib, and the last of them is the
ninth from my offspring, he is the
Qaim (rising) with Truth.. ."
Here the Imams (a.s) have been
called Mahdis (a.s) which simply
means rightly guiding, and there is
nothing wrong with that as this is
an attribute. Does this contradict the
Hadith about the 12 Mahdis (a.s)
from the children of Imam Mahdi
(a.s) (the twelfth Imam a.s)?
No it does not, because this Hadith
talks about "12 Mahdis" ... "From us
is twelve Mahdis ...", the last of
'these' 12 Mahdis is the Qaim (a.s).
And the description of these twelve
Mahdis (a.s) and their inclusion in
this Hadith) does not imply or
suggest the exclusion of the 12
Mahdis (a.s) from the children of the
Qaim (a.s).
And here is another example
Inshallah. Abi Abdullah (a.s) was
asked:
"Who are the Prophet's (s.a.w)
progeny?" He said: "The
companions of the Cloak."
and with him is A'ataf bin Sa'ad,
and Ahmad, and Maleeh, and
Hamad bin Jabir."
Now does this Hadith mean that the
inclusion of Ali (a.s), Fatima (a.s),
Hassan (a.s) and Hussain (a.s)
implies the exclusion of the Imams
(a.s) from the children of Hussain
(a.s)? No it does not.
And from the first 2 narrations we
see only 2 people from Basra, but
from the other narration we see 5
people from Basra. And the
inclusion of those 2 does not mean
the exclusion of people from the
third narration. Rather there could
be even more people from Basra
other than these mentioned.
And here is another argument, let us
look at the name of the enemy of
Ahlulbayt (a.s) and the Yamani (a.s),
the Sufyani (l.a):
This is because by the inclusion of
one person/group does not mean
the exclusion of another person/
group. And there are many Hadiths
that speak of the Imams (a.s) being
Mahdis (a.s), and the Mahdis (a.s)
being Imams (a.s), including the
Will of the Prophet (s.a.w) which
calls Ali (a.s) as a Mahdi (a.s). And
here is a Du'a about Imam Mahdi
(a.s) calling his children Imams:
"O Allah be a guardian for the
Qaim of your command,
Muhammad ibn al-Hassan alMahdi, ... and make him and his
offspring Imams that inherit." Bihar
Al Anwar v.94 p.349
It has been shown through many
Hadiths that the first companion
(from 313) is the Yamani (a.s), the
First Mahdi (a.s), and he is from
Basra and his name is Ahmad.
But what about these 2 narrations
that do not mention Ahmad from
the Basra companions, Imam Ali
(a.s) says: "The first of them is from
Basra and the last of them is from
Ibdaal, as for those from Basra:
they are Fi'l and Muharib,"
And Imam Ali (a.s) says: "Indeed
the first of them is from the people
of Basra and the last of them is
from Ibdaal, and the ones from the
people of Basra are 2 men: the one
being Ali and the other being
Muharib."
And Imam Ja'far (a.s) says about
Basra: "From Basra: Abdulrahman
"A group of people from Kufa asked
Ameer al-Mu'mineen (a.s): 'O Ameer
al-Mu'mineen, what is the name of
this Sufyani?' So he said: "His name
is Harb bin 'Anbasa ... from the
lineage of Yazeed bin Mu'awiya bin
Abi Sufyan.' "
In Arabic "Harb" means war. Since
we know that the Yamani (a.s) is the
one that kills the Sufyani (l.a)
during a big war. It could be
interpreted that Ahmad, the Yamani,
was being mentioned by Imam Ali
(a.s) as "Muharib", which means in
Arabic warrior or fighter. So the
Yamani is the Muharib (war fighter)
of the Sufyani is Harb (war).
And now the Hadith about the 'man
before the Mahdi';
Imam Ali (a.s) said:
“A man will come out before the
Mahdi from his Ahlulbayt (family)
in the East, he carries the sword on
his shoulder for eight months;
killing and mutilating; and he goes
towards Baytul Maqdis (Quds) and
he does not reach it until he dies."
Kanz Al Umal v.7 p.261 (14/588,
Hadith 39669). In Arabic the word
for death can also mean to calm
down or diminish, in the Mawrid
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