The Institutes of Akbar 2.1.6

2.1.6

Muslim, Abú Dáúd, Nisái, Baihaqí, and other collectors of the traditional sayings of the Prophet, state that the Prophet once said, “Muhammad Mahdi shall be of my family and of the descendants of Fátimah [the Prophet’s daughter and wife of ’Alí].” And Ahmad, Abú Dáúd, Tirmizí, and Ibn Májah state that the Prophet at some other time said, “When of time one day shall be left, God shall raise up a man from among my descendants, who shall fill the world with justice, just as before him the world was full of oppression;” and again, ‘The world shall not come to an end till the King of the earth shall appear, who is a man of my family, and whose name is the same as mine.’” Further, Ahmad and other collectors assert that the Prophet once said, “Muhammad Mahdi belongs to my family, eight and nine years.” Accordingly, people believe in the coming of Mahdi. But there is also a party in Islam who say that Imam Mahdi has already come into the world and exists at present: his patronymic is Abul Qasim, and his epithets are “the elect, the stablisher, Mahdi, the expected, the Lord of the age.” In the opinion of this party, he was born at Surra-man-raa [near Baghdad] on the 23rd Ramazan, 258, and in 265 he came to his Sardabah [prop. ‘a cool place,’ ‘a summer villa’], and disappeared whilst in his residence.