Overview
The Mahdi (the Guided One) will be a man from the household of the Prophet ﷺ, a descendant of Fatimah. He will emerge at a time of great oppression and injustice, and allegiance will be given to him between the Rukn and the Maqam in Makkah. He will fill the earth with justice as it was filled with tyranny, and will rule for seven years before the emergence of the Dajjal.
Primary Hadith
Scholarly Context
While the hadith about the Mahdi are not found in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim with his explicit name, they are narrated in the Sunan collections (Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi) and Musnad Ahmad. Scholars like Ibn Katheer, As-Suyuti, and Al-Albani affirmed the concept of the Mahdi through collective strength of narrations. The belief in the Mahdi is held by the vast majority of Sunni scholars throughout history.