A debate between the Shaykh and the one who claimed to be the Mahdi?

The Shaykh : This is a student. This is on the occasion of the authentic and weak hadiths. We had an appointment recently with a man who claims to be the Mahdi. We met with him and posed a direct question to him: Do you mean you are a Mahdi in the sense of a Muslim Mahdi and a righteous person, or the Mahdi who is promised? He said, "No, I am the Mahdi promised in the hadiths." He started to speak, and I knew where the weakness lay, so I listened to him. Then he said, "The hadiths that came regarding the Mahdi, some are authentic and some are weak." That is sound and good. After he finished, I said, "May I ask a question?" He said, "Go ahead." I said to him, "If you please, give us some of the authentic hadiths and some of the weak hadiths that you referred to." So the poor man dropped his hands and did not know what to say, except that after much hesitation, and I will not say it beforehand, he said, "Tonight we will not speak about these hadiths."

The questioner: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : The time has ended.

The Shaykh : He did not want to say anything else. I said to him, "Why? Why? That is enough for me. I asked you, and you must answer. You claim to be the Mahdi, and the duty of the Mahdi is for the people. Among the people are scholars, righteous people, ignorant people, and wicked people. So the true Mahdi is supposed to bear these people, not the other way around. The people bear the Mahdi because the Mahdi is all good and all knowledge, and so on. Therefore, I am pressing you to bring us some of the authentic hadiths and some of the weak hadiths." He said, "Tomorrow I will bring them to you." I said to him, "No, I am not waiting until tomorrow, and who can control himself to live until tomorrow? The good of the world is immediate." He started to go around and around, going around me and around, and so on.

The questioner : He must review the chain.

The Shaykh : In the end, I said to him, "Fine, we will waive half of the question, but we will not waive the other half. We asked you for some of the authentic hadiths and some of the weak hadiths. We exempt you from the weak hadiths. Bring us from the authentic hadiths." He had nothing. If he wants to prepare something, that is an argument against him, of course. A man whose appearance I do not think is Muslim. A man who is shaved, bare-headed, and thin, or perhaps thick, meaning he does not know how to speak, let alone read a verse as Allah revealed it. And the strange thing about this poor man is that he claims to be a messenger from Allah.

The questioner : Allah is the Greatest. I think he is following his brother.

The Shaykh : Exactly, he is following his brother. He said he is a messenger from Allah, but not a prophet. Look at the misguidance; he has a plan to deceive people. Do you know that the authentic hadiths . But he is ignorant of it, apparently, and he thinks there is no hadith saying "no messenger after me." Therefore, he claims messengership and does not claim prophethood.
The students laugh.
So I said to him, "You say you are a messenger, and I say that Allah revealed the Qur'an to you anew. And yet, you do not know how to read the Qur'an correctly, breaking the kasrah, meaning with the wrong recitation, raising what should be raised and lowering what should be lowered, and so on."

The questioner : Is he a memorizer of the Qur'an?

The Shaykh : No, he is not a memorizer, but he brought the mushaf for some verses and read from it. The mushaf was vocalized, and yet he mispronounced the verse. I said to him, "How did the revelation come down to you if we make mistakes in reading it? There is no strangeness in that, because the Qur'an was not revealed to us as it was revealed to you. How do you make mistakes in this?" I asked him some questions that revealed his ignorance and misguidance. I said to him, "What do you think? Are the messengers infallible or not?" He said, "They are infallible in some things and not infallible in others." We said to him, "Specify." He said, "They are infallible in conveying the message and not infallible in other matters." I said to him, "Do you have anything else to add?" He said, "No." I said, "So is it permissible for them to steal? Is it permissible for them to commit zina, and so on?" Of course, he found this a very strong argument and did not commit to it, and as is his habit, he fled from it. I asked him, "Are the messengers infallible in conveying the message?" He said, "Yes." I said, "But you, from the moment you showed that you are not infallible, because the Qur'an was revealed to you anew, and you did not read it as it was revealed to you anew. This is proof that you are not infallible, and consequently, you are not a messenger as you claim." And so the discussion continued between us and him. Finally, I said to him, "Is there a difference between a messenger and a prophet? I want to see what the difference is. Did he monopolize messengership for himself without prophethood?" He said, "There is a difference, but this difference is known only to Allah. No one knows it except Allah." I said to him, "You say you are a messenger, not a prophet." He said, "Yes." I said, "This is proof that you know that a messenger is different from a prophet. So how does this agree with your statement that no one knows the difference except Allah the Exalted?" The bottom line is that the group present discovered his misguidance and his ignorance of the Shari'ah. Glory be to Allah, his brother—I stood the two of them up in the end. I said to his brother, "Fear Allah in yourself. This is your brother. The least that can be said about him is that he is a deceiver and a man of fantasies and illusions, and so on. What do you see? How he asks questions he cannot answer. I challenged them and said to them, "What do you know of the Shari'ah? Do you know how to pray as the Messenger used to pray? I challenge you now: stand up and pray." He said he did not want to pray now. During the discussion between me and this one, what is his name? Khalil? Where is Abu 'Abdullah Khalil, is that not right?

The questioner : Khalil, and his brother's name is Muhammad.

The Shaykh : I mean, the opposite.
The student brothers laugh.

The Shaykh : When I was debating with the so-called Mahdi, who came in? His brother. I said to him, "My brother, this is not the method of research. I am speaking with your brother now. Why are you interrupting? If your brother allows you to speak, there is no objection, but I am speaking with one person, or with you? Because they were in a corner, with a chair here and a chair there. He was next to his brother. Sometimes I was speaking with him, and sometimes I was speaking with him. With whom do I want to speak so that he can justify his error? What did he say? I gave him permission to speak. I gave him permission to speak. We said to him, "Fine, we will leave you now and speak with your brother." When we told him to stand up and pray, he did not agree to pray. Who? Khalil. We said to him, "Fine, please stand up and pray so we can see." He said, "No, until he gives me permission." We said, "He gave you permission." He did not say, "He gave you permission to speak and do anything." The bottom line is general ignorance in their hearts. If they were scholars, you would know the Mahdi whose name is Mirza Ahmad al-Qadiyani, the follower of India. This man is knowledgeable and a deceiver in knowledge, exactly. But these poor people are ignorant; they do not know anything of the Shari'ah, they do not know how to read the Qur'an, they do not know the language, and they do not know anything. Glory be to Allah. He mentioned to me this issue of the authentic hadiths. This is my path, but if I asked him what the authentic hadiths are, this is my path, but if I asked him what the authentic hadiths and the weak hadiths are? He does not know, he does not know. Now, you see how the call to the Book and the Sunnah has launched in the modern era, so everyone claims this call.
Al-Halabi : He complained about this. He said, "Here in Jordan, we are being fought against in many places. They say, 'I do not know what this is,' and they declared us disbelievers. There is no power or strength except with Allah."

The Shaykh : May Allah guide them. Fine, do you have any other questions?