Varieties of Mentions of Imam Mahdi in Quran and Explanatory Traditions

The period of Imam Mahdi’s appearance is the time for the ultimate realization of the creation of humankind on earth that has enormously been mentioned in Quran. In the present paper, with the help of traditions, we introduce three kinds of mentions of Imam Mahdi in Quran: 1. Direct mention of Imam Mahdi; 2. Mention of Imam Mahdi while talking about the accounts of previous prophets and people; 3. Mention of Imam Mahdi while mentioning examples of natural phenomena. Then when we study the examples of each type, by relying on traditions, we show the number of Quranic verses about Imam Mahdi and the future of the world are more than the cases that traditions mention they are directly linked to Imam Mahdi and by mediating on these verses, one can infer many facts about Imam Mahdi and the period of his appearance from Quran and defend the accuracy of most of messianic traditions by offering them to Quran.