Reign of the 12 Mahdis

The topic of 12 Mahdis is not a new one and was accepted by notable classical scholars such as Alhurr Alamili, Shaykh Tusi and modern day Shia scholars such as Syed Al Hairi.

For instance, the below excerpt is taken from page 367 by Alhurr Alamili entitled Aleeqadh min-al-haj3ah bi-lburhaan 3ala’raj3ah الإيقاظ من الهجعة بالبرهان على الرجعة

“ففي الحقيقة ليس هذا إلا توهم محض, إذ أن دولة المهديين عليهم الصلام هي امتداد لدولة الإمام المهدي محمد بن الحسن عليه السلام, وليس هو دولة آخرى, وهذا ما ذكره الشيخ الحر العاملي, حيث قال: (إن نكون المراد ليس بعد دولة المهدي عليه السلام دولة متدأة فلا ينافي الرجعة, لإنها دولة ثانية, والأربعون يوما يحتمل كونها فاصلة بين الدولتين) .

What is clear is that the reign of the Mahdis (pbut) is an extension to the governance of Al Imam Al Mahdi (pbuh), as discussed in Adillah Alda3wah Almahdawiyyah أدلة الدعوة المهدوية ص ٥٧

Ahmed Alhasan is the first of those 12 mahdis and their reign is known to start from the Minor Resurrection until the period of Arraj’ah (the return), since the end of their reign will be marked by a discontinuation of their lineage and the commencement of the Return / الرجعة period.

Regarding the length of their reign, it is not exactly clear, suffice to say that it is expected to be more than merely 8 or 40 years as sometimes appears in the narrations. This is because Allah swt keeps the knowledge of many matters to Himself, merely disclosing what is needed by the Hujjah of each era.

Further, the last Mahdi will have no progeny, hence, after he passes away, the narrations talk about the Return / الرجعة starting and that Imam Hussain as will be the one who comes to wash the body of the 12th Mahdi and to bury him. This is possible, since Imam Hussain as will be the first to reign in the Return period.
This topic was discussed at length in a programme on the Arabic Saviour Channel, as produced by the IHELRS where Dr Abdur Razzaq Al Dirawi and a few other teachers of the Howzah Mahdawiyyah explained that we have a greater understanding of how successorship is transmitted through the generations: it is not necessary for each mahdi to follow the previous one immediately. The evidence of that is where Allah swt has previously allowed for gaps in-between a prophet or an Imam, though He would have someone always present on the earth that was not mentioned in the will, however, they were the one that carried the will and the knowledge from the previous hujjat to the next one.

Links:

Program produced by IHELRS on this topic that greatly uses discussion points from the book Adillah / أدلة الدعوة المهدوية.
ندوة حوارية – عقيدة المهديين ع