Salam, anyone know the viewpoint of the sunni scholars re: the following? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question: Are the hadith about an army coming from Khorasan with black flags and entering Jerusalem authentic? Answered by Sheikh Salman al-Oadah The hadith about the army with black banners coming out of Khorasan has two chains of transmission, but both are weak and cannot be authenticated. If a Muslim believes in this hadith, he believes in something false. Anyone who cares about his religion and belief should avoid heading towards falsehood. The hadith is related on the authority of Thawb�n that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “If you see the black banners coming from the direction of Khurasan, then go to them, even if you have to crawl, because among them will be Allah’s Caliph the Mahdi.” [Related by al-Hakim (8572) and Ahmad (22387)] All the chains of transmission for this had�th are weak and inauthentic, though some people have been overly lenient about it and declared it authentic by virtue of the many chains of transmission that it has. Some people have used this had�th to support their claim that the Mahd� is from the family of al-Abb�s and that the Mahd� is from of the Abbasid dynasty. There were Abbasid Caliphs who went by the name al-Mahd�. The banners of the Abbasid State were black. It is not hard to see how this weak had�th might have been fabricated or at least tampered with to support the Abbasid cause
