ABSTRACT
[36] When God bestowed the Mahdiship on the Mahdi, he secretly commenced to call the people to God. 3 He called them to arise and save Islam and to abandon the innovations and the reprehensible characteristics of the people of the time, particularly those who belonged to Ṣūfī ṭariqas (al-muntamūn ilā al-diyāna). 4 Such characteristics are the love of honour, authority, flattery and the use, as hunters’ nets for ensnaring the temporal world, of the ways which would lead to God. The Mahdi also urged them to the jihād and to make the hijra to him. 5 He persistently called on the people, despite the [37] troubles inflicted by some people on him and on his veteran Companions. These he bore with patience and perseverance, since the Mahdiship involves burdens which only one endowed by God with the Prophetic heritage can bear.
