What information is available concerning the Mahdis who appear before the descent of Jesus (peace be upon him), in terms of each of their names, places of appearance, supporters and their numbers, the conquests achieved by their hands, the duration of each of their reigns, and what are the prophetic hadiths that indicate their imminent appearance in our current era?

The word "al-Mahdiyyin" (the rightly-guided ones) appeared in the hadith: "Upon you is my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, al-Mahdiyyin," and it referred to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, and everyone who followed their path. The hadiths about the Mahdi have reached us through a moral tawatur (concurrent transmission), but they did not mention the details of his battles, only a general outline, and that he will be the leader of the Muslims when Jesus, peace be upon him, descends, and Jesus will ask him to lead the prayer as an honor for this Ummah. The hadiths do not indicate the imminent emergence of the Mahdi, but rather that he will appear at the end of time.