The victors of the subsidiary approach from the Maliki school. And among those who called for the foundational approach from the Almohad-influenced and the followers of Zahiri. We have explained how the fundamental approach that the Mahdi called for did not have a deep impact on the people of [illegible]; and we tried to clarify the reasons for this.

In completing this research, we have tried to adhere to the critical comparative method. We have endeavored, as much as possible, to gather the different perspectives when studying an event or a phenomenon, and compare them to clarify what is likely to be the truth. We have sought the reasons whenever possible, tracing the effect back to its cause, striving to research the personality of Ibn Tumart, his opinions, and his influences. It is intended to be a research that is not detached from the reality of the Moroccan context in which he lived, and we have strived to connect this personality and these opinions with the Moroccan reality in which he lived.

We have encountered a number of difficulties in carrying out this research, some of which are due to the sources and references. Others are due to the subject matter of the research itself.

As for what is due to the sources and references, it is first represented by the scarcity of what has been written about the Mahdi's opinions, despite the abundance of what has been written about him in the historical political aspect. Thus, we lacked sources that could help clarify these opinions and present them in their correct form. Secondly, it is represented by the dispersion of the sources containing the Mahdi's opinions, the rarity of some of them, and the loss of others. This is because, although the collection "A'azz ma yutlab" by the Mahdi, which contains most of these opinions, is widely available and easy to obtain, many of them are contained in his scattered sermons and admonitions within books, sometimes recorded in the Berber language. Furthermore, the commentaries written on the Mahdi's works are all manuscripts scattered in libraries around the world.

This has required us to make an effort to collect these scattered pieces, which led us to visit libraries in Tunis, Cairo, Rabat, Marrakech, Fez, Meknes, and Tetouan, and to correspond with other libraries in Paris and Berlin, and to connect with some specialized scholars in this field, especially from the Maghreb, such as Sheikh Abdullah Gunnun, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mununi, and Sheikh Muhammad.