A conversation with a man who claims to be the Mahdi whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) foretold.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : ... from the people of knowledge, from the people of intellect, the, the, and so on.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : And so, when the man was asked whether he claimed to be the Mahdi in the sense of a righteous Muslim, or whether he meant the Mahdi who was foretold, he answered with complete clarity: "I am the Mahdi foretold by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." He got himself into a predicament from which he did not know how to get out; that was the answer that was crushing him. So we gave him the space to speak, and then... In his speech, he said that the hadiths narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding the Mahdi include some that are authentic and some that are weak. He continued speaking, and after he finished, I said to him: "A question?" He said: "Go ahead." I said: "Can you mention to us some of the authentic hadiths about the Mahdi that you referred to, and some of the weak hadiths?"
The questioner : He does not.
The Shaykh : I found him, poor man, going around in circles, turning and turning, not wanting to answer. And honestly, I said that tonight I would not speak about the hadiths. I said to him: "Why do you like it that way? Do you like it that you speak, or not? You are a man who claims that you guide the ummah; so you must prepare yourself to answer any question, whether it comes from a scholar or an ignorant person, a polite person or an impolite person, and so on. You do not say to him with such directness: 'Hey, you will not speak tonight.' What do you like it to be?"
The questioner : ... .
Another questioner : ... .
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : And so, when the man was asked whether he claimed to be the Mahdi in the sense of a righteous Muslim, or whether he meant the Mahdi who was foretold, he answered with complete clarity: "I am the Mahdi foretold by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." He got himself into a predicament from which he did not know how to get out; that was the answer that was crushing him. So we gave him the space to speak, and then... In his speech, he said that the hadiths narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding the Mahdi include some that are authentic and some that are weak. He continued speaking, and after he finished, I said to him: "A question?" He said: "Go ahead." I said: "Can you mention to us some of the authentic hadiths about the Mahdi that you referred to, and some of the weak hadiths?"
The questioner : He does not.
The Shaykh : I found him, poor man, going around in circles, turning and turning, not wanting to answer. And honestly, I said that tonight I would not speak about the hadiths. I said to him: "Why do you like it that way? Do you like it that you speak, or not? You are a man who claims that you guide the ummah; so you must prepare yourself to answer any question, whether it comes from a scholar or an ignorant person, a polite person or an impolite person, and so on. You do not say to him with such directness: 'Hey, you will not speak tonight.' What do you like it to be?"
The questioner : ... .
Another questioner : ... .
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.