The organization is divided in three sections according to age (youngest to oldest): Translated into English, the Scout motto is "Together to Serve".

According to the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) at the Center for Special Studies (CSS), the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts were established in 1985 and are operated under the jurisdiction of the Lebanese Ministry of Education despite the movement's instructing tens of thousands of children and teenagers in military tactics and that they are "indoctrinated with the principles of radical Iranian Islam" at summer training camps in Shi'a communities in Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and south Lebanon.

[3] Another source for the involvement of the association in Hezbollah militant activity is a report published in Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yusuf[2][7][8] on 18 August 2006 by Mirfat Al-Hakim.

[9] Robert F. Worth discussed the connections of the Mahdi Scouts with the Hezbollah in an article published in Scotland On Sunday on 23 November 2008.

[10] In this article, Bilal Naim, Hezbollah's former director for the Mahdi Scouts is cited: "After age 16 the boys mostly go to resistance or military activities".