Get to know the ‘Mahdinegaran’ of the first five centuries after the Prophetic mission / From Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilali to Muhammad ibn Ali al-Farsi

According to Mabolagh Think and Culture Website, ‘Mahdinegaran’ is a novel lexical combination recently coined by Esmaeil Shafiei Sarvestani to describe the struggle and efforts of authors who dedicated their lives to writing and compiling works about the blessed existence of Hazrat Baqiyatullah al-A’zam Qaim al-Montazar Hujjat ibn al-Hasan Mahdi Maw’ud (may Allah hasten his reappearance). These authors spent their entire lives preserving, recording, and writing narratives issued by the Infallible Imams, transmitted through one or more intermediaries, and then documented by these authors.

According to the public relations of Mouood Asr Cultural and Artistic Institute (AJ), the book ‘Mahdinegaran: The Evolution and History of Hadith Compilation and the Authorship of Mahdavi Books’ was written by Esmaeil Shafiei Sarvestani, and Mouood Asr Publications (AJ) has published this book in one hundred copies and 172 pages.

The author writes in the opening pages of this book: This collection was initially chosen as an introduction to the ‘Encyclopedia of Mahdavi Authors and Narrators,’ but we found it regrettable that the efforts of a large number of faithful and Mahdi-believing researchers, who with utmost struggle passed on the collection of Hadiths, narrations, and written works through all the arduous ups and downs, and from the black hands of rulers and blind bigots, to reach today’s generation, should be left to the vicissitudes of time.

This book includes topics such as the evolution and history of Hadith compilation, the narrative of Hadith transmission and forgery, the hardships faced by Imamate scholars and authors, the mission of propagating Mahdism at the pinnacle of Islamic history, and the evolution of Mahdavi books and authors. The author also refers to Imam Mahdi (AJ) as the heart of the world of existence and the perfect human being, expressing the concept of anticipation (Entezar) as an inherent aspect of human existence.

A section of the book mentions: In recent years, the book ‘Mojam Mahdaviyat in Tafsiri Narrations’ by the esteemed researcher Morteza Abdi Charli has been published. In this extensive three-volume collection, researchers have referred to tafsiri narrations, citing 363 verses (related to Mahdism) and declaring the number of related surahs to be 91. In this collection, regarding the reason for the expansion of Quranic discussions on Mahdism, it is stated: ‘If not all, at least a major part of Mahdism’s discussions, being instances of the unseen and hidden, cannot be explained or discovered except by recourse to the Quran and Sunnah. The best aid for those interested in understanding true Mahdism, free from subtleties and distortions, are the tafsiri narrations that have emerged from a special combination of Quran and Hadith, and are full of pure subtleties and nuances that should be the source of correct Mahdavi thought.’ (Page 50)

The author divides the evolution and history of Hadith compilation into two periods: the presence of the Infallible Imams and the period of occultation. He discusses the Hadith legacy of Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (AS) and Lady Sayyidah Fatimah Zahra (SA), and subsequently examines the eras of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), Imam Husayn (AS), Imam Zayn al-Abidin Sajjad (AS), and the Sadiqayn (Imam Sadiq and Imam Baqir). He then briefly mentions the period from Imam Kazem (AS) to the father of Sahib al-Lawa, Imam Hasan Askari (AS), stating that 1,695 books from 603 individuals have been recorded as statistics of the companions of the Infallible Imams.

In another section, we read: From the very beginning of Hadith collection, narrators and authors struggled with the difficulties of their time. Sulaym ibn Qays was one of the earliest Mahdavi authors who was imprisoned by Ibn Ziyad during the uprising of Imam Husayn (AS). When Hajjaj ibn Yusuf came to power in 75 AH, Sulaym fled Iraq because he was among the first individuals Hajjaj sought out due to his clear friendship and history with the household of the Prophet (PBUH). During this forced exile, at the age of 77, Sulaym came to Iran, reaching a city called Nowbandegan near Shiraz in the Fars region, where he passed away and was buried. (Page 157)