Texts and commentaries

Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah

Abu Jafar al-Tahawi

The creed includes the Dajjal, Jesus’ descent, the western sunrise and the Beast among accepted signs.

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Al-Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah

Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah

The creed describes return of souls to bodies, emergence from graves, weighing deeds and distribution of records.

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Al-Bab al-Hadi Ashar: A Treatise on the Principles of Shiite Theology

Hasan ibn Yusuf al-Hilli; commentary by Miqdad al-Fadil al-Hilli

Al-Hilli’s theological treatise and its accompanying commentary discuss bodily resurrection, intercession and the gathering of persons.

Text available here

The twelve successors and the promised ruler of justice →

Al-Miqdad explains the hidden Imam’s continuing life · commentary →

General Islam

Al-Bahr al-muhit

Abu Hayyan Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Andalusi

Abū Ḥayyān prefers Jesus as the antecedent of the pronoun, while recording readings that refer it to the Qur’an or Muhammad. He also discusses variant vocalizations.

Text available here

Abū Ḥayyān: Jesus, the Qur’an or Muhammad? · commentary →

Al-Durr al-manthur fi al-tafsir bi-l-mathur

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti

Collects named transmissions concerning Jesus’ descent and competing Qur’an readings. Its overlapping reports retain individual transmitters and compilation attribution.

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General Islam

Al-Durr al-masun fi ulum al-Kitab al-maknun

Al-Samin al-Halabi

Al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī explains the vocalizations of the verse and how a sign can supply knowledge of the Hour. His entry preserves the Jesus, Qur’an and Prophet readings.

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Knowledge or a sign? · commentary →

General Islam

Al-Hidaya ila bulugh al-nihaya

Makki ibn Abi Talib

Makkī connects Jesus’ descent with the Hour and collects attributed reports about his actions, pilgrimage and burial. He also preserves Qur’an and Muhammad readings. The reports remain as transmitted in this commentary.

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Makkī gathers reports about Jesus’ descent · commentary →

Al-Imam al-Mahdi, The Just Leader of Humanity

Ibrahim Amini

Discusses how the Imam knows the appearance time, distinguishes inspiration from prophetic lawgiving, and interprets overnight preparation reports without assigning a calendar date.

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General Islam

Al-Jawahir al-hisan fi tafsir al-Quran

Al-Thaalibi

Alongside Jesus, Muhammad and the Qur’an, al-Thaʿālibī suggests a pronoun referring to the matter itself, emphasizing the gravity of the hereafter. His own comment is marked (ت) in the Arabic.

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Al-Thaʿālibī adds another reading · commentary →

Al-Kafi

Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Kulayni

Reports concealment, disputed birth, confusion, twelve ambiguous banners, Joseph analogy, differing durations and two occultations. Report7 supplies six days/months/years followed by divine freedom; report19 distinguishes short and long concealment.

Text available here

The imam’s absence →

Six days, months or years · commentary →

Joseph’s journey is an analogy · commentary →

A short absence and a long absence · commentary →

The narrator and the imam share a designation · commentary →

al-Kashf fi mujawazat hadhihi al-umma al-alf

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti’s treatise of 898 AH answering a fatwa that placed the Hour before the year 1000. He argues from reports on the world’s seven thousand years that the community will last beyond a thousand years and less than fifteen hundred.

Text available here

al-Suyuti: the community exceeds the thousand →

General Islam

Al-Kashf wa-l-bayan

Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thalabi

Al-Thaʿlabī records Jesus’ descent and a report placing it at Afiq, followed by prayer and confrontation with the Dajjal. He also records the interpretation that the pronoun refers to the Qur’an.

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The descent at Afiq · commentary →

Al-Kashshaf

Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari

The commentary connects Jesus’ descent with the Hour and also reports al-Hasan’s Qur’an-referent interpretation.

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General Islam

Al-Lubab fi ulum al-Kitab

Umar ibn Ali ibn Adil

Ibn ʿĀdil combines discussion of the pronoun and its readings with reports describing Jesus’ return and prayer according to Muhammad’s law. Alternative reports of the prayer time remain in the source.

Text available here

The returning Jesus and Muhammad’s law · commentary →

Al-Mahdi

Sayyid Sadruddin Sadr

The author explains his deliberate use of Sunni books printed outside Iran and acknowledges some indirect quotations. This is evidence of a Twelver apologetic method, not proof of the author's authenticity claims.

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Al-Muharrar al-wajiz fi tafsir al-Kitab al-Aziz

Abd al-Haqq ibn Ghalib ibn Atiyya

Preserves Jesus, Muhammad and the Qur’an as alternative referents. Muhammad’s final prophethood indicates the Hour’s nearness without revealing its exact time.

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Al-Muntakhab fi tafsir al-Quran al-karim

Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Egypt

Reads Jesus’ birth without a father and healing of blindness and leprosy as evidence for resurrection, rather than explaining the verse by descent.

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Al-Muqaddimah

Ibn Khaldun

Critically surveys Mahdi reports while allowing a few beyond criticism; distinguishes unnamed Muslim reports from explicit identification. Reports failed 683 AH expectation reinterpreted as birth, discusses 710 and 743 predictions, and argues political success requires group solidarity.

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Al-Mushaf al-mufassar

Muhammad Farid Wajdi

Preserves two referents: Jesus, whose descent indicates the Hour, and the Qur’an.

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Al-Najm al-Thāqib (The Shooting Star)

Mirza Husayn Noori Tabarsi; translated by Sayyid Athar Husayn S.H. Rizvi

Reconciles reported meetings with the hidden Imam with an epistle condemning claims of seeing him before the Sufyani and heavenly call.

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General Islam

Al-Nukat wa-l-uyun

Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi

Al-Māwardī distinguishes the Qur’an, Jesus’ raising of the dead and Jesus’ future descent as interpretations of the verse. He then rejects a reported view that religious obligation ends when Jesus descends.

Text available here

Does Jesus’ return end religious obligation? · commentary →

Al-Siraj al-munir

Al-Khatib al-Shirbini

Gathers Jesus’ return reports including different prayer times and the imam question, preserves a Qur’an referent, and discusses the wording of the command to follow.

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Al-Tafsir al-hadith

Muhammad Izzat Darwaza

Prefers a Qur’an referent in the connected verses while discussing descent hadith separately. Suggests such expectations circulated among scriptural communities and urges restraint about unreported details.

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Al-Tafsir al-sahih

Hikmat Bashir Yasin

Gives different chain assessments to Tabari’s Jesus-descent report from Mujahid and the Qur’an interpretation transmitted through Qatada from Hasan. Those assessments are the compiler’s reception, not independent new reports.

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