and the exaggeration of it, alongside the infatuation of some of his followers with the Mahdi's person, and the divine care in their glorification of him and what they attributed to him of miracles and supernatural feats, led scholars and historians to attribute to him the belief in infallibility in the Shi'ite sense. This is what Ibn Khaldun expressed, especially in his saying: "No lapse in heresy was recorded from him except what was from..." It appears from the preceding indications that this infallibility that the Mahdi espoused was an intermediate degree between the infallibility that the Shi'ites affirmed for the Imam and the conditions for the Imamate that other sects set regarding knowledge and justice. It resembles the ideal degree of those conditions, which, if fully realized, would be in the Shi'ite sense.

Proof of Infallibility: Ibn Tumart presented an argument for the infallibility of the Imam, formulated as follows: The Imam's mission is to resist falsehood and injustice and spread truth and justice. Falsehood and injustice can only be removed by truth and justice. Therefore, the Imam must be infallible from falsehood and injustice so that he may spread truth and justice.

...and what follows. Such as Al-Baydaq, Sharh A'azz Ma Yutlab, and Ibn Al-Qattan. The latter dedicated a chapter in "Nathm Al-Juman" titled "His Infallibility, may God be pleased with him," in which he mentioned the dangers that surrounded the Mahdi, especially upon his return from the East.

The portrayal of these events in themselves, and God's saving him from them safely, and highlighting the divine care in them, meant that later historians interpreted the Mahdi's statement about infallibility with a Shi'ite interpretation. This concept of infallibility, as presented by Ibn Al-Qattan, which is God's protection of the Mahdi from dangers, supports our preference that the infallibility the Mahdi spoke of is to be interpreted linguistically, not as a Shi'ite theological concept.

Ibn Khaldun, Al-'Ibar, 2/73. See also Al-Salawi, Al-Istiqsa', 6/471.

Abdullah Ali Allam, Al-Da'wah Al-Muwahhidiyyah fi Al-Maghrib, 293, believes that the infallibility that Ibn Tumart spoke of is Sunni in nature, in that it did not deviate from what the Sunnis affirmed for prophets, namely infallibility from lying, betrayal, and ignorance. This is an incorrect view, because the Sunnis affirmed infallibility in this sense for the Prophet, while Ibn Tumart affirmed it for the Imam, which is not accepted by the Sunnis. The two matters are different due to the difference in the subject. This researcher interpreted the Mahdi's infallibility as Sunni by building on the fact that this infallibility is nothing but the conditions that the Sunnis set for the Imam in their ideal form. This approaches what we have previously suggested.