The Signs of the Mahdī’s Reappearance

Al-Imāma wa’l-Tabṣira min al-Ḥayra|Volume 1|Book 3|Chapter 12

Al-Imāma wa’l-Tabṣira min al-Ḥayra

Book 3, Chapter 12

The Signs of the Mahdī’s Reappearance

Hadith #5

حدّثنا محمد بن أبي القاسم ماجيلويه، عن محمد بن علي الكوفي، قال: حدّثنا الحسين بن سفيان، عن قتيبة بن محمد، عن عبداللّه بن أبي منصور البجليّ قال: سألت أبا عبداللّه عليه السلام عن اسم السفياني؟ فقال: وما تصنع باسمه؟ اذا ملك كور الشام الخمس؛ دمشق، وحمص، وفلسطين، والاردن، وقنسرين فتوقّعوا عند ذلك الفرج. قلت: يملك تسعة أشهر؟ قال: لا، ولكن يملك ثمانية أشهر لا يزيد يوماً.

Muḥammad b. Abī’l-Qāsim Majīlawayh narrated to us, from Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Kūfī, who said: “Al-Ḥusayn b. Sufyān narrated to us, from Qutayba b. Muḥammad, from ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Manṣūr al-Bajalī, who narrated: “I asked Abā ʿAbd Allāh about the Sufyānī’s name, whereupon he said: “What would you do with his name? When he gains dominion over the five districts of Greater Syria: Damascus, Homs, Palestine, Jordan and Chalcis-on-Belus,[1] then expect the Deliverance.” I said: “Will he rule for nine months?” He responded: “No, but he will rule for eight months, and not a day longer.”

[1] Chalcis-on-Belus is the ancient, Greco-Roman name for the settlement in modern Syria that Imam al-Ṣādiq صلوات الله عليه here refers to as Qinnasrīn (قنسرين), which was the capital of one of Greater Syria’s five military districts during the Umayyad and later Abbasid empires. I have rendered it according to the ancient Greco-Roman name for consistency with the Anglicised names of the other four districts mentioned.
Author: Haseeb Hassan