“There is no deity but Allah. He hath no companion—to him belongeth the dominion—to him belongeth praise. He giveth life and causeth death. He is living and shall never die. In his hand is blessing, he is almighty. Great is Allah! His perfection I extol!”
The Arab neighbors wondered who this mysterious hermit could be, but years passed, and never could they get an opportunity to speak with him.
At last he wandered forth, his face shining with an ethereal radiance, his bright eyes piercing and beautiful.
“Who are you?” asked an exiled Arab chief.
The hermit spoke—the first time to a human being for many years.
“Have you not heard that there should arise a twelfth Imaum?”
“Thou art the Mahdi!” answered the chief.
Within a few days the Arab chief was sent with a message to each governor and chief of a tribe, the burden of which was:
“Turn from your evil ways of living. Oppress not the people. I, the Mahdi, have ordered it. I will punish the oppressors of the poor. Prepare for my coming.”
Rauf Pasha, the Egyptian governor general of the Soudan, received the message.