" The same was heard also by Ali Ibn Abu Taleb, the Prophet's
son-in-law, and by Hadhifat Ibn el Yaman, who relates that this prophecy
was delivered by Mohammed one Friday at the Khotbah, or sermon, in
Medina. Salman el Faris, another witness, declares that he afterwards
approached the Prophet and stood before him and asked him, "From which
of thy descendants, O Apostle of God, shall the Mohdy be?" And the
Prophet answered, stretching his hand towards his grandson Huseyn, "From
this child shall he come."
Besides this general belief, which, though not a positive dogma of their
faith, is common to all Mussulmans, the Shiites, always prone to
exaggerate and embellish, maintain that the Mohdy's duty is not limited
to teaching, guiding, and purifying the law, but also that he shall
revenge the blood unjustly shed of the Imams; and they cite in support
of this a tradition of Ali ibn Abu Taleb, who thus addressed his son,
Huseyn, the same who was afterwards martyred at Kerbela, "I swear to
thee, O my son," he said, "I swear by my soul, and by my offspring, and
by Kerbela, and by its temple, that the day shall come in which our
beards shall be dyed with blood. And I swear that afterwards God shall
raise up a man, the Mohdy, who shall stand in our place, the lord of
mankind.
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