The True Nature of the Mahdi — Page 61
61 brought before the glorious Mahdi. They do not pos - sess knowledge to speak except as calumniators. They have nothing but weak hadith and forgeries at the hands of fabricators. And you will not find in their possession an authentic hadith from the Seal of the Prophets. So fear Allah and do not put your faith in such beliefs. Do not intentionally conceal the teaching of Allah under the pretext of inauthentic narrations. And those who neither relinquish these [false] sayings nor examine the proof and evidence, nor seek the light that heals the soul, removes doubts, reveals the truth about the calamity, and discloses that which is hidden, and those who do not closely scrutinise in the likeness of scholars, but rather follow one another like the blind, and do not search like those who investigate, they are a people who are like deceiving clouds with no rain. They are equal to a pompous one, who is fickle, or like defenceless homes, or trees that bear no fruit. They do not have anything except long beards, upturned noses, angry faces, evil tongues, and misguided hearts. They do not relinquish their desires, and they conceal their whims, so they do not approach the fountains of investigation. And they do not seek to understand the points of which they are unaware, they do not expend