Shahid Motahari's view on messianic claims of Mokhtar: illusion or reality

Messianic ideology of the rise of a saviour at the end of the world, is common the Shiites and Ahlu-al Sunnah. Although the two groups interpret the intention of the word Mahdi differently, as the Imam Mahdi the descendent of the Prophet or Mahdi, as a person who is rightly guided and saves people. Based on this idea, some people in Islamic history have caused deviations by engaging the attention of the Muslim community for some time by claiming to be Mahdi or attributing messianic features to some other person. Shahid Motahari believes that Mokhtar Thaghafi is a historical figure that claimed Mohammad Ebn Hanafieh (the son of Amir-al Momenin Ali) is in fact Mahdi and himself is his deputy in charge and has attracted a lot of support from the people by employing this method.The present article provides a critical review of the above claim by referring to the historical, anecdotal, translations, figures and the use of the word Mahdi in the Hadith literature as well as an exploration of the beliefs of Mokhtar, disclaiming Imamate by Muhammad ibn Hanafieh, support and the authorization of Mokhtar by the Shiite Imams and approval of all this by the Islamic scholars. The article concludes that the aforementioned claim has no scientific backing and is an illusion. In addition to that, Shahid Motahari has not filed a proof for his claim and that a detailed documentation is explained in this article.