بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

The Promised Mahdi is the English translation of the thirteenth volume of Allamah al-Majlisi’s Bihar al-Anwar, which was originally published in twenty-five volumes in Arabic. Later on, it was published in a 110 volumes edition, of which this book comprises the 51, 52 and 53 volumes.

As the title, Bihar al-Anwar (Oceans of Lights) suggests, it is in fact an encyclopaedia of Islamic traditional reports and it covers all the major sources of Islamic traditions extant at the time of its compilation.

The present volume deals with Imam al-Mahdi (‘a), the last Imam of Ahl al-Bayt (‘a). From which so far only an incomplete translation of the 51st volume has been published in English from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Promised Mahdi is the complete English translation of original thirteenth volume of Bihar al-Anwar, corresponding to volumes 51, 52 and 53 of the 110-volume set, which is in print today.

Special Features Of This Translation

In this complete edition, we have included the chapters that were omitted by the previous translators; i.e. the chapter on Prophecies of Soothsayers engraved on rocks (Chapter 16) and the chapter on People with long lifespans in the History of Humanity (Chapter 19).

Secondly, we have included the chains of narrators, which is considered as a part of the hadith (tradition), although we have shown it in reduced font size to distinguish it from the text of the tradition.

Thirdly, we have given the Arabic text of the verses of Qur’an as well. Moreover, we have also presented the Arabic text of the first tradition of every chapter for the convenience of advanced readers and researchers.

We have also numbered the chapter numbers in proper sequence after removing all discrepancies that were present in the Arabic, Persian and Urdu versions and also numbered the traditions according to the original Arabic version. Although there are a few discrepancies in numbering of traditions in the Arabic version, we have followed the same sequence so that anyone comparing the English version with the Arabic will not have any problem.

While translating these volumes, we have adopted some features of the Persian translation by the most respected Ayatullah ‘Ali Dawani.

First of all, the title we have chosen for this book, is the translation of the above version: Mahdi Maood - The Promised Mahdi.

Secondly, we have emulated him in giving sub-headings to different traditions in some sections, which describe the subject matter of the tradition.

The biography of the honourable author, Allamah Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi is also from the book of Ayatullah ‘Ali Dawani’s Mahdi Maood as also the write up on the works of Allamah al-Majlisi and their translations in various languages.

We invite suggestions from readers and scholars, which would help us in improving future editions of this book.