"Twelve" in the Quran.

[WinterHold]

and will reappear as the promised Mahdi.

Is he racing jesus to get back?

Seems like a slug racing a glacier!

Just for the record:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_seizure

Usually; people will spawn thinking they are that legendary figure. Shiite consider him a core belief, essential also, while Sunnies hold him at very lower levels which are "also important".

Ironically, his advent is always bloody. There is always a desperate person who resorts to the stories of Al-Mehdi, claim to be him, and lead hundreds of good people to their deaths; believing that they are "fighting under a super figure".

Of course it always ends with a longsword to the jaw, torture at a shitty Arabic prison or a bullet.
Iran's leader now is a "temporary" until al-mahdi comes..without the system Iran presented after the Khumaini revolt; Shiite political position will be over, and the whole Shiite faith will be over. No wonder they force people into their cult with guns at Syria and Iraq.