This another brilliant exposition on the issue of Mahdi and associated cults,,, earlier I posted an article but this is more refined piece of information on the matter! – A
It has been (accepted) by all Muslims in every epoch, that at the end
of time a man from the family (of the Prophet) will without fail
make his appearance, one who will strengthen Islam and make
justice triumph. Muslims will follow him, and he will gain
domination over the Muslim realm. He will be called the Mahdî.
Following him, the Antichrist will appear, together with all the
subsequent signs of the Day of Judgment. After the Mahdî, Jesus will
descend and kill the Antichrist. Or, Jesus will descend together with
the Mahdî, and help him kill the Antichrist.
Such statements have been found in the traditions that religious
leaders have published. They have been (critically) discussed by
those who disapprove of them and have often been refuted by
means of certain traditions. . . .
More recent Sufis have other theories concerning the Mahdî. The
time, the man, and the place are clearly indicated in them. But the
(predicted) time passes, and there is not the slightest trace of (the
prediction coming true). Then, some new suggestion is adopted
which is based upon linguistic equivocations, imaginary ideas, and
astrological judgments. The life of every one of those people is
spent on such suppositions.
Most of our contemporary Sufis refer to the (expected)
appearance of a man who will renew the Muslim law and the
ordinances of the truth. They assume that his appearance will take
place at some time near our own period. Some of them say that he
will be one of the descendants of Fâṭimah. Others speak about him
only in general terms.
The truth one must know is that no religious or political
propaganda can be successful, unless power and group feeling exist
to support the religious and political aspirations and to defend
them against those who reject them.
The group feeling of the Fâṭimids and the Ṭâlibids, indeed, that of
all the Quraysh, has everywhere disappeared. There are other
nations whose group feeling has gained the upper hand over that of
the Quraysh. The only exception is a remnant of the Ṭâlibids—in
the Ḥijâz, in Mecca, al-Yanbu’, and Medina. They are spread over
these regions and dominate them. They are Bedouin groups. They
are settled and rule in different places and hold divergent opinions.
They number several thousands. If it is correct that a Mahdî is to
appear, there is only one way for his propaganda to make its
appearance. He must be one of them, and God must unite them in
the intention to follow him, until he gathers enough strength and
group feeling to gain success for his cause and to move the people
to support him. Any other way—such as a Fâṭimid who would make
propaganda for (the cause of the Mahdî) among people anywhere at
all, without the support of group feeling and power, by merely
relying on his relationship to the family of Muḥammad—will not be
feasible or successful, for the sound reasons that we have
mentioned previously.
The common people, the stupid mass, who make claims with
respect to the Mahdî and who are not guided in this connection by
any intelligence or helped by any knowledge, assume that the
Mahdî may appear in a variety of circumstances and places. They do
not understand the real meaning of the matter. They mostly assume
that the appearance will take place in some remote province out of
the reach of the (ruling) dynasties and outside their authority.
Therefore, they firmly imagine that the Mahdî will appear there,
since these regions are not under the control of dynasties and out of
the reach of law and force. Many weak-minded people go to those
places in order to support a deceptive cause that the human soul in its delusion and stupidity leads them to believe capable of
succeeding. Many of them have been killed. . .
Attributions: The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun.