The concept of al-Mahdi is one of the most important theological ideas in Shia Islam. Its literal meaning is ‘the rightly guided’, and this is how it was probably used in the first decades after the Prophet Muhammad. In Twelver Shia Islam, it has come to denote the hidden Imam who will one day return to redeem his followers and restore justice on Earth, similar to the Christian idea of the Messiah. Although the concept exists in Sunni Islam as well, it does not hold the same significance there. Among scholars of early Islam, there is a near consensus on the view that the transition of the meaning of the concept al-Mahdi from its literal meaning of ‘the rightly guided’ to an eschatological redeemer occurred with the Shia rebel leader al-Mukhtar when he applied it to Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, a son of Ali b. Abi Talib.
