Al-Mahdi (a.s.)

thirdly, the afore-said scholar in the margin of the afore-mentioned book says: it is possible that the holy prophet (s.a.w.a.) must have said:- 'Mahdi's name is the same as mine and his son's name is the same as my father's name.' this is because in some of the traditions the name of Mahdi's son has been mentioned to be abdullah and in the third section of this book it will come that Mahdi's agnomen is abu abdullah. thus a change has occured and the word of «--» (his son) has been converted to .. (his father).

fourthly, maula muhammad reza imami mudarres khatoon abadi a researcher and scholar writes in his book 'jannat-ul-khulud' (which contains all what one eye can enjoy and all what one desires) as such: 'our master imam hassan askari (a.s.) has two names one is hassan and the other abdullah. on the basis of the saying of this scholar, the problem is solved and is in accord with the tradition of abu dawoud and all other traditions. although some of the subject-matter of the book of 'jannat-ul-khulud' is confined to the book itself yet its author is a person who is a scholar as well as a researcher and perhaps god may enlighten us through his reference and sayings.

allama sayed shahabuddin najafi who is one of the spiritual leaders of qum narrated for me as such: 'the qazvini scholar, agha razi'uddin (may his dust be fragrant) has mentioned under «qurrat-ul-aafaaq» the same as that which the author of 'jannat-ul-khulud' has mentioned.

the conclusion that we can derive from these traditions is this that the most preferable reply would be to stick to one of the following:

(1) the chain of transmission of this tradition (i.e. the holy prophet saying: Mahdi's father carries the same name as my father's name) appears to be weak because, it comprises such men who are not reliable and authentic. rather, they belong to the unknown group. on the contrary, they are those people who are famous as the fabricators of traditions. if there was no one amongst them except the «--» (i.e. the one who is amongst the narrators of this tradition) suffice it was to render this tradition weak.

(2) the text of this tradition is upseting because imam ahmad hanbal has narrated the same tradition in his 'musnad' (just as it can be seen in 'eqdud-durar') without mentioning the saying of the holy prophet (s.a.w.a.) that 'the name of Mahdi's father is the same as my father's name'.

(3) this tradition has been narrated by abu dawoud (who is the original one) in different ways. this is because some have narrated this tradition along with the afore-said sentence while others have narrated without this sentence from abu dawoud.

(4) this tradition is opposite and contrary to the numerous traditions which, from the view-point of chain of transmission are more authentic and from the view-point of expression are more manifest.

rather, this tradition is contradicting a number of other traditions.

(5) if this tradition is interpreted in either of the above four ways (which have been interpreted against its apparent form and to me is inconceivable) it is still better than rejecting it outright.